Formats

The format that i am studying is the different types of television programmes.

The types of television programmes that i am researching are: 

• Series 

• Serials 

• Single drama

Editing

In some sense, editing begins some time before the first day of principal photography. Normally during pre-production, a blue print is created envisaging how the visual parts will assemble to make up the whole. This is the story board, a document which imagines how every unit of action will take place. 

The story board is extremely beneficial to the creator of the film due to it being an edit of the film before the footage is shot. This gives a guideline for the director to follow when shooting the film, further deviations can be made when shooting the film to further enhance the atmosphere of the scene. The story board includes a highly functional document, signposting key editorial techniques which are going to be put into effect. 

In order for an action match to be possible in the edit, a piece of action, filmed form different camera angles must be identically realized in each frame. The rhythm and pacing of the movement must be same. The position of body parts and items of costume must be the same. If it is not the same that the rhythm of the action will be broken therefore becoming unprofessional for the audience to watch. 

Inter-cutting scenes create tension. When used to draw two story lines together, this can be structured to create tension and heighten identification with a character. When an action match is used for inter-cutting, it can highlight parallels and contrast between characters in different situations. Eye line matches provide insight to a characters point of focus, in other words it is used to show what the character is seeing. This can give a better view due to actually feeling what the character would feel when seeing the sight he/she sees. 

Sound

Sound can enrich the sensory experience of art. By combing movement and sound, creative drama maximizes an audiences impressions, experience and emotional response. Sound can work in parallel, harmonizing the visuals and narrative or can go against the work in a way that is slightly at variance with the visuals.

Their are two main types of sound and they are Diegetic and non-diegetic.

•  Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film's world. Diegetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. If the characters can hear it, then it is diegetic. 

• Non- diegetic is Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action. Examples of non-diegetic sound would be narrator's commentary, sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect and mood music.

Diegesis is a Greek word for recounted story. It is the total world of the stories action.


Below is examples of diegetic and non-diegetic sound used within film:

Distinction depends on the understanding of the conventions of film viewing and listening. Manipulating the two together in conventions can be used to create horror or to surprise an audience.


Contrapuntal music is used to form an ironic juxtaposition with the visuals. It is used to contradict or ironize the sense being generated by the visual action in the scene, undermine or upset the mood established by the visual action in the scene or to change the message of a scene.


Parallel music seeks to match the action by complimenting the visuals. It is used to underline emotion, indicate time and place, embody themes and embody motifs.


Below is an example of music running parallel with the visuals to enhance the scene:

Camera

The director of a drama has a variety of shot opinions available when thinking about how to capture the action within a scene. The type of shot they choose is critical to bring the best visual experience out of the action that is occurring. Many filmmakers consider shot variety to be essential of audience satisfaction, and key to maintaining viewer interest. The logic behind this is that is shot i being held for too long, the audience have already been engaged in that shot for some time and slowly start to lose interest. Switching up the shots give the audience something new to constantly look at, as a result the viewer maintains interest and is engaged throughout.

There are many different shot sizes and shot distances:

• Extreme close up - This is where the camera focuses on facial expressions.

• Close up - This is a shot where the camera focus on the head and cuts just below the shoulders. 

• Medium close shot - This is shot that focuses on a character from half way up their body. 

• Medium long shot - This a shot that focuses on a character from half way up their legs and conveys their body and head. 

• Long shot - This is a shot which can set a scene and convey a characters full body from a distance.
  

• Extreme long shot - This is a shot which sets the scene from a far distance. 

Their are many different angles you can use when taking a shot, these are some angles below: 

• High angle - This is an angle that from a height looking down on a character. 

• Low angle - This is an angle that is taken from a low height that looks up at a character. 

• Eye level - This is an angle that is level with the characters eyes. 

• Birds eye view - This is an angle that is taken from the sky looking down at a character. 

• POV - This is angle that is taken from the characters point of view. 

