What is TV Drama?

TV Drama is a huge genre, covering a wide range of sub genres and alternations, but to define it, it is fictional action in the form of being told as someones (one or more of the characters) story/ point of view.

Examples of TV Drama;

• Upstairs Downstairs
• Eastenders
• Doctor Who
• New Tricks
• Misfits
• Waterloo Road
• Shameless
• This is England '86
• Skins
• Red Riding
• Hotel Babylon

The are so many sub gemres of TV Drama, or combinations of TV Drama with other genres. For Exapmle;

medical, legal, horror, supernatural, fantasy, sci-fi, crime, historical, soaps, thriller, situational, genreal drama,

• Holby City and Casulty are examples of TV drama and medical drama
• New Tricks and Wallander are examples of Crime Drama
• The X Files and Misfits would also go under the Sci Fi genre

• Genre is the category or section of something, usually entertainment prducts such as music films and TV and books. It defines the topic of the media piece into a category.
• TV Genre therefore means how programmes are categorised according to certain conventions they have, to create a genre of similar products according to these converntions.
• Mot genres break into several sub gemres, in which the media product also has features and converntions from a different genre.
• The evolution of sub genres in TV genre began in the 1950's, when the BBc was developing and ITV began. Drama programmes began developing and seperating into sub genres as more people began to watch television and a wider audience needed catering for, people of different backgrounds, ages and culture had varied tastes and interests.

Final Edit Guilt Trip

Editing Completion!!!

Today we finally finished our Final Cut final edit! it took less time than we thought, but we were still getting used to the new software. we put in titles over the beginning of the film. we also put music over all parts of the film, so there were no gaps, and with the transitions it's continuous, and sounds great. we also did some good effects with the music, such as reversing it for one part, and increasing and decreasing the volume using waves.

Case study Shutter Island

Case study Shutter Island

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Rough Edit Guilt Trip

This is our rough edit. It is not finished as we did not have time to put enough music in, so some parts are a bit quiet. On Thursday we did a viewing with everyone else in our classes' videos being shown, and we got an audience of people to view them. We created a questionnaire, which we posted on survey monkey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/L7XVFKJ and also a printed version which people watching the intros could fill in. This was a great chance to see what everyone else in the class had been doing.
Our feedback was quite mixed, a few people noticed the music, which we will improve on final cut. some people said they did not understand the ending, which after we saw it through their eyes, we realised that it could definitely be improved as it is not really very clear. I think this is because when we did the planning, we planned way too much shots for the time of film we had, as we did not realise timings.
With this feedback we can hopefully do a better edit in Final Cut, to make the music more continuous and the storyline better.

Body of Lies

            Body of lies is directed by Ridley Scott, and based on a novel of the same name, written by David Ignatius. It is produced by Warner Bros Pictures, Scott Free Productions and De Line Pictures.  Body of Lies was released in the US on 10^th October and in the UK on 21^st November 2008. Although the film is set in the Middle East, it was filmed mainly in Maryland, USA and Morocco. The film only made $12.9 million in its first week, and $115,097,286 in worldwide box office returns. Body of lies stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.

 Semiology/Location

As the film opens, there is a Middle Eastern character speaking and pointing his finger. We get the impression he is the leader, because the way he speaks and body language is quite authoritative, and  from what he is saying in the subtitles he seems to know a lot, and has influence over a great deal, and also is speaking in a manner of inspiration and encouragement. Because he is speaking in a foreign language, we as an audience feel excluded as if we are intruding on a secrecy act. We can connotate that because he is an unknown figure and language, he is a bad character, and the way he is pointing his finger he is almost dictating. After this, there is a shot of a train rushing past the screen. It's fast, rattly movement creates a slight built up of tension as it quickens the film pace, to make it seem as if there is something going to happen soon, and time is running out. This tension is added to with the bomb squad running around secretly. Although they are dressed in black, we know they are good people because they are country officials, we know them as defenders of us. This means, due to the vast amount of them spread out all seeming to focus on one house, that whatever they are defending us from is important as they must be quite dangerous. There is also a milkman character who seems to be the innocent, unaware peace character. The houses in the area of focus are run down, and poor which are usually used in film to portray dodgy dealings and mysterious activities in that kind of area.

Sound/Special Effects

The film opens with the traditional Warner Brothers sound, which gives the audience some familiarity, and a feeling of safety. The man speaking is talking in Arabic, although we know it is set in Manchester, there is also Arabic music playing in the background. This makes the whole intro more sinister. As there is more action going on, there is more going on in the scene, with loud cars, and faster paced music. The radio in the background is relaying the voice of the same man at the beginning, implying that the man was an authority figure. The overall noise of goings on intensifies the film, by increasing tension. The opening uses mainly diegetic sound of city life noises and people speaking etc, except the Arabic music that is plying in the background which does not seem to have an origin point. The big explosion at the end is heightened by the complete silence just before it, making it more intense.

Mise-en-scene

The dark room at the beginning has many shadows, implying that they are concealing something. The foreign man talking and pointing his finger indicates power and that he is possibly a dictator. There is also smoke, which means there must be fire, signifying danger. In the next bit, the characters' faces are shadowed, also showing that they are hiding something and are not what they seem. The police are dressed in black, and are running around suspiciously and secretly. The intro contains themes of religion, suicide, explosion and mass destruction. The swat teams' entrance breaking is concealed by the sounds of the milkman, signifying that they are using the innocent character of the milkman as cover.

Camera shots, angles & Lighting

The scene opens with a mid shot of the Arabic dictator's face, and the camera slowly zooms out as he talks. The room in which he is in is dark and shadowy, and also slightly musty, as if he did not want to be in full view and is therefore hiding. There is light peeking through the windows, and as we see slightly later on with the swat team it quite light outside, indicating that it could be early morning.  The house which the three men are in also seems dark and musky. judging by the sweat they are producing, quite hot too, unless that is merely the tension of whatever they are doing, which is later revealed as building a bomb. This part is filmed as if it was the point of view of someone walking into the house. There are several shots of the Swat team as the camera follow them as they make their way to the house. At this point, the camera shots are very choppy changey as they switch between different views of the swat team and the milkman. There are several mid shots of the characters' faces inside the house, as they realise they are being broken into. When the bomb goes off, there are several different views of the explosion from different angles, and some with a kind of shaking effect to make it seem like the whole floor is rocking, and everything is in chaos. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

On Friday night i went to Kings Lynn cinema to see the new Harry Potter film. After reading the book, i was excited about what the film had in store for the audience, and how it would compare to the book. Directed by David Yates, screenplay by Steve Kloves based on the book by J K Rowling. Following the death of Dumbledore and the sweeping overtake of the ministry of magic by Voldemort, Harry, Ron and Hermione leave Hogwarts in the aim to destroy the horcruxes, therefore defeating Voldemort and returning the magical world back to the way it was.

Although this film is only the first part, it still lasted a hefty 2 1/2 hours long, which despite being a long time to sit watching a film, meant (hopefully) they hadn't left anything important out.  

I was surprised how much i enjoyed the film, the acting and special effects were spectacular as usual, and although there was a slightly dull phase through the middle part of the film, this was picked back up to a climax for the end. It was strange to see the first harry potter film not to be set a hogwarts, making it differ from the rest of the films entirely. The plot is more free flowing without the usual school-mischief-quidditch-voldemort storyline, so the film lacks a certain 'safety' feel as the characters are running around freely with at some points not a lot going on. It has to be said that hogwarts, spells and  naive, merry Christmases were missed in this film, which had an overall more dark shadow over it which the previous films had been slowly growing, and i fear will dominate the final part, as the simple spell-casting, quidditch-playing days disappear due to voldemorts increasing power. It was also slightly disappointing that in all the running time the trio only managed to destroy one horcrux, then they were back to square one. Despite this, the film had this ultimate power that intensified the whole film, made it very powerful and full on. But the thing that i think completes this film is the editing and filming. The colour filters, tone of the film, the whole bluey tinge that darkens the scenes but brings out colour when there is some, a characteristic typical to Tim Burton films, creates this mysterious yet contrasting effect. The immense prodution techniques used for this film has given it a definite flair of individuality and uniquness that is nessicary to this film to prevent it from being forgotten after the inital sweep of popularity.  

This is a screenshot from the film, which i specifically remembered, because of it's fantastic photographic qualities with the dark, slightly blue sky, the large rocks, leading to Harry in the foreground. The gentle light emerging from the tent adds a warming quality to the shot. With the light area in the sky above the tent, this signifies that the person inside the tent is a good character, bringing hope and light to the darkness. The darker patch of sky lingers over Harry which could seem as if he has something to hide, is a slightly darker character in the sense that he is not to be trusted, especially because he is wearing the horcrux at this time which has an effect on his mood and perception of things around him. His slightly weary posture signifies he is tired and worn out.