UNDERSTAND THE PURPOSES AND THE PURPOSES OF RESEARCH IN THE MEDIA INDUSTRY:
Market research involves collecting audience awareness which is when you think about who will read your paper, the primary and secondary target audience, before and during you write, and adjust your paper to help your audience understand it. When speaking to another individual we know exactly who we are talking to, which therefore means we are able to modify our speech to help get out message or idea across. For example when speaking to a young infant we will shorten our sentences and use simple vocabulary to ensure that they child understands, however when we are speaking to a teacher or a university professor we would use longer, extended sentences and use much more formal and complex language. Another factor of market research is product reach- this is making an audience aware of a product. This can be done by advertisements through television and radio. Audience profiling identifies and analyses companies existing and potential audiences.Profiling can analyse your programming, marketing, project planning and market potential for future developments. As well as audience profiling, consumer behaviour is equally as important to market research. This is because consumer behaviour is a study of how people behave when using, and disposing of products or services. I think that a key factor to market research is competitor analysis. This is an assessment and analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of a business against its competitors. Competitor analysis can help a company improve sales of their products and therefore helps them get more business. Product placement advertisements are called promotional adverts, which are placed by marketers using real commercial products in media. Product placement appears in plays, film, television series, music videos and books.
Every time we open a newspaper or we turn on the TV, we see sellers of almost identical products spending huge amounts of money in order to convince us to buy their brands. Everyday, each person watches approximately 100 TV advertisements. Using so much advertisement guarantees that the product will definitely sell because the viewer will be persuaded to buy the product. This is called effective advertising.
KNOW ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES, OWNERSHIP AND FUNDING IN THE TELEVISION AND FILM INDUSTRIES:
"Television has become our eyes, the telephone our mouth and ears; our brains are the interchange for a nervous system that stretches across the world."
Technology is a concrete part of our everyday lives. Almost every task or event are supported by using technology. The television controls our opinions and perspective of the world- it chooses what we see and hear. Our brains constantly have information flowing throughout them and the ‘interchange’ is what we choose to acknowledge and understand. Without technology the world would be a completely different place, this is due to the fact nobody would be able to communicate apart from verbal face-to-face speech. We couldn’t read the paper and become informed about global events. Without the radio there would be no entertainment or music- this is because the radio was the first way music was broadcast. Technology is slowly creeping into our lives and controlling us.
Can you imagine your life without it?
No.
But is the wide range of ever changing technology necessarily a good thing?
The term “new media” describes the type of media technology which improves a piece of technology which is similar to it. For example a DVD player is new media because it is more technologically advanced that the VHS player. The main search engines used are AOL, Google and Yahoo. AOL is predominantly known for its online software. AOL is one of the most popular search engines because its membership is over 30 million members’ world wide, these members are able to access the worlds largest online community. Google enables everyone to browse the World Wide Web; this type of technology is possible as Google scans the keywords which have being typed into the search box. Lastly Yahoo is a popular American based search engine; Yahoo also has a directory which the public are able to add listings.
It is shocking how TV has developed. It started off with having four basic channels. BBC1, BBC 2, ITV and Channel 4. However now there are approximately 1000 channels to choose from. However hit series’ such as Nip/Tuck, Desperate Housewives and Lost are broadcast in America before the United Kingdom- therefore as a result of this more and more people are choosing to watch the shows on the Internet.
"Most episodes come online about half an hour after it first airs in the US,"
(Dr David Price- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6151118.stm)
Advanced technology has meant that films or TV programmes can be viewed in a wide variety of ways. The most popular been the iPod, or any other portable technology advice. It is facts like these that make the question- “Will TV eventually disappear?”
Before this huge advance in technology families would sit in front of the TV and watch the same programme and communicate throughout it. However now with more flexible ways such as Sky+ to view programmes, the family are not having this time together and as a result our social habits have been effected by this viewing habit. We are however able to interact with the TV by shows such as The X Factor and Big Brother as we are able to vote for the final winner. Also TV shows such as Echo Beach and Moving Wallpaper enabled the audience to vote for how the series should end.
The TV license pays for the BBC. The BBC does not show commercial breaks in the middle of programmes and therefore the TV license pays for this. However another channel such as ITV is a commercial station and therefore the companies pay ITV to broadcast there advert. Public broadcasting involves predominantly radio and television media industries. Public broadcasting is when the company receive funding through voluntary donations. For example a television license fee. TiVo® is the American version of Sky+; it enables the viewer to view their favourite shows at their own leisure and to fit their own personal schedule. The TiVo® has the technology to connect with the internet and access films, music, photos and products.
The technology of satellite TV enables the viewer to browse individual programmes or movies at their own leisure for an additional cost. When pay-per-view was first invented the system was restricted only for certain times. However today pay-per-view is now known as ‘impulse’ this enables you to order movies from a wider selection through your TV. The adverts for commercial TV are paid for by the company of the product. For example dVb perfume will pay more for an advertising slot at the end of the Coronation Street because more of the general public will see the advert and consequently more people will buy their product. Another funding technique is product placement- this involves the filmmakers agreeing to place the company’s product or logo visable within the shots. For example Manolo Blahnik shoes in Sex and The City.
An example of this Britney Spears advertising her own perfumes at the start of the ‘Circus’ video.