There are also different types of movements within  cameras such as zoom in, zoom out, and pull focus. Moving the camera is different to the movements within the camera. You can move that camera in multiple ways. Below is some ways that you can move the camera: 

• Crane - You can attach a camera to a crane to achieve high angle shots. 

• Tracking shot - This is where the camera is attached to a track to achieve a smooth moving shot. 

• Handheld - This is simply where the camera operator holds the camera when filming. 

Closed endings

Closed endings are one where the story comes to an end once the film finishes, The audience only things about the content of the film, not what happens next. There is a sense of satisfaction from a story finishes in contrast with open endings. If the ending is a happy one throughout a film of destruction and chaos, there is a sense of relief that is given to the audience knowing that everything turned out fine. Also, the sense of relief that they receive is obtained through them being engaged within the film. If an ending is closed, an audience will be determined to find out how the story comes to an end.


An example of a closed ending would be from the film DJANGO.






This a good example of a closed endings due to the film being over 2 hours long and containing a vast mount of gripping content. A closed ending suited this film perfectly because of the struggle that the audience witnessed throughout the film from the main character. He lost his wife to the slave trade and is determined to get her back once he meets a German bounty hunter. At the end he reunited with his wife and destroys the place that held her as a slave. As the audience we feel a sense of happiness for what the main character accomplishes. In my opinion, this is a good example of a closed endings because of the struggle that he goes to is over grown by the ending.

Open endings

Open endings are one that leaves the film with a plot that has not yet been resolved. The audience imagines deep conflict of what could happen next. Open endings can be very powerful in terms of the rating of the film because a film that is good is one that you think about after you have watched it. Open endings cause you to wonder what happens after the film has finished, this is powerful because it gives a chance for the audience to give their own interpretation of how the film ends.

An example of an open ending would be the final scene in Inception.





Within the film, we notice that if the object on the table spins forever and does not stop then he is in a dream. If it does stop spinning then he is in real life. At the end of the film, he finally gets reunited with his children after years of being away from them. Once he reunites himself with his children, he spins the object on the table and it spins. Seconds pass as the object keeps spinning and then the image cuts to black whilst the object is spinning. We, the audience do not see if the object spins forever or stops spinning. This means that we do not know whether he lives the rest of his life in a dream or in real life. Debate can be caused and opinions can be made on what happens after the film has finished. In my opinion, this is a perfect example of an open ending and is incredibly powerful for the audience to witness.

Realist

Realist narratives try to show life as it is. They are bound to the rules of life as we know it. They often focus on things that affect us which is where they normally drive their power. Realist is powerful on its own because the general audience can relate and put themselves in the shoes of the characters within the drama. People can relate to it because of how realistic the drama can be. The more real the drama seems the more powerful it will come across to the audience.

The opposite to a realist narrative would be an anti-realist. An anti-realist is things that could never happen in real life however it still has to be realistic. This means that there still has to be some real life logic behind the events that take place. For example, the film superman is an anti-realist however seems realistic when he flies in the air. He can fly in the air because his planet has a stronger gravitational pull than earth so therefore when he is on earth he has the ability to launch himself in the air... the logic behind it makes sense to the audience.

An example of a realist drama would be Top Boy:

Top boy is drama set in suburban area of London where gang violence and drugs is their way of life. This realist drama is so powerful because the events and conflict that take place cause the audience to envisage what the characters are feeling and the horror of the sights they see.


Realism is where the rules in the beginning must not be broken later on in the film in order to maintain the realism theme. Realistic is where they aim to preserve an internal logic that is established early on in the film. It is when things seem like they could be real. For example an earthquake in London would never happen however if the scene conveyed the earthquake in a detailed manor the audience would be believe that it is something that could actually happen.

Flashbacks

What are flashbacks?

A flashback, or involuntary recurrent memory, is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual has a sudden, usually powerful, re-experiencing of a past experience or elements of a past experience. These experiences can be happy, sad, exciting, or any other emotion one can consider. They can be used in films to show events that took place to help the audience gain a better understanding of how the plot in the story occurred in the first place. 

