Glossary of TV drama terminology

Mise-en-scene - arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play or movie is enacted.
Wide Shot - a video or film recording made with the camera positioned to observe the most action in the performance.
Camera Movement - the way in which the camera moves during a shot or scene.
Pan - a shot where the camera, mounted on a tripod or dolly, is moved in a horizontal arc from left to right, or right to left. The term derives from the world 'panorama', suggesting the wide visual field that the pan can reveal.
Track - or a tracking shot - a camera shot where the camera is mounted on a dolly and records whilst moving along a track similar to a miniature railway track, often parallel to a moving subject.
Tilt - a tilt is a vertical camera movement in which the camera points up or down from a stationary location. For example, if you mount a camera on your shoulder and nod it up and down, you are tilting the camera.
Dolly - a wheeled camera platform. A 'dolly shot' is a camera shot where the camera is moved forward or back using this platform.
Dolly crane - counterweighted long metal arms with a flexible camera mounting that can raise or lower a camera to show high shots of the action.
Stedicam handheld - a camera mounting that straps the camera to the body of the operator and incorporates a device that keeps the image steady.
Zoom/reverse zoom - a shot where the camera zooms in on the subjects or zooms out away from it

Key Words Glossary - SOUND

Diegetic Sound - sound whose source is visible on the screen or 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

Non-Diegetic Sound - sound which is not visible on screen and hasn't been implaid to be present in the action:

narrator's commentary

sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect

mood music

Soundtrack - a group of songs put inside a movie, which later can be released on a CD.

Theme - a melody which is used to identify a performer or a dance band or radio/tv programme.

Tune - a melody which characterizes a certain piece of music

Incidental music - a piece of music used in a film or play as a background to create or enhance a particular atmosphere.

Sound effects - created to enhance sounds or emphasize the content of films, TV shows etc.

Ambient s0und - in atmospheric sounding and noise pollution, ambient noise level (sometimes called background noise level, reference sound level, or room noise level) is the sound pressure level at a given location, normally specified as a reference level to study a new intrusive sound source.

Dialogue - conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie.

Voice-over - the voice on an unseen commentator in a film of television programme.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/)

What roles or jobs are there in TV dramas?

There are many different roles and jobs in TV dramas, the most popular ones are director and producer but there are many other ones such as:
- costume designer
- location manager
- make-up artist
- researcher
- set designer
- television producer
- screenwriter
- story editor
- stunt coordinator
- production manager and assistant
- composer
- sound editor
- special effects co-ordinator and many more
These all play important roles in TV dramas, because without them, TV dramas wouldn't be like we know them to be and probably a lot more boring.

Representation of social groups

Social groups are represented differently on different TV dramas. For example, usually on detective dramas, males are the detectives and are seen as the strong stereotypical type. This has always been the case apart from the small number of female detectives which have appeared on our TVs in the past 30 years or so.
Depending on what the TV drama is, the social groups will be represented differently. For example, on a programme such as Downtown Abbey, women are viewed to be lower than the men socially, as it is set in the past when women had less rights than males.
If it is a modern day drama such as Waterloo Road, we see that men and women have the same rights most of the time and we see a clear difference on how social groups are represented through time and different TV dramas.

Essay question

Compare the way these two TV dramas construct representations of gender using the following:

 

1.                Camera shots, angles, movement and composition

2.                Mise-en-scene

 

I have chosen to compare Hustle and The Killing for this question and I will be comparing the ways that they construct the representations of gender through camera shots, angles, movement and composition and mise-en-scene. Both of these dramas do this through many different types of ways such as full body shots of the characters to represent how gender is constructed.

In the scene from Hustle, gender is represented in many different ways. This has been done through technical codes such as lighting, the use of camera shots, angles, movement and composition and mise-en-scene. For example, lighting is used in the Hustle to represent gender in a very flirtatious and sexy way Dexter Gold finds his dream girl ‘Emma’ and then fantasizes about her with his passion around her, which is gold. The way lighting is used in this scene to represent gender is when the Dexter is fantasizing about her, Emma the ‘dream’ character looks like a sort of dream and heavenly type of girl, which would be ironic as he thinks she is his perfect dream character. This is done through a brighter, purer lighting which brings out more features of the female character and makes her look like the stereotypical dream flirtatious girl.

