T.V. Drama Treatment

My T.V. Drama is called South-East Enders. It is a teen retake of the soap Eastenders, which is suggested in the T.V. drama title. So, the genre of my T.V. drama is a teen soap and it is full of drama, betrayal, tragedy and intensifying action.

The regularly used settings in my T.V. drama are the houses that the main characters live in, the cafe, the local supermarket, the youth centre for the teenagers and the school that the teenagers in my T.V. drama go to. The settings also featured in my T.V. drama are the pub, a tube station, the local bus stop and the doctor's surgery.

The target audience that my T.V. drama would appeal to is mid teenagers to young adults, so the age range would approximately be from 14 to 24 year olds. The ideal channel for my T.V. drama is BBC1 because it is a retake on Eastenders and should ideally be televised on the same channel Eastenders is on.



My T.V. drama will be aired from Monday to Friday at 6.30 pm for thirty minutes. The reason why my T.V. will be shown on these days and at this time is because the teenagers (who are my target audience) will be home from school by then. Secondly, Hollyoaks another teen drama is on at the same time on channel four. Therefore, the T.V. drama Hollyoaks are our rivals as we have the same time frame and target audience.



The main characters in my T.V. drama include:

• David
• Amie
• Chloe
• Liam
• Sasha
• Alex

Youth Representation in T.V. Drama

In television dramas youths are represented as:

• Binge-drinkers
• Emo's
• Chavs
• Bullys
• People who like to party
• Violent
• Teenage pregnancy
• Rebellious
• Laid-back
• Careless
• Sexually active
• Gangs
• Smokers
• Drug takers

SKINS TRAILER



http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=33UDfljchiE (Skins Trailer)

In the Skins trailer teenagers are represented as:oblivious, violent, binge-drinkers, defiant, rude, gamblers, people who like to cause trouble and party. In the Skins trailer teenagers are also portrayed through gender, relationships and attitude. These representations are constrcuted by:

• Violence- as a fight breaks out in the bar
• Gender-as a group of men walk in the bar, were playing masculine-based games and seemed to be having a good time
• Rude-as the girl came in the bar swearing
• Binge-drinkers-as the teenagers were getting heavily drunk

I believe that the representations of teenagers in the Skins trailer are realistic as it is common among teenagers nowadays. However, I also consider this to be stereotypical as the Skins trailer portrays teenagers in a negative way and makes it seem as if every teenager is like that.

90210 is a contemporary spin-off of Beverly Hills, 90210, a teen drama based on the friendships and romantic relationships of a group of close-knit teenagers. In the UK it is shown on Monday evenings at 9.00 pm on the channel E4. The original series of 90210 premiered on October 4th, 1990 and finished on May 17th, 2000. However, the modern, on-going, spin-off aired on September 2nd, 2008 in the US. 90210 is produced by CBS Productions and is created by Rob Thomas, Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah and its executive producer is Rebecca Rand Sinclair. The television drama lasts approximately between 39-42 minutes (excluding commercial breaks). The spin-off of Beverly Hills, 90210 has currently produced 1 season of the T.V. drama which is the equivalent to 24 episodes. The cast of 90210 are currently working on the second season which is scheduled to be aired in the UK in late 2009 or early 2010 on E4. 90210 has received a fairly good reception in the US as its debut 2 hour combined episodes 'We're Not in Kansas Anymore' and 'The Jet Set' collected an average 4.9 million viewers.The series revolves around the Wilson family, along with other rich teenage students at the fictional West Beverly Hills High, where Annie and Dixon Wilson begin attendance. Their father, Harry Wilson returns from Kansas to his childhood home of Beverly Hills with his family to care for his mother, former television star Tabitha Wilson, who has a drinking problem. Annie and Dixon struggle to adjust to their new lives while making new friends and adhering to their parents' wishes. 90210 has addressed many topical issues, (some controversial), including: date rape, alcoholism, gay rights, drug abuse, teenage suicide, AIDS, teenage pregnancy and abortion.

Cast List of 90210

• Harry Wilson-Rob Estes
• Annie Wilson-Shenae Grimes
• Dixon Wilson-Tristan Wilds
• Naomi Clark-AnnaLynne McCord
• Ryan Matthews-Ryan Eggold
• Erin Silver-Jessica Stroup
• Navid Shirazi-Michael Steger
• Debbie Wilson-Lori Loughlin
• Adrianna Tate-Duncan-Jessica Lowndes
• Ethan Ward-Dustin Milligan
• Kelly Taylor-Jennie Grath
• Tabitha Wilson-Jessica Walter
• Liam Court-Matt Lanter
  
  

Textual Analysis on 'The Tudors'

In this essay I will be using my skills of denotation and connotation to texually analyse the opening title sequence of 'The Tudors' and the ways in which the mise-en-scene, cinematography and sound are used to create a sense of drama in this Television Drama.

