Task 1: Case studies
Coverage of action:
EastEnders live:
Eastenders live week was a special week for the drama. It was a week dedicated to most of the soap shown live for the audience. The show had to ensure they use more than one camera to record the live show to maintain a variety of shots and angles for the audience to watch. They used about three cameras all being placed at different angles such as wide shots, over the shoulder shot and medium shot. This is important in allowing the show, although it was live, to look as ordinary as possible.
The Graham Norton Show:
The Graham Norton Show is a chat show featuring a sofa of celebrities hosted by Graham Norton. It is a studio based show and have a live audience. Due to being a chat show it strongly requires more than one camera to keep all shots in tact to keep it looking effective. It's important they cut to a variety of shots to capture emotions from either the celebrity, host or audience. Camera angles are really important when it comes to chats shows as it has to be on a shot where something active or appealing is happening, such as the host telling a joke and then showing the audience laughing and then the celebrity reaction.
Communicating meaning to the viewer:
Eastenders live:
Eastenders live is an effect way of connecting to the audience. The whole concept of live is to connect to the audience watching by revealing who killed Lucy Beale. It allows the audience to emotionally connect to the characters more due to it being live. This is effective as a mystery being resolved brings more viewers to the show. One clever shot is when Ian Beale's letter is being read out and as the character reads it, the shot zooms out slowly to show Ian standing there in tears. The clever use of shots to ensure audience connection is essential.
The Graham Norton Show:
The show communicates meaning with the viewers by posing questions to celebrities which may relate to rumours the audience have heard. Cutting between the host and guest in a chat show is important in making the show look smooth and allows the audience to feel more involved with the chat show. Close ups are effective in allowing the viewer understand how the guest is feeling. When there is a joke, it can show shots of both the celebrities and audience laughing which may make the viewer laugh too which helps them feel more included into the show.
Visual style:
Eastenders live:
Throughout the event on the Channel BBC One the logo for the channel was always in the top left hand corner. Not only does it remind you what channel you are watching, it's also brand identity. As BBC One was the main channel for broadcasting the live episode, the logo stops anybody from claiming that the footage is their own. The look and feel of the programme changes depending on scenario. The EastEnders live episode was darker and tense compare to other lively episodes. The intense feel of the programme allows the audience to connect to it more.
The Graham Norton Show:
The feel of the programme is very bright and active. The use of sofas and sometimes props that relate to the celebrity allows the audience to feel related to the show. The guests are dressed smartly to indicate their presence as a special occasion. This allows the audience to appreciate the programme more. Majority of the programme, when the host or guest speaks, the camera shot used is medium shot to indicate who is speaking but the fast pace of the show allows a variety of angles to be used to keep the audience entertained such as long shots and panning shots of the audience.
Maintaining viewer interest:
Eastenders live:
Eastenders live week was a powerful week in gaining and maintaining viewer interest. The scenes were tense and the fact they were live gave room for mistakes. It allowed the audience to either view hoping to end the mystery on who killed one of the shows most iconic characters or there could be an audience waiting for some sort of mistake to occur with both acting and behind the scenes preparation. The week proved effective as the acting was brilliant and the use of shots to get the audience emotional worked really well such as zooming out to Ian Beale in tears over the reading of his demised daughters final letter.
The Graham Norton Show:
The show maintains viewer interest by including clips and footage from upcoming movies and television shows to keep the audience excited. It also allows the audience to gain a deeper insight on what the guest is up too. The show follows a common structure which is an introduction to the guests, the interview and then some music which allows an even wider audience into the show.
Constraints of studio or location environment:
Eastenders live:
For Eastenders, you don't see the camera as it is a drama. Recognising this is important because it is important as a media student to identify where the cameras could possibly be and how it may limit the movement of the actor. Eastenders is filmed on set, so using more than one camera to help capture a variety of shots doesn't cause any problems but it may prove difficult for the vision mixer to capture each moment live whilst still adhering to the storyboard.
The Graham Norton Show:
Filming in a studio without ruining audience experience could prove very hard. The show uses quite a few cameras, to keep them all steady and away from the audience view may cause limitations for the people filming. The cameras are usually placed not near the audience as it may be the only option due to the amount of room for the stage.
Multi-camera simultaneous recording:
Eastenders live:
All cameras being active during the live shows is important to capture different angles. It's important to realise that during the scene more than one thing could be happening so to use more than one camera is important when capturing the whole picture. Not only to they have 3-4 cameras on for that scene, but they have cameras active on all sets so when cutaways occur they are ready to show the next shot. Without the show recording simultaneously, it will not be able to capture all the scenes needed.
The Graham Norton Show:
The show usually 4-5 cameras to help capture the whole show. The cameras help with cutaways to the audience or guests facial expressions for example during funny scenes or even when a band is performing at the end to help capture different shots of different band members and help keep the visual active. The use of more than one camera allows the producers not to miss anything they feel they want to be shown which opens doors to different options if desired. The show not being live allows the editors to work with different shots and edit it together to help maintain viewer interest.
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