AS Media Textual Analysis of ‘The Bill’ (ITV1)

Camera Shot, Angle, Movement and Position · Interior camera shots using handheld/steadicam cameras to give realist effect · Medium Close-ups of police officers in car, showing facial expressions and relationship · Long shot of car giving chase · Close up of bike · Long shot of bike on fire, as other police cars/officers arrive, giving the audience a sense of space · Medium long shot of police officer (Tony) through the flames, adding drama · Medium shot and pan as the female sergeant arrives on the scene · Use of pans across the scene, showing all main characters, putting the audience in the position of eye-witness, adding realism · Medium close-up of the sergeant, showing her taking charge of the situation: “Check the CCTV” · Medium close-ups of dialogue between characters throughout · Two shot of Tony and Millie, and slight shift in focus to reaction shot on Millie: “That’s your new Sergeant” Editing· Continuity editing throughout showing seamless chase scene · Staright cuts between shots · Shots become quicker as chase gets under way giving sense of pace Mise-en-scene · Police uniform/cars denotes who are police. Also connotes law and order and shows them upholding the law and keeping the peace · Bikers are dressed in black, with black helmets. Stereotypical criminal outfit, to make them look threatening. They can’t be identified so a mystery begins to unfold · Setting is a rough part of South/South East London? The Jasmine Allen Estate – council estate with tower block etc. where crime is an obvious problem · Bike on fire – dramatic · Smoke off bike tyres, showing speed Sound· Sirens · Sound of police radio shows how police deal with the incident and helps carry the narrative · Car engines are heard revving showing how fast they are travelling Representation· The Police: Shown in a positive light. They are attempting to catch the criminals and keep the peace (though they don’t actually catch them until later). They are also shown carrying out their duties by the book and in an official way · Women: Generally represented positively, though there is a contrast between the two WPCs. The mixed race officer, from the north, is shown to be keen and brave and unfazed by the task at hand. In contrast the white female WPC is scared of Tony’s fast driving and appears to lack confidence. · The sergeant giving the orders is female, showing that women can be strong leaders and manage such a situation as well as a male sergeant. Early TV drama wouldn’t have shown a female officer in such a position. · There are several examples that could be used for further discussion here. Juliet Bravo was perhaps the first female officer in charge, to be shown in a police drama, but students could also point to the representation of the female officer in the recent ‘Ashes to Ashes’. · London: Is represented negatively as a crime ridden, dirty city. The Jasmine Allen Estate appears to beyond help and the police are fighting a losing battle. Tony, referring to the CCTV cameras: “They don’t last minute on the Jasmine Allen.”

Textual Analysis definitions

CAMERA ANGLES, MOVEMENT & POSITION

Q: When analysing the clip see how many of the following camera movements and positions are being used?

ESTABLISHING / MASTER SHOT: Sets the scene where the action will take place – usually evident at the beginning of a film scene and at the end of a film.

AERIAL SHOT: Birds eye view shot, usually from a helicopter.

CRANE SHOT: Camera is positioned on a crane, which gives a sweeping movement to the shot.

PANS: A camera moving on a horizontal axis, right to left, left to right.

TILTS: The camera moving again on a vertical axis, sky to floor, floor to sky.

HAND HELD: Hand held camera work gives a sense of uneasiness and documentary style realism.

FORWARD TRACKING: Camera tracking, moving forward.

REVERSE TRACKING: Camera tracking in reverse/backwards.

HORIZONTAL TRACKING: Camera tracking horizontally

(Left to right, right to left)

VERTICAL TRACKING: Camera tracking vertically (up or down)

ZOOM IN: Camera lens zooming into an area of interest.

ZOOM OUT: Camera zooming out from a point of interest.

HIGH ANGLE: Camera positioned high looking down at a subject, placing the audience in a position of dominance, making the subject appear submissive.

LOW ANGLE: Camera positioned low looking up to a subject. This produces a submissive effect on the viewer, making the subject appear dominant.

SUBJECTIVE POINT-OF-VIEW: An individual’s unique perspective, through his or her own eyes.

WIDE SHOT: This kind of shot is used to show a subject within an environment. E.g.: a wide shot of the interior of a building as a character walks through it.

TWO-SHOT: A shot that shows the distance between two characters in close proximity to one another. Sometimes occurs before/after a shot-reverse-shot.

