Serials - A serial has a continuing plot throughout each episode that starts to get revealed in a sequential episode by episode, its sort of like a cliff-hanger it leaves you wanting to know more but will be revealed within the next or next couple of episodes. The reason that audience will still continue to watch the show is because they need closure on the show to see how it ends, for example the show 'How To Get Away With Murder' it is not revealed who killed the girl Lila until the very last episode and then at the end of that episode it still leaves you wanting to know more so it makes people want to watch the next season and so on. Examples of television serials are: Secret & Lies, Empire, Revenge, How to get away with Murder, The Blacklist and Teen wolf etc.
Series - A series does not have a continuing plot, by the end of the episode all the unanswered question would have then been answered, for example a murder would be found out by the end of the episode this does not leave any cliff-hangers, this type of format gives you closure at the end of each episode. So for the audience if they were to stop watching the show for a little and missed a few episodes it would be pretty easy to understand what is going on and very easy to catch up. This television format might be aimed at and suitable for people that work since they may miss an episode so that way its not difficult for them to catch up on the show Examples of this television format are Friends, The Big Bang Theory, My wife and kids.
Soap opera - A soap opera is known a serial drama on Tv which features many related story lines about the lives of different characters. Soap operas mainly shows many stories that people could be going through. For example domestic abuse stories, death of a loved one for example a child, wife/husband, mother/father etc. Soap operas do have cliffhangers at the end of their episodes to make the audience to want to watch more therefore they're like serials in a way. However soaps do not end and just continue to go on and on. Also soaps are usually shown nearly every week day so it can be considerbly harder to catch up on if missed episodes. Some examples are Hollyoaks, Emmerdale, Coronation street, Eastenders.
Serial - A serial has a continuing plot throughout each episode that starts to get revealed in a sequential episode by episode, its sort of like a cliff-hanger it leaves you wanting to know more but will be revealed within the next or next couple of episodes.
Series - A series does not have a continuing plot, by the end of the episode all the unanswered question would have then been answered, for example a murder would be found out by the end of the episode this does not leave any cliff-hangers, this type of format gives you closure at the end of each episode. One off special - Where there is an extra long episode and the creator of the TV show only ever make these on special occasions for example occasions like Halloween Specials, Christmas Specials etc.
Serials are when the story continues throughout the series and leaves us on cliffhangers after every episode so that the audience will continue to tune in every week and watch the episodes. An example of a serial is the TV show 'Secret & Lies' which is about a man goes jogging in the woods and comes across a body of a young boy aged 5 and then the detective who is working the case has reason to believe he had something to do with it and starts targeting him and his family this continues throughout and as every episode goes on the audience receive some answers as to what happened that night but still confuses the audience to make them want to watch the next episode. In the very last episode there was a revelation that it was indeed the mans daughter Abi aged 11 that killed the young boy and the audience go to see what happened that night in order so nothing got us confused however Abi said that it was accident when she hit the young boy over the head and didn't intentionally want to hurt him but at the very end of the episode Abi says "if only he had got to the water" which gives the audience the impression that she did intend to kill but drown him instead of hit him over the head with a flashlight. An advantage of a TV serial is that it always keeps you guessing and makes you feel involved because people want to know who the killer ends up being and wants to know what really happened so which makes them want to tune in everyday or every week. A disadvantage is that it can get very irritating for the audience because they just want to know who is the killer and could make them feel bored.
Another TV serial is "The Blacklist" were the story line continues on throughout the series and always leaves us on a cliffhanger. This TV show is about a criminal Raymond Reddington (Red) on top of the wanted list and he makes a deal with the FBI that if the FBI keep him safe and to also give him immunity from prosecution then he will give them the names of other criminals that they are not even aware of yet which he likes to call 'The Blacklist'. He also tells the FBI that he will only ever talk to Elizabeth Keen who the FBI had never even heard of which then makes them go searching for her which then makes them realise that she is just an ordinary woman with a husband who is starting a new job as a rookie profiler. Which makes everyone including her wonder why has the number 1 most wanted criminal want to talk to her this then causes many questions from the police and including herself then over time we start to learn about her past in more depth and her connection to the most wanted criminal in America this leaves everyone on the edge of their seats and wanting to watch the next episode and wonder what will happen next. An advantage of this TV serial is that when they leave you on a cliffhanger the following week they give you the answer you waited for and don't just drag it out. A disadvantage is that people may not enjoy having to wait a week to fin out what happened so it wouldn't really appeal to inpatient people and they wouldn't enjoy it.
