Mise-en-scene of a tv drama

The key points:

1. Costume - what it tells us of their personalities
2. Body Language - how they react
3. Props - are they holding something?
4. Location - how does this connect to the people and how they act
5. Set Design - like location but attention to detail for example - whats in their room?
6. Lighting - why the mood is like that and it reflects on the scene & the characters.
7. Gender - how the male/female stereotypes are addressed, etc.

For this I will use Waterloo Road as an example, Waterloo Road is TV drama based on a fictional school set in Greater Manchester. The show typically deals with teachers and students dealing with every day issues, also issues not usually addressed on TV shows such as suicide, alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, abortion, cancer, illnesses, affairs & murders. 

 1. The costumes. 
It is set in a school. Therefore most of the cast will be in school uniforms. (The typical white shirt, tie, trousers, black shoes with a jumper and or blazer.) As in the images, you can see it is all very formal clothing. (Except for one, where the teacher is running, this was to set the tone of the episode, it gives the viewer, a chance to see the characters before the school environment. Adding in a song is also a hint as to how the episode was going to run and what the main feeling of the episode is.)


2. Body Language.
The body language seems natural here. It doesn't seem over acted. Everything seems natural - as if it were to happen in a real school. 


3. Props
Once again, as it is in a school, most of the props seem to be the obvious - school bags, folders, newspapers, instruments. The props aren't the focus of the scene, they're more background to give the scene a more realistic feeling. They aren't displaying the props as the only thing in the shot - unless necessary - like a newspaper or a phone. This is so the viewers can see what the character is seeing, we are put in the position of the character.


4. Location.
It is meant to be set in Greater Manchester, however we can only see the school and surrounding areas (car parks, playgrounds.) This is so the focus is purely on the school. The location & set design are made up fully so it is more realistic. It looks like an actual school. If you were to walk around a comprehensive secondary school, you are more than likely to see things like this.


5. Set Design
You can't tell that it is in fact shot in a studio, you genuinely get the feeling you are among corridors and class rooms. Some parts may, in fact, be shot in a school, but you are unable to tell the difference between where the studio scenes are and where the school scenes are. It has a lot of continuntity - you see the corridors and class rooms again the way they were left before - the sets don't change in between where the scene left off, and where the scene continues again. 


6. Lighting
Most of it is natural lighting through the windows and such. However in lots of scenes the class room lights are turned on as well. This is most probably down to the fact that artificial stage lighting would be too obvious in scenes. From the corridor to the class room, the lighting shouldn't change that drastically and this is another reason as to why shooting is always during the day - where they get the most natural lighting.


7. Gender

The roles of genders in Waterloo Road is something that has come up quite recently in a storyline - domestic abuse. Only it was the girl who was abusive towards her boyfriend. This is different from how it is usually done. Usually the boy is abusive towards the girl and everyone is angry at the boy and it shows the different points of view, here, we see how girls can be abusive as well. Sexism is a large role in this storyline - if the boy had hit the girl, would they still be together? They're only still together because she's a girl and she didn't mean to hit him.

Thriller titles

During the opening scenes, I've seen a number of thrillers that have an introductory scene, then begin the title credits. I think this is quite an interesting idea, as it sets the atmosphere before we know the feeling of the film (the font of the opening titles plays a huge impact on what sort of film this will be, for example most Disney films are usually very bright, bold & colourful, so the viewers know this will be a film with a happy ending.) In thrillers, there doesn't have to be a happy ending, the film can just end. Usually there is a significant point at which the film ends, usually when someone saves the day or someone has been put to justice. Early ideas for our thriller was a terrorist attack, but starting at the end. So the first thing people will see is destroyed buildings, people's dead bodies, fire, destruction, etc. Then throughout the opening scenes, we'll have flashbacks to earlier events to the build up. This might be tricky as the thriller opening is only meant to be a few minutes long, and with the titles, it might be hard to convey everything we want and still have the viewers understand what is going on. An idea that was built on the terrorist idea was that until the first flashback, it was complete silence except for maybe a sad, slow song - as the actor/actress looks around at the chaos. This is not for certain yet though.