STEADICAM: A fairly recent invention, that allows a camera to be suspended without a tripod. This allows hand held smooth, flowing movements from a camera.

EDITING

SEAMLESS EDITING / CONTINUITY EDITING: When the cuts between shots are fluid and barely noticeable.

FADE OUT: The gradual fading from the picture and sound to black (or another colour) and silence.

FADE IN: The opposite of fade out.

DISSOLVE: The superimposition, a quick overlapping/ mixing of two images (one image over the other) – usually implies a passage of time.

SUPERIMPOSE: The mixing, blending of many shots over one another to combine various different images. Created during the postproduction digital editing phase.

CUT: A stop, or break in action usually indicated by moving from one camera angle or shot to another.

SLOW MOTION: Slow motion is a stylistic edit, which serves to slow down fast action and draw our attention to it.

SHOT – REVERSE – SHOT: A series of shots between two characters in a continuous fashion.

SOUND

THEME TUNE: A piece of music that introduces a TV programme and sets the mood of the genre that will follow.

INCIDENTAL MUSIC: A music piece that surrounds a scene and compliments the action.

AMBIENT SOUND: Background, everyday sounds like traffic, sirens, wind blowing etc.

DIEGETIC SOUND: Sound that is part of the story space. E.g.: Someone playing a CD in a film scene and we as the audience can also hear the music. It is sound which the characters in a film can actually hear.

NON-DIEGETIC SOUND: Incidental music/ sound, which is used as a theme/soundtrack and is not part of the story space. In other words the characters cannot hear it, Like a VOICE OVER.

DIALOGUE: Dialogue is a scripted conversation between two or more characters within a film or TV programme.

TEMPO: The speed of the sound, faster / slower etc.

FREQUENCY: The loudness/quietness of the sound.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

PYROTECHNICS: A special effect used in film, which requires things to explode and catch fire, and the use of stunt men/women.

CGI: computer generated images – special effects created on high specification equipment – expensive to use.

MODELS: The use of models for buildings, cars, etc, to give the illusion of being a real thing. Models are often used as cheap way of blowing things up.

ANIMATION: Computer animation / stop motion animation / drawing cell animation is often integrated as a special effect into film.

MISE EN SCENE

LOCATION:

Where is the action filmed? E.g: Studio? Real life location? CGI? Country?

SETTING:

Where is the story set? What kind of setting is it?

COSTUMES:

What costumes are the characters wearing? And what does it tell us about them?

PROPS:

What props are the characters using? And what does this tell us about them?

LIGHTING:

How has the set been lit? What meaning is being conveyed

AS MEDIA STUDIES: Course outline 2008/9

AS Level

The following units make up the framework of the AS Media Studies course:

1. Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio = 50% / Coursework

2. Unit G322: Key concepts in media = 50% / Exam

1. Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio = 50% / Coursework

The Foundation Portfolio unit requires students to create TWO media products for their coursework:

There will be 2 production tasks that students will have to complete during the 1^st year.

The 2 production tasks make up 50% of your over all course grade:

They are COURSEWORK #1: Preliminary task & COURSEWORK #2: Main task

The main task requires students to create the opening 2 minutes, including titles of either a:

Thriller,

Romantic Comedy,

or Horror film.

The other 50% will be an exam on Key Media Concepts:

Section A: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS http://www.suttonmedia1.blogspot.uk/

Section B: INSTITUTIONS & AUDIENCES http://www.suttonmedia2.blogspot.com/

Every student will be individually assessed, even if a student is working in a group dynamic. The teacher will continually assess students’ efforts, contribution, and work ethic throughout the production assignment and give marks accordingly.

2. Unit G322: Key Concepts in Media = 50% / Exam (2 hour)

Section A: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS & REPRESENTATION: TV DRAMA

The purpose of this unit is to assess the students’ ability to textually analysis a short unseen clip from a TV Drama and discuss how the technical elements/codes that make up the scene and create specific representations of individuals, groups, events or places.

The TV Drama clip will be shown in the examination (4 times).

