Sunday, February 8, 2009

My TV drama


I've chosen to do my weekly analysis on a little TV drama called 'Prison Break'. I've choose this because my brothers just let me borrow the whole first season so it is very easy for me to watch weekly and I've heard a lot of good things about it.


It is about a normal man who gets himself put into jail as the only way to break his brother out of prison, who is there for a crime he didn't do, is by breaking him out from the inside.

What is TV Drama? THE DEFINITION

TV drama is a fictional peice of TV which can be either based on real events are very unlikely ones e.g. 'Life On Mars'. Typical TV drama or in a series but there are one-off episodes of TV drama such as 'Coming Down The Mountain' (a one part drama shown on the BBC). Storylines are normally carried out through the series so it is unlikely for a TV drama to have equilibrium-disruption-equilibrium like sitcom and the typical narrative structure of a film. They normally have an hour long episode and have around 20 episodes in a series.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Hovis ad

1. The bread shop

Boy with cloth cap and old fashioned clothes. Man in old fashioned suit queuing behind him. Camera tracks backwards with him walking torwards it. Straight cut into next shot. walls of shop are bricks show oldness. 'There you go lad' from shop keeper starts off advert.

2. Cart

Titanic posters show time. Hat comes off at door to help show change in time. Horse and cart in what looks like an old fashioned market area, butchers to the right of him. Clothes change from cardigan to blazer.

3. Women's march

Woman being taken away by policeman for protesting. Signs saying give women the vote shows time. Lots of talking and shouting from the protest. Straight cuts between cclose shots of him running through the crowd the people and an establishing shot.

4. Soldiers

Young soldiers, marching somewhere. People clapping them and watching them leave. Kid sits on wall and salutes one soldier.

5. Street with car.

Boy now has brown shorts instead of trousers. Car on the road unlike before when there was a horse and cart.

6. War

Houses are burnt and been bombed. People look sad. Famous Churchhill quote saying we won't surrender which leads to the party where everyone is celebrating. Plane flies over as if anchoring the 'never surrender' as it is going to fight.

7. Street party

Socks have changed to grey instead. Now has a blue jumper and a brown jacket. Everyone is on the street celebrating with national colours and flags around. Laughing and joking.

8. Girls/football players

Jeans a jacket and t-shirt. Girls wearing short dresses. People driving along cheering, saying 'champions' which links to the world cup victory. More modern cars. Soundtrack has livened up and kid has started running.

9. Street with asians and TV shop
Boys clothes change to a shirt and jumper, still with brown jacket. More asians around show immigration. Tv shop conotes the popularity of TV.

10. Cole not Dole strike/protest
Boy has blue sweater on and brown sports jacket. Use of soundtrack getting quieter shows the awkwardness of when the boy gets there and means the chant is more important. 'Isn't it past your bedtime' a bit out of order like holliganish, sounds quite working class. Cuts between both sides of the protest.

11. Fireworks
Fireworks everywhere shows its the millenium. Soundtrack and kid have sped up again. Only time it is night. Lots of cuts between fast shots before he starts running with the fireworks which lets it slowly transition to night. Camera goes across a shadow which makes it not look like a jump of lighting. Tracking shot.

12. Home
It is light again however you see the bnoy running out from a shadow. Their are two boys sitting against a car with a football much like the earlier shot of two lads with a car for number 5. The kid now has a brown hoodie on. His mum shouts 'is that you home love?' and he replies 'yeah' looking smug with himself as if saying wow what a journey.

13. Sound Throughout the sequence
The sound dips for dialogue such as Churchhill and the chanting however it is consistent throughout the sequence. It slows down at points which are not great such as the bombs and the protest but then speeds up when happy things happen. It also speeds up with the boy, so if he was running the sound would be quite fast. The song ends with just piano and slows it right down like the end of a journey. It starts off with only piano also to show everything in between as this harsh journey.

14. Narrative/Story development through whole advert
The whole point of the advert is to show how Hovis has always been there for people and is still just as good as it was. It goes from around 1880 all the way to the present day showing how Hovis has always been there. The boy runs through every different time period and represents how Hovis has done the same.