One of the most famous examples of a flashback is in the Orson Well's film Citizen Kane (1941). The protagonist, Charles Foster Kane, dies at the beginning, uttering the word Rosebud. The remainder of the film is framed by a reporter's interviewing Kane's friends and associates, in a futile effort to discover what the word meant to Kane. From this, I have identified that flashbacks have been used for quite some time. They are extremely effective to use because the flashback can fill in the banks for the audience when they begin to wonder e.g. why conflict between characters have started. 


A good example of a flashback used would be in the film UP: 




This flashback is used at the start of the film to give the audience information about the past life of the character to help them gain an understanding of his behavior and the way he acts in the present. This flashback contains a montage because the editor is squeezing in information about the character into a short amount of time so the film time can focus more of the action within the present. Without a flashback, the audience would be distracted from the film due to wondering about why the character makes the choices that he does.

Non-linear

What is non-linear?


I am also referring non-linear to a type of narrative within a film. Non-linear is a narrative, disjointed narrative or disrupted narrative which is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film and other narratives. In this type of narrative events are portrayed out of chronological order in other ways where the narrative does not follow the direct causality pattern of the events featured, such as parallel distinctive plot lines, dream immersions or narrating another story inside the main plot-line. It is often used to mimic the structure and recall of human memory, but has been applied for other reasons as well. 


A good example of when non-linear structure could be used is a crime plot, a writer may place a stories ending at the beginning. You might wonder why put the ending at the beginning. When you use the ending at the beginning, you are not showing the the full ending... just a short moment of it. This creates mass effect for the audience because you begin to wonder what caused the moment to happen at the end throughout the film. Also, it can push a viewers interpretation to what the writer wants them to feel right at the beginning, so when watching the film the viewer realizes why certain things happen. 



Below is an example of a non-linear structure in film.

This film is a giant experiment for editing. The color sequences are alternated with black-and-white sequences. The latter are put together in chronological order. The color ones, though shown forward (except for the very first one, which is shown in reverse) are ordered in reverse. Chronologically, the black-and-white sequences come first, the color sequences come next. This non-linear structure because the order of scenes are not in a straight line. 

Linear

What is linear?

When we talk about linear i am referring to a linear narrative. A linear narrative is when everything happens in a straight line. Everything happens in the order that you would expect it to. 

Linear narratives are effective because it has a realistic sense to it. In real life, everything you see will happen in the order of first to last. Watching a film that is the order of life can make it more relatable. 

Think of a linear structure as a straight line or a path, each scene is following the path as well. Each scene flows onto the next. Imagine if the scenes were numbered. The seventh scene will not be before the ninth. They will flows as scene three, scene four and scene five. 

Soap operas aim at actuality and producing things as real life so they would be a good example of a linear narrative. 

Below is a good example of a linear narrative in film: 

As you can see from the image, there is a beginning, a middle and an end. Everything happens in order that is expected to and happens in the order in which it would in real life. As a result "Batman" would be a good example of a linear narrative. 

Narrative structures

What is a narrative structure?


 A narrative structure is about two things: the content of a story and the form used to tell the story. Two common ways to describe these two parts of narrative structure are story and plot. Story refers to the raw materials of dramatic action as they might be described in chronological order. A narrative structure is the overall arrangement of parts that media text compromises. - This a google definition of a narrative structure. 


A narrative structure has two parts. Story and a plot. A story is the whole world. When you imagine a story or someone tells you a story you imagine yourself in the world where the story exists and takes place. A plot is the arrangement of the story units. This means that it is the main events that take place within the story which drive the story in a forward sequence.


These are some examples of narrative structures used in the past:

• Spring myths are comedies, that is, stories that lead from bad situations to happy endings. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is such a story.
• Summer myths are similarly utopian fantasies such as Dante's Paradiso.
• Fall myths are tragedies that lead from ideal situations to disaster. Compare Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear and the movie Legends of the Fall.
• Winter myths are dystopias; for example, George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Ayn Rand's novella Anthem.

