Monday 1 February 2016

Section A - TV Drama (Key Concepts)

TELEVISION DRAMA

Background

Television drama is the most expensive form of television, with a prime time American TV series such as House costing up to $12 million per hour – that’s about £6 million. The average cost for US drama is more like $2 – 5 million per hour. British drama such as Dr Who (60 mins) costs about a £1 million per hour.
In fact a US broadcast hour is only a maximum of 52 minutes of drama which is a 58 page script. Some US broadcasting networks only broadcast 44 minutes of actual drama in an hour that means 16 minutes of advertising.
Drama is the form of television which attracts the largest regular audiences. Big sporting occasions can attract larger audiences – the Nadal/ Federer Wimbledon final 2008 attracted over 13 million viewers – but drama pulls them in regularly, and this is what channel bosses and advertisers like.

Television channels

Especially E4 and BBC3 are targeting young audiences with edgy, modern dramas such as Skins(see case study) – although controversial this is the sort of drama that is very attractive to VIth form audiences.
It also has a useful website http://www.e4.com/skins/
OCR requires students to be able to do textual analysis of TV drama. I suggest that you start by watching a standard British TV Drama in class or in groups, and then discuss it:
Holby City (BBC1) The Bill (ITV) or Hollyoaks (C4). It may be a good idea to avoid the best known soaps, Eastenders and Coronation Street, in order to get a more interesting and imaginative discussion.

Activity

Quick Textual Analysis

Watch a TV drama on DVD or online so that you can pause it. While watching mark in a quickly sketched picture in a storyboard frame. 
Add references to some of these headings which come under the Key Concepts - you will be discussing:
  • The narrative of this episode
  • Any connotations of this episode – you may need to go over the distinction between connotate and denotate.
  • Representations
  • Media language used
  • Do encourage analysis
  • Do discourage description of plot
  • Do discuss the audience for the show
  • You could venture into ideas about realism or naturalism
  • Time - how drama copes with the compression of time or in the case of a soap how the general time scale serves the realism of the soap i.e. at Christmas there is an office party and the characters are buying presents, etc.

Some Theory

Now let's discuss some of the codes and conventions of different types of TV Drama:

  • The Serial

Continuing narrative over a limited number of linked programmes with an over arching narrative. It the much the same cast, such as Footballers’ Wives, and a cliffhanger at the end of each episode. Closure is only achieved at the end of the run. Typically made in 13 episodes – a quarter of a year. Examples include State of Play and Rome.

  • Soaps

An ongoing, multi-stranded television serial drama, typically set in an enclosed location such as Albert Square in Eastenders, Coronation Street, orEmmerdale, with a large cast of central characters and arching story lines. The soap is an everlasting serial.

  • The Series

Linked programmes with the same lead characters where each episode is a complete story Spooks (BBC), House (C5) or The Bill (ITV), Heartbeat (ITV) or Midsummer Murders, Agatha Christie’s Poirot (ITV) or US series like Superman. Perhaps the best known British series are Casualty (BBC) and Dr Who (BBC).
The expensive and successful US series such as House, Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty are a mixture between the two with ongoing over arching plot lines and some form of closure in each episode. The main characters continue, but the story told - the challenge, the question, the problem of that episode - is resolved at the end of the hour. Successful US series are made with 22 to 24 episodes.
Series drama is usually within certain genres such as:
  • Medical - Casualty, Holby City
  • Crime and Justice – The Bill, Life on Mars (see case study), Ashes to Ashes
  • Family – Smallville, The Simpsons
  • High School – Skins
  • A type of Science fiction – Dr Who

Other categories -
  • The mini-series – a serial or series of up to about 6 episodes.
  • The one-off drama – as it says, a special drama of only one episode.
  • The costume drama – typically an adaptation of a classic text such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, or a Dickens’ novel such as Bleak House.


Frame Analysis
One of the first things to look at in a TV Drama is how each shot adds meaning to the script.
Most TV Dramas (except soaps) are filmed with a single camera, so each shot is lined up, specially lit and carefully composed. The DOP – the Director of Photography, and the Director work together to set up and compose each shot. This means the shot size and the camera angle all denote and connote meaning.
You must be able to describe the look and meaning of a drama as a way of absorbing the audience.
Practical Activity

Be A Director For A Day…

Watch an extract from a British TV Drama like Life on Mars.
Record a Director’s Commentary in Audacity, talking about how the shots were composed and set up - then add it to the video extract. It’s a good way for students to start talking about media language, frame analysis, etc.