Another TV serial is when the story continues on week after week and always leaves you with cliffhangers. An example of this is 'Scream Queens' which shows a group of older teens in college and a killer on campus is targeting the girls in one specific sorority house called Kappa Kappa Tow, and this killer calls themselves the red devil and over the series we start to get some revelation on the red devils identity and why they are targeting those specific girls. In the very first episode we see a young girl 20 years ago give birth to a baby that gets reveled to be the red devil and it turns out that there was two babies born that day and they are both working together to avenge their mother' death on the people who left her and in the process ruin the lives of the people who live in that house in that moment in time. An advantage of this TV serial is that it always keeps the audience guessing on what will happen next and when the red devil will strike this makes people want to tune in every week to see what happens next it also keeps everyone intrigued. A disadvantage is that it keeps people guessing for too long and makes you wait until the end of the season which then may make them more angry as they haven't seen the aftermath of the reveal of the red devil and it might be agitating for the audience because they might not receive the answer they wanted to in the first place.
One off specials may be appealing to audiences who watch a certain TV show and enjoy it since they are able to watch a longer episode on a special occasion for example, the Eastenders Christmas special which happens once a year. What you can also count on with Eastenders Christmas special is that there will always be something exciting that will happen which would keep people engaged to enjoy there Christmas since it only come around once a year. In the Christmas Special in 2014 it was mainly based around the Carter Family since the mother Linda Carter finally spoke up to her family that she was raped by her husbands nephew who then got reveled to be her brother in law. An advantage of one off specials is that it will most definitely keep everyone engaged since every year there will always be something that will get everyone on the edge of their seats for example someone dying, killer revealed, or even fights etc. A disadvantage of this is that it may not live up to peoples expectations when people are hoping for a huge family fight but then it might not even happen.
Single camera may be beneficial for the type of production that you are putting on, benefits of using a single camera production is that it would be much easier and quicker to set up therefore this is less time consuming. Also it would be much cheaper to buy one single camera and hire one camera man/woman to record the production that is being put on. What would also be beneficial is that there is more locations that could be hired out as there is not as much equipment that is needed to be used therefore there is more space this makes it easier for the director. This would also give the director more control over each shot taken. Single camera makes this look very realistic to the audience. However single camera could be more time consuming when adjusting the lighting as it needs to be changed or moved every time the camera angle has changed, and also in the post production process the editing would take an extreme amount of time. Also it would be a difficulty in reproducing a scene as everything needs to be put exactly the way it was. having a single camera means that the camera would need to moved very often if the set location changes for example. Multi Camera are able to have live audiences therefore that would bring more money as people are buying tickets for seats to watch. Multi camera would be benficial for live audiences as you wouldn't be watching people form behind the scenes trying to do get every specific angle with only one camera whereas many different camera would already be in place for this, therefore it would be less tim consuming. The scene would only have needed to be acted once because everything is in place to get every angle needed. If it was needed to reproduce it would be much easier as it could just be re done without having to move things every time. Multi camera is much more expensive then a single camera production as there are more cameras that need to be bought or hired, this would cost a lot of money and you would also need to have different camera men/women behind each camera to make sure that everything is correct and is how it should be. There would also be a higher chance of an accident happening since there are many wires that could trip people overhand if this accident was to happen to would cost the company a large amount of compensation. This would be more time consuming since it would take more time setting up each equipment that would need to be set up right by the camera crew. The director wouldn't get as much control over each shot since shots are coming from every different angle there would also be very limited locations that they would be able to use since there is a lot of equipment and wouldn't be practical in a small location. Single Camera: Gavin & Stacey is a television sitcom starring Matthew Horne, Joanne Page, James Cordon, & Ruth Jones. This is about two people Gavin and Stacey (Matthew Horne and Joanne Page) who start dating long distance, then after a day of meeting in london with their friends Smithy and Nessa (James Cordon and Ruth Jones) they fell in love with each other after a one night stand the next morning it was time to say goodbye until Gavin went to Barry island in wales to see Stacey and ask her to go back with him as he wants to be with her longer. Later on throughout the first series they decide to get married and by the end of the first series they're married and their best friends Smithy and Nessa are having a baby which was very unexpected. Here is a clip of the television show below.
