Evaluation

Hospital Drama HW - Analyse 5 min clip

MEDIA AS COURSEWORK - MAIN TASK - THE BETRAYAL OF LOVE

British Police TV Drama

In this famous clip from an episode of 'The Bill', a popular British TV drama circulating around Britain, on ITV, we see different codes and conventions to what an audience would imagine a British police drama to be like. The audience is given an insight into relationships between members of the police force, either personal relationships or work conflicts, which enables the viewer to be engaged into a drama not just dealing with crime, but also conflicts that may go into issues that are often seen in the police work enivornment, but may often not be heard of the media consumers.

In this clip that I have chosen from youtube, the viewer sees a row taking place between two senior officers of the police team, about homosexuality, in which the woman involved overhears the conversation and taunts her ex boyfriend with sly remarks. Some people in Britain may argue that members of the police force are prejudice and cannot be trusted. This clip supports those views, with one member of the police team being accused of being stereotypical, although this does not apply in all cases of workteams within the police force. O'Sullivan et al (1994) suggests that stereotypes change over time. For example, 'working class-ness' which has shifted from the 'cloth-cap worker' of the 1950s to the 1980s. So, with views in society becoming more and more open to things such as homosexual relationships and families, the police force will find it very difficult to give off impressions of prejudice, or use unfair judgement over either criminals, or other members of their workforce.

The two shot involving 'Smithy' and 'Luke', intensifies the tension that they are both feeling whilst the argument is evolving. With Smithy being inevitably taller than Luke, forcing power over him, and making Luke look smaller, and more threatened by Smithy's behaviour. Thus, Luke being the victim of unfair prejudice from Smithy. A close up of Luke's face gives the impression that he is feeling upset or angry by the remarks made by his workmate. He is then taunted by his ex-girlfriend about their sex life, which creates more tension for Luke.

This clip supports the traditional views that police are often cocky, and feel that they are superior, often bullying others. Two members of the police have ganged up on another member, who turns out to be homosexual and decide to bully him, although Luke does not seem sadenned by their remarks. Instead, he also appears to be cocky, and the drama will inevitabely carry on.

Eastenders HW

Eastenders is becoming stronger and increasingly more aware of the new generation of multi-cultural Britain, which is very much presented through narrative plots and storylines that they feature in their episodes.

The recent 'live' episode of Eastenders, caught the eye of over 15.6 million viewers in Britain alone, proving that soap's are still on the high, raking in viewers constantly and when a live episode of a soap is broadcasted for the first time in Britain, you can be sure it will pull more and more viewers in.

Eastenders is becoming increasinly more attractive to the wide population of viewers on the internet. Not only does it appeal to the different cultures and religions represented in the UK, portraying a wide range of diversity, even in London, there are now new mediums on which it is broadcasted.

Traditionally, Eastenders has always been shows on the television, on Channel BBC1. However, more recently, the public have seen television institutions such as BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4, show their programs online. Websites such as BBC Iplayer and 4od, commit for broadcasting of all the repeats of the recent television showings on those certain channels. The internet is now becoming more accessible for everyone, and BBCIplayer and 4od would especially interest people such as students at University, who may not necessarily have access to a television.

As Britain in itself is becoming more multicultural everyday, Eastenders will have to appeal to thousands of viewers, by using different themes, ideas and key concepts of everyday life, ranging from a Gay relationship in a Muslim family, teenage pregnancy and crime. The producers and script writers of Eastenders, would find their ratings dropping if they did not appeal to everyone's tastes. However, it could be argued that Eastenders mainly accounts for the Working Class population and the Lower/Upper Middle Class.

Evaluating the preliminary task

Evaluating my preliminary task

After watching and evaluating my preliminary task, I can see that there are many improvements that can be made, including the end credits.

There can be amendments to be made to the end credits as the text scrolls up the screen and out of sight from the audience very quickly and in not enough time for the audience to read the credits in time. However, I think that the music that we added in for the end credits gave a sudden feel of excitement and leaves the audience actually wanting to know what has happened after there meeting and whether Selina persists in killing her husband and if she finally succeeds.

However, my group definately succeeded in keeping the 180 degree rule at all times, making sure the continuity was enabled for the audience. The importance of the 180 degree rule is massive and without using it, the film would not run smoothly, and would confuse the audience.

As our clip was only 0.24 seconds, I feel that we could have added more actions and clips, to make the task longer and more effective. However, we thought that with the plot of our preliminary task, it made sense to make the dialogue short and keep it snappy and effective in order to empahsise the action.