The opening title sequence begins with a rapid flash of faces. This signifies that they are the main, important characters as they are the ones being shown first. The title of the Television Drama, 'The Tudors' has a red sword in between The and Tudors. This connotes blood, death and violence. During the duration of this opening title sequence there were swords being drawn out which represents fighting. This suggests and gives us a clue of what the story will be about: war, rivalry and death. These shots of fighting create tension for the audience as it connotes that someone is going to die. Whilst the people in this sequence are fighting with their swords there are sounds of swords clashing which is non-diegetic.

During the opening title sequence of The Tudors there is a ray of sun which signifies light, hope and peace these words link to what is shown after, the priest. There are also candles in the cathedral these represent holiness. However, this contrasts with the other scenes of fighting and war. There are close-ups of the characters faces, this captures the facial expressions on the characters faces and gives the audience an insight of what the characters will be like.

At the beginning of this opening title sequence there is a crown and the camera zooms in on it. This connotes that the crown plays a significant role in the Television Drama and that someone is fighting for the chance to be king. During the sequence one of the female characters is shown. First the camera does a wide shot of her and what is thought to be her family but the camera is mainly focusing on her. This suggests importance as the camera wants to capture her facial expression as she does not look pleased. After this she is introduced as a character. The camera moves from her face down to her hands as she appears to be holding something which appears to be a necklace with a cross on it.

The music being played throughout this scene is tense which links to the sequence as there is a huge amount of fighting. The music being played during the sequence is non-diegetic. The voiceover suggests there will be tragedy as he says 'You think you know a story but you only know how it ends'. This creates a sense of tension and suspicion in the viewers mind as they want to know what happens next. The costumes in this sequence signify that the sequence is portraying a period of time that happened many years ago, as they appear royal and ancient.

Representations


Nothing is what it seems in moving images or in the media industry.

1. Sound
Non-Diegetic →Sounds added at a later time to recording e.g. music.
Diegetic →Natural sounds at the time of recording e.g. birds singing.

2. Mise-en-scene- This is usually referred to as "everything in the frame". This includes: Make-up, props, location, costume and lighting.

3.Cinematography:

Camera Shots

• Long shot


• Medium close-up


• Close-up


• Wide shot/establishing shot


• Mid shot


• Big close-up


• Extreme close-up


• 3/4 Shot

Camera Angles

• High → Camera is looking down on subject, making it look smaller.


• Low → Camera looking up at subject, making it look bigger.


• Canted → Camera is tilted to make subject look slanted.


• Birds-eye/Aerial → Extreme high angle. Looking straight down.


• Eye Level → Camera is pointed directly at subject.


• Worms Eye →Extreme low angle, camera very low, looking up.

4. Editing → Cutting film and video footage together to create meaning.

Media Vocabulary

Mise-en-scène is a French term and originates in the theater. It means, literally, "put in the scene." For film, it has a broader meaning, and refers to almost everything that goes into the composition of the shot, including the composition itself: framing, movement of the camera and characters, lighting, set design and gen eral visual environment, even sound as it helps elaborate the composition. Mise-en-scène can be defined as the articulation of cinematic space, and it is precisely space that it is about. Cutting is about time; the shot is about what occurs in a defined area of space, bordered by the frame of the movie screen and determined by what the camera has been made to record.

Verisimilitude in literature and theatre denotes the extent to which a work of fiction exhibits realism or authencity, or otherwise conforms to our sense of reality. A work with a high degree of verisimilitude means that the work is very realistic and believable; works of this nature are often said to be "true to life".In theatre, verisimilitude refers to a neoclassic idea of reality (realism), morality, and universality

Social Realism also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist art, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic. The movement is a style of painting in which the scenes depicted typically convey a message of social or political protest edged with satire. This is not to be confused with Socialistic Realism, the official USSR art form that institutionalized Joseph Stalin in 1934 and later allied Communist parties worldwide.

Diegetic sound is sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film:

• voices of characters
  
• sounds made by objects in the story
  
• music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( source music)

Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from the source within the film's world.
Digetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. Another term for diegetic sound is actual sound.

Non-diegetic sound is sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action:

• Narrator's commentary
  
• Sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
  
• Mood music Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space.

The distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic sound depends on our understanding of the conventions of film viewing and listening. We know of that certain sounds are represented as coming from the story world, while others are represented as coming from outside the space of the story events. A play with diegetic and non-diegetic conventions can be used to create ambiguity (horror), or to surprise the audience (comedy). Another term for non-diegetic sound is commentary sound.

Editing is the process of preparing language, images, sound, video, or film through correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications in various media. A person who edits is called an editor. In a sense, the editing process originates with the idea for the work itself and continues in the relationship between the author and the editor. Editing is, therefore, also a practice that includes creative skills, human relations, and a precise set of methods.