Even though this television show is single camera it is a very realistic show that many people may be able to relate to, this makes the audience feel like they are one of the characters in the show. Single camera is relatively cheaper than having a multi camera this technique is very helpful if you haven't got such a large budget. Even though that a single camera set up doesn't sound so glamourous with the right directors can always make it very successful also what i have learnt about this show is that throughout the series' the ratings have gone up so much.
Multi Camera
Pretty Little Liars is a television show starring Lucy Hale, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, Troian Bellisario. This television show is about four girls who's friend goes missing which then turns up dead. They decide that they want to try and uncover the secrets of her disappearance in the first place since they start to learn things about their friend that they never knew before. this makes them become very intrigued about their friend had been hiding from them. The girls started to get intrigued about their friends dissapereance since someone continued to text them from an unknown name and make them do things they didn't want to and scare them to make the girls know that this per on who goes by the name "A" is watching them at all times. This made the audience very intrigued to find out who this person was as though out the season they discovered that it was in fact this "A" person that hit their friend over the head and killed her. They then started to discover things about people in their day to day lives that they never knew before. Like for example this person who hit the four girls' friend over the head was actually seen by her own mother and kept it a secret all them years.
Pretty Little Liars show is Multi Camera which means that it must have a high budget as they are able to afford for the show to go on for 5 years and is still going on. Pretty Little Liars is also very popular especially to girls as it bases around teenage girls lives. The Multi Camera would also be beneficial for this type of television series because the scene would have only have needed to be acted once especially if you have a lot of episodes in a series to film especially in Pretty Little Liars since there are 22 episodes in a season. The story of "A" started to bore people as it went on for way to long so this therefore made people want to tune out of the tv show which made them lose more ratings.
In the tv show 'The Blacklist' they use many different technical features such as camera shots, camera angles, camera movement and also sound and editing techniques.
Camera shots
In the tv show 'The Blacklist' one of the camera shots that they use very often is long shots, this is to show full view of the body which then allows the audience to see full view of what the character is wearing from top to bottom and what they might be holding or touching and that moment. This also allows us as the audience too see the characters surroundings so in this specific shot they are standing in a black site which is a location in the show. Also we see the characters' clothing which is a black suit and white collared shirt and from what the audience can see is that he is holding his gun.
Also in the show another camera shot that is used fairly often is a close up where we see a full view of the characters face. This camera shot is used to show full view of the characters facial expression which lets the audience identify how the character is feeling at that time just through their facial expression. However this doesn't allow the audience to see behind the character as the background is very limited, this could also represent how the character is feeling so for example if there is no one around it might be because they are feeling alone.
Another shot type used in the tv show is a medium shot this allows the audience to only see half of the body so this is just from the waist upwards. This does not let the audience see what the character may be wearing on the bottom or even what the character could be holding this gives the audience excitement as they may be intrigued to see what they're holding and it may leave a surprise or shock to find out what exactly is in the characters hands.
Another shot type that has been used is a big close up when the big close up is much closer to the face so identifying the characters emotions through facial expressions is much easier to figure out. The background behind the character is not visible to the audience as the big close up is so big that it would take up most of the screen. It is a useful shot as the emotions of the character are easily recognisable.
Another camera shot used is a medium long shot this shows what the character is wearing from the knees up this gives the audience more of an advantage to see the surroundings of the character but wouldn't be able to see what is on the floor around the character this could surprising and shocking to see, an example of this is if a man was standing in the centre of the screen and then there was a zoom out to see a long shot of the character and on the floor were dead bodies, explosives etc.
