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Single Camera Formats part 3

Formats
Series: A series is a recurring show that takes place over a certain amount of
episodes within a season. Series usually starts with a opening, their opening may
change from season to season with new cutaway and music, the time that this
opening takes also varies, for example, the opening to the 24 and braking bad s
only a few second long and only sows the title of the show, while something for a
Japanese anime show may take up a minute or even more, sometimes in anime
shows the opening may change halfway through the season. A series will usually
have a recurring cast and will change very season depending on f the writers
killed off any one. Here are 2 examples.
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is a television series that has been running since 1989 and now
has 579 episodes. Its a animated sitcom following an American family in the
fictional town of Springfield, I picked this show as it is a prime example of a s
how n which every episode has a new story, with the exception of a few special
episodes the Simpsons usually has a new story every episode, there very little
change in terms of character development, it isnt really much of a continuation
of a story, only a few things change and stay the same in the show such as
millhouses parents getting divorced or Flanderss wife passing away, the
characters have stayed the same age for the past 26 years.

Breaking Bad
An opposite to the Simpsons would be breaking bad, breaking bad is a show that
evolves over every episode and events that happen in the first season have a
massive effect in other seasons after it, its a continuation of a story about a man
who becomes a meth dealer after finding out he has lung cancer, there isnt a
new story every episode, everything fits perfectly together. Its also a much more
serious show than the Simpsons.

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Serial: A television serial s a show which has only has a handful of

episodes that cover a story arc, these shows usually arent returned to
after they have completed their story. Here are 2 examples.
Band of brothers
Band of brothers s a TV series which took place over ten episodes, this
was good for the show as it gave plenty of time for the characters to
develop while still keeping a much lower budget than a full motion picture,
its also good because if they were to make his show a TV movie then they
wouldnt have been able to do as much with the concept.

Jesus of Nazareth
This is another good example of a series being made for TV with a few episodes,
this show clocks in at around 382 minutes, because of the concept they couldnt
drag out the show into several seasons so making it as a miniseries was the
perfect choice as gaining finance for a full feature film with high production
values may have been very difficult.

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Single Drama: This is usually a made for TV movie. The topic that the single
drama may vary depending on the target audience, this is how companies would
distribute their film if they dont feel the movie will do well in theatres,
sometimes the single drama maybe made by a TV studio specifically for their
show. Here are 2 examples.
Cyber Bully
Cyber bully is a movie made for TV that was made to stress the dangers of online
harassment. There are 2 versions of this made for TV film, the first film being
made n the us and the second being made in the UK, the UK version of the film
starts Maisie Williams.

The Even Stevens Movie

This was a film that was shown on the Disney channel n the year 2003; it was a
made for TV film based off of the popular show the Even Stevens starring a
young Shia LBeouf. Sometimes a company may not want to throw a lot of money
t product that dont have enough faith in that t will make them a lot of money if
it goes to theatres, this could have been the same mindset that Disney had
whenever they produced this product.

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Narrative Structure
Linear: This is whenever I movie goes from start to finish without the use
of flashback. Because the movie is in chronological order its a lot easier
for the audience of the film to understand what exactly is going on. This is
the most common way of telling a story in television and film.
Non-Linear: This is the opposite of linear, the story in these TV shows and
movies are told in a disjointed fashion, movie like Pulp Fiction for instance,
tells its story in a non linear fashion by having different scenes being
used out of order, another great example of this style of storytelling is
Memento, this movie is told backwards as the character cant remember
anything within a short period of time.

Flashbacks: This is a technique that is commonly used in film and

television, they are a great way for the audience to discover a characters
back-story, depending on the build up of mystery surrounding the
character, the flashback can be of real significance to the story, a great

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example of using a flashback would be The Bourne Identity, this movie

plays out like a mystery film for the majority of its running time so
whenever you find out what Jason Bourne really is its very satisfying
storytelling. Another movie which used flashbacks very well was a
Japanese film called Rshomon y Akira Kurosawa, whats interesting about
this movie s that all of the opinions of the event are distorted and
changed by other characters who experienced the event so nobody can
find out what really happened.

Endings: This is whenever the narrative of the story comes to a close,

depending on the material the ending of the films can be lift on cliff
hangers like The Matrix Reloaded because the story will be continued.
Closed Ending: This is whenever All the details off the story are wrapped
up, all the missing pieces are put together so you have a good
understanding about what the film was about assuming there wasnt plot
holes, this would happen in the final episode of a series or a final film in a
movie series. An example of a closed ending would be a film like the
Godfather part 3 as all plot points over the 3 films are wrapped up in this
movie.
Open ending: An open ending is whenever the man character will be left
with an unknown ending; these are far less common than closed endings.
A good example of this kind of ending is from the movie Pusher, where the
man character just looks into nothingness imagining all the outcomes that
will know happen to him.

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Technical
Camera: This is the most important piece of equipment when t comes to
filmmaking because without t you wont be able to capture footage,
Original film cameras captured still images onto a film reel which when
shown together will create the illusion of movement, usually a camera
would capture 24 frames per second but there has been film shot in 48
frames. This is still the same on digital cameras, the only difference being
that a digital camera stores footage digitally and not on a film reel that
has to be processed in a lab.