Keith Rupert Murdoch owns the famous firm, News Corporation. The company produces different types of media. For example films, television, cable programming, satellite television, magazines, newspapers, books, websites and sporting events. However some people may view this as a negative thing. This is because it could easily be considered that Rupert Murdoch has too much power and influence over the world- this can then lead to people only viewing his opinions and believes and not having a full understanding and knowledge of other peoples views.
Cultural imperialism involves both political and business practises and media products from one culture having a considerable influence on another. However the influences that this causes may be considered imperialistic as they ignore local customs. For example if the hit TV show ‘24’ was broadcasted in the third world country Kenya then consequently Kenya would become more Americanised. This is due to the fact that the constant stream of advertisement will make the country feel that they need to be more adapted, this can cause many global issues such as; war and controversy.
Task 1-P1, M1, D1
The analogue stations, which are available to anybody who buys a television, are the BBC, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, these five channels are available on Digital Terrestrial Television. To gain access to Freeview only one singular payment is required instead of paying a contract. In return for the one off payment you are able to view up to 30 free digital channels, including radio. To have satellite TV the viewer must pay a monthly charge, satellite TV is received when signals are sent to an orbit and are then sent back down to Earth to be received by the dish, which the user will need along with a set top box. According to a recent survey 55% percent of people have cable television whereas 28% have satellite television. The world wide switch over to digital television is not likely to happen before 2010. The government has said it wants to gradually terminate analogue broadcasts between the years 2006 and 2010.
If you have Sky, cable or Freeview then on TV shows, mainly talent shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor, then a red dot will appear in the top corner of the TV screen. This red dot symbolises that the programme has additional interaction and also interactive ‘exclusive’ extras; to access the additional entertainment the viewer simply presses the red button on their remote.
The public are able to watch TV programmes and movies over the internet with the most popular search engine for entertainment, YouTube. The video sharing website is a free search engine in which the public are able to upload videos for other people to view. However despite YouTube publishing warnings such as:
“Do not upload any TV shows, music videos, music concerts
or commercials without permission unless they consist entirely of content you created yourself. The Copyright Tips page and the Community Guidelines can help you determine whether your video infringes someone else's copyright.”
Regardless of this warning streams of footage which go against this warning can be found on the website- this footage can range from TV programmes, concerts, music videos all the way through to films. A criticism with YouTube is that the search engine does not view any of the uploaded videos before they are broadcast and allowed to be viewed by the public. Therefore because of this reason organizations such as the English Premier League have issued formal lawsuits against YouTube. The lawsuits state that YouTube do not do enough to prevent illegal or offensive material on the website. This is true to a certain extent as they do not view footage before it been broadcast on a worldwide scale, however, the sheer amount of videos which are uploaded per day it is virtually impossible to throughly check every single clip. In July 2006 more than 100 million videos were viewed per day along with this 65,000 videos were added in one day in 2006.
On 4OD, standing for 4 On Demand, television shows are able to be rented for 99p and other films will be available from £1.99. 4OD enables the public to watch programmes which have recently been broadcast on Channel 4, E4 or on More4.
Eventually in the near future I think that mass audiences will eventually expire. This is because before the technology of cable, Sky and Freeview the public only had access to the five main terrestrial channels- BBC, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. However now that the modern technology has become part of our everyday lives the audience has more choice which means that the audience figures diminish due to the fact that the wide variety of choice means that people are not assigned to a certain channel. They can therefore pick a channel that is accustomed and more suited to the entertainment they prefer or want to watch. Due to the the audiences being broken down into niche audiences advertisers have had to change which adverts they broadcast and at what time.
Task 2- P1, M1, D1
Sky has 10 different ways of communication regarding the need for entertainment. These are: Sky TV, Sky+, Sky+ HD, Sky Multiroom, Sky broadband, Sky talk, Sky.com, Sky player, Mobile services and Freesat from Sky.
Sky+ is a piece of technology, which over 12 million people own in 3.7 million homes, which enables the public to record up to 40 hours of their favourite programmes, films and documentaries and then watch them through the Sky+ Planner whenever they like to help fit their busy schedule. The Live Pause feature means that nothing will stop you missing out on the action, if the phone rings simply press the pause button and then press play to catch up. Sky+ also enables the buyer to record every episode of their favourite programme by pressing the Series Link button.
Sky+ HD was launched in May 2006 and at the end of June 2008 had an impressive half a million customers. Sky+ HD customers are given access to 10,000 hours of footage- all with sharper images, brighter colours and four times more detail compared to television not in the HD format.
The typical British family- Mum, Dad and children. Dad enjoys watching documentaries, Mum likes cookery, travel and lifestyle programmes whereas the two teenage girls would rather watch Friends, Sex and The City or Americas Next Top Model. Sky came up with the technology of Sky Multiroom to help everyone watch what they want to, when they want to. Each additional Multiroom box costs £10 and for this cost people can watch their programmes in a different room of the house.
The Sky Broadband was launched in August 2006, the broadband Britain’s most popular, and therefore fastest growing and selling broadband service and is currently operating in approximately 1.6 million homes and offers exclusive material for Sky TV customers. For no monthly charge the customers can get a download speed of 2Mb. The Sky Broadband is s popular that it has being accepted in the “Broadbandchoices.co.uk Customer Satisfaction Awards”. In these awards Sky was voted “Best Overall Provider’.