In that period, (usually 30 minutes) students will make notes and have another 45 minutes to write an essay on the following technical elements of that clip:

Technical codes

Camera Angle, shot, movement and position

i.e. Pans, tilts, Cu’s, MCU’s, tracking, crane shots etc

Editing:

Cut, fades, dissolves, wipes, tempo/frequency of cuts etc

Sound:

Soundtrack; theme, tune, incidental music, sound fx, ambient sound, dialogue, voiceover, diegetic, non-diegetic, tempo, frequency etc

Mise-en-scene:

Location, setting, costumes, props, lightning etc

The above technical codes create representations in terms of:

Gender

Age

Ethnicity

Sexuality

Class & Status

Physical ability/disability

Regional identity

The understanding of the above explicit media terminology is paramount for this unit, as students will have to analyse any visual sequence in the exam and understand fully what these terms mean regarding representations.

Section B: INSTITUTIONS & AUDIENCES

Through analysing a case study on TimeWarners we can identify patterns of production, distribution and exhibition in relation to ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008). We can also assess how contemporary distribution practices have had an impact on production, marketing and audience consumption.

1. History of Warner Bros pictures

(1930 – present day)

2. Media ownership in contemporary media practice

3. Cross media convergence/synergy in production, distribution and marketing

4. Technology used in production, distribution and marketing

5. Targeting national and local 'British' audiences by the Warner’s global network of media operations

6. Audiences own experiences of media consumption of Warner’s products

7. Mock examination

Q: How did Time Warner target a British Audience through the promotional campaign behind ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)?

BBC DRAMA: The Street by Jimmy Mcgovern - Series one (2006)

Episode 5: Asylum

Starring Timothy Spall

Study the following scenes and analyse them in terms of the following:

• Camera angles, movement & position
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise en Scene

Also remember to discuss Representation whenever it is appropriate

Scene 1

Context: Eddie (Timothy spall) is a cab driver who has been called to pick someone up.

Camera angles, movement & position

• A long shot in terms of framing and in movement and positioning a slow horizontal pan left which fixes onto the front of the cab as it approaches the camera which then goes static.
• Cut to a medium shot of a man wearing a suit and overcoat talking to Eddie. Throughout his discussion we see a shot reverse shot between Eddie and the landlord. Then we get some close up of both men who are shot separately throughout the one sided chat.
• Cut to a close up, slight pan left of Ojo coming out of the house. Then a long shot re-established the space and shows ojo entering the back of the taxi. Medium shots follow of Eddie getting piece of paper and then cut back out to a long shot of the taxi leaving the street

Editing

• The editing is infrequent at the beginning as the taxi pulls into the street

• The seamless editing builds up when we see the landlord having a rant at Eddie through various shot reverse shots, intercutting between the two

• The pace of cuts builds up when ojo appears and enters the taxi, then slows down when the taxi leaves the street

Sound

• The taxi engine can be heard diegetically as it enters the street and then pulls up to a house

• Workmen can be heard in the background knocking walls etc which builds up the ambient, diegetic sound

• The landlord starts talking and over the engine/workmen ambient sound we can still hear him speak

• Through his dialogue, in terms of representation he comes across as being partially nostalgic but ultimately racist in blaming immigrants for the decline of the area socially

• Eddie doesn’t speak at all and just vaguely listens

• Through sound we can hear the representation of the landlord as loud, abrupt and highly aggressive towards Ojo

Mise en Scene

• The location is a red brick terraced street with most of the houses boarded up with metal shutters. The street is depleted as no community is present this represents deprived area of a northern city where nobody wants to live
• The red bricks and terraced nature represent Victorian homes from the early 1900’s in the north of the country; Liverpool, Manchester et al
• The lighting is natural and displays a bleakish autumn setting, stereotypical representation of the “grim north"
• The taxi is a brownish in colour and is a ‘hackney carriage’ this implies a career taxi driver who works full time, mostly days
• In terms of representation the landlord is positioned quite negatively as he wears a black overcoat which implies autumn/winter as does the skyline and the fact he has his hands in his pockets. He also wears a black suit which could give us the connotation of his sinister and harsh personality, not a very nice man as black can connote evil
• He is white and middle aged with a moustache, old school northerner. He has a regional accent which also gives us the connotation that he is from the north, Manchester, Liverpool etc
• Through his posture, demeanour and dialogue he is represented as a craggy, aggressive old man. He is visibly upset and fed up with his current situation of standing in the street waiting for Ojo to leave the house. He physically forces Ojo into the taxi and thrust a piece of paper in front of Eddie and tells him to put it on the bill which implies that Eddie’s taxi company does quite a bit of work for the landlord or immigration services
• Eddie is represented as a slightly portly white middle aged man, with a poor dress sense due to his type of job, he seems working class
• Another part of his representation is that Eddie doesn’t respond to the landlords gripes about immigration which suggests he may not hold the same prejudiced views and thus isn’t racist
• Ojo is represented as being confused as he exits the house and doesn’t respond verbally to anyone, due to the fact the landlord called him an immigrant this could build to suggest that Ojo doesn’t understand English as he doesn’t react negatively to the landlords racist jibes as well