Archetypes & Stereotypes

An archetype is a typically widely known behaviour pattern or significant symbol or phrase. For example, smiling is an archetype of someone being happy or in a good mood.
A stereotype is an often offensive, popular belief regarding a certain social group. For example, stereotyping that people wearing tracksuits must be chavs is a popular stereotype.

Independant Evaluation

1. Complete - who did what? Level 2- 11 marks
Abbie - camera operator
Danica & Joe - actors
Abbie, Joe & Sophie - editors, however due to technical problems, and I had to leave for another lesson, Abbie & Sophie edited the final copy (there were two, the one I edited didn't have audio working)

2. Useful research & demonstrate learning? Level 2/3 - 11/12 marks
I researched final cut pro but i didn't understand it properly until I actually used it. Sir helped me learn how to export it as AVI finals after school one day and other people had to show me how to batch capture, as Danica had already learned how to use it beforehand.

3. Care/creativity in the presentation? Level 2 - 10 mark
I think i took care in the presentation, but it wasn't that creative. I prefer typing with images over recording audio, especially when having to listen/read it back. Some times, we did actually record ourselves, or video ourselves (the rating video with Maisy & Chris)

4. Time Management? (4 hours per week) Level 2 - 9 marks
I don't believe it looks like 4 hours per week because I haven't posted everytime I've reviewed a thriller film, or evaluated a class.

Evaluation

(The video can be found on abbie's blog)


The planning process -
What planning did you do and why?
we planned our script and camera angles so we knew exactly how what shots needed to be filmed.
How well organised were you?
we weren't 100% organised, we weren't entirely sure on how to film it.
What would you change next time?
we would plan our shoot more in depth, make sure the camera's worked perfectly.

The video production -
What did you do, does it work, do the edits (match on action) work well?
we used a variety of shots, a list of which can be found on this blog, we feel the match on action worked well but at one scene one of the actors heads got a bit cut off.
Have you stuck to the 180 deg rule?
we tried to.
Are the shots & angles well framed (rule of 3rds)?
i wasn't sure whilst filming but in the final product, i think it looks well framed.
Does it look convincing as a conversation?
we tried to make it as convincing as possible. there are pauses which were in the script and used in the film but it might seem as if they are there from bad editing,
What would you change to improve it?
add more dialogue and shoot every scene at a low, medium and then high angle.

Overall -  how well have you completed the preliminary task?
i think we completed the preliminary task to the best of our ability using the knowledge we knew so far about editing.

Storyboard

How To Kill Your Husband (Or Wife) Script!

(A man walks into a dim lit room. A woman is sitting at the table)

DANICA

 Where have you been ?

Pause 

JOE

Out

DANICA

 Out where?

JOE

 Out with friends

DANICA

 What friends 

JOE

 Work Friends?!

Pause

DANICA

 (sighs)

 Were you with her?

JOE

 Who!!

DANICA 

 You know who?

Pause 

JOE

 No i wasn’t 

DANICA

 LIAR!!!!!

JOE

 I’m not 

DANICA

(Shouting)

 Why are you lying?! 

JOE

(Calm)

I’m not 

Danica 

(slaps) 

JOE

(pulls out weapon and kills end scene with smile) 

shot types

Shot Types (Order of Shots)

1. Match on Action - Pulling the door handle/
2. match on Action -Entering the room.
3. Close Up - Danica drumming fingers.
4. Long Shot - Joe reaching the table.
5. Two Shot - Joe sitting down, Danica on other end of table.
6. Close Up - Danica’s face.
7. Close Up - Joe’s face.
8. Shot / Reverse Shot - Conversation.
9. Shot / Reverse Shot - Conversation.
10. Over the Shoulder - Conversation.
11. Close Up - “Liar.”
12. Mid Shot - Gunshot (or other weapon if gun cannot be used.)
13. Close Up - Joe’s face / End. 

Thriller Ratings (With Maisy & Chris)

Final Cut Pro

Since I learnt how to change the movie file into an AVI, and basic editing, all I really needed to do was learn how to batch capture. I used websites I found google to use as tutorials.

Other work can be found

on Abbie's & Danica's blogs.
http://abbie-hales.blogspot.com/
http://danica-danicaebers.blogspot.com/