Drama: Conventions

Main Task.

Our second task as a group is to make a 2 minute opening to a film. Before we do so we have to decide what genre we want our film to based on.
We came up with a list of all the different genres we could think of:

• Adventure 
• Animation
• Action 
• Comedy 
• Drama 
• Rom-Com 
• Horror 
• Thriller 
• Musical 
• Western 
• Bollywood
• Fantasy 
• Sci-Fi 

As a group we picked out at least 7 genre that we could choose from; to help us choose a genre we took a public survey and asked people which genre they prefered out of:
- Horror                            - Drama
-Action                             - Fantasy
-Comedy                           -Sci Fi
-RomCom

After we picked our genre we then had to find film influences, that could give us an idea of our storyline and the main plot. As group and from the survey we took we also found out that teens aged 16+ enjoyed British teenage/youth drama, which gave us an idea of what types of influences we were going to go for.
Below are trailers and clips of our film influences.

 Rolling with the nines

 Kidulthood

Ill Manors

    
  4. 3. 2. 1.

Top Boy

Film Reviews.

                                                                      TAKEN 
                                                 

Taken is a French - action thriller. It is based on a former CIA agent Bryan Mills whose teenage daughter Kim goes away on a trip to Paris with an older friend. Bryan doesn't agree with her and her friend Amanda travelling by themselves, since he knows the danger they can get into out there on their own. However he agrees with her mum to let her go, before she leaves he gives her a mobile phone that can work internationally.
As the girls arrive at the airport they meey a guy, who offers to share a cab with them due to that decision he finds out where the girls are staying; Kim then finds out that Amanda's cousins who were meant to be keeping an eye on them are actually in Spain. Whilst Kim is on the phone to her father, she sees Amanda being kidnapped by intruders.
Bryna instructs Kim to go the nearest room and hide underneath a bed, he also explains to her that the men are going to take her, and gets her to quickly describe them; she's then pulled from under the bed. Bryan had recorded the conversation between him and Kim, he goes to a former colleague who tells him that based on the recording she's been taken by an Albanian human trafficking ring. Bryan then travels to Paris in order to find Kim and Amanda...futheron in the film he finds Amanda dead and finds Kim at a large party for an auction of girls, Kim is the last offer and he manages to save her.

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE 

Click here to view Napoleon Dynamite Trailer. 

Napoleon Dynamite is a comedy film, it's about a teenage boy Napoleon Dynamite a high school student who lives with his older brother Kip and their grandmother. His grandmother lives a a secret life  involving riding quad-bikes in the desert, and having mysterious boyfriends; Napoleon's older brother whose 32 is unemployed and also boasts and teases Napoleon that he gets to stay home all day and meet girls on the internet, and training to be come a cage fighter.

Napoleon isn't the most popular in his high school, throughout school he daydreams all day about fantasy creature and spends his time drawing them; he also has to deal with bullies daily. He usually makes up stories about himself to make himself seem more interesting, also to make himself appear dangerous he responds to being questioned with unprovoked anger. 

Napoleon and Kip's uncle Rico comes to look after them after their grandmother injures herself guad-biking and doesn't trust them to look after themselves. Uncle Rico is a middle-aged former athlete, him and Kip decide to come up with a scheme to make money quickly, by selling different items door-to-door. Kip wants to use the money in order to meet his internet girlfriend, whereas Rico wants to use the money to help him get over failing his dreams and to win his ex girlfriend back. 

Criminal Minds: Case Study

Throughout the Christmas Holidays Criminal Minds is one of the main TV shows I've been engaged in. Its an  American crime drama, which premiered on the network CBS September 22nd 2005. One of the main reasons why I enjoy this show is because it differs from other crime dramas, by focusing on profiling the criminal (psychologically), rather than the crime itself. The series follows a team of profilers from the Behavioral Analysis Unit which is part of the FBI. The show was created by Jeff Davis and produced by The Mark Gordon Company in association with CBS Television Studios.
Criminal minds is shown here in  the UK on t 'Skyliving,' channel. The programme is aired at different times during the day which could be from 1pm- onwards where they play back-to-back episodes, or at night usually from 10pm.
Criminal Minds

