Single Camera Drama

Task 1...

Single camera format...

What are the advantages of the single camera format?
The advantages of using a single camera is that it's cheaper and is a lot faster. Also it is easier for the directer because he can run longer scenes with out having to keep stopping it. Another advantage is that the director has more control over where the shot is because he hasn't got to worry about if he gets any other cameras in the shot.

What are the advantages of the multiple camera format?
With multiple cameras it is easier to get the shot you are looking for because if your not happy with one you can just get edit all the different shots and find the one you want. Also using multiple camera is better for live audiences because they don't move the camera so they will never get the audience in the shot.

What are some examples of the two formats in action?
Multiple Camera: Friends, Hollyoaks and Eastenders.
Single Camera: The Royale Family and My Name is Earl and Scrubs.


Multiple Camera:




Signle Camera:



When and why might they be used?
A Multiple camera format might be used when shooting in front of a live studio audience because they can make sure they wont get any of the audience in. Also if you have a higher budget you will yous multiple but on the other hand if you don't you will use a single camera format.





Task 2- Serial and Series.

Soap operas are examples of serials. An example of hits is Hollyoaks and Eastenders. A "serial" is usually a fictional story, which is divided into parts that are shown frequently at different times through the week. The story is ongoing; so each episodes follows on from the one before. A series, unlike a serial, doesn't always need to be fiction. The programmes that we see on the National Geographic Channel or the Discovery Channel can be thought of being as part of a series. For example, sometimes for an entire week, there may be programmes on a pacific even or species. When you think of a series you are thinking of a set of related programmes. It is also possible to have a series that is based on fiction. But in the case of a series, each programme is usually on its own. So basically each episode has and beginning, middle and an end and doesn't follow on from the last or the next. For example, Friends, The Simpsons and Family Guy.

Task 3-


Linear or sequential narrative structures- These are the basic most simple to understand film story's, where everything happens in chronological order. There is a beginning, middle and an end and there are no flashbacks. An example of a linear structure are;

• Eastenders
• Bruice Almighty
• The longest Yard
• Lord of the rings: The fellowship if the ring
  
  
  
  

Non linear or non-sequential narrative structures- these are structures where we might see the story from different points of views. Or the film could start from the middle so it gets the audience hooked because they want to know what has happened.

• Family Guy
• Donny Darko
• Heroes
• Flashforward

Flashbacks
Flashbacks being a form of non sequential narrative involved moving from one time to another. These all take us back from the present to the past. Examples are:

• Family Guy
• CSI
• Heroes
• Lost

Realist and Anti Realist.
These are films or tv shows that fiction and non fiction, realist being the non fiction and anti-realist being the fiction. An example of realist are; Eastenders, Savinig Private Ryan and The Pursuit of Happiness. on the other hand some example of anti-realist are; Shrek, Family Guy and Transformers (most animated tv shows and films and anti-realist.) For Example

• Shrek
• Family Guy
• Transformers
• Terminater

Take two film or programmes of your choice and apply the theories of narrative to them.

The Trueman show is a linear narrative which take the Propp's theory and uses Todorov's theory. The writers of the film put the Hero as Trueman Burbank (Jim Carry), The Villan as Christof (Ed Harris) and the Damsel in destress is Sylvia (Natascha McElhone), but could also be personified as the helper, as she helps him realise that the world he is living is a fake. The equilibrium of the film is traditionally placed at the beginning, as he has no clue that the habitat surrounding him is a TV studio. We then see the disruption, when Trueman realises that he is actually living in a reality TV show. Furthermore, the disruption is carried on as Trueman tries to escape, packing the film with adventure and emotions. Finally, the resolution comes to an end as Trueman finally escapes - ending the torture of not having a real life. This happy ending is typical of a family suitable film, portraying Torodov's theory at it's finest.

The narrative of this film could be portrayed as an anti-realist structure as the concept of taking a child from birth and putting him in a TV show, persuading him that it's a real life is an extremely unusual, non-realistic story-line to create a film by. However, this is contradicted by the real life atmospheric situation Trueman is in: he is still living like a normal person, and no matter how absurd the story-line is, it could still happen, as their are so many varieties of reality TV shows in recent times, using a child as a pawn in a game would be the next 'big' thing in the media industry, creating a realism to the film. The multi-stranded narrative creates a scenario, where the audience can see what is happening elsewhere in the real world, as well as seeing what Trueman sees. The multi-stranded narrative has being used to it's advantage, as the story-line would not make sense if we did not have the multi-stranded narrative, as we would not know Sylvia is, and why she has become involved in Trueman's life.

A movie that uses todorovs theory is The Matrix as it has a equilibrium, disruption and a resolution. The equilibrium is seen at the beginning of the film when we see Neo living his normal and everything is as it should be. The disruption is when he is took out of the matrix and put in the "real world" and realises that the human is race is upon extinction to the merciless machines. Then the resolution comes when the Neo realises he is "the one" and the possible saviour of the human race. This non-linear film is anit-realist as it could never happen in real life. The film uses propps theory as the hero is Neo, the villain is Agent smith, the helper is Morpheus and then the damsil in distress is trinity.

Tassk 4...

the titles have an effect on- they a blurry and moving about, the effect of this is that it gives us a clue of the genre (horror/thriller). Also the sound of the train could mean that we are about to go on a journey by watching this film. The first camera shot is an establishing shot and is also a long tilted shot. Another good shot they use is one of a reflection of a person of a puddle. Furthermore there is a extreme close up of the girl which show her emotion and that the fact she has been crying, the effect of this is that we want to help her and that she is the victim which gives her our sympathy. This is effective because it imediarely puts the audiance on the girls side even thoguh we nothing about her or what she has done. The to carry on the sympathy is that she is then flanked and ganged on by the men. This is also effective as it engages the audiance as they want to know why they want her and want to know what she has done. The flashback is signified by the sudden noise and the black and white effect, also with the sound of a heartbeat gives a sense of suspense and tension. The image of the childrens playground gives a sense of innocence but is destroyed by the heartbeat and they the flashing images of a body and drugs. This is effective because it gives us sense of realism and is a clue to why the woman is crying and the men are their. Furthermore the image of the gate closing, could prehaps mean that she is trapped in world of the drugs and murder, and there is no way of getting out, only if she died, which could give a clue to why she at the train tracks.

Task 5...

Media is always expanding and developing and even today we get the sense that we are underdeveloped in some way, we feel as if there is something to be found and the future of media has no limits. Some examples of media today are; TV, radio, internet, e-mails, billboards, digital, magazines, newspapers and even our post contains advertisements. With all these different types of media it is getting even harder for companies to reach a broad audience.

"Everyday new technology is tearing down old ways of doing business."
-Rupert Murdoch

A time when radio ruled the media world was pushed away by the invetion of television and form then on media has developed at a rapid pacel. TV's have changed in not only sixe but also width. Televison programs have become more developed and companis are racing to find the next new thing in media. The average telelvios 20 years ago only have 5 channels broadcasted all competing for primetime viewing but now there are thousands of channels thanks to sky and virgin media who still fight even more aggresivly or primetime iwing. Also not only do we have thousnads of channels we get to choose the best suited time for us to watch out programes thanks to on demand and recordings, we even have the power to puase and rewind live television. We also have plus one channels, these are shows that show an hour after then are shown on the first channel incase we miss them. some examples of these are; Channel 4+1, E4 +1, Dave ja vu and Film4 +1. People don't even have to own a television because channels are even on the internet now, this shows the rapid growth and development of media .

Task 6...

Socail table...

Task 7...

Equipment and software...

Software: The main piece of software we used was imovie HD, as this would best fit our production. We choose this method because we found it had a lot to offer in its software for example the effects and transitions. We tried experimenting with another piece called Garage Band to try and get some sounds effects but we thought it would be best if we stuck to imovie. Some of the effects we used were monochrome and ghost trail, we used these effects because it would make it seem like a flash back and make the plot seem more dark.

Equipment: The main piece of equipment we used was the cannon MD 205 camera, we used this to film all of our footage on. We thought it would of added a better effect if we used a hand held camera instead of a higher quality camera. Another piece of equipment we used was a tripod camera stand, the reason we used this was so we could get a steadier, more professional shot especially with the panning shots. The stand allowed to keep the camera still for a long time and we wouldn't have to move it if we a re-do a scene, so we wouldn't have to worry about the positioning. We choose not use any artificial light as we only needed natural day light because we think it would make it more realistic and because it was natural light we could tell what time of day it was and also could see the characters clearly and get good shadows when needed. The last bit of equipment we used was a Idorol IO 90 voice recorder, we used this for the interview scene because it would make the voices clearer and louder instead of the camera just picking up the speech.

People Involved: the people we used for our production were; Aaron Price, Hannah Hussey and Keiron Smith, these were the actors and actresses in our film and also the editors and directors. Also we used some props to make the film seem more real and more professional, we used a mobile phone and false blood to signify that someone was dead. The location we used for our film was a place called the Valley, near occupation road. We thought this would be a good place because it secluded form busy roads and wouldn't get and excess noise. We also thought this was a good place as it seem more realistic. Also the tress gave it a sense of mystery which suited the genre.

TASK EIGHT...

SINGLE CAMERA DRAMA... AMNESIA

Treatment...

For my single camera drama I will begin the running titles with a fast drum beat. This will create suspense and enigma for the rest of the film. The titles shown will be blurred and shaky almost as if the viewer cannot see it, as if it is a blurred memory which they are trying to remember. My establishing shot will be of a young 16 year old girl sat in a room, we will see part of a table and the girl on the chair. She will be covered in what looks like blood and dirt and will be looking at a piece of paper on the desk in front of her. The camera will pan to see the left side of her face and the line "So what went on?" will be said by an unknown voice. There will be a flash of light and a fade next to signify a flashback and the shots will all be in black and white. We will begin the flashbacks with a long shot of a forest followed promptly by a panning shot of the trees. The music will be slow and will connote peace and tranquillity thus signifying what is happening in the scene at this point. There will be a range of shots from a close up of emotions (at this point happy) to a long shot of a boy and a girl walking around the forest, looking up to the sky. The music will develop to play faster creating a faster paced introduction to the disruption. As this happens we will see an argument between the boy and girl and as they walk away from each other the camera will follow them in a point of view shot, first the girl then the boy. We see another disruption as the girl seems to hear something. She will look over her shoulder then run fast in the opposite way. This will trigger the boy to look suspicious, he will stop and as the camera pans around him we will see her standing before him. The flash back will stop and we will be in the interview room again. We now see the interviewer banging on the table and the girl jumping out of shock. A close up of her emotions will be shown here. The music has gone slow again and the girl looks up to the interviewer, he looks back and all that is heard is him breathing. A flash of light is again seen and we see the girl kneeling over the boy, he is covered in blood and she is crying silently. I will use a low angle shot moving into a high angle shot here then will flash back into the interview room. The man will ask "Did you do it, did you kill him" she will simply look him in the eye and say “I don't know". I will fade out and we will just see a black screen. The drama is left open and enigmatic, I feel this will work well and we can incorporate some good camera angles.

SCRIPT:

Characters...

Boy...Aaron

Girl...Hannah

Interviewer...Mr birkenshaw

[Drums stop and shot is introduced, no music just silence]

Interviewer: So what went on?

[ Music begins, slow paced, peaceful]

[We are entered into a flashback there is no noise except the music but mimed words will be used]

Boy:(mimed) I'm glad you came

Girl:(mimed) So am i

[Laughing from the boy and girl is heared but it is not loud]

[The clip will continue hawever only clips of the two looking up at the sky and walking in the forest will be shown. no words.]

[An arguement has errupted]

Girl:(mimed) I hate you

Boy:(mimed) I'm going

[They both leave othe shot going in the opposite direction, The camera will develop into a point of view shot following the girl, then following the boy]

[The girl notices something then runs back to the boy, using a panning shot we will see the boy stop then as the camera moves round we will see the girl, she looks distressed]

Boy:(mimed) Whats wrong?

[Girl looks back, they run, music speeds up]

[We are back in the interview room, the interviewer is angry, he bangs on the table]

Interviewer:(Bangs on the table, Loudly) Did you do it, did you kill him?

[Back into flashback we see the girl kneeling over his dead body, This will be for about 10 seconds, Then we will be back in the interview room]

Girl:(looks at camera directly) I don't know.

END.

Task 10...

Production Schedule...

Task 11...

health and safety...

TASK 13...

Evaluation...

Purpose...

The purpose of our production was to produce a 3-5 minute short film that fitted in with the genre 'thriller'. We intended to make an entertaining drama which would leave the audience feeling uneasy and suspicious. We have achieved this by leaving an open enigmatic ending which left a few questions unanswered, we hoped that the audience could conclude the narrative by themselves. The production incorporated a range of camera angles which gave us more clips to edit and fit together, filming the shots twice to ensure we had the right shot for the right scene. Shots that we used included POV shots to portray the characters view at this point in time, over the shoulder shots to give suspense and allow the audience to interact with the drama and close ups which gave us a chance to portray the characters emotions and feelings. One shot which i think worked particularly well was the panning shot of the trees. I think it is effective as it shows the perspective of the character as she frantically looks around for help. The use of this shot allowed us to show panic and exhaustion of the character along with producing an 'on edge' feeling for the audience. Another shot i think helped portray the theme best of all would have to be the close-up of the girls face as she portrays an unreadable expression to the camera. The confusion created adds for an enigma and shows the suspicion build up for the open ending narrative. To add to the genre of 'thriller' we thought it was best to use an old black and white effect over the girls interview scenes and a monochrome colour distortion over the flashback of her memories. Blurred vision was another effect we used to give an uneasy feeling to the narrative and to exaggerate the fear of a different perspective on the shot. The transitions were chosen to fit the theme criteria; cross dissolved, fade in's and out's, overlaps and cut always were all used to accomplish this. The transitions created a way to smoothly change the clips so that there was not too many dramatic cross overs and each clip had its own effect on the audience. Last of all was the music. Although the music was hard to find at first i feel we have managed to fit the music to the genre very well, leaving that sharp uneasy feeling across the audiences mind. The soft almost supernatural music we used for the 'love' scenes fit in well with the clips(the lyrics being soft and appropriate). We then transitioned this song into a different one as to portray a different mood and meaning. For this one we used a sharp fast paced song which connoted anger and frustration. Using the two songs allowed us to reach a professional and multi-strand narrative easily, fitting in well with the genre and themes. One negative point which did not fit our purpose would have been the voice overs, the quality was not the best and could have done with more thought and effort, perhaps using audacity to change the pitch and maybe the volume of the voices. This would be one thing i could improve on in my next production.

Audience...

The audience we primarily targeted would have been people in their late teens to early adults who enjoy thrillers and murder mysteries. Some scenes, for example the clown like look on the close-up of the girl, may have disturbed younger viewers so as we considered targeting all ages we found it was easier to specifically suit a small group. We showed our drama to a range of people with different backgrounds all of the same age group, and found they responded reasonably well to our production. The negative points were mainly sourced from the narrative. The audience found it confusing to understand what went on and, even though we wanted this, it didn't go down well with the audience. However, i feel mainly positive comments were left. The feedback they gave us included:

The opening titles- people felt they fit in well with the genre and specifically added a good feeling of suspense and agitation. They worked well with the music and fit in with the beat.

The wide range of camera angles- People felt they all produce a good message and gave there 'stamp' on the drama.

The beneficial video effects- They thought the old black and white effect on the interview scenes worked well and stuck to the genre.

The transitions- The audience felt that the overlapping of the face at the beginning was used to a beneficial advantage as it gave a feeling of anxiousness.

One member of our audience specificlly liked the panning shot of the trees and it's blurred vision, he said- "the two effects worked well together with the mood of your film" .

Representation issues...

Our video did not show a range of ethnic groups as we simply used the people who we worked with for the project, i do not feel this effected our drama in any way and a change in ethnic background was not needed to develop out production. We used a mixed sex cast so that the production was not biased in any particular way. The male and female roles were used only to portray a typical teenage relationship. The location of our drama was appropriate for the theme and narrative of our production as it was set in a woodland area. This helped as it was used to create any effect we needed, the light through the trees was one shot which worked the best. The fact it was in a forest allowed us to create the 'eerie' mood needed to fit our genre and gave us a range of places to shoot from. The room used for the interview scenes was perfect as the small space created a chlostrophobic surrounding and added to the girls fear. The walls being bland allowed us to add our own stamp on the room, in this case the girls complicated emotions juxtaposed against the plain background. Our primary target audience was people in their late teens who enjoy murder mystery programmes, so the lexis and the formal terms we used were appropriate as the audience would already be familiar with this language. i feel that all of these points together worked well for the genre and represented 'thriller' well.

Technical issues...

The first thing we did after placing the clips in order was checking the sound quality fromt he camera. The voices were not loud enough so we had to record them again using a voice recorder, as a result of this the voice levels were a bit pitchy. However, we finally managed to fit the voices to the acting well and made the levels easier to understand. we intended first to use an external microphone but soon realised that the amount of speech was limited and only few lines needed to be recored, because of this we found that a voice recorder would be more appropriate. When fitting in the music to the drama we found it ws best to use two songs. We had to ensure the songs transitioned well and to do this we faded each song into one another at points that coordinated well together. We also had to make sure that the volume level of the music was not overwhelming to the voices and production therefore we changed each level according to what was happening in the camera work. The camera work allowed us to incorperate a range of shots appropriate for the mood and tone of the narrative and portray different perspectives suggesting a 3rd person narrative to the drama. The variety of angles was not limited and engaged our audience well directing their eyes to a different part of the screen however, not over complicating the drama. Overall the editing process was the longest of all the process's, we were making changes and asking for advise at any point we could to make our end product one we could be proud of.

Conventions/Narrative...

Factors typical of a 'thriller'/'murder mystery' are...

Action

Emotion

Police interviews

Gore

Enima's

In my opinion all these factors would be the same in a similar professional product however professional companies have advantages over us because they have access to better facilities and much more expensive and advanced equipment to ensure their production is nothing but professional. They also have a lot mor money to buy props and professional actors, also unlimiting their resourses and locations. All of the effects and features given to us were used to their full potential and ensured a good and effective narrative. We did use a villain, hero and damsel to keep the audience engaged (the villain being the enigmatic person whom we do not know, the hero being the police saving the girl and solving the crime and the damsel being both the boy and girl who find danger in the forest. Our production would be multi-narrative due to the argument between the couple, the love scenes and the murder all in one. i feel it give a good enigmatic feel to the narrative and leaves the story open.

Ofcom Rules: Harm and Offence

We haven't broken any of the rules in the Harm and offence section of the ofcom rules and regulations, because our programme does not include obvious violence - it does however have connotations of violence which we have used for extra effect. No dangerous or anti social behavior is included in our video therefore it doesn't encourage others to copy this behavior. Methods of suicide of self harm are not included in our video thus we do not need to worry that it will offend viewers or oppositely, encourage them to engage in this behavior. Our film has then sense of an enigma and mystery and viewers may be left with the feeling that there was another life in our film - however no demonstrations of paranormal activity, exorcisms or the occult are seem in our video and the feeling of mystery is purely for entertainment.