Sky Talk is the fastest growing home provider in the UK and achieved one million customers in the early months of 2008. There are two packages that you can choose from, firstly, Sky Talk Freetime which offers the customer free UK evening and weekend calls without a monthly charge. And secondly Sky Talk Unlimited offers unlimited UK calls at whatever time of day for £5 per month. Sky Talk also offers line rental for £10.
Sky.com gives information about online brands such as Sky News for example. When using Sky.com a range of applications are incorporated into the site such as photos and emails. The network of sites attracts millions of individual users each month. The Sky Player is a collection of programmes, such as, sports, lifestyle, cookery, films and documentaries online. The Sky Player puts forward thousands of programmes in an on demand style and customers can view the footage whenever they choose as they are made for download too. The majority of the Sky Player is available with no additional cost for Sky TV customers.
Task 3-
“Today we find ourselves at a crossroads for public service broadcasting. For decades our public service broadcasting system has delivered high quality UK produced programmes from a number of providers across a range of genres.”
Ofcom’s Second Public Service Broadcasting Review
The Public Service Broadcasting is paid for by the public. The BBC is paid for by the public and therefore they address the wants and needs of the audience and answers to them. The BBC is guaranteed their income and therefore has a continuous flow of money coming into the company which enables them to spend money to broadcast a wide range of quality programmes to address what the public want to watch. The main aim of the BBC is to create programmes which are guaranteed to appeal to all members of society. For example: Eastenders is targeted to the younger, teenager generation whereas Strictly Come Dancing, which is targeted at the older generation of people. All programmes which are paid for by PSB represent society and therefore have to achieve three main purposes- inform, educate and entertain.
To conclude, the BBC is contracted to make a wide variety of programmes to suit the wants, needs and desires of different people in our society. After all it is the audience who help the BBC fund these programmes which they are producing. A positive outcome from the BBC being funded by public service broadcasting is that the BBC do not have to worry about backing down due to added pressure from the advertisers and can be more daring in their programming.
Understand contractual, legal and ethical obligations in the television and film industries
Shift work is the type of employment in which the employer will not work the standard working day. This includes both long term night shifts, in these types of shifts the employees will change or rotate shifts.
A "fixed-term" employee would be a full time employee who has an actual contract for employment. This contract will specify a period of time. The actual range of services that the employee will provide should be extremely defined in this contract. If the employer wants to end the agreement before completing the allocated period of time, they must provide a good enough reason that would have become payable under this kind of contract.
A "freelance" employee is not officially an employee, but instead is viewed as an independent contractor.The freelancer comes in for a specific task or period of time, and during this time there is no attempt to make a relationship.Usually, a freelancer is not entitled to any benefits such as insurance. Therefore the freelancer sets their own work hours which fits around the employer's needs.
‘Office hours’ are usually from around 8am to 5pm every Monday to Friday. The best example of this is a secretary.
The ‘hourly rate’ working pattern is simply when the employee is paid a fixed amount, for example £5.26, every hour. Hourly rate is not depending on how much work the employee does but just how long they work for.
Piece work describes types of employment in which an employee is paid a fixed "piece rate" for each item they produce or what action they have performed. Piece work is also a form of PRP, which stands for Performance Related Pay, and is the oldest form of performance pay. Piece work is beneficial to the company which has employed the employee because the employee is more motivated as they know the more work they do the more they will get paid, as an end result this means that the company has more products to sell.
The ‘irregular pattern’ is when the employee is only working when needed. For example a costume designer which specialises in period dramas will only be asked to make costumes when a drama is being made, this is because period dramas are not continuously made like soaps such as Hollyoaks and Eastenders. Another example of ‘irregular pattern’ work is a cameraman who specialises in wildlife programmes, the reason for this is because as they specialise in just one type of work this limits the amount of work that they can be signed up to do.
‘Casual work’ is doing the odd job for a company such as holding a boom microphone when you are free and your skills are required.
Secondment is working in a different department of a company for a certain amount of time but then returning back to where you started from.
Under flexible, there is a time of the day when employees are expected to be at work, for the rest of the working day is "flexitime", in which employees can choose when they work.
Voluntary work is work which a person does in their own time, either for experience or to make money, this can be anything. For examples extra in Eastenders are constantly required. Extra can be paid or unpaid, it depends on the role and the company.
An attachment contract is when a celebrity is assigned to one specific company. For example Jonathan Ross is attached to the BBC and can only work for that channel and BBC radio stations. An exception of this is for charities such as Comic Relief.
People in the media industry are often required to sign confidentiality agreements. Examples of people having to do this are actors and actresses in soaps keeping quiet about plot lines so that they are not leaked to the press, as a backup incase this happens, sometimes the soaps film several alternative endings so that the press can never be totally sure about the ending. Another example is working with the Primeminster and in an interview he asks for a certain part not to be broadcast in the final production, this confidentiality agreement stops you from informing the press on what he doesn’t want the public to know. Some types of contracts state that the employee can only be employed by that organisation. An example of this is Jon Snow presenting Channel 4 news as you will not see him appear on any other show or news programme.
When discussing health and safety in a film and television related context, there are many factors which may lead to a serious accident. These being lights, water, cranes, wires and many more. By law All companies with five or more employees have to have a Health and Safety Policy. In this Health and Safety policy, details of the company actions on issues like risk assessments are discussed. Every company must give all employees equal oppourtunies and not discriminate against race, gender, colour or background. To ensure that nobody is discriminated against the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 is a piece of legislation which came into force on October 1st 2006.