Criminal minds did have a spin off; Criminal minds: suspect behaviour which debuted February 16th 2011, but due to low ratings the spin off was then cancelled after 13 episodes. However on March 14, 2012  CBS renewed the original Criminal Mind for an eighth season, which premiered September 26th, 2012.
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour

CAMERA SHOTS, EDITING, SOUND & MIS EN SCENE
Common shots used in Criminal Minds include, high angle, birds eye or mid shots these shots are usually used to introduce the location/setting. Even though the main set is based in Virginia USA, being a crime drama locations vary throughout each episode, from country to country. The movement of the camera over looks the location, as it does the opening credit which states the name of the location appears at the bottom of the screen, this usually takes place within the first 2mins of the show.

Here are some examples watch from 0:00-1:00
1st example
2nd example
3rd example

Non diegetic sound is used with the opening credits/title, the soundtrack used embodies the tension which reflects how the audience would feel watching this programme.

Sound is an important part of the narrative, as it helps tell the story; the use of non diegetic sound helps maintain the pace of the show it also helps the audience identify what's going on, for example when a crime is taking place, the pace & rhythm of the music may increase. However the diegetic/ambient sound used helps the audience understand the narrative and location, e.g city, (street sounds), as well as the dialogue. The dialogue and communication between the characters is vital as it's the key way for the viewer to get an understanding of what's going on and the relationship with characters within the team. 

The camera shots and editing used also helps the establish the relationship with others, and the intensity of certain situations that take place. Fast cutting, jump cuts and cross cutting are used to portray tension/danger or to create suspicion. A lot of continuity is used to help the flow of the show, the audience get a clear understanding of what's happening. Medium shots and Close ups are used usually with long shots which is done to show the emotion and actions of a particular character. To build apprehension and to position the audience into feeling uncomfortable steadicam is used a lot in Criminal Minds especially when a crime is taking place, this is done to avoid having to cut to another scene. However hand held cams is also used to maintain the realism within the show, which makes it's it more entertaining.

The lighting in Criminal Minds is used creatively colours such as, black, blue and brown are used to represent the police work force, also both high key and low key lighting are used. High key lighting is usually appears when a crime has been solved, whereas low key lighting is often used to encode suspense. Smart/casual clothing is usually worn by the BAU, usually the clothes are plain dark colours to emphasise the specialist nature of their work. Each of the characters carry around a F.B.I badge and gun; occasionally they'll wear F.B.I vest when going to catch a criminal. The props used in the show are considered important, as they represent the genre and gives the audience a clear understanding. Throughout the series of Criminal Minds there'll be objects/props such as; guns, badges, crime scene tape, police cars, flash lights, jail cell, computer technology which is mainly used to help profile suspects.

The filming takes place in Los Angeles, California. Production companies behind it are, The Mark Gordon Company, ABC Studios and CBS Television studios. So far Criminal Minds has lasted 8 seasons and has 173 episodes.

American Ratings

Season	Episodes	Timeslot (EST)	Original Airing			Rank	Viewers (in millions)
			Season premiere	Season finale	TV season
1	22	Wednesday 9:00 pm	September 22, 2005	May 10, 2006	2005–06	No. 28	12.63[39]
2	23		September 20, 2006	May 16, 2007	2006–07	No. 24	14.05[40]
3	20		September 26, 2007	May 21, 2008	2007–08	No. 24	12.78[41]
4	26		September 24, 2008	May 20, 2009	2008–09	No. 11	14.95[42]
5	23		September 23, 2009	May 26, 2010	2009–10	No. 16	13.70[43]
6	24		September 22, 2010	May 18, 2011	2010–11	No. 10	14.11[44]
7	24		September 21, 2011	May 16, 2012	2011–12	No. 15	13.20[45]
8	24		September 26, 2012	TBA 2013	2012–13	No. 12	13.18 (to date)[46]