The clip below is the 5 elements of producing a successful narrative structure: 

We can move through a narrative structure through a narrative by using liner, nonlinear, flashback, anti realist, open endings and closed endings.

Comedy

A comedy is a genre that combines drama and comedy together having both humorous and serious content. The majority of the worlds population likes to laugh. People laugh everyday. Watching a genre that makes you laugh makes it favorable for an audience because laughing is fun.

The audience might watch a film under the comedy genre for a variety of reasons, one of the main reasons in my opinion is to cheer themselves up. If your having a particularly bad day, you can watch a comedy and release your inner happiness from laughing.

The first silent comedy film was released on June 10, 1895. It was a short film made in black and white. As you can see comedies have been around for a long time, comedies are still around because they are fun to watch for everyone.

A good example of a comedy would be the film "Step Brothers".





Above is a short clip form a scene from Step Brothers. This clip has conventions of a comedy such as silly behavior, destruction and strange noises. This clip falls under the comedy genre because of the audience will react when they watch it, due to it being so strange and realistic. The audience begins to imagine this scene happening in real life and begin to imagine themselves watching it, there natural reaction would be to laugh.

Soap drama

A soap drama is an ongoing episodic work of dramatic diction presented in serial format. This is a genre that is favored by people who enjoy watching other peoples business. Commonly in dramas such as these, things go wrong, arguments break out and lives get ruined. The tensity between character cause the audience to want to carry on watching. The audience will enjoy make ups and break ups but especially when conflict occurs between characters.

In soap dramas in has a climax structure in the sense that the climax is waited upon throughout the episodes. If slight conflict occurs then the climax will occur many episodes down the line in order to keep the audience engaged and anxious to watch each episode that is released. 

The first serial considered to be a "soap opera" was Painted Dreams which debuted on October 20, 1930 on Chicago radio station .

The first nationally broadcast radio soap opera was Clara, Lu and Em which aired on the NBC blue network at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time on January 27, 1931.


A good example of a soap drama that is favored by most in this generation would be Eastenders.

This soap drama is very popular. It is about a fictional area in East London that includes the domestic and professional lives of people who live and work within the area. As the audience, we see conflict rise between characters and reputations start to fall.

The soap drama is so watchable and favored because its consistency of conflict, each episode contains convention that make the viewer want to watch the next.

Crime drama

A crime drama is films that focus on the lives and activities of criminals and the people who pursue them. Audiences enjoy watching films or TV programmes of this genre because of how realistic they are and it gives the an insight on a different side of life.

Crime dramas can be linked to real life criminal figures and to the far fetched evil doings of imaginary arch villains. An example of a crime drama that is realistic and contains all the conventions of crime such as prison, fights and careless/ wreck less behaviour would be the film "Chopper".

The film is about a man who abides against the law and spends most of his life in prison. When he is out of prison he struggles to abide by the law and finds himself in positions where he breaks the law in violent ways.

This is a good example of a crime drama because the film glorifies the criminal and the audience is interest in the criminal acts he commits. Most people who enjoy watching these types of genres are mainly inured to the nastiness of the crimes that the film focuses on.

Drama doc

What is a drama doc?

A drama doc, referring to "drama documentary" is a documentary style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historic events.

An example of this would be "The boy in the striped pajamas".

This is a film about two boys from either sides of world war 2 that become friends. This film is powerful of how realistic it feels. The audience watches and imagines what life was like back in world war 2.b



A drama doc may be filmed or written. In the core elements of its story it strives to show known historic events. Making the known historic events as accurate as possible, engages the audience in a way that them think that the drama is real or can visualize what life was like in the time that it was set.

Sometimes producers choose to reconstruct events in actual locations where it took place. If you were reconstructing events that took place in Egypt, it would be unrealistic for the audience to see a location in England.

Period

What is a period drama?

A period drama is a period piece in which elaborates with costumes, set and properties that are featured in order to capture the ambiance of a particular area. 

