Television

Friday 8th November 2019

Todorov's narrative theory: suggests that all narratives follow a three part structure where they begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution, when equilibrium is restored.

Equilibrium: These three part structures begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution when equilibrium is restored.

Disruptions: Mr Steen goes to her flat and asks if she wants to do an investigation. They are then locked in the pub. A man gets killed on the moors and Mrs Peel gets kidnapped.

The New Equilibrium: Torodov's theories that in a film or story, the power is in a state of equilibrium (balance). He believes that as the story progresses the state of equilibrium can change, can give one person more power or authority over another throughout the plot, keeping the audience entertained.
Friday 15th November 2019

Television industries: Ownership

Friday 15th November 2019

Television in the 2010s

L/O: Research the 2010s (UK) in terms of social, cultural and political climate of the decade.

• David Cameron legalised gay marriage 

• Drug culture

• Knife crime

• Attempt at Brexit - 2019

• Death of Nelson Mandela 5th December 2013

Friday 29th November 2019

Avengers Practice Question

L/O: To analyse representation and use of media language in Series 4, Episode 1.

How is 'Britishness' represented in this scene in terms of mise-en-scéne?

(Mise-en-scene: the arrangement of the scenery, props etc. on the stage of a theatrical production or on the set of a film)

How is paranoia/racism represented in this scene through the mise-en-scene?

What STEREOTYPES were used in Episode 1?

Consider:

• Nationalities
• Gender
• Job roles
• Places

How was Steed represented in Episode 1?

Consider:

• Costume
• Settings
• Props
• Actions
• Dialogue
• Stereotypes 

Tuesday 3rd December 2019

How is media language used to portray gender and sexuality in the 1960s?

There is a lot of media language used to portray lots of genres in the opening scene of Avengers, but in particular gender and sexuality. Camera mies-en-scene is used a lot during the opening extract, such as the starting scene opens a cut away close up of her door bell that clearly displays "Mrs. Peel" which shows she is a married woman. The next close up is of Steen which states masculinity. The camera tilts and curves up towards a disturbing close up of an eye wearing lots of makeup. This represents the 'swinging sixties' and the woman trying to look attractive and connotes sexual attitudes. n the next scene, the camera sweeps round at a low angle towards the man to make him appear bigger and above everyone else which clearly states masculinity, and an alpha male personality. When the audience meets Steed, he is shown at a low angle/medium shot which, once again, states male power. When we meet Mrs. Peel she is dressed in leather which also links to the swinging sixties as it is a sexual material - particularly to be dressed in it. Hierarchy between genders is created through camerawork. 1, 2 shots are also used. Next, there is a medium close up which shows sexual chemistry and pre love. This was happening in the 1960s because this was when the contraceptive pill was introduced and this introduced many more ideas and attitudes towards sex. The way that Mrs. Peel and Steed are asked to look at each other also demonstrates sexual chemistry when Steed looks up and down at Mrs. Peel's body. She looks straight towards him at his face, rather than looking at the rest of his body like Steed does to her. This implies that she, as a woman, has more respect than he does. Also, this could show that men were respected more than women as genders weren't equal in the 60s. There are then a series of shots in the sword fight, and Mrs. Peel flicks Steed's jacket up in a 'flirty' behaviour. This also connotes to the swinging sixties.In the next scene when Steed falls to the chair and Mrs. Peel is stood over him, this could demonstrate women dominating men which could represent when women and men were becoming equal. n the next scene, the camera rapidly tilts down so that we are in the point of view of Steed which shows that there is some sort of affair going on, because a man wouldn't normally look at a married woman like this. Next, there is a close up scene when the female gets caught up in a curtain and Steed "wins the fight". This represents male dominance and is a metaphor for how things are not fair or equal in society.

Sound is used to represent gender and sexuality through this scene too, as non-diegetic erotic soft music introduces us into the scene. Steed 'rings her bell' which is an example of bawdy humour and shows sexual chemistry. Diegetic dialogue is used: "good morning Mrs. Peel", "the door is open". This demonstrates that she is weirdly open to the opposite gender, considering she is married. This suggests she is having an affair. Diegetic dialogue is used again: "you don't have enough flexibility in your wrist". This is another example of bawdy humour. Non-diegetic music continues throughout the whole scene.


