G322 - T.V Drama Analysis

Mwe - 18/10/12

T.V Drama Analysis

 

This is the T.V drama that I chose to analyse, showing how age can be represented.

 

 



 

 



My Plan:



  

Camera	Mise en scene
Shaky camera movement at the beginning to show the tension and his anxiety. When the camera is on the older man, it is tilted up – higher status? On younger character, tilted down – Lower status? Close up of younger man when guy blew in his face – showing his twitch and the fact that he is intimidated.	When the younger character is being bullied – men in background with arms folded showing that he is surrounded. Medium shot of younger character leaning his elbow on the bed. Director made sure that this was in shot so that the audience can see that he is uncomfortable – constant moving of his arm and hand. Makes sure that old man is seen handling the coffee calmly and obviously in control.
Editing	Sound
Edited in the part of them hitting knuckles together. This shows that they are friends, but younger character is obviously cautious and unsure as he hardly moves his hand.  Lighting: Dim, gloomy lighting- depression, trapped?	Constant sound of prison doors closing and shouting officers. Cries of pain and shouting - someone being beaten. This is heard with a shot of younger character being unable to sleep – thinks it’s going to happen to him?

 

 My Analysis:

 

G223 – T.V Drama Analysis

This extract shows the main character, a young man, interacting with other inmates in a prison. There are two scenes; one set in the prison hall where inmates can converse, and the other set in the main characters room with his roommate. The camera movements at the beginning of the scene are shaky and uncontrolled. This connotes fear and anxiety as he is in a new place with threatening people. The camera constantly cutting to different angles helps to emphasise this as it is messy frantic. This fear is presented when there is a close up after another inmate blew in the character’s face. This close up showed the young one’s eye twitching, implying that he was intimidated by this action. It was important to have this close up in the scene because it showed that even the smallest of actions could get a reaction from this boy.  When you look at the Mise en scene , you see that while this interaction is happening, the director has made sure that a man folding his arms can be seen in the background. This presents the idea that the young character is feeling trapped, as he is surrounded by people who clearly do not like him. Another moment of mise en scene is in the character’s room. The director made sure to include the young man’s arm in the frame as he leans on the bed because his arm and hand is constantly fidgeting – showing his nervousness while talking to his roommate. Making sure that this small movement is in the frame helps to present this character as anxious, even if the audience is not concentrating on this body part. Even if the audience is watching the facial expressions and listening to the dialogue, a part of them still registers this tiny movement that may seem insignificant, but isn’t. You then see the old man making some coffee with a completely steady hand, implying that he is a lot more controlled. This represents age as being an important factor in this environment, as the older men are in control while the younger character is easily intimidated and terrified. There is an interesting moment in the middle of the clip when a shot of two characters hitting each other’s knuckles was edited in. This is a sign of friendship, but the main character seems unsure and cautious, as he hardly moves his hand to bump knuckles with the other character. This implies that although they are kind of friends, the younger character does not fully trust or respect the other one. This may be because of the age difference, and the fact that the boy is being bullied by the older characters may cloud his judgment on this one man. There are constant sounds of doors slamming shut and officers shouting throughout the clip, helping to remind the audience of where this is set, and creating an uncomfortable prison atmosphere. The dialogue throughout the clip is either older men giving the younger character advice, or the boy being bullied by other inmates. This represents age as being knowledgeable as the older characters are clearly used to this environment, but also intimidating and preferred as it is the younger characters that are beaten or taken advantage of.

 

Edward Sissorhands Title Sequence

Ab - 18/10/12

Edward Sissorhands Title Sequence

 

9 Frame Grid - 

 

 

This title sequence is 1 minute 45 seconds long, using dark colours to create a sense of horror and mystery. I think that the genre is a mixture of horror and fantasy, as the way it is presented connotes fear but also quite childish thoughts (With the cookies in the bottom left of the picture). The titles lasted for an average of 3 seconds, with some exceptions. The time between each title (from when the first one disappears to when the seconds one appears) was about 2 seconds.

 

I made a time line for this title sequence, showing what titles appeared, in which order and for how long. As it says in the picture below, (T) stands for title and (TR) stands for transition.