The costumes that the characters where will cause the audience to feel and believe that it is real. For example, you have a a film about cowboys. If the characters within the film were dressed as we to today however spoke western, the audience would question and think that the film is pointless because there is no resemblance to the area in which the film is aimed at. 

The sets are important to make the audience feel like the locations of the film are real. It makes the audiences overall experience of the film enhanced by making it realistic. For example, if a film was setting a scene in a castle, the inside of the castle would not be a normal house, it would be the insides of a real castle at least it would look like one. 

The properties are also important in period dramas because if certain properties are embedded within the film, the audience will question and feel like the film has been poorly made. For example, if you had a film set in a time where the Tudors existed, you would not have a smart TV in one of the characters houses. 

An example of a period drama would be "Lady Audleys secret". This is a good example because the you noticed the time it was set by the characters lavish costumes. 

The film is below: 

Genre

What is genre?

The official definition of genre is that it is a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style or subject matter.

I like to think of genre as categorizations things into sections that have similarities.

There are a number of genres in film:

• Sci-Fi
•  Horror
• Comedy
• Action 
• Adventure 
• Romance 
• Drama 

Below is an example of a Sci-Fi image: 

As you can see form the image, it is very futuristic and space like. Sci-Fi stands for science fiction. This genre will include things such as futuristic land structure, a sky that id different form earth, aliens and extra terrestrial activity. All of these things are known as conventions. Conventions is what a film must include for it to be the genre it claims to be.  

You might begin to wonder how the term genre came around, in terms of film. What needed to happen first before someone thought of naming films with similarities a specific genre? 

A filmmaker needed to make a film. He made the film. The film that he made, people enjoyed and liked the film. Other filmmakers used the idea of the film and made it slightly different but included some of the things that made the film. His film was also enjoyed and liked. Then another filmmaker caught on to people liking the film made by the filmmaker and he too made a film similar to theirs. 

Here is where a genre is created. 

Single drama

What is a single drama?


A single drama is a programme that is essentially a one off. It is broadcasted via television for the audience to view once and one time only.

Single drama's are based on a topical issue that is more suitable for television rather than cinema.

An example of a single drama would be "Marvelous", which was releases one time on BBC two on September the 25th.

Serial

What is a serial? 


A serial is usually a fictional story, which is divided into parts and broadcasted perhaps everyday or once a week. The story is ongoing. This means that one episode flows onto the next releasing continuous information for the audience. A good serial would be at the end of each episode it ends with a cliffhanger, which is where information is held for the next episode, because the audience are left to wonder what happens next.

An example of a fictional serial would be the Netflix original "Stranger Things".

Stranger things is about a child that goes missing and his beloved ones attempt to bring him home, in the adventure they begin to unravel a mystery that may have been the reason for his disappearance. The story slowly unravels and the audience is left to anticipate what is going to happen to the characters.

Other examples of serials would be soap operas that fans religiously watch as each episode is released. The same principal occurs in this type of serial where each episode flows onto the next. An example of this type of serial would be EastEnders. 

Series

What is a series? 

A live TV show set and cameras. A television program (British English: programme) is a segment of content intended for broadcast on over-the-air, cable television, or Internet television, other than a commercial, trailer, or any other segment of content not serving as attraction for viewership.

 -(google)


There is not just one type of series. Their are different type of series. 

Firstly, their are series that are based on facts rather than fiction. An example of this would be the documentary series "Planet Earth". This particular series spans out weekly and covers different parts of the planet, for example one week will be on the desert and another week will be on the arctic life. 

Planet earth is a set of related programmes however does not carry on form the next. Each episode is about a different sector of planet earth but overall falls under the genre of life within our planet.

Other example of series would be the Netflix original "Making a Murder".

Other types of series are series that are on going and each episode flows onto the next. A good example of this would be the famous television series Breaking Bad. The episodes within BB are not self contained, which means they do not have a beginning, a middle and an end. The episodes flow one after another to create a story which is seams realistic in the audiences point of view.