Lighting also constructs the representations of gender in the gripping scene where the Sarah Lund who is the Deputy Superintendent, is chasing after what seems a criminal she has been trying to catch. At the beginning of the scene, the lighting is foggy, unclear but isn’t dark and isn’t too nerve wrecking as the light is still visible which makes you feel less worried for Sarah. As the scene progresses and the chase happens, Sarah Lund’s vision becomes less clear because the lighting turns darker as she loses the criminal which is suspected to be male. This could show gender representation because Sarah Lund is seen to be more vulnerable, being a female character by herself in a dark big building unaware of the whereabouts of a male criminal who as we see in the scene, is able to cause harm and has the usual stereotypical male characteristic as he is represented as being more powerful and strong than Sarah who is a ‘weaker’ and less powerful character, maybe because she is a female.

The relationship between the two characters in The Killing (Sarah Lund and the criminal) is unknown as there is possibility Sarah has been face-to-face with the criminal before, but they have no positive connection whatsoever as Sarah is trying to capture him, and possibly imprison him, whereas the criminal is willing to do anything even if it means hurting Sarah, to get away from her and escape the possible outcome consequences. There is no romance or friendship between these two characters.

Whereas in Hustle, the relationship and connection between the two characters (Dexter and Emma), is completely the opposite, as the whole scene is about Dexter fantasizing about Emma in a ‘sexy’ way as she is laying in barely any clothes, licking her lips, winking which is a very flirtatious and alluring towards Dexter which is making his attraction to her grow very rapidly. This represents both Dexter and Emma very stereotypically, as being a female; Emma is shown as being very feminine, sexy, the every man’s dream type (long blonde hair, blue eyes, feminine figure) and a sex icon which is a very stereotypical way to represent gender. Whereas Dexter is also shown in a very male stereotypical way because he is pretty much falling at Emma’s feet because she is this ideal perfect flirtatious stereotypical women.

Mise-en-scene plays a big role in the construction of gender in Hustle, because in Dexter’s ‘fantasy’ where he sees Emma being very flirtatious, the stuff put in the scene such as the bed covered in his favourite thing which is gold, her clothing which is a gold outfit and every prep in his fantasy is gold. This shows a sense of power for the male character as gold is seen to be as a very powerful, successful colour which could hint at the fact that Emma who is less powerful and a woman could possibly only want Dexter for his success and money, not because she is attracted to him.

The camera editing and how it is used plays a big role in how gender is represented in both Hustle and The Killing. For example, in The Killing, when Sarah is trying to find the criminal and is acting very cautious, the camera is used mainly for close up and mid shots of her, showing that she is scared and she isn’t shown as being very powerful due to the fact that when the camera is close up to her, we can see her facial expression showing her fear.

Scheduling

Scheduling is very important in television. It could depend on how many views a programme gets which could be critical if the programme isn't getting enough views. People work very hardly to put a schedule together, this is important because if two popular programmes such as X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing are on at the same time, they will have to rival for viewers. There are some programmes on which are popular all the time, such as in the morinings on the BBC, 'BBC Breakfast' is on everyday, talking about all the recent news and is very popular, whereas on ITV 'Daybreak' is on which gives the same sort of programme, but it all depends on the viewers preferences of which programme they will watch.

Types of TV drama

There are many different types of TV drama.
One of them could be comedy such as Cuckoo (played on BBC Three).
Another type could be crime such as The Bill.
And the third one could be detective such as Murder, She Wrote.

Traditionally, dectective dramas usually show the detective being male but there are some older detective dramas such as Murder, She Wrote where Jessica the detective is female. More recent, The Killing has had a female detective but typically, the detectives are male.