Title Sequence Timeline:

 

 

I made this timeline by watching the title sequence and recording down all of the information at the times that they appeared. This acitivity helped to show what is included in a title sequence and how they can appear. How the text appears, for how long and the font contribute to the genre and theme of the film.

 

Opening Title Sequence - 9 Frames

 





Unfortunatly. Blogger will not let me increase the size of the picture and so the titles are not incredibly clear.

 

 

This is a makeshift title sequence for a horror film. Of course, this is just a quick test one to learn about what kind of images would be included, and also the kinds of titles that would be used. E.g. Executive producer, costume designer....

 

I took pictures from google images and edited them together using 'paint' to get an idea of what the movie opening would look like.

 

The font is used to make the opening seem more horror orientated, rather than just using a normal everyday font.

 

 

Sound

Mwe - 09/10/12

Sound / Soundtrack

 

Different types of sound:

 

Diegetic sound - Another term for diegetic sound is actual sound where the characters on screen can hear what the audience watching can hear. (E.g. the radio playing, or someone playing the piano).

Non-diegetic sound - Another term for non-diegetic sound is commentary sound. This is sound that the audience watching can hear but the characters can't. This is normally edited into a movie or piece of drama. (E.g. sad music playing when a character dies...)

The following are linked to "soundtrack".

Score - The score is an indicator of high production value. It is original music written specifically to accompany a film.

Voice over - The voice of an unseen commentator in a film or television program.

Ambient sound - The background sounds which are present in a scene or location. (E.g. wind, water, birds, traffic ect...)

Synchronous - Sound that appears to be matched to certain movements occurring in a scene. (E.g. footsteps correspond to feet walking).

Asynchronous - Sound that is not matched with the movements occurring on screen. (E.g. dialogue is out of synchronisation with lip movement).

Sound Bridge - 1.) At the beginning of one scene, the sound from the previous scene carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins.
2.) At the end of one scene, the sound from the next scene is heard, leading into that scene.

 

 

This is mine and Karl's mind map on sound and soundtracks.



Preliminary Task



Mwe - 03/10/12

Aims for Preliminary Task

 

The 180 degree rule:

 

A basic guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character will always be frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. If the camera passes over the axis, it is called crossing the line.

 

Example:

 

 

 

 

On the 180 arch in the green area, the character in the orange shirt is always on the left of the screen (from the audience’s point of view) and the character in blue is always on the right. If the camera shits onto the red side, then the characters will be on opposite sides which may confuse the audience.

 

 

 

 

 

Match on Action:

 

Match on action consists of connecting two shots together in which a character finishes off an action in the second shot that was started in the first one. For example a clip of a character walking through a door in which he opens the door being filmed from behind then the clip cuts to him walking through from the other one.

 

Shot Reverse Shot

 

A film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.

 

 

Continuity Editing Tutorial.

 

 

Storyboard for our Preliminary Task:

 

 



 

Our Preliminary Video:

 

The following link will direct you to our video.



 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnsl_vS9Dx4&list=HL1350760764&feature=mh_lolz

Our video was shot in two rooms; A music practise room and a music performance room. These two sets helped to show the distinction between the rehearsal and the actual performance. This was also shown through the use of the black and white editing. I think that our preliminary task was completed to a high standard, but the use of a tripod would have been more effective, as our camera shots were slightly shaky.

 

Film Production Logos

Mwe - 02/10/12

Film Production Logos

Universal Pictures:

The Universal Logo is exciting and powerful, implying that the movies that they direct are 'out of this world'. The dark background helps to make the Earth stand out and the word universal connotes togetherness, like anyone around the world is able to enjoy and relate to this production company.

Dreamworks:

Steven Spielberg originally wanted the logo to be a computer generated image, but a friend suggested that a hand-painted logo might look better. This logo connotes fantasy and dreams, as a boy fishing on the moon is somewhat out of the ordinary. The use of the calm purple colouring creates a relaxed mood, really drawing the viewer in to this world of intense imagination.

20th Century Fox:

The 20th Century Fox logo is quite different from Dreamworks'. The whole thing really signifies power and importance, as the writing is large and brightly coloured. The use of the lights create the idea of something new and exciting that everyone must see.