Lighting: Lighting is a key factor in the making of a movie, it helps create

atmosphere for a scene and help brighten up the stars to make them look
stunning.
Low Key Lighting: This is a style of lighting used in both film and
photography; usually low key lighting only uses one light, and may use a

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fill light or a simple reflector, Filmmakers who are use low key lighting may
be trying to create the Chiaroscuro effect as they want to create a strong
contrast between light and dark. This type of lighting would be used in
horror movies as it creates a sense of tension and unease in the audience.
2 good examples of movies using low key lighting include The third man, a
film which has been highly praised for its use of lighting, and the Marlon
Brando scene in Apocalypse Now.

High key lighting: This the opposite to Low key lighting, this is whenever a
scene is very well lit with little to no shadows, tis would usually be used in
light hearted films and television shows such as comedies. 2 examples
would be the movie Hitch and TV shows like Everybody Loves Raymond.

Natural light: this is light that is natural and is not made using film lights, movies such
as the new world we intended to be shot entirely with natural light by Terrance Malick
but even then he shot a few scenes using lights, usually external scenes with a lot of
sun would use natural light, for example, the desert scene in se7en.

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Sound: Although sound only started in the mid twenties in cinema, it has now
become the norm in pretty much every movie made to have some sort of sound to
enhance the film that it is no longer seen as a groundbreaking concept. The first
movie to ever use sound was The Jazz Singer released in the year 1927.

There are two types of film sound, Diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound.
Diegetic sound: This sound is heard thru the actions that takes lace during the film
such as characters exchanging dialogue or Foley sounds of explosions and gun
shots.
Non-diegetic: This sound is not as a result of action in the film but rather attached
from the movie, sounds such as music not being played over a montage and
voiceovers would be considered non-diegetic sound.
Editing: Editing is done during post production, this is whenever the director has
completed principle photography and now works with the editor to find the best
footage to use in the final film, sometimes a film might be edited at the same time

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that principle photography is taking place. Here is a few examples of editing

techniques.
Montages: This style of editing was first started by Sergei Eisenstein, A Russian
filmmaker who created soviet propaganda films like Battleship Potemkin and Strike,
the montage is a technique of selecting, editing and piecing together separate pieces
of film to form a continuous form, its a great way to send as much information to the
audience as possible in a quick and entertaining fashion.

Invisible editing: this is whenever the editing of a film is so smooth that it doesnt
break the audiences emersion, its also referred to as seamless editing.
Match cut: then is whenever a cut in film editing between 2 objects or space
graphically match, this helps establish a strong continuity of action and help keep the
audience immersed in whats happening.

Scripting: A script is essential for any film production, without it the director wont
have anything to work off of. The script is usually done during pre production, with
rewrites taking place during principle photography, sometimes a movie like easy rider
will be made without a script fully complete.

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Building A scene: There are many different elements of filmmaking that go into
making a scene, putting aside lighting, cameras and sound you have mise-en-scene
which is basically everything that will be in frame and recorded, this includes the
location to the makeup to the costume design. For example, the 1989 batman movie
directed by Tim burton had a gothic look, visually Batman is a very memorable film
because of the excellent mise-en-scene, a period drama like titanic will also have
strong mise-en-scene as the sets and costumes will come together to create the
early 1900s.

Building a story: There are also various key elements into building a story,
you have to have a basic idea of what you want your show or film to be
about, you need to make sure that you have things such as characters
and locations for your production well thought out, its very true that the
longer you spend in the creative thinking process you better you
production will be as a result. You also need to have a good understanding
of were you want the story to go if you start doing something season one

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of your show for instance you need to make sure you dont stray too far
from the shows original idea, for example, in a show like scrubs, you can
decide just to change the location from a hospital to a office complex
because then the shows main appeal would be lost.

Audience
It is important to know whom your target audience before you make a v
show of film, this is a business after all and if you cant attract people to
your product then you film or television show will not succeed. Production
companies do a lot of research in audiences and categorise them.
Lifestyle: Sometimes a production company will create a product aimed at
a certain demographic depending on what they enjoy to do in live, for
example, a production company may create a TV show like the chew
which focuses on food and lifestyle topics. While something like a exercise
video would be aimed at people who want to live a healthy lifestyle.
Social status: Production companies will categorise you based on the class
in society and will create products aimed at that particular class.
Age demographics: The age of the viewer lays a big part in the making of
a product for film. For example, movies such as twilight would be aimed at
teenage girls, while movies like transformers would be aimed at teenage
boys. While movies like toy story, although their main target is a child,

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they can also have a universal appeal.

Modes of Address:
This is how the programme presents itself to the public; this can vary depending on
the target audience, if its an older target audience you are making a product for an
older age demographic then it would have actors, news presenters dressed much
more formally, while on the other hand if t was for children the presenter would have
a much more informal approach.

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Conclusion
Overall all of the things that I have covered in this assignment play a vital role in
production and will be extremely helpful to me in the future whenever I am involved
with more productions.