Camera Angles
Also in the tv show 'The Blacklist' they use many different camera angles and one of the main camera angles they use is an eye level angle, this could be because it makes the audience feel equal towards the characters, it also makes the audience more comfortable watching as watching this show from different angles every time might make the audience feel disoriented and not as comfortable as all the camera angles would just seem very unnecessary.
Another camera angle that is also used very often is a low angle were the camera is below the characters this could be because the person getting looked down at is weak and inferior and the person looking down at the character is more strong, and superior. This may be used as it would be fairly easy to identify the characters position in the scene just by the way the camera is positioned.
Camera Movement
The tv show 'The Blacklist' they use a variety of different camera movements and one used by this show is a tracking movement when the camera person is following the character around this just shows more realism as if we the audience were there with the characters at the time as it feel as if the audience is following the characters around. This makes the audience feel more excited of what they may discover as the character is walking to that certain place for a reason.
'The Blacklist' also uses a zoom this could be because they're trying to build up tension by bringing the camera closer or away from the character but the camera doesn't actually move. Also this happens in the tv show mostly when they're telling a story so when the camera moves towards the character bringing it to a close it would show their facial expressions on how the characters are feeling at that time as it starts to become a serious story Sounds
The tv show 'The Blacklist' also uses a different variety of sound techniques for example they use special effects for example when an explosion occurs. This sound technique gives the audience the excitement as it sounds so realistic as if you were there when explosion occurred. This may offer the audience some escapism as there day to day lives might not include loud explosions and there lives may be just fairly simple. In this clip below it shows you an example of the explosion that occurred.
Also there is a lot of dialogue being used as some of the actors/actresses have different accents to one character as this is an American tv show a lot of characters have American accents apart from one specific main character who actually is British and has a British accent this shows a difference in where these characters grew up and how they grew up.
Another sound used in this tv show 'The Blacklist' is a sound bridge when two scenes are connected by the same music this happens mainly at the end of the show this will happen. Especially in this episode the reason these two scenes would have been connected is because their thinking or feeling the same emotion or possibly even doing the same thing which makes them similar to each other.
Another sound that is used is a non-diegetic sound for example there is a voice over which only the audience will hear. This would happen if a character is talking to someone but might relate to another character that way the audience knows who the character is talking about this gives more of an explanation of someone story without that person actually talking about it themselves.
Editing Techniques
In this tv show 'The Blacklist' they also use a variety of editing techniques and one used very often is the 180 degree rule when the characters are on either the right or the left for example the male is on the left and the female is on the right the camera man must never break this rule otherwise when watching it, it may be very confusing for the audience.
Also in the tv show 'The Blacklist' they use eye line match, which is vital when portraying believable conversations between characters because the audience must believe that these two characters are having a real conversation by having their eye lines match and having eye contact at all times. This makes it more realistic towards the audience.
An open ended narrative is when the movie is left opened so we think there might be another film however this might not always be the case and leave us wanting more but we might never get another movie. Pros: - Gives hope for another movie. - Allows the audience to come up with their own ending. - Lets the audience have social interaction with people that also enjoy the film which then would cause them to make new friends. - Stays in the audiences mind which then leads them to want to watch it again in case they missed anything out. - This type of narrative is very exciting for the audience. Cons: - Could make the audience angry as they didn't get the answers they were looking for. - The feedback of the movie might not be as good for people who were actually waiting for the answers. - This could frustrate the audience because they didn't get the closure they had hoed for. - The audience may have sat through sequels of films which then eventually ends and with an open ended narrative they still haven't got the answers they had waited for.
Inception:
The action, science fiction, thriller Inception was left as an open ended narrative where all our answers throughout the film were answered whereas at the ending it left the audience confused as to if the character was still dreaming which made the audience want to know more. what happened after that but since there was no sequel we never found out, which makes the audience anxious and sometimes people can make up their own theories as to what happened after that. I would say that the primary target audience for inception are males aged 13 - 45 since it revolves around more males than females trying to manipulate people's minds through there dreams I would say that the secondary target audience would be females of the same age since they would like and enjoy this film as well since it does have some females in it and they may be able to relate to the females rather than the males I would say that the social class for this target audience is people in the C1 - E category since they are quite intelligent characters.When watching the ending it had really good and really bad affects on people as we wanted to know more, but we didn't get another movie which made people angry and frustrated because it was actually a fantastic movie which had really great characters playing their roles so well. Since inception is an open ended film this may appeal to the target audience of people who don't worry about closure in a movie and have faith that a sequel will be released.