Shot Sizes

Learning shot size is important for textual analysis and for the practical part of the course when students start to create their own productions. Look at:
  • Close Up
  • Mid Close Up
  • Medium Shot
  • Long Shot
  • Wide shot
  • Two shot

Camera Angles
  • High Angle
  • Low Angle
  • Over-the-shoulder
  • Hand Held or Steadycam
  • Pan
  • Tracking shot
  • Tilt
  • Canted angle
  • Zoom

Activity

Find and label examples of a variety of shot sizes from TV dramas. E.g. from Dr Who
Two Shot Dr Who & Sarah Jane
Long Shot Donna
Medium Close Up of Davros

Framing

The Director decides that a scene requires the two main characters to be together in a scene. He may decide on a Two Shot, but the framing of each character within the frame is vitally important to add meaning to the scene.
E.g. One character is standing up and the other sitting down. In the frame the standing character will be dominant. If this character then becomes challenged by the seated character then the dominance in the scene changes. This is shown typically by the second character getting up, and being at the same level to the standing character. Now the director could change the shot size to a medium close up with each character in profile, denoting that they are now equals.
The other term for framing is composition – students should use these and other technical terms in their essays.
Also to do with composition is the way the focus is used in a shot. The director might want to direct the audience’s attention to one character and then the other character in a 2 or 3 shot by pulling focus from one to the other. Out of focus shots are particularly effective for showing the effects of drunkenness or a drug, a dream sequence or unreality.

Mise-en-scène

In a TV drama the way the scene looks comes under Production Design. The director gives ideas to the production designer, who will create a set that fits in with the period, feel and ethos of the drama. Locations are often ‘tidied up’ for filming – especially period drama, or made to look more appropriate by adding graffiti or extra items such as dustbins or street furniture.
Props are technically portable items that are handled or need to be moveable – such as a gun – or small items necessary for the plot. Everything else on the set comes under production design. Costume covers all clothes, hair and make up.
You need to identify quickly and easily messages conveyed by costume, hair and set design. The time of a drama is indicated by costume and set – modern dramas are also in a ‘period’. The items that indicate today will not be the same in five years time.
Lighting comes under mise-en-scène and is one of the hardest to analyse unless it is asci-fi or noir drama. Ask students to look for unusual or specially composed lighting effects. Most modern dramas seek to make the lighting look as invisible as possible to go for anaturalistic effect.

Activity

Analyse The Lighting In An Operating Theatre

How do they light a scene in a hospital operating theatre?
First look at what is illuminated, and what is in the shadow? Lighting is described as hard lighting when there are deep shadows, or soft lighting where the lighting is diffused.
It’s a bit like the difference between having the centre light in the room on - hard light, and putting the side lights or a table lamp on to create diffused light. Try and work out where the main light is coming from in this frame from Holby City.

Lighting from the front gives a flat, two-dimensional image. Sidelighting is used to create dramatic effects. Backlighting on its own gives a silhouette. There can be underlighting from a flickering fire in the desert for example.
This doctor is lit with diffused soft light giving some shadows in the lower part of the frame, but looking naturalistic.
Some dramas will use hard lighting (noir) with dark shadows, most others will use low or soft lighting, as this is more suitable for video cameras.

Outside scenes may be lit with natural lighting as here. The two characters are in full sunlight in South Africa - notice the golden hue. A reflector may be used to reflect sunlight directly on to a character’s face to ‘lift it’.
Try and work out how the lighting enhances the expressive potential of the drama and develops representations.

Post-Production

The whole process of editing audio and video to deliver an edited DVD. Nearly all TV drama is recorded in High Definition (HDD) format (except soaps), and is edited on computer. Some very expensive productions are made on film.
Students can first identify, then name and then look for meaning in the way shots are put together in editing. Check for :
Cut – shot/reverse shot - jump cut – crosscutting – cutaway – matching eyelines
Transitions – dissolves or mixes, wipes, fade-in and fade-out, superimpositions, CGI, visual effects, multi-screen
Manipulating time – use of slomo (slow motion), or time lapse, or speeded up sequencesare useful devices for the editor to speed up or slow down time.

Soundtrack

The first and most important use of sound is the dialogue – what the characters say. This is diegetic sound and is recorded at the same time as the characters are speaking (or it appears to be).
Incidental music in drama is very important to the emotional landscape of a scene and is added in postproduction – this is non-diegetic sound.
There may also be an off screen ‘voice over’ narration which is recorded separately.Sound effects (SFX) add to the immediacy of a scene, and can often increase the intensity of the drama.
E.g. A character is hit in the face by an antagonist. The actual noise of fist on flesh or jaw is nasty, quick and not loud – it is not therefore dramatic.
Add the enhanced sound effect of the sound we expect to hear when a person is knocked over in a bar fight in a western and the scene has more power – the representation of a fight is constructed to create a dramatic situation.
In Hollywood they create these sound effects in a Foley studio. This is a special sound studio with lots of unlikely pieces of equipment such as a gym punch ball which can be hit with a boxing glove – that’s how you create the bar fight sound.
Check it out when you next see a dramatised fist fight.