A Trade Union is an organisation of which members belong to the same trade, for example teachers, that act as a group and discuss common issues or problems in their jobs. An example of intellectual property is a trademark. A trademark is a word, symbol, or phrase which the public can recognise and therefore identify a company or product. For example Disney and iLife.
Risk assessments are made prior to the movie or television show being produced. This is to ensure that every member of the crew and cast are aware of risks which may happen. By looking at a risk assessment the producers canbe sure to prepare incase any of the hazards arise. I have made a risk assessment for a movie called “Invasion” which is shot in Leeds City Train Centre.
Single camera format is when one singular camera is the only camera used for all the shots used in a production. The director has the authority to use long or short takes of footage and when to stop filming so that the angle of the shot can be changed. For example switching from a close up angle to a establishing shot. The multiple camera format is when a group of cameras are used simultaneously and therefore capture the same footage but from different angle. The shots are then viewed and the ones that are appropriate for use are selected and put together when the footage is edited.
The advantages of the multiple camera format is that there is a wide variety of different shots, therefore this will make the production more varied and makes the film or television programme more exciting to watch and also gives the end production a more professional edge. However the disadvantages of the multiple camera format are that the editing process may take longer because of having to look through all of the different angles of footage and decide which angle would suit the production the best. On the other hand, the advantages of the single camera format is that depending how the camera is used it can adopt different effects, for example a professional movie or a TV series which is supposed to look amateur. The disadvantage of the single camera technique is that it is not as adventurous as a multi-camera production as there is not as much variety in comparison between the two different formats.
Examples of multi-camera productions are typically talk shows such as 'Loose Women' and 'Jeremy Kyle'. This is because a close up shot can be used to capture the host's, guests or a member of the audiences’ reaction to what has been said. An example of a single camera production is The Office; this is because the programme is meant to have an amateur edge to it.
Task 2- P1, M1, D1 A television series consists of at least seven or eight singular, usually one hour long, episodes. Depending on whether or not the series is popular or not there may be another two or three series' to follow it. More examples of television series' are Prison Break, Six Feet Under, West Wing and One Tree Hill. The difference between a series and a serial is that a serial is like a three-part drama, which may be shown at 9pm on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evening and then it is forgotten about.
Another category which a drama may fall into is a single drama such as Freefall which starred Sarah Harding from Girls Aloud was premiered on BBC2, lasted for an hour. Situational comedy, also known as sit-com, is a category, which is mainly focused on pure comedy, and the humour is the main priority, therefore getting to know the characters is not the main objective of watching the programme. An example of this is Peep Show.
Soap operas such as Hollyoaks, Coronation Street and Eastenders are more complicated to place in a specific category. This is because the episode has an open ending and therefore another episode has to follow it to make the plot makes sense. Therefore the soap turns into a single camera drama; but still remains as soap within itself. Another category which television programmes can be categorised into is anti real and real. This simply means whether or not the programme is based on real life concepts or not. For example the BBC drama is real because the programme describes the events of a persons life, which may be similar to a real life person. On the other hand, Doctor Who is anti-real because the genre is sci-fi and therefore is completely fictional. One more category, which a programme can fall into, is a docudrama; programmes like these often involve a person talking about an experience. For example a survivor of an accident, the camera shot will change from a close up of the survivor talking to a reconstruction of the event. Programmes like these are usually broadcast on BBC1 or BBC2.
Task 3- P1, M1, D1 The narrative part of a single camera drama is a crucial part of the programme. There are several types of narrative structure. The first example is linear narrative, which is also sometimes referred to as sequential narrative, this type of narrative is when events take place in a chronological order and therefore happen in an order, which makes sense to the audience. In contrast to this type of narrative there is the non-linear narrative, often referred to as non-sequential narrative structure, is the opposite of the linear narrative as events occur in a random fashion. An easy way to identify this type of narrative is by flashbacks as flashbacks are a form of non-sequential narrative, which reveals events from the characters past.
The realist narrative is when a drama or soap opera events are based on events, which are very close to a real persons life. The opposite of this narrative is the anti-realist narrative structure; usually anti-realist programmes have a sci-fi genre and incorporate events, which are obviously of a fantasy genre such as Doctor Who. The most important and crucial factor of a narrative structure is the ending. The producers can choose either an open or closed ending. A closed ending is when all the plot endings are tied up, such as Titanic. An open ending is when there is a cliff-hanger and not all the plot lines have being tied up but leave the audience full of suspense, usually a sequel to a movie will follow the original in the aim to tie up any loose ends for example High School Musical was followed by High School Musical 2 and then following the second movie came High School Musical 3.
There are sometimes narrative patterns in programmes. One of the four patterns is a goal-orientated plot where a character is trying to get from Point A to Point B, an example of a film which does this is Finding Nemo as Nemo's dad tries to find him throughout the whole film. The second of the four patterns is a search/investigation is when the characters try to resolve a problem; an example of a television series that does this is CSI. The third of the four patterns is a journey, a journey can be either a physical journey such as Road Trip, an alternative journey is an emotional development such as Mean Girls as Cady realises what kind of stereotype she wants to be. The fourth and final type of narrative pattern is a climax. For example the film Rocky has the build up to the final fight, it is in this fight when all the action plots explode.