N.B: Throughout your discussion make sure that you replace words such as 'IMPLIES', 'SUGGESTS', 'CONNOTES' with 'REPRESENTS' or 'REPRESENTATION'.

*Now analyse the next 2 scenes from Asylum in the same way

AS MEDIA: Section A: TV Dramas

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS: TV DRAMA

TV Drama is exceptionally broad, in terms of its range of productions. There are various sub-genres that stem from it.

Series fictional TV dramas embody various technical/symbolic codes that are similar, but often the theme, representation of real world events, people and places can be different.

TEEN DRAMAS:

Are programmes that are targeted at teenagers who will empathise with the characters in the show with age specific situations and anxieties: Programmes such as ‘Skins’ target a younger demographic by having storylines which connect with its audiences. Themes such as teenage pregnancies, bullying, drugs, depression, anxiety, education are just some of the issues explored.

SOAP OPERAS

Are on-going TV dramas that never end. They are designed to convey a sense of real time, so as we watch a soap, it could be the same day or even time as we are watching it. The 30 minutes we watch should be 30 minutes of real time in the space/world of the TV soap. Soaps stem from a literature/theatre/film trend started in the 50/60’s called social realism, also known as kitchen sink drama. These were stage productions/films that depicted the life and troubles of the white working classes in inner city areas. The original and most famous soap is Coronation Street, which has depicted working class life in a fictional area called Whetherfield in the gritty, urban city of Manchester for over 40 years. Walford is the ficticious working class, east end area of London as depicted in Eastenders.

COSTUME DRAMAS

Costume dramas often derive from ‘classic’ novels or plays and offer a set of pleasures that are very often exclusive to a bygone era. These are set in a different time/space to current, contemporary dramas which take place in the present. E.g: 'Oliver' and 'Pride & Prejudice' have the literature traditions from the early 19^th century but other costume dramas such as 'Heartbeat' are set in the 1950’s/60’s.

MEDICAL/HOSPITAL DRAMAS

Such dramas explore the audiences’ fascination with trauma and suffering of patients/families in hospital environments. One of the earliest hospital dramas was ‘Casualty’ which had various overlapping storylines set in a fictional London Accident & Emergency department. The success of that has cultivated other shows such as 'Holby City' etc. They are very 'soap like' in their narrative structure as episodes link from one to another with the same staple characters but new characters appear in every episode with different problems/issues etc. Such shows have morality as a key theme as well as interpersonal relationships of the characters, as well as their professional anxieties connected to working in the NHS.

POLICE/CRIME DRAMAS

Instead of the focus on nurse/doctors/patients as in 'Holby City', Police drama such as ‘The Bill’, ‘Holby Blue’ focuses on a Metropolitan London Police Force and their interactions with various criminals and victims, episode by episode, week to week. Very similar in pace and scale to other career specific dramas.

DOCU-DRAMAS

The dramatisation of significant historical events, which have a human interest, celebrity focus or political significance. Recently the BBC created various dramas based upon the lives of torn comedians from a bygone era. Such dramas followed the lives of Steptoe and Son and Tony Hancock as dramatisations of their careers and anxieties as artists. Another BBC drama about Margaret Thatcher and Mary Whitehouse embody a dramatic, historical assessment of their political careers.

The key to analysing such TV dramas is on two main fronts:

a) Technical/Symbolic codes in terms of camera angles, movement & position, mise en scene, sound and editing.

b) Also Representation issues – How are people of any age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, regional identity, social grade are represented in the dramas.

• Students will analyse an episode from any TV drama and examine 3 separate scenes from that drama in terms of a) Technical/symbolic codes and b) Representations.