Friday 10th January 2020

The Avengers & 1960s

L/O: research the 1960s (UK) in terms of social, historic and political climate of the decade; research the TV show 'The Avengers'.

1960s

• 1940-50, people didn't have anything and were all conservative.
• End of 50s, people were financially stable and were starting to save up, hollywood glamour.
• Younger generation had advanced technology, money, jobs and a future.
• 60s had a new labour government.
• Vietnam war in US in 60s affected the UK. Cold war was a race to see who would develop nuclear weapons first - spies, secret agents, undercover etc.
• Sexuality, fashion, art, music were all new trends and signs of changing times.
• Women had more rights, but was a patriarchal society and still dominated by men. 
• Older generation were strongly conservative. Younger generation were free thinking and liberal.
• Steed from Avengers - represents older generation in the 60s - conservative, male dominated.
• Dominance of older generation was stronger - could link to the target audience.
• Music, art and fashion was all to do with rebellion and going against the older generation.
• Illegal drugs were a huge part of the culture; mind altering drugs such as LSD, acid and marijuana.
• Civil rights, sexism, peace etc were all being protested.
• Contraceptive pill had a huge impact on women and gave them a lot more rights, this is why it was called the 'Swinging Sixties.'

How could the following areas be seen in the Avengers Episode?

• Gender equality changing:
• Patriarchal society: male (Steed) in charge and sexualising Mrs Peel and higher up than her in their job, Steed smacks Mrs Peel with his 'sword' - bawdy humour.                        
• Youth movement in fashion/art/music: Mrs Peel wearing all leather
• Changing attitudes to sexuality: 
• Fear of the Cold War/invasion:
• Civil rights:
• Traditional British values/traditions:

Friday 17th January 2020

The Avengers: The Town of No Return

L/O: to explore the narrative, characters and context of series 4, episode 1.

• Fisherman
• Opening scene was filmed on location, shows lots of equipment and more money - higher production values.
• Her apartment shows modern side of 60s; her outfit and apartment is full of modern art and furniture.
• Steed represents stereotypical male. Camera angles show dominance and represents a patriarchal society (male dominated society). 
• Steed represents older, traditional generation; upper class outfit, manners and typical British male.
• Representation of typical British pub; darts board, overly friendly landlord, locals aren't welcoming.
• New music of era rather than traditional.
• Small English village.
• British pride of winning the war.
• Peel's outfit represents new open ideas about sexuality and relationships.

Gender

Women had much higher places in authority and had more rights, although they were still not completely equal to men. Mr Steed represents a patriarchal society, but also represents the older generation as the camera angles make him out to be very patriarchal, and living in a male dominated society. On the other hand, Mrs Peel represents the younger generations a young adult, as her fashion and her apartment with new arts and furniture shows this to the audience. She is also very opened minded about sexuality and relationships, although she is happy with her place in a patriarchal society and isn't against it in any way.

Friday 24th January 2020

Cuffs: Series 1, Episode 1

L/O: to analyse the narratives and characters constructed in an opening episode.

Characters:

• PC Ryan Draper
• PC Jake Vickers
• DS Jo Moffat
• Chief Super Robert Vickers
• DC Carl Hawkins
• DI Felix Kane
• PC Donna Prager
• PC Lino Moretti
• Set in Brighton.
• Non-diegetic sound of the police radio.
• Cross-cutting is used to show opposites of political front of policing, juxtaposed with PC Ryan on a nudist beach with men on a stag do - shows the reality of policing.
• Key characters introduced, first character shown; means he is one of the main characters.
• Individual narratives introduce characters.
• Camera work and editing is modern compared to avengers.
• Acceptance and tolerance in 2015 compared to 60s, not seen as positive or negative.
• Highlighting issues such as drugs, mental health, self harming etc.
• Music changing to sinister to show danger and tension.
• Females in positions of authority, compared to 60s when men and women were not equal.
• Patriarchal society even in 2015, with men having higher places of authority, but not as extreme as the 60s.
• More broken families in 2015.
• Background music suggests sad and emotional.
• Racial tension shows problems at the time; brexit etc.
• Stereotype of a lawyer is negative.
• Representation of teenagers; rebellious, scruffy and negative stereotypes.
• Women shown as more capable.
• Public attitudes towards police were negative, accusations of police brutality and harassment. Social media and technology going against them highlights problems the policemen have to face.
• Girl spits on policeman with dreadlocks and a hippy style; shows types of protesters at the time.
• In terms of gender stereotypes, the woman is always seen as emotional and nervous.
• No respect from the public, press printing lies.
• Camera work used to show that he's accepted.