An unrestricted range of information means that we know everything, and also information that the characters in a film or television programme don't. For example in the film Titanic we know that there are not enough lifeboats for all the people on the ship, however the characters do not know this. However a restricted range of information means that the audience learn new information at the same time that the characters do. This usually happens in soap operas.
n every television programme or film Propp’s theory is evident. An example of this theory is the film Shrek. The hero of the story is the main character Shrek; this is because the Shrek rescues the Damsel-in-distress, Princess Fiona, from the villain Lord Farquaad’s tower with assistance from his sidekick friend Donkey.
An example of a television programme that uses this theory is the X Factor. This is because the Damsel-in-distress is the person who is auditioning; Simon Cowell is the villain as he is portrayed as the scariest judge as he gives bad comments more than the other judges. Cheryl Cole is the hero as she is the most popular judge who does the opposite to Simon Cowell and gives good feedback to the contestants. However Louis Walsh is the helper as he tries to find something good in each audition no matter how bad the performer is.
Another theory, which can be found in television and film, is the theory of Todorov. He stated that each programme or film as an equilibrium, disruption and resolution. For example a film that does this is Stepmom as everything is balanced and settled at the beginning. However approximately half way through the mother finds out that she has cancer and that her treatment has not being working. At the end of the film the mother and stepmother decide to forget their problems with each other and the family pull together to share support and advice. However this theory might not be chronologically in the traditional order. For example the film The Terminator has a mixed order of this traditional order because the film begins with a disruption, as the introduction is action straight away with no equilibrium.
A subjective narration is when the audience is allowed access to a selection of different subjectivities; these subjectivities are firstly sounds which the character might hear and secondly perceptual subjectivity which is when object and sound relations which the character may feel. The third subjectivity is mental subjectivity, which is inside the characters thoughts and feelings. Most of this will be shown through a point of view shot. Objective narration is the external behaviours of the characters such as facial expressions and the audience do not know what they are thinking. TASK 4- (P1, M1, D1)
The opening credits of the single camera drama are the names that produced the film and the director. Following these credits the title “SE7EN” appears. All of the credits and titles are shaking with the noise of an approaching train; this gives the primary target audience a sense of what the short single camera drama may be about. The train ambience then fades at the same pace as the screen slowly fades to black. The first shot that the audience sees is an establishing panning shot of an old train station which blends to another establishing shot of two men getting out of a silver car, the men then begin to walk towards the station. A long shot of a blonde woman near the train track appears and the camera shot then changes to focusing on a puddle on the ground and the audience can see the two men approaching the woman. An extreme close up shot follows this of the blonde woman’s eye as a tear slowly falls and glides down her cheek. Another long shot then follows this, a long shot shows the women raise her right leg and hang in over the track; this anchors the idea that the woman is extremely upset and therefore suicidal. A close up shot of the woman’s feet follows the long shot and we can see the men’s feet approaching the woman. The man then stands next to the woman and the both of the woman’s feet stand back on the platform next to the man. A worm’s eye shot then follows this which makes the two men appear powerful, as the woman falls to her knees the shot switches to another close up which enables the audience to see her expression to help create a sense of empathy with the character.
A flashback follows this, the outer edges of the screen are blurred and distorted and in black and white to signify that the scene took place in the last. This flashback shot is in a park and therefore can be labelled as an establishing shot of this particular flashback.
A dead body slumped by a lamp post has being shot using a long shot so that the audience can easily identify what it is, then extreme close up of a hand with two pills appears. These two images quickly change from one to the other at an extremely fats pace, this signifies to the audience that something dangerous has just occurred. The worm’s eye shot of the two men stood either side of the woman on her knees with her head in her hands then comes back on the screen, as the image is in colour the audience is aware that this is not part of the flashback. The woman stands up and the camera shot turns to a close up of the left hand side of her and one of the men’s faces. Then another flashback appears, however this flashback is different and has a close up shot of a packet of pills hidden in the middle of a book. These are the same pills as seen in the other flashback. This shows that the single camera drama has a non-sequential narrative which involves details of the past. A panning and medium shot is then shown after this second flashback, the camera pans on the woman and two men walking to the other side of the old fashioned train station. At this point another flashback appears, in this flashback there are extreme close up shots of words such as “DRUGS” “DEATH” and “TEENS KILLED” the newspaper is then dropped and stood on by a mystery person.
When the flashback is over the scene is a close up shot of the woman shouting in one of the men’s face. The reason a close up shot is used is to show the expression and feeling in the woman’s face. Another flashback follows this and like all the other flashbacks the lightening in low key, I feel that low key lighting is used because the flashback is to a dark and sinful event. The low key lighting also helps to add ambiguity to the event which is making the audience question why the woman is so upset. After this the camera shot is back on the blonde woman and slowly pans up from feet to her toes slowly whilst also zooming in to another gradual close up of her face. Then an extreme close up follows this of her eyes. A wide midpoint shot follows this which is of all three characters; this is to help keep the audience aware of where the characters are and what they are doing. As the end of the production approaches the panning shot of the characters walking on the platform changes into a flashback of all the images previously seen, however as this is the last flashback of the single camera production- the images seem to be in chronological order which changes the narrative of the flashbacks into a linear narrative.
