Revision help (Tv Drama)

Media Exam TV Drama Revision Guide and Help

How to do the exam

Media magazine-g322-overview from Andy Wallis

Sexuality- 90210

Before Teddy has 'come out' to society with his sexuality. Clip shows how society has put him under pressure to 'conform' to the stereotype of an alpha male. Also shows the reaction of one of his friends to this revelation.

After Teddy has 'come out' and confronted society with his sexuality. This clip shows the reaction of his group of friends, who take a positive approach to his homosexuality- shows how society has changed and the acceptance of being gay.

Sexuality-TV Drama

 Sexuality definition:

Noun:

Capacity for sexual feelings. A person's sexual orientation or preference.

Disability- A Touch of Frost

How overall we feel the character is portrayed...

The dictionary definition of disability is 'a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities'.

In society today, we tend to sympathise with the disabled, it’s a highly credited subject with an accumulation of charities across the world trying to raise money to care for and give the disabled a 'better life'. This always gives us the impression that the disabled constantly need tending to and looking after as they are handicapped and therefore unable to do anything for themselves.

In the TV drama A Touch of Frost, we are introduced to a disabled character called Billy who has Down's syndrome. In the clip, the first scene we are introduced to is him walking and even staggering through a woods covered in mud and blood with cuts and grazes on his face and body. As he is walking through the dark mysterious looking woods he is slightly lit up which makes you think that he is guilty of something as he is the only character in the woods looking very uneasy and scared, the fact that he is lit up also highlights this point. The non-diegetic music also adds to the mysterious atmosphere in this scene along with Billy’s dirty and grazed appearance at this time. Billy is then alerted by the diegetic sound of the police searching through the woods with dogs and torches and starts to run away, this again makes the audience think that Billy is guilty, because if otherwise he would have no reason to run apart from if he is scared in the dark (this would also make sense because of his childish nature relating to his disability). But after watching the whole clip you are faced with the storyline that Billy has something to do with his friend (Trisha's) disappearance and the audience is left unclear about Billy’s innocence in relation to this crime.

In society people tend to look down on the disabled because they are seen to be less able than others (however this has been completely ruled out this summer after watching the Paralympic Games and the athlete’s abilities despite their disabilities). But in A Touch of Frost the audience is made to feel like Billy is looked down on because of his disability, this is shown through the high angle camera shot of Billy sitting down when he is being questioned by the detective, this makes Billy as a character look inferior to the rest of the adult characters around him and therefore the viewer’s feel that he is seen to be less important as a character in that scene and pity him.

Billy is also treated like a child in this scene, the detective is seen to be condescending and his Mother also adds to this when she says ‘let me clean him up first’ like he is an incapable child that can’t look after and clean up himself. This is shown through the tone of voice the adults use towards him (which is quite patronising) and therefore the viewer’s feel uncomfortable and feel empathy towards Billy because even his parents treat him as if he is younger than his physical appearance and state.

This scene at Billy’s parent’s house in his front room feels very secretive and adds to the ever-growing suspicion over Billy’s innocence. The high angle and over the shoulder shots in the poorly lit room and dark furnishings (which connote sadness and guilt) emphasise Billy’s involvement and the audience feel as though they are eaves dropping in the conversation as Frost is shown in dark shadows with Billy looking vulnerable and guilty his Father is sat next to him with his arm round him looking very protective like Billy has something to hide and further extends the audience’s questions over Billy’s innocence.

At the end of the clip the audience are left very unclear and confused over Billy’s level of innocent in relation to the missing girl. This is good in relation to the TV drama as it is a mystery/crime drama and is made to leave the reader hooked on the narration and want to watch more of the episodes to find out the rest of the plot. I would definitely agree as a viewer that I am left like this and want to watch the end to find out Billy’s thorough involvement in this crime.

Revenge- Class & Status

Revenge- Class and Status on Prezi

Editing

Hollyoaks

 There are approximately 44 shots in the opening sequence, these are all very fast paced, jump shot edits. They all contain a shot of each character and props that relate to the personality of their character. All the transitions are very simple and fast cuts. The duration of these are all very short and this maybe reflects the short stories the characters are all involved in, in the tv drama and how many different relationships there are going on.

All the characters are stood infront of what seems to be a green screen as there are lots of different animated things going on in the background of their shots that relate to their personalities, status and all the current activities they taking part in, in the drama. For example Brendan is playing with cards in the last opening shot because his character is a gambler, very secretive and sly. Whereas, Dodger's character is surrounded by the silhouettes of girls because his charcter is known to be a 'ladies man'.

Representation of Tony Stonem

How is Tony Stonem represented in Skins?

Tony Stonem is represented in a very different way in Skins to how normal teenagers his age would act. The stereotypical teenager is seen to be lazy, messy and irresponsible. Whereas Tony is completely different to this stereotype, he is represented  in this clip as very neat, controlled and responsible, he is shown to be a very pedantic character.