Harry Potter films:
The fantasy, mystery Harry Potter movies I would say that this film is for people in the social class of C1 -E and this may appeal to males and females aged 12 - 45 since it bases not just around males but also females so they would also get some personal identification from the characters. It will always leave with something that you don't fully understand but you know that you'll find out in the next one this kind of makes you feel better about not having the answer because you know that you will get it in the end and this could be good because the audience might feel so attached to the movies as they have been going on for years that you will feel sad that when it ends it feels as if a part of you has gone too. Because for the audience they might think that the film is so amazing that when the film finally ends it could be a different outcome to what the audience had expected but the audience knows that there has to be a confrontation in the end.
Closed Ended Narrative. A closed ended narrative is when the story is finished in that one film and all answers have been answered and at the end shouldn't have any questions as to whats happened. Pros: - The audience receive closure. - This makes the audience happy which then would receive good feedback from impatient audience members. - With a closed ended narrative there might be hope for another movie even though all our questions would have been answered. - With a closed ended narrative your aware that the ending might not always be a happy ending but sometimes it is the case of a happy ending. Cons: - With a closed needed narrative the audience might not like how the movie ends and therefore they are unable to come up with their own ending to a film. - If the creators of the film didn't make a sequel to the film this might make the audience upset because they didn't want the film to finish. Just go with it:
In the RomCom Just Go With It, gives the audience closure at the end of the film. Closed ended films will appeal more to people who are very inpatient and can't wait more sequels to find out what happens next also I would say that this film is primarily aimed at females aged 12 - 35 since there are a lot of romantic scenes in it and a secondary target audience would appeal to males since there is a lot of humour that is put in to this which was quite expected with the character Adam Sandler since he is known for his comedy films. I would say the social class that this film is aimed at is people in the C2 - E category because of these particular funny scenes they may references females and how they look.The movie is about two co workers who act like best friends who pretend to be married and are about to get divorce and have children so the man (Adam Sandler) can have a relationship with a younger, beautiful woman as she found a wedding ring after a one night stand however its only because he gets more attention when he wears a wedding ring but never wore it that night as he forgot to put it back on. Then it starts to get really complicated for him as he has to persuade the two children to go along with his plan which then leads to the two co workers (Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston) and the two children and his potential girlfriend to go on holiday to Hawaii. This then leads Adam Sandler to realise that he is with the wrong person and wants to be with Jennifer Aniston and her two children. Then in the end Adam Sandler also realises that he doesn't need the fake wedding ring when he had his wife in front of him the whole time, this shows that this is a happy ending and gives the audience closure as to how the story ends this then wold make the audience happy but sad that there wouldn't be another movie to continue on the story even though the story had ended.
The Game Plan:
In the comedy film The Game Plan I would say that the target audience for this film is females and males rated PG - 30 since it is based around a young girl who finds her long lost father after her mother death. This may be aimed at males and females in the social class of C1 - E since parents can also watch this film with their children and when they grow up can still enjoy this film. This film is about a little girl (Madison Pettis) ends up on her biological fathers doorstep (Dwayne Johnson) who is a professional football player. Dwayne Johnson tries his hardest to start becoming a good dad and try raise his daughter right while her mother is away on business but it then gets revealed at the end of the film that her mother actually died 6 months ago and that she really wanted to just meet her father. This then leads to Dwayne Johnson character wanting to be the best father he could be and get full custody and let her live with him instead of living with her aunt. There was a closed ending which meant to the audience that they had all answers to all the questions throughout the movie this gives the audience closure and happy they don't have to wait longer for more answers but it can also be sad because people might love the film so much they would like to see what happens after.