Yet more close up shots occurs when the man gets increasingly mad with the woman and pins her to the ground to threaten her. This type of shot is highly appropriate to get the characters expressions clearly on film. When the woman jumps onto the train tracks the majority of shots are extreme close ups and change to a different close up at a fast pace which heightens the sense of urgency. The last shot of the film is a point of view shot of the train, the camera is extremely shaky which helps the camera to represent a train and also I think that this represent the woman’s instability.
Task Five: P1, M1, D1
What are some of the differences in technology available to modern audiences? Why has it become more difficult to reach a broad target audience?
Back in the day there was only one television in a family household and therefore only one large target audience. For example when Only Fools and Horses were broadcast an average viewing figure was approximately 20.1 million people. However due to the advancing development in today’s modern day society, there are more ways to watch television programmes. New technology such as the iPlayer, Apple TV, Internet, Sky, cable, Freeview, Sky + and also DVD’s. The convenience of the watching a television programme whenever you want and not having to plan your schedule around a television programme is what appeals to society. The invention of DVD’s means that you can watch a film when you want and not have to wait for it to be broadcast on television, also buying a box set of The OC and not having to wait a week for the next episode is also appealing.
Because of the continuous development of technology people are watching different programmes at the same time. As a result of this, target audiences are becoming fragmented and therefore viewing figures have dropped. For example this the X Factor receives approximately 10 million viewers, although this is still a vast amount of viewers, the fall in the number of viewers compared to Fools and Horses back in the day is still evident.
TASK 6: P1, M1, D1
Create a media consumption profile for a person fitting the A criteria in the NRS Social Grades classification. Complete a similar profile for someone of your own age but the opposite gender.
A classification table of which forms of media a MALE would most enjoy:
A classification table of which forms of media a FEMALE would most enjoy:
The NRS Social Grades classification system is viewed as crude and offensive as it puts the modern day society into different fragmentations. However if I were to create a media profile for an individual in the grade A social class I would be very specific in what I would include. For example I would include a high-brow, broad sheet newspaper such as The Guardian or The Financial Times. The reason I would include newspapers such as these because I think that a person in the grade A fragment would be more interested in these publications which focuses on politics and more factual, global issues instead of reading tabloids such as The Sun which is more celebrity and gossip focused. I think that television programme which would appeal to a person of an exceptionally high social class would be documentaries about current affairs such as: Dispatches on Channel 4 as this programme discusses issues such as war and the recent recession.
Overall I think that I would include more written media rather than visual and sound media. This is because I think that they would be more work-orientated rather than entertainment, therefore they will read more tabloids. As of the radio aspect, I think that they would listen to more educational radio stations such as Five Live or Classical FM rather than other stations which play mainly dance and R&B music.
Task 7: Write a report with screen-shots, detailing the equipment and software you will be using and how you intend to use it.
Equipment
The equipment we used in the production of our single camera drama was; two cameras (Models: Canon MVX460 and Panasonic DVX-100-B) For the shots inside the interrogation room we also used a basic tripod. In terms of sound, we used the built in microphones for the outside scenes; however, in the interrogation room we used the radio mikes (Sennheiser SK100).
Software
The software we have used is iMovie, in order to edit and import our footage. We attempted to use after effects but was not accessible to us on our computers, but iMovie worked just fine.
People
For our production, we used six people. Lewis, Vanessa, Eddie, Howard, Curtis and Charlotte; they filled our cast. I manned the camera and the directing of the scenes was shared between two of us (Vanessa and myself). Vanessa and myself also did the editing and producing.
Props, Costumes and Locations We used several props; the murder weapon (hammer), cleaning implements used by the maid, the money and collection plate used by the Vicar, and the food used by the Chef. For costumes, we used simple black attire for Lady Gray, the trench coat and shoes for Inspector Code, a chef’s shirt for the cook, and the black shirt and collar for the vicar. Howard’s cameo appearance also used a flat cap and long coat. For locations, we used Stanningley Park for our murder scene: the mist and early morning appearance seemed really atmospheric. We used Rheanne’s house in Pudsey to connote our house as being old and wealthy. Our interrogation room took place in Lewis’ living room. We also used Farsely St. John's Church for the vicar's flashback.
Task 8. (P1, M1, D1) Write a treatment and script for your single-camera production.
CASE NUMBER 568 TREATMENT
Objective: The following document is a treatment for the single camera drama entitled “CASE NUMBER 568”. The short drama is aimed towards a murder mystery. The main target to be accomplished in the drama is to portray the characters flashbacks and the reasons as to why they may be guilty of the crime, whilst creating an enigma throughout the drama.
Setting: There are several settings throughout the piece. Firstly Stanningley Park, this setting is where the murder of Lord Gray takes place. The reason why my group chose this setting is because on a morning at approximately 7am the sky is foggy and very atmospheric. Therefore we decided this would provide the right atmosphere for a murder scene. The second location we chose was outside my friend, Rheanne’s, house. The reason I thought of this location is because I knew that the house is Victorian and therefore would be in keeping with the 1940’s style of the drama. The third and final setting of the production was at Lewis’s house, we chose this because he has an old-fashioned living room which would we would shoot the interrogation room in.