The first initial shot we see of Tony is a close up of his face, from this we can see the smug look of pleasure on his face as he has conveniently woken up before his alarm has gone off. The shot then pans out into a high angle shot where we see Tony lying in his bed under a duvet of a naked man and woman, funnily enough we see Tony in the middle of these two naked figures, this gives us the impression that maybe Tony is undecided of his sexuality being 'stuck in the middle' or maybe that he is bisexual being in the middle of the two genders.

The shot then jump cuts to Tony's alarm going off and him getting out of bed very swiftly. From this shot we can see Tony's room is very neat and tidy, his room is illuminated by the bright sunlight coming through the window, showing his room to be very clinical and bland, this could show a reflection of Tony's personality and proves my previous point of him not being a 'normal' teenager, as we would expect his room to be very messy and dark. We then see that he clearly has a daily routine when he gets up; turning off his alarm, stretching, working out, watching the woman across the street get dressed and then getting dressed himself. Filming all of this includes camera shots as mid shots of Tony's torso, long shot of Tony in the window and over the shoulder shot of the woman in the window across the street. We then move to a high angle shot of Effy walking down the street obviously looking worn out as she is scantily dressed from a night out. This is very ironic as we instantly see the massive contrast between the two siblings. On one hand we have Tony who isnt the 'typical' teenager: he is very organised, neat, well dressed and pedantic and on the other hand we have his younger sister Effy who is very much a stereotypical teenager: rebellious, sneeky and messy. The high angle shot of Effy shows her vunerabilty being the youger sibling and Tony looking down on her as the older, more responsible brother. Tony then pretends his CD player has broken, and distracts his dad whilst Effy sneaks in.

The sound used throughout the clip so far has been very varied. We move from the diegetic sounds of the church bells ringing and birds singing to the non-diegetic music which is pulsating and slow, building the scene up. We then return back to diegetic music as Tony puts his soundsystem on which is much more fast paced and louder and reflects the chaos he is about to cause by playing it and diegetic sound as his Dad comes in swearing and shouting at the high volume of the music. The dialogue between Tony and his Dad seems very well rehearsed like this isnt the first time Tony has woken his parents up to music blasting, we know this as his Dad says "every fucking morning" and the look on Tony's face shows he takes pleasure in winding up and annoying his Dad so easily.

We are then taken to a shot of Effy's room, which reinforces my point of her being a very stereotypical teenager. Her room is messy, decorated with bright colours and hardly illuminated at this time in the morning, the dark state of her room could represent the dark side to her personality which her parents obviously have no idea about and is masked by the decor  of her room being so childish and girly.

We then move on to the next scene where Tony purposely locks himself inside the bathroom just to annoy his Dad, he then climbs out of the window, down the drainpipe and back into the house to take a seat in the kitchen. he does all of this whilst his Dad still thinks he is in the toilet, until his Dad comes downstairs and to his dismay sees Tony sat at the table eating his breakfast quite arrogantly and looking very smug at how easily he can annoy his Dad, we see Tony taking great pleasure in doing this which returns us back to the actions of a stereotypical teenager; going out of his way to annoy and wind up his parents. Tony is represented to have a very mistured and varied personality, some sides of him being very different to your average teenager and other sides being quite a normal annoying teenager. Tony however, over all doesnt seem to conform to the normal expectations of a teenager, whereas Effy does and having the contrast between the two siblings highlights the differences in how they act in everyday life, which isnt seem to be the norm for most teenagers in the UK.

Direct Address (Breaking the 4th wall):

Direct address also commonly known as 'breaking the 4th wall' is where a character in a TV drama directly addresses the audience. I found a clip from the BBC Two comedy Miranda in which Miranda Hart's character Miranda commonly breaks the 4th wall with the audience. This is shown at approximately 1.04 minutes in where Miranda says "I literally can't make it any clearer" directly to the camera/audience.

Sound Motif:

A sound motif is a sound or tune associated with an individual character or situation. Viewers can tell from this specific sound  and relate it to a certain character or situation as it is constantly repeated throughout the series and episodes. The example i found was a sound clip from Doctor Who of the Tardis. Every time you hear this sound you know that the doctor has arrived in his Tardis. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/sounds/tardis.mp3

Parallel Sound:

Parallel sound is when we watch a TV drama and the sound/muisc we hear usually compliments and follows what we see on screen. I got a good example from a Fast and Furious car chase, the background music you hear isnt overpowing or extremely loud but it does add an effect to the chase scene as it builds up a crescendo which creates an intense, exhilerating atmosphere which really suits the face pace and building pressure of the car chase. 

Contrapuntal Sound:

On the other hand we have contrapuntal sound, which is the opposite to parallel sound. Contrapuntal sound does not fit to the images we see on screen, which can add even more of a intense/dramatic effect. The clip i found of this is from the film Insidious one of the scarier scenes where the song 'Tip Toe Through The Tulips' by Tiny Tim is being played on a crackling old-fashioned grammophone with a supernatural ghost dancing along to the dismay of the woman who lives there. This upbeat song being put with a scary scene create a very eery and uneasy atmosphere.