Friday 31st January 2020

Television Industries: 2010s

L/O: to explore the TV industry in 2010s and the effect on TV shows and audiences.

• Shifting audience - lack of channel loyalty and identity.
• Loss of large mass audience.
• Loss of national audience.
• Need for content - imports; outsourcing programming; new formats.
• Need for 'stars' and glossy production values.
• Mining of back catalogue - exploits nostalgia.
• Remakes of old shows (exploit brand) - Poldark.
• Move to TV shows as programme brands for marketing.
• Striving to produce 'on - trend' products or competing with popular genre formats.
• Use of trailers and cross-channel programming.
• Use of pre-title hooks to entice/keep viewers.
• Serials rather than series - the ongoing narrative to hook viewers.
• Evolution of series towards narrative arcs of serials - recurring narrative strands etc.
• Catch-up TV.
• Box sets via streaming (Sky; iPlayer; Amazon; Netflix).
• External sourcing of product content.
• Search for the next 'Big-Thing' - the next Breaking Bad/Game of Thrones. 

TV Industry & Audiences

• Break up of 'family' viewing - the fragmented audience.
• Erosion of channel loyalty - the BBC viewer or ITV viewer.
• Channel surfing - seeking the 'eye-catching'.
• Audience as schedule creators.
• 24/7 media - issues of saturation.
• Demand for content.
• Demand for quality - stars; production values.
• Binge viewing.
• Impact of meme TV shows - Breaking Bad; Game of Thrones.
• Search for latest 'on-trend' shows to share on social media.
• Need for shock or issue based TV to attract attention.
• TV shows as brands.
• Using social media to comment on live TV - dual screening/second screening.

Cuffs was a new Tv series to BBC1. It was in the genre that is termed 'police-procedural' - a series that focuses on the day to day actions of the UK police in solving crime.

Cuffs trailer:

• What elements did the producers choose to include and why?

- The producers included scenes that leave us on a cliff-hanger and dramatised scenes such as cars on fire. This makes us want to watch the series as we want to know what happens next.

• How have they represented police life?

- They have represented police life as not respected and treated as a joke by the public. They have included scenes to show the audience how they are treated by the public.

• How have they represented personal dramas?

- They have represented personal dramas such as romance and 

• How have they used Media Language (editing, sound, MES, camerawork) to make it appeal to the target audience?

- They have used music to make the series sound and look exciting and filled with adrenaline. They have also used camerawork to make the audience feel as if they are really there and experiencing police life with them. This makes it appealing to the audience as they get to feel like they have experienced what it is like to be in the police in day to day life.

Cuffs was first aired in October 2015.

- Typically, a time aimed at wider family audiences eg. Apprentice & Strictly.
- Scheduling: broadcast 8pm on a weekday. Pre-watershed Cuffs targeted a broad family audience of 16-65, similar to that of Casualty & Waterloo Road.
- Offered a range of characters and storylines to appeal to as many segments of demographic as possible.
- Format/Appeal: fits modern post 2010 populist series format - everyday relatable storylines with a consistent set of troubled characters with different issues.
- Narrative: weekday winter pre-watershed formats are intended to be engaging.

Passive vs. Active Audiences

1Q: Explain the difference and give examples.

1A: The difference between a passive audience and an active audience is that a passive audience will sit and listen and take in everything that they see and hear, where as an active audience may question what they are seeing or hearing and may have questions about it and share on social media or other platforms.

2Q: Explain how the audiences for The Avengers and Cuffs would have been vert different and why.

2A: Audiences for The Avengers would have been a passive audience as it would have been one of the only sources of entertainment for them at that time and they would sit around the TV as a family to watch it and wait for the next episode to be released. However, the Cuffs audience would have been very different and would be an active audience because in 2015, where were a lot more places that audience could ask questions such as social media and newspapers and magazines. This is mainly due to technology and the increase of it overtime.

