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.

Research for the main task

Research for my main task

I have researched into different openings of movies of the same genre, romantic/thriller. This gave me a wider insight into how our main task should be filmed and what things we need to include to make it effective.

Although the youtube clip above is a movie trailer, it still gives a good insight onto what angels and shots to use as it is the same genre.

As PS I Love You is a romantic comedy, involving the death of a partner, the memory of him is still awake and alive in the widower's mind. This is similar to Maddy in our main task, who experiences loosing a partner, however, instead of experience new, happy memories about him, she experiences a new finding of a photograph, next to his grave. Ending in her feeling anger against him, unlike the protagonist in PS I Love You.

However, some of the shots are very useful in PS I Love You for establishing characters, in which we can take and improvise certain themes and ideas from the movie, relating them to love in ours. At the very beginning of our short opening, we see shots of Maddy and Stephen when he was alive, very much in love, enjoying their time together. PS I Love You also has the same thing, of when they are happy and in love. This is useful as it can help us choose what type of music to use, and which sort of shots would be acceptable for our opening.






The opening to What Lies Beneath, although a thriller, is still an effective opening for helping our media main task group study different interpretations and ideas from other films. What Lies Beneath has a lot of romantic scenes in the opening, which can be improvised when we shoot our short opening. The plot of What Lies Beneath starts with a couple, Claire Spencer and Norman Spencer, who seem very much in love. The couple experience their daughter moving away to University, and after that, Claire Spencer starts to experience hauntings in her home. Eventually, she finds out Norman was having an affair with a younger girl, who he killed and throwed into the lake outside the family home. Although the genre of our movie is not a thriller, the plot is fairly similar and there are shots in the opening, which give the sense to the audience of a close, in love couple who would never let anyhting harm their relationship. In our movie, Maddy experiences the death of her partner Stephen and whilst visiting his grave she finds a prominent photograph left by Stephen's grave, from a lover of his.


In the film What Lies Beneath, although a different genre, it is important in establishing character, setting and the narattive structure is very similar to our main task. In establishing character in our coursework, we have decided to use a flashback memory of Maddy and Stephen, and then go straight onto the grave yard scene, therefore allowing the viewers to understand who's grave Maddy is visiting, and why she is going there.

Writing the narrative

Writing the narrative in three parts

Establishing character

The main character is Maddy Lott, who lives in Oxford, England. She has lived in the quiet town all of her life, and she first met the love of her life Stephen, whilst she was studying for her A levels at The Cherwell School five years ago. Maddy and Stephen have been inseperable ever since, when unfortunately he found out that he had terminal cancer. Maddy was distraught when Stephen died and felt she had lost a part of her, however she would often visit his grave.

Thinking of mise en scene, the best way to stereotype Maddy would be a in love, young adult who is traumatised by the death of her partner. However, when things start to take a turn for the worse with the situation and Maddy finds out about someone else in Stephen's life, her image starts to change and she has a poor attitude to the world and life.

At first we will hear soft, gentle, or uplifting music that will set the scene well as the opening is very romantic as Maddy remembers her times with Stephen. However, when she looks at the photo of Stephen and another girl, the music suddenly changes as if Maddy's world and life has suddenly changed along with the music.

A turning point

The turning that Maddy faces in the novel is when she finds a photo of Stephen and a mysterious girl attached to flowers beside Stephen's grave. Maddy knows there's a whole new set of questions she needs answered after she sets eyes on the photograph and will not stop at anything to find out who this girl really is.

 

How does the protagonist overcome the antagonistic force?

Maddy ends up finding a series of letters from Stephen, hidden in different places in familiar settings that were special to Maddy and Stephen when they were together. These unravel all the answers and questions Maddy's ever thought off.