Reflections on shots

We chose the genre of mystery for our TV drama still. This genre lends itself fairly easily to stills as, being about mystery, the point is not to signify too much. The use of light mainly gives the idea of the genre. Oliver’s face is only half in direct light, half in shadow. He stands in the dark part of the shot which contrasts with the lighter, white pillar next to him. He is looking out of shot at something the audience can’t see, which leads us to ask questions. The positioning of his hands and the way he’s standing behind the pillar and looking round shows he’s hiding and looking at something/someone without wanting to be seen.

To achieve the affect we placed our camera low down on the tripod and tilted it upwards. We used the paglight to illuminate from the bottom right hand corner to create a shadow around his hand and to enable the left half of his face to be shielded from view. This also illuminated the white pillar more. We positioned him in the 3^rd fraction of the shot in order to further show he is hiding and trying to remain unseen, as oppose to placing him in plain view in the centre. We made his facial expression serious to show it was a solemn drama rather than smiling if it had been comedic or happy.

With the shot, we were attempting to communicate the idea of watching/ someone being watched. The subject of our mystery TV show could be detective based as he seems to be snooping around or even about a stalker/murderer. We wanted to make our shot daunting without becoming a horror-type genre.

I think our shot is successful as it clearly communicates the genre were we attempting using only subtle hints like shadow, positioning and facial expression to do so. Other myster y tv dramas like Twin Peaks and Midsomer murders feature similar stills like characters looking into the distant from the edges of the frame, so an audience would be able to relate our still to these.

In hindsight, we could have included another character in the foreground who is the person being watched as I think this would have been clearer in communicating the mystery genre. I would also like to have included some more costume as I think it is a clear indicator of the kind of TV drama you are making.

Video Games & Me

At the current point, I play no games whatsoever. I'm not entirely sure why this is but I used to play a lot more in the past. At a younger age, around 7/8 I had a Tamagochti and regularly played on that, I also played many online mini games at home based around TV shows on Disney Channel and CBBC. At around 11/12 I had a PlayStation 2 which I used with a microphone attachment with friends or my sister to play two player singing based games like Singstar or American Idol. I continued to largely play games at home and upgraded to a Wii, branching out into more action/adventure games like Mario Kart and Wii sports resort. Often at friends houses, these same games would be in use regularly. I also played Just Dance very regularly and I think the period between the ages of 11-14 was the height of my gaming use. I also had a Nintendo DS and would play role playing games like cooking mama, ImagineDoctor and ImagingTeacher. With my increased use of portable modes of game playing like DS, my phone an iPad, I think the social aspect I used to have largely disappeared different reason for gaming. Rather than playing as a social activity, I began playing more as a boredom buster. As I got into year 10 and 11, I played on the train to school on my iPhone, games like temple run, candy crush and solitaire. These games were played more addictively than when I was younger and I got into the habit of playing these at the same times everyday. Towards the middle of year 11, GCSE revision put a stop to most of the iPhone games I would play as I lacked the time to try and try to complete one level and since then I haven't got back into the habit again.

Minecraft Mission

I have never played Minecraft before until today and this is my first attempt at building a house. It seems like something which, with a bit of practice, could become really challenging and engrossing. Using the iPad pocket edition means you can play this game in many different locations due to its portability. So far, it seems pretty solitary as I am the only player and this makes the game quite accessible to all times of day and lack of people needed to play.

My Breakfast Show Segment

1. Did you fulfill all the content requirements; both in terms of including all the correct features as well as the actual choices made?

We fulfilled all the criteria, the jingles, celebrity gamble feature, tracks, news report and celebrity guest promo. In doing these we aimed to add our own personal flare, as the radio 1 dj's do and also make choices similar to the ones the breakfast show would chose - particularly in terms of music, jokes and news features.

2. Have you nailed the conventions and style of Nick Grimshaw and the Radio1 Breakfast Show?

In terms of chat, we tried to create the light hearted, friendly style chat of the breakfast show. We kept our tones chirpy and upbeat and used direct address to involve the audience and create a more personal feel. For music, we used tracks that are currently in the charts and recently released to fit in with the aim for youth aimed, new and emerging music. We also finished our show with a track from Mabel, an emerging UK artist, to help achieve the aim of showcasing British talent that the show has. In celebrity gamble, we made small jokes at the expense of the celebrities keeping them mildly offensive and fun like Nick Grimshaw does. We chose news stories and slang that we thought would appeal to the target 15-29 year old audience. Also, we included klaxon noises that Nick Grimshaw often uses in the show and time checks that add to the "wake up" feel of the programme. We kept most of the show centred on the music, as they aim to do, discussing charts and artist news during the show.

3. How well did you manage running order/timings?
In a time limit of three minutes, our breakfast show ended up 2mins 54seconds, which overall we were pleased with as we managed this without any awkward pauses which would've increased our time otherwise. In terms of running order, all the transitions were smooth and we took care to have all the tracks we were playing lined up and ready to go. The use of the jingles helped to structure and break up the different segments whilst allowing us to have a break between speaking and think about what we would say next. The running order fit with the template we were given and we tried to stick to the allotted time for each segment.

Music Video Analysis

Dua Lipa - New Rules

Beauty Shot 

the conventional technique found in generally female music videos opens "New Rules" with Dua Lipa sporting a full face of makeup and pouting as the camera zooms in and out.

Combination of Audio/Visual

The lyrics here are "Don't pick up the phone", the visual illustrates this point obviously. This is done a few times in the video, featuring the same movement sequence but in different outfits for each chorus, presumably to reinforce the idea of new rules via repetition.

Varied and Fast changing mise en scene

Here, Dua Lipa opens curtains and is transported from an apartment to a poolside, changing outfits in record time. The suspension of disbelief at the immediate and impossible changes are a key feature of music videos.

Extreme Contrasts in camera shots/ angles

The interesting camera pan from upside down to the right way up seems to imply three layers to the pool and ground and is another unusual way of rapidly changing the setting to allow outfit change.

Cutting to the beat

Here, each girl turns her head to a beat of the song.The use of different coloured dressing gowns also adds to the aesthetic appeal and order created in the shot.