Teenagers in the media

My favourite TV shows

My popular TV programmes

Xfactor

The X Factor is a music competition to find new singing talent; this has been one of my popular shows since it aired in 2004. Being a constant and popular viewer of The X-Factor I've seen many changes, from the level of talent, to the judges, and presenters being changed. The X Factor is a reality show, which makes it even more exciting since we see aspiring singers from the public audition in front of thousands including the judges, being ordinary people from the public we could never know what to expect from their auditions which is what makes it even more fascinating.
Misfits

Misfits is a comedy-drama television programme, it's Britsh Science Fiction based on young youth offenders sentenced to community service, each of them gain a supernatural power which they obtained from an electrical storm. How the storm happened is still unsolved. The reason why I enjoy the show because the plots and storylines are intriguing each time, and as a viewer it positions me to keep engaged in the programme. The characters being british youths makes the show even relatable, also the fact that it's science based which isn't very popular to teens, but by making it into a comedy-drama contradicts the stereotypical view on science/supernatural. Each of the characters have different characteristics, which varies with the audience, and as a viewer we're able to have a certain connection with any one of the characters.
Geordie Shore

Geordie shore is a reality tv show based on young adults from Newcastle living together; the show mostly concentrates on partying, fights and relationships. Being a reality tv show makes this one of my favourite programmes, as you never know what to expect each episode. Another reason why I enjoy this show is because the cast being reality stars, makes them even more relatable as a viewer; the programme itself is entertaining and unpredictable which keeps me constantly tuned in.

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task 
This is our video for our preliminary task, click here to view.

EVALUATION:
Our preliminary task involved us having to make a 2 to 3 minute clip which we had to film and edit ourselves. The main aim of the task was to use a variety of editing and camera techniques, the genre of our film was a crucial decision that we had to make, our overall outcome was that we'd have a twist within our genres with both comedy and horror. We then had to decide who our audience would be aimed at, we knew for definate that it would be for teens, but we had to consider what age range we would go for, after our discussion we then thought 12A. After doing some research I found out that age range for the majority of horror and comedy films were 18+ for horror and 12A for comedies.
Throughout the task I think my team worked well together, each of us contributed a fair amount to the task and we had to come up with a plan for our piece, each of us had a task to concentrate on. Nga created the script and storyline, Jodie and Reanne completed the storyboards and I done the floor plan.


To help us create our film we done extra research by watching a couple of horror and comedy films, and to try and pick up on the conventions in all of the films; by concentrating on the camera angles, lighting, mis en scene and the different types of sound used. After watching these films we had to consider what type of camera shots and angles we were going to use of our film, keeping in mind that our genre is horror/comedy we realised that we had to use a variety, that would help make it clear.
We also had to remember we had to include 'The 180 degree rule,' 'Shot reverse shot,' and 'Match on action/continuity;' and a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple lines of dialogue.

Before we could start filming we had to decide as a group which one of us was going to take on what role; at first Nga was in charge of lighting, Jodie was doing the editing, Reanne was the cameragirl and I was the director. However Reanne was having some difficulties using the camera, so I took on the role with filming instead since I've had experience with filming before, and Reanne became director. We managed to include '180 degree' and 'Match on action/continuity.'  

Shot Reverse Shot Issues 

Once we had finished filming our preliminary task, we then realised that we didn't include the 'Shot Reverse Shot' technique which was part of our task. So we then decided to film a seperate clip showing the Shot Reverse Shot technique and that we understood what it was, which is shown in the video below.

As for the sound both non-diegtic and diegtic sound was used; diegetic sound was used throughout the film from dialogue to ambient sounds in  the background. Non -diegtic sound was added during the editing process, the editing process is where the match on action and continuity was cleaned up and fixed. To edit our film we used a programme 'iMovie,' to edit we found it quite simple to use as some of us had experience using it before, and we taught other members how to use it which they picked up quickly. During the editing we had to make the sure that the timing of each clip was procise, and the continuity was clear; we also added some non-diegtic sound such as, the clock ticking and background music playing throughout the clip.

Overall I think creating our preliminary task went smoothly because, we made sure that we researched and planned what we were going to be doing. We also communicated well throughout the task with one another, and everyone knew what their role was within the group; we were also organised, and stuck to our time scheduele. Setting and up and packing our equipment away was also done properly, when editing our final piece we all contributed ideas which we thought would help improve our film.