3Q: How did the producers of Cuffs use the following to target a mainstream family audience:

• Comedy elements
• A range of multicultural characters
• Authentic locations
• Exciting police procedural scenes

Extension: add three more elements that were added and explain them.

Friday 7th February 2020

Cuffs and Social Values

L/O: to explore today's social values and analyse how these are represented in Cuffs.

What are Social Values?

• Values are the ideas that shape how we see the world and our place in it. They shape our actions - what we see as right or wrong, appropriate/inappropriate; acceptable/unacceptable etc. They shape how we judge each other and ourselves.
• When we talk about social values or the values of a society we are referring to the thinking and actions that the majority accept, the values on which our laws and rules of society are based.
• These values are not fixed, in fact they are constantly evolving. Swearing on TV was not allowed in the 1960s, now it is commonplace in TV drama. Smoking was often commonplace in TV dramas, today we rarely see anyone smoking. If they do, it is used as a means of illustrating something of their character (often the uneducated criminal low-life; the outsider; the addictive personality).

How does Cuffs represent the post 2010 era?

• The BBC remit to represent the UK as a whole means it has to consider the groups represented in TV drama such as Cuffs. Previous decades (1960s-1980s) the UK remained a predominantly indigenously white culture it may have seemed 'justified' to feature an all white police force cast.However, in todays post 2010 multi-cultural Britain, this is clearly no longer the case. The police force post 1990s has itself moved to address accusations of institutional racism and all to fall in line with modern attitudes and values and the demand of equal rights. Many officers and those in senior rank are of multi-ethnic origin and this needs to be reflected in a modern TV police drama.
• The BBC is a public service broadcaster.
• Equally, the BBC audience post 2010 is also multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, and the BBC charter and remit is clear that this audience expects to see itself represented in mainstream TV drama both in casting.

Episode 1: Social Values

Why was the pre-watershed scheduling of 8pm significant in terms of the representations they could offer?

- This was significant because pre-watershed meant that it had to be suitable for a young person to watch, so this would restrict and stop swearing and scenes that may need parental guidance for a younger person.

 How were the following areas represented in the episode:

• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Sexuality

- Ethnicity is represented as a modern attitude because there are several types of ethnicity in this episode, whereas if this was something filmed pre 2010 it may have consisted of a cast of white male police. This implies that there is more equality and that modern attitudes are being shown through this. Sexuality is a main component of Cuffs, as the main character is gay, however this is not shown as an issue, but a background piece of information, and his dad is known as the Chief Constable so it is shown as a positive thing, rather than a problem. However if this was filmed in 1965, the audience would have found it upsetting and offended that the main character was any ethnicity, but a straight, white male. The only female police officer is represented as a desperately lonely female senior officer whose affair with her boss (the Chief Constable) has ended but not through her choice. This represents gender as slightly patriarchal.

Cuffs and the PSB Remit

L/O: to evaluate how effectively the BBC meets its PSB remit.

• In the UK, the term 'public service broadcasting' refers to broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve purely commercial interests. The communications regulator Ofcom requires that certain television and radio broadcasters fulfil certain requirements as part of their license to broadcast. All of the BBC's TV and radio stations have a public service remit, including those that broadcast digitally.
• The public service broadcasters are those you can get for free on TV without box or cable.

PSB purposes:

• Informing our understanding of the world
• Stimulating knowledge and learning
• Reflecting the UK's cultural identity
• Representing diversity and alternative viewpoints

PSB characteristics:

• High quality
• Original
• Innovative
• Challenging
• Widely available
• Distinctive

How do the different BBC channels meet the PSB remit?

• BBC1 as a mass audience channel for all the 'unites and inspires the nation with high quality programmes across a range of genres'
• BBC2 as a niche channel that offers 'programmes of depth and substance'
• BBC4 as a niche channel that 'aims to be British television's most intellectually and culturally enriching channel'
• CBBC as a niche channel for 6 to 12 year olds

The BBC care mission is "to inform, educate and entertain".

• How does Cuffs meet the PSB remit and the BBC's core mission?

- There were issues with mental health, racism, truancy etc.