Representations

In the exam you may be shown a Titles Sequence from a drama. You will have to decode the representations in a fairly short sequence – usually no more than 30 seconds. There will typically be an Establishing shot.

Activity

Trailer Test

You have 30 minutes to do a written analysis of a selected trailer : how is the setting or theme of a TV drama represented in a trailer – trailers are available on various websites - try the Skins website or the very attractive Dr Who website http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho
The exam allows the extract which is about 5 mins in length to be watched four times. Once without taking notes, and 3 times being able to take notes.
Students should be able to answer these questions:
  • Who or what is being represented?
  • In what way are they represented?
  • How is place represented?
  • What representations attract audiences in this trailer?
  • How important is the representation of the setting to the narrative?

The most important questions for this test and for the exam are:
  • Who or what is being represented?
  • In what way are they being represented?

Activity

Watch a clip from Spooks from http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/spooks/
The one I watched was called Catch Up from the December 2007 episode – it lasts 1 minute 43 seconds.


Analysis

Analyse this scene. Here is an example of a way to approach this type of scene analysis. It is not the only way! Even if you know the names of the characters and recognise the series, it is best to only use what material is available in the clip.
The clip starts by launching the plot with a close up of the main character. He is white, young with piercing blue eyes, dressed casually in a crew neck shirt and jacket with a quiet voice, suggesting authority, control and independence. This man takes no prisoners – you can tell by his voice, the use of close up and his sense of authority, but not by his clothing.
The use of intense close ups increases the audience involvement with the characters, and immediately suggests the intensity of their drama, and connotes tension, conflict and narrative thrust.
He is talking to a young, woman. She has short, blonde hair with intelligent, sharp eyes, representing her dynamic and maybe ruthless but feminine character. The next shot is a close up of a man in agony – low lighting, dark colours and an inconclusive background.
An exterior two-shot follows of two men in suits. The one on the right has power, suggested by his tie and authoritarian voice. He is suggesting to the younger man that anyone who falls into the hands of the captors will be tortured. The younger man clearly has to try to ‘save’ the tortured man we briefly saw.
A low angle interior shot of a large empty, pillared office suggests the man walking towards the other man has power, and is able to negotiate. It intentionally reminds the viewer of a gun fight set up from a Western, but the weapons are words. The building suggests a neutral, lonely location where conversations will not be overheard. This connotes a meeting with an enemy agent of some kind.
Big close ups of the two men negotiating suggest they have equal power. The American at camera left is older and represents power derived from superior information and surveillance operations.
Cut to the next shot the young woman is holding a mobile and walking in a flurry of movement within the frame, creating a sense of urgency and representing an active, dynamic person who is getting on with the narrative.
The shot is shadowy and suggests repressed power, dynamic action, a person who is ready for anything. The shot is held and we see that she is being followed by a shady but innocuous looking character in a shirt and cotton casual jacket, who is clearly spying on her. Their activities are explored in a split screen two-shot.
He is coming towards camera, and she is going away from the camera- he is therefore denoted as being in the ascendance. Non diegetic spooky, dramatic music suggests deceit, treachery and imminent danger.
Cut to the the first main character picking up a mobile phone; the message is he has a meeting with the adversary in one hour. He is represented as calm, in control, alert and capable. The audience connotates that all is going to be well for our hero.
Cut to exterior shot of a fast, expensive, latest model BMW car connotating power, and a modern hi tech set up. Inside the car, in a tight two-shot, an American character pulls a gun and makes demands. He is in the dominant position, screen right in full face big close up.
Cut to a low angle shot from below a large board-room table. Three men in shirt sleeves and a woman clearly in distress sit around the table– a high tech screen behind them indicates a type of control room.
The camera zooms in to a mid close up of the older boss, who indicates that his adversary’s agents will be killed. Our sympathies lie with the main character, the younger white man, but he is shown in shadows, suggesting a trap, worry and lack of control – in contrast to how we saw him at the beginning. This is the Todorovian conceit essential to TV drama – the disequilibrium.
Cut to the woman in a darkly lit shot revealing details of the shocking tortures used.
Cut back to the empty office and a larger meeting with the bosses, all the characters we have seen are there – negotiation is taking place. The woman offers to give up names – this could be connotated as representing a stereotypical female response of sacrifice. She says ‘you have to help me’ – she is represented as being in severe distress, and revealed as an MI5 officer, who must now be sacrificed. She is handed over as a prisoner.
Time cut to heavily armed men breaking into a house.
Cut to the younger man and the woman inside in distress as hostages.
A two-shot reveals his emotional support and reassurance for her – cliffhanger will they be saved?

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