Time duration: 5 minutes (300 seconds)
Description: This will be a short drama shot in the 1940’s, and will therefore be shot in black and white. The film will be a combination of different camera angles such as: “low angled” “close up” and “establishing shot”. These camera angles will be incorporated with transitional fades such as fade to black at appropriate times. Each sequence will be filmed so that the preferred reading is portrayed effectively, this may result in the camera angle being a point of view shot to show what they are seeing. We are going to avoid including any images or footage which may personally offend the viewers and therefore this means me and my group will have to have very specific and well structured editing skills to help make the film as realistic as possible. The drama will be edited by using modern technology so that the end product will be of a high quality and standard. The initial objective of the single camera drama will be to find a subtle and discreet method to portray a murder scene, which every person who watches it can relate to as it is a situation that is regularly appearing in the newspapers and on the news.
Remarks:
·When shooting the footage a Model Canon MVX460 camera
·However when filming the interrogation room we will use the Sennheiser SK100 radio mikes.
·Apart from the establishing and point of view shots, the characters faces will be shown. This is because we want to portray the characters emotions and feelings as accurately as possible. The reason for using the point of view shot is to help build the enigma of whose perspective we are witnessing.
·The ambience in the drama will be the narrative, speech and the music bed will be classical violin music to help set the tone for the piece.
Proposed Sequence Sample of Events:
1) A panning shot of Stanningley Park will set the beginning of the scene. The atmosphere is calm, foggy and mysterious
2) The image will then blend to Lord Gray walking through the park on a long winding road. The type of camera shot will then switch to a point of view shot of a mystery person creeping up on the Lord Gray.
3) The point of view shot then continues. However a hammer comes into focus and hits Lord Gray over the head. A flash of white then follows this.
4) With the camera placed on the floor, the Lord gray then falls into the shot, as he is dead. Fade to black.
5) The scene then switches to outside Rheanne’s house, Lewis then walks into the shot and walks up to the door and rings the doorbell. When he presses the doorbell we will use a close up so that the audience is able to see what it is.
6) The location is then the interrogation room where all the suspects are sat in a line being interrogated by Lewis. Close up shots of each individuals face will be shot so that the audience can see the characters emotions and facial expressions.
7) The chef’s flashback then occurs, he is stealing food in the kitchen and this is why he was not found guilty of been the murderer.
8) The Vicar’s flashback then follows this and he was not guilty because he was stealing money from the church collection plate in secret.
9) The way the audience find out who killed Lord Gray is because Martha the Maid tells the Inspector that she knows that Lady Gray was the one who killed him.
10) End credits
NARRATIVE:
In the interrogation room:
INSPECTOR CODE: Lady Gray has called me in here because earlier today The Lord, Charles Gray was found dead in the park whilst taking his afternoon stroll. Murdered in cold blood. I feel one of you is responsible for this. My name is Inspector Code. No one will be left out of this investigation. Martha we’ll start with you. Can you tell me your whereabouts at half past one this afternoon?
MARTHA (AUDIO VOICEOVER): At one thirty precisely, I was cleaning the drawing room making sure it was spotless for Lord Gray when he returned from his afternoon walk.
INSPECTOR CODE: I see, Reverend White, same question!
REVEREND (AUDIO VOICEOVER): At one thirty precisely, I was at the church, doing my daily duties and preparing for the next service.
INSPECTOR CODE: Hmmm, next suspect! Chef! What about you sir? Where were you?
CHEF (AUDIO VOICEOVER): Well I was working, preparing the dinner for tonight for Lord and Lady Gray.
INSPECTOR CODE: So then… I have a very succinct account from all of you, however I can’t help but wonder… where were you lady gray? What were you doing at one thirty?
LADY GRAY (AUDIO VOICEOVER) (Flashes between murder and her speaking): At one thirty precisely, I was walking down to the country club to attend afternoon tea with the other members. I remember this specifically because I had forgotten to return Julia’s necklace I borrowed for the winter ball, and I had to return home to collect it and I noticed the time as I was running behind. They’d have killed me if I was late.
The narrative structure is non linear due to the flashbacks of memory and skips in time, it will be subjective to the suspect at that moment in time of their memory, however the actual identity of the killer will be left a mystery until the end. The murder scene will be from point of view making it objective. The film begins with the disruption of the murder, and at no point in the film is there any kind of equilibrium, however the end does have a kind of resolution whilst still being enigmatic. The villain is of course the murderer, the ‘Damsel’ would be Lord Gray. With the help of flashbacks of their succinct memory accounts, the narrative becomes unrestricted.
Task Nine (P1, M1, D1)- Storyboard Discussion
Task Ten (P1, M1, D1)- Production Schedule
Task Eleven (P1,M1,D1) - Health & Safety Documents
Task Twelve (P1,M1,D1) Floor plans from location shoots
Farsley Saint John's Church
Amie's Kitchen
Lewis' Living Room
Task Thirteen (P1, M1, D1) Final Product: "CASE NUMBER 568" Task Fourteen (P1,M1,D1) Evaluation
I believe that I have achieved the main objective which I had in mind when creating “Case Number 568”. The purpose was to create an authentic, murder mystery single camera drama in the 1940’s. Although I personally think that I have achieved this purpose, I cannot be bias and therefore I have asked a mass audience their thoughts and opinions on “Case Number 568”.
