TVD2

DoingTV
Drama
Doing TV Drama
EMC Media Guide
English & Media Centre, 2009
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
Written by Jenny Grahame Edited by Lucy Webster DVD produced by Michael Simons Published by the English and Media Centre, 18 Compton Terrace, London, N1 2UN www.englishandmedia.co.uk 2009 Thanks to all those who have given permission for copyright material to be included in Doing TV Drama: The Guardian for Guilty Verdict on BBC, Timothy Dutton QC, Chairman, Bar Council, Letters, 2nd July 2008, Objection: BBC Drama is Unfair on Us, say Barristers, Sam Jones, 3rd July 2008, Captive Audience, Erwin James, 26th June 2008; Spiked Online for Skins: a Skinful of Stereotypes, Emily Hill, 25th January 2007; David Brennan and Thinkbox for TV and Young People: Thinkbox Research Case Study and The Secret Life of Students: Thinkbox Research Interview; The Independent for Best of British: the Frocks and Fops Weve Loved, Helen Smith, 7th November 2008; The Daily Telegraph for The Naked Truth about Being Young, Stephen Pile, 23rd January 2007; BBC Post-Production Department for Sound Case Study: Creating a Prison Sound-Scape for Criminal Justice (http:// www.bbcresources.com/postproduction/london/sound_criminal_justice.html) and Post-Production Colourgrading for Criminal Justice (http://www.bbcresources.com/about/archive/080624_criminal_justice.html); Jeremy Points and MediaMagazine for the article on Bleak House. BBC for excerpts from Criminal Justice, Cutting It, EastEnders and Oliver Twist Channel 4 and Company Pictures for Skins World Productions for The Cops We would like to thank Kate Harwood and Peter Moat for giving so generously of their time. Many thanks also to Nick Potamitis, Peter Fraser, Jason Mazzochi and Beth Levison for their advice and support. We have made every eort to obtain permission to reproduce all copyrighted material. In the event of inadvertent omissions, we would be happy to rectify the situation at the earliest opportunity.
Please note: websites referenced in the material were checked March 2009.
2 Doing TV Drama
Contents
Contents
Introduction Reading TV Drama: An Unseen Extract
Contents Teachers Notes Activities Resources
4 7
7 8 11 22
Issue-Based Drama: Criminal Justice

Contents and Teachers Notes Activities Resources
33
33 35 45
Youth Drama: Skins

51
51 53 70
Doing Soap: A Production Perspective

Contents and Teachers Notes Activities on EastEnders Resource A (EastEnders) Activities on Brookside Resources B and C (Brookside)
81
81 83 91 92 97
Classic Drama: The Literary Adaptation

99
99 102 114
Realist Drama: The Cops

Overview and Contents Approaches
129
129 130
Glossary Bibliography
135 139
Doing TV Drama
Introduction
Introduction
In common with the other two resources in this series, on Advertising and News, Doing TV Drama is a collection of active classroom approaches and strategies clustered around drama extracts exemplifying generic, contextual and institutional issues central to this much-loved and engaging area of study.
Who is it For?
Students preparing for the unseen textual analysis for AS level across all three Media specifications, and particularly those heading for the OCR AS G322 paper on TV Drama. We have included a number of group activities, models and sample analyses which can be used post-analysis to help students evaluate their own responses. With the accompanying activities, the texts provide structured opportunities to develop the reading, analytic and study skills students will require when tackling any unseen moving-image text, at GCSE or A level. The introductory unit, Reading TV Drama, oers a step-by-step approach to this process, which can be adapted to other unseen activities. The units on Criminal Justice, Classic Drama and Realist Drama include interviews with writers and producers providing informal commentaries on our chosen extracts. In combination with other comparative TV drama texts of your own choice, the extracts could form the starting point of a cross-platform case study in broadcast fiction, a representational study, or the exploration of a number of conceptual areas, from a focus on audiences, to ideas about postmodernity, collective identity, or institutional practices. The unit on Skins illustrates one way of using a case study approach at AS which could be built on synoptically to support the critical perspectives required at A2. At GCSE level, each of these units could provide the core of a portfolio coursework assignment covering media language, representation or audience. Students on Diploma and Nationals courses could start from the research and production exercises oered in each unit, and use the insights gained from these activities as a way into more critical approaches.
Extracts Out of Context

There are particular tensions for the study of TV drama, particularly where students are required to approach an extract out of context. More than many other forms of broadcast TV, the understanding of drama relies on acknowledging a wide range of contextual questions: Where does the text come from, and how does it relate to its longer narrative? What generic or media language conventions does it draw on, and how does it relate to others of its genre? How is it shaped by its broadcast format, schedule slot, or platform? What production processes have been used in its construction and circulation? What functions does it serve for its audiences, and for its producers? The big pedagogic dilemma for teachers of the OCR textual analysis paper in particular is how to acknowledge these crucial questions without detracting from the evidence of the text itself: there has been ongoing debate about how much background knowledge is required to understand the techniques and conventions through which particular types of representation are constructed in a decontextualised extract. The solution we have adopted is to select extracts which cover a range of popular drama formats, to provide light-touch context and support material, and to identify two or three issues or debates posed by each of our chosen extracts. Thus, they can be used in isolation, as part of a wider study, or as the starting point for more advanced A2 theoretical work.
4 Doing TV Drama
Introduction
Starting Points
As the eld of TV drama is so broad and debates so complex, and the requirements of each specication so varied, you will want to supplement the activities in Doing TV Drama with your own material. The following suggestions for simple and economical ways into key areas may be helpful: Key Area, Debate or Issue The breadth and diversity of the genre. Practical Starting Points Card-Sort Game Compile a list of all the TV drama titles available on Freeview over a given week; put on cut-up-able cards. In groups, students categorise them in as many dierent ways as possible (e.g. by genre, schedule, broadcaster, audience, country of origin etc). They may come up with 20+ fertile ground for mapping the eld. Broadcast Ratings Scrutinise position of TV drama in BARB ratings, presented weekly in Broadcast magazine by network, channel, genre, multichannel and audience share (you only need to buy one copy of Broadcast once!). Range of examples especially when students claim not to watch TV. Appointment to View Negotiate a list of class preferences, timetabled over a specic period, and make each student responsible for researching, analysing and presenting a specic text , including selection of a representative 5-minute extract, which the class can use as practice textual analysis where relevant. These could be blogged where appropriate. Where possible, ensure technician or ICT department has recorded each text for student loan. Genre and sub-genre problematising the concept of generic conventions, change and hybridity. The Tube Map Approach In groups, students brainstorm every example (past, present, UK or international, series or serial etc) they can think of around a particular TV drama genre e.g. crime, hospital, literary adaptation, etc. They write titles on post-it notes, categorise, and then attempt to organise them around the model of the London Tube map, where each line might represent a variant, sub-genre, chronology, target audience or other form of grouping endless possibilities. This is hard, but fun, and raises the issues. NB: it helps to start with intersecting examples, which could represent the mainline stations of the map. See notes in Unit 6: Realist Drama for more detail. Institutional contexts not required for unseen analysis, but crucial for students understanding of the role and function of TV drama to broadcasters (see Units 3 and 4). Trailers, Titles, Promos and Websites Multiplatform Approaches While lengthy whole-episode or series screenings may be too time-consuming and diversionary (and are explicitly not required by OCR G322), understanding of TV drama is incomplete without exploring its signicance in audiencebuilding across a variety of platforms.
Doing TV Drama
Introduction
Key Area, Debate or Issue Institutional contexts Practical Starting Points Trailers and Title Sequences oer highly condensed opportunities to practise analysis of technical aspects and representations. Press previews, listings entries, press packs and production company websites are readily accessible and oer lighttouch homework activities while developing independent research skills. Both GCSE and AS specications across all awarding bodies require coverage of cross-media marketing and the potential of ancillary online developments, mobisodes, interactive and non-linear web narratives, etc. Forums, social network groups, virtual communities and newsletters around specic dramas raise issues which are particularly useful for more complex theoretical approaches at A2. Developing analytic skills or, how to avoid death by technical textual analysis. A Varied Diet Where students new to the subject are unfamiliar with moving-image analysis, these skills can be introduced in a variety of dierent ways to avoid mechanical exercises in feature-spotting and grammar-type terminology acquisition. Try: varying starting points e.g. starting with a single still image, a prediction, a brief role-play, a bit of context or an issue to debate staple reading exercises such as playing a brief extract without sound, or with sound only; counting edits or eects (aka Technical Events Test); storyboarding a brief synopsis of action; sequencing or annotating screenshots; re-versioning extracts for dierent audiences, etc. practical exercises e.g. re-editing a short sequence; mash-ups or sweded versions of an extract; reconstructing a sequence with a digital stills camera. Spec-related study skills (see Unit 1). Card Games Try re-usable cards which summarise key macro and micro features required in textual analysis, and key questions to raise around any extract. These are not denitive, or substitutes for explanation or classroom exposition, but aide-memoire-type summaries which can be circulated around small groups as prompts in relation to any TV drama example. Note-Taking Strategies This grey area of moving-image analysis is often neglected, particularly in terms of unseen extracts, where students need recall skills to make detailed audio-visual observations and select appropriate references in relation to key concepts. Most students benet from explicit teaching around the use of mindmaps, spider-diagrams, and visual ways of organising annotations which help them to make connections, draw inferences, link to representational ideas, use examples, etc to incorporate into genuinely analytical rather than simply descriptive writing.
Understanding impact of production processes and technologies (see Unit 4).
6 Doing TV Drama
Reading TV Drama
An Unseen Extract
1. Reading TV Drama
Contents
Teachers Notes 1. Unseen Viewing Strategies to prepare for textual analysis. page 8 page 11
2.
Analysing an Unseen Drama Extract page 12 A three-part analysis of an extract from Cutting It with a breakdown of dierent issues to cover in a written textual analysis. