Single Camera Drama

Task 1

There are many advantages in using the single-camera format one of which is that this gives more control over the shot because he can choose to put the camera anywhere he needs it in the shot. Also it means that in editing the shots just need to be rearranged into the correct order.

However there are advantages in using the multi-camera format, one is that the director would be able to record a variety of angles at the same time and the director would then have the choice of switching between different angles while the program is being recorded. This makes the show more organised and fluent for the actors. Also this method is cheaper to make a television show/film.

Some examples of the two different formats in action would be; for single-camera format it would generally be on a film set because it is the more expensive way of filming and also the more technical, e.g. the opening scene from kill bill. However for the multi-camera format it is generally television shows with live audiences because it enables the director to get different camera angles without stopping the recording.

Task 2

The difference between a TV serial and a TV series is that a series will have a run of episodes and each episode would make sense if watched on its own. However a serial has a continuing story line which at the end of each episode the story stills carries on. An example of a serial is a soap opera like Coronation Street where different story lines will carry on throughout the show and each episode will end on cliffhangers. An example of a series is quiz shows like Mock The Week where each episode will end and it won't carry on in the next episode. An example of a show which is both is Friends because the different story lines will carry on through out all series but each episode will end and can make sense if watched on its own. And finally an example a show that doesn't fall into either genre is documentary shows like 8 year old sex change, which is just a one off show and won't be carried on.

Task 3a

In the popular 80's TV show Dallas the narrative structure, cliffhangers, are used at the end of each series. The reasons that this technique is used is because it creates a lot of suspense for the audience and it is effective because it is an enigma, which makes the audience want to see the next series in order to find out the next part of the story. Also in each series of the show the narrative structure, climax, is used which builds up the story throughout the series and ends up in a dramatic and exciting ending, which is effective as it means you need to watch the whole series, to understand the story.

The "Loneliness" narrative project, non-linear/subjective version has camera shots where we see the characters point of view (subjective) which is effective whenever the technique is used because it possibly shows why a character has done a certain thing, e.g. if someone gets run over and the camera shot is subjective, it could show that they didn't see the car. It being non-linear is effective because it makes the show more complicated to understand, which can appeal to certain audiences because they may like to try work out the plot.

The "Loneliness" narrative project, linear/objective version the camera shots aren't point of view shots (objective) which is effective because it shows the audience what is going on throughout the video and shows, not just what the character sees but also what is going on around the character. Also it being linear makes the video easier to understand because it means that the audience views the show/film as it would happen if it was realistic and actually happening. That is effective because the audience needs to watch the whole of the film/series to understand the story and find out the ending.

Task 4

In the clip of Seven the style of font in the opening titles is blurred and shakes which gives the connotations of the genre of the film which in this case is horror/thriller. Also this makes it start with an enigma which connotes that there may be a confusing narrative, with a lot of suspense. The colour red in Seven is a signifier and it connotes that there could be danger in the clip. Also the effect of the train connotes the setting at the start (a train station) but it also could be a signifier which connotes a metaphorical journey which the audience will go on when they watch the film. Finally the editing of there being a sound effect followed by a scene in black and white connotes that there is a flashback and also the heartbeat gives the feeling of suspense and creates a level of tension.

Task 5

Modern audiences today have a wide range of choices in which they can read, view or listen to almost whatever they would like. This is because of the massive growth of media and how media has advanced and developed new ways of advertising and broadcasting etc. This has made it a lot harder for broadcasters or advertisers to reach a broad target audience.

In America in the 1940/50's when television was really first established, when most states started tv licences, familys would sit down and watch the tv together this is because of the fact that there was only 3 main networks and this made it so there was a limited number of options on what people were able to view on a daily basis. Because there was such a small variety of channels this made it far simpilar for advertisers to reach a broad target audience and therefore advertise their products to almost everybody. However while media has been evolving and more and more channels where being made and more networks were starting up, this made it harder and harderto reach the broad target audience and now it has ended up that in America there are only a few major events that can manage to attract this broad target audience. The Super Bowl in America attracts th largest viewing figures out of any major sporting event in one country, in the world, of around 90 million viewers this year, only the fifa world cup, which had 2.1 billion across the world, has higher figures. This reason therefore has meant that the demnd to put an advert during half-time or to sponsor it is massive and costs around $2.6 million just for a 30 second advert. This is the last real opportunity for American television to advertise to a braod target audience.

Also the creation of the internet was massive in terms of new ways for companys to advertise there products because it meant they could be advertising practically 24/7, which is a great advantage because it means that they may be able to advertise for there primary target audience easier and also advertise for longer. Also the internet provided news ways for television shows or films to be broadcast and viewed by the audience and viewed for free in some cases. Which means that because of the internet people no longer will sit down as a family and watch television because they can watch seperate things whenever they want just through the internet. Also becuase of the intenet, things such as newspapers are becoming less important in terms of reading the latest news because the internet has unlimited space in which to publish all the stories and information, its free and also it is updated far more frequently, however the one advantage that a newspaper did have over the internet was that it was portable but this has now gone as well because of people been able to now use mobile phones for the internet .

Task 6

Task 7

Firstly, we need to get footage, in order to create a film we must use a Panasonic DVX-100-B video camera. These cameras are ideal as they are portable and hand held, which then makes it easier to shoot a variety of shots from all camera angles.

We may also then need to include a voice over. This will then mean we need to use a voice recorder, the specific device we will use is 'Edirol R-09 voice recorder' as it works very well and can pick up voices clearly. Also before recording any sounds, we can preview the voice levels on the little screen which helps us then decide if we need to change how loud we speak. It helps me further by allowing me to record in several formats such as wav and mp3. This means that I can upload the sound clips straight into garage band or imovie without having to convert them.

Garage band is a good audio software programme that allows us to edit and cut people's recorded voices so it fits well into our single camera drama as we don't have any professional voices. It also has a wide range of effects available for us to use if we may need to produce our own piece of backing music.

For the visual scenes in our single camera drama we used a programme called iMovie. This is a good software programme as it allows us to add visual effects and transitions to each clip. It is a simple process and is very easy to use, it helps give our film a professional look. Their is a lot of effects we can use, such as; black and white, slow fast/reverse, sepia, aged film, and lots more.

When iMovie first loads you need to click on 'Create a New Project' and then give it a title. In this case its called 'My Great Movie'

This is the list of transitions available for us to choose from. They help give a good effect when jumping to the next clip/scene. And also help give it a more professional look.

Task 8

Our Single Camera Drama






Mind Map









Treatment


In our single camera drama the genre would be a trailer for a teenage comedy drama, therefore the conventions of our trailer are that it introduces the main characters of the show and gives background information on them, which in a way creates an enigma drawing the audience in. The trailer has elements of a comedy genre because it has a sarcastic and ironic voice-over when put with the clips because it describes the characters as the opposite to how they are in the clips. The drama has an un-restricted narrative because it isn't a true story therefore people can't already know the ending and also there isn't a story-line as such because it's a trailer so it is an enigma so the audience won't know exactly what is going on a lot of the time throughout the trailer, which is the point of a trailer.



Our drama will include Propp's theory that there is a hero, helper, villain and damsel in distress, although there would be no helper and two damsel in distress'. Aimee is shown as a helper because she helps Aaron, who is one of the damsel in distress', when he is bullied by Scott, the villain. Also the other damsel in distress is Stacey, as she is the character with no friends and is lonely. There will be 4 normal school kids shown in the trailer to establish them as the main characters of the show, they are each described in a brief way by the voiceover and they are shown in the clips in the trailer. The character's in the drama and who they are won't be very well explained, only giving a brief explanation to keep the drama an enigma which will make the audience want to watch the actual show to find out if there is an explanation to the enigmatic characters.

However it wouldn't have Todorov's theory that there is an equilibrium, disruption and resolution because it is only a trailer, and also it wouldn't be in chronological order because of the same reason.



There isn't necessarily a plot to our single camera drama because it is only a trailer, however it will have variety of clips that will be relevant to the plot of the show and they will also be previews of the show.




There would only be one music bed and no sound effects through out the trailer because, it is a realistic drama, so no sound effects would be effective in our trailer, however there will be a voice-over which will be very important to our trailer as it describe the show and sets an enigma for the audience. For example the voice over will give a breif description of the main characters and setting but not go into too much detail. The music bed will not be as important as the voice over and will fade during the speech, but it stops silences and helps the trailer flow better.

The camera techniques we would use would be a few close up shots on the main characters to signify who they are and that they are the main characters and also there will generally be one and two shots showing clips o certain scenes involving those characters. This creates an enigma into what will happen in the actual shows.



Voice Over Script
Aimee Barker: Are you sick of programmes where teenagers have perfect teeth, perfect hair and perfect lives? Well this one’s set in Leeds so obviously it’s different. Come on, burgers or Yorkshire puddings? Chicken wings or toad in the hole? The choice is obvious! Drop in on Grangefield, meet stop in Stacey – a maths genius who is about to become the hypotenuse in a love triangle. Here’s Aaron, a ping-pong wizard who dreams of becoming world champion, If only his skill with the ladies matched his ball control on the table. Scott – Aaron’s arch nemesis, bully and all round bad egg. But he’s carrying a secret that could ruin his reputation. And every soap needs a bitch – West Yorkshire’s answer to Parish Hilton, Janine Butcher and all 3 of the Mean Girls, Aimee.Come and join us in glamorous West Yorkshire for a soap you’ll never forget…

Task 10




Task 11- Health and Safety

Task 12- Production

Task 13

Purpose
Our main purpose was to entertain an audience of people aged 13-19, some may be older. To do this we created a trailer of a teenage comedy coming to E4. In my opinion we succeeded in doing this and we did it by using crude humour in some places.
We played our trailer to a group of people and we recieved mostly positive feedback which included comments such as:
'The music fits really well with the storyline, and the transitions and slow motion effects help to give it a more proffessional look'
'Very humourus & creative. The voice over was comical too which i thought was good'
'I like how it tells a story in such a short time, makes the viewer want to know more, i'd consider watching it'
Not all our feedback was positive, but all the comments we recieved were thought about and discussed and we made the necessary changes in parts. Getting feedback helped us alot, it helped us understand which parts the audience found comical and which parts they didn't like & why.
Audience.
The majority of the audience really enjoyed our product, and reported back that they found it very comical. Although there were some people who commented on how certain parts of it needed editing or changing in their opinion tomake an improvement on it. We noticed that alot of the people we showed it to, laughed at the parts where we'd tried our best to involve the humour, there were some of the audience that didn't understand the points we were trying to make, but for the most part, the audience got the preffered reading.
All of the people we showed the trailer to were between the ages of 15-17, so we didn't get a variety of teenage ages to give us their opinions, it was just a very specific age group. However it was right in the middle of our primary target audience which is 13-19, so it still would of meant that we got the necessary feedback and even though they are our primary target audience because they are teenagers, i'm a little bit unsure if the 13 year olds would understand they jokes in the show as it is more the 16+ year olds.
Representation Issues.
In my opinion, I believe we gave out both positive and negative messages in our product. The negative messages in the show were the bullying issues that were shown mainly in the parts were, Scott 'the bad egg' is bullying Aaron. Also there is a clip of him letting down the tyres of the school bus, which is represented as how not to behave and not as the correct way for teenagers to behave, but we also included positive messages, as Aimee who portraid as the 'bitch' in the trailer does begin to help other people, showing how people can change.
We included both males and females in our product, we discussed this and decided it works better using both as it makes it more realistic and more story-lines can be created. We use two different songs in our single camera drama, our introductory song is Gnarls Barkley - Crazy & our second song is Blue Haley - Don't know much about history. Both songs fit well as the first song is very up beat and typical of the genre and the second song makes you think of school and being a difficult time and teenagers lives being unsure about things, and thats what all our characters are in our film.
All the product was filmed in our school, which is perfect for our product as all the characters are teenagers who are still at a school called Grangefield High and also because it was only a trailer, we wouldn't have used to many different settings, just the main setting to anchor that as the main location for the actual television show. The setting also helped it seem more realistic for its genre, as did the language we chose.
Technical Issues.
When we got feedback from our audience, some of the negative comments we received were about the music levels, because in certain parts the levels were too loud compared to the voices which made the voices difficult to hear. Also, at first when we first recorded our voice over we used an older male voice that was quite deep and not typical of the genre, but once we put it together with the film and got some audience feedback, we decided that to change it to a younger female voice would be more typical of the genre of would suit better which it seemed to do and it worked much better. We showed it to the audience again and they agreed. When we recorded both of the voiceovers we used a handheld voice recorder in a silent, soundproof room which enables us to get a better quality and was made the voice clearer.
Whilst filming our product we attempted to share the work out evenly amongst the group and also we tried to use a variety of camera angles during filming to help improve the cinematography of our trailer, also we used a number of different transitions to make the changes from one scene to another smoother and at a higher level, and the fast/slow/reverse option on I-Movie was used to slow down a clip in the table-tennis scene to add a sense of slapstick humour, which isn't generally typical of this genre however it seemed to work very well and was recieved well by the audience. Also we added titles with the characters name to anchor the meaning that they are the main charcters in our show. The font we used was a curvy font which was used to keep it from being too dull and boring. In our film i believe that there is a wide variety of shots and cinematography to keep the viewers entertained as we split from scene to scene in a number of seconds, we also used scene's and emotions that teenagers can create personal realtionships from and have a sense of personal identity with it.
Conventions/Narrative.
I think that the product we made and a proffessional piece would be different for a few reasons, one of which is that they have the ability to hire proffessional actors/actresses which enables them to show the emotions and the use humour in a more advanced way and secondly they will have highly expensive and capable equipment and also more of the eqipment than we would have. Also they would be able to create the exact locations they want, using propps and television sets etc. Even with these distinct advantages for them i believe that given the same story-line and asked to do the same product they wouldn't be able to make anything too different, and of a lot higher quality. If we were given all the equipment that is available to proffesional company we would be able to make a product that would be near their standard.
We added an enigma to the story when in our voice over it says 'he's carrying a secret that could ruin his reputation' this is describing Scott who is portraid as a villain, however this does give the impression that possibly ther is a side to him that is hiden and he actually is a nicer person than shown, therefore viewers would want to watch the actual show to find out the revalations in the show.
Own performance, Self evaluation.
Most of the skills I used in the editing process I already had some experience doing, so it was mostly just refreshing my memory however one skill that I did learn was how to change sounds or video's into a 'wav' or an 'mp4' format. These will help in the future projects, making it faster to convert sounds and videos without neding help. I believe me and my partner did very well together, we changed our story and idea's a few times but when we'd agreed on the final idea we worked very well and very professionally together and did what we needed to complete on time, i think i was a good team member and did the best i could.
We each had our own individual strengths which were the filming and thinking of the idea's for the show, particularly the comical one, which helped keep it as a romantic comedy genre. But we had trouble in picking a suitable song for the genre and finding someone to record the voice over, but we stayed behind after school and did work in free periods to ensure it all worked well together. My other team member and I didn't argue at any point during the process of making this product, and we both gave eachother time to speak and give opinions which helped save time.

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