The majority of the feedback which my group received was positive. However, like any production, we did receive some negative criticisms from our audience. As me, Amie and Lewis wanted the production to be as near to perfect as we could possible we took this feedback on board and editing the film several times to suit the suggestions which we were given. The comments included: “the transitions were seamless”, “the music really worked well to anchor the genre and time period” and “I liked the effects used on the flashbacks, it anchored that it was their own memory making it easier to understand and differentiate between the interrogation room”. Although the single camera drama was at times complicated the audience understood this preferred reading which was extremely important as it shows that both the primary and secondary target audiences understood the storyline and enigma which we created. Below is a video of some responses to our film.
”CASE NUMBER 568” FEEDBACK FILM:
Before we showed our final piece to the audience we all agreed not to try to manipulate the audiences’ thoughts and opinions to ensure that we were not bias. The short drama starred both males and females. As part of the contextual factors the characters were chosen for the appropriate roles. By this I mean that in the 1940’s there wasn’t a female chef, therefore we stuck to the traditional morals and asked a male to play the chef. One of the factors which I would have preferred to incorporate would be to include a mixture of ethnic groups, the only reason there are only White British people in the drama is because there were no people from an ethnic background in our class. However, on the other hand, due to the setting of the 1940’s there was a chance that the ethnicity could have made ethical or negative issues arise, therefore it may have been for the best that there were no people of an ethnic background in the film. The music beds which were chosen helped set the mood for the film and also anchor the time period when it was set in (1940’s), as part of our feedback a large majority of the comments stated this and said “the music bed made the piece believable and authentic”. Another comment which I personally agreed with was “by using the same music bed in all three of the flashbacks helped differentiate from the real time and flashback footage”. The locations played an integral piece in the production, as the drama was set in the 1940’s we made a large amount of effort not to capture footage of modern day objects such as cars, modern gadgets (Wii consoles) and cordless phones and generally anything that looks like it is obviously from the 21st century, this helped add believability to the drama which was an extremely important factor. The language was appropriate for the film and was true to the decade that it was set in. For the chosen genre, our film looked realistic, and a combination of things, for example the costume choice, locations, music beds and black and white film, all helped to make the film realistic and genuine.
The sound levels in the film were good, especially regarding our music beds. We did encounter one problem which was evident in Lewis’ first section of speech, as we had a few problems with his microphone and the sound was picked up on the inner microphone of the camera and therefore came across as rough and scratchy in places. On the positive side you can hear and understand what he is saying. In the editing process Amie and I didn’t cut anyone’s voices off in the final film, however when we added transitions and various visual effects to the piece we did have some slight issues as it made the sound disconnect from the clips and move which made the timings change but we fixed this in the editing process as we went along. The main objective when filming the footage was to incorporate as many different takes, shots and angles as possible to give us a variety to work with when putting together our final film. There were a few shots that I would redo if given the chance. Mainly the shot where Lord Gray is hit on the head, we made a number of changes and variations on this footage before choosing the final edit, because in the original clip the hammer goes to the side of his head, and the feedback stated it doesn’t look like he is killed. We then made the best that we could with the scene, and our audience agreed it looked a lot better with our final edit. I do feel like there was enough variety to keep the audience interested and the enigma helped this. External microphones were used, on the Lady Gray and Inspector Code speeches as they were a fundamental piece of speech and separately recorded voiceovers’ were used for the flashbacks as the voice clip was placed over the footage after extracting the audio. This was to make sure the narrative was clearly heard. The editing Amie and I spent an extremely long time doing came together very well and we were enormously proud of our work, we got complimented on numerous times regarding the choice of transitions and also the flashback effects. As a group we were complimented on the choice of used to fit with the genre. The same font was used at the beginning and end credits which tied together the beginning and end well, the opening is the words “CASE NUMBER 568” been typed on a typewriter. Therefore to help add realism we added typewriting audio which played at the same pace as the text was typed.
Typical c onventions of this genre are things such as enigma to keep the audience guessing, and a variety of possible suspects, and “Case Number 568” includes these sorts of conventions. In comparison to a professional product of the same genre, it would have some things that would be the same, for example, powerful, orchestral music, and smooth, “seamless” transitions. However although a professional product would be similar, they would have the upper hand to our production due to having significant advantages over us, such as better quality cameras and editing equipment. In my film we used, lots of enigma and disruption, but less of the resolution due to the genre. I would regard the storyline as slightly multi-stranded even though the other parts of the story are left unexplored, the main storyline is of the murder, yet all three original suspects are guilty of secretly stealing, hence the multi-stranded storyline.
I personally don’t think I have learnt any new skills, however I can say with confidence that I have developed the skills and knowledge which I already possessed before creating “Case Number 568”. I learnt more about editing and I know realised that nothing is perfect first time and although it may take a long time of re-editing several times, in the end the final piece is worth the hard work. I think that my strength in making the drama was the editing as I had the confidence in knowing how to make the footage flow well, I also think another strength I possess in the film was acting as Martha the Maid as I made my part believable and I also only needed one take to film my section. My weakness was taking a long time to come up with the idea in the first stages of the production. However after approximately half an hour myself and Amie came up with “Case Number 568” and went on to adapt the storyline further. I personally think that I was a strong team member. I shared the editing time accordingly with Amie and we exchanged ideas and compromised with what idea would suit that particular scene or footage better which helped incorporate both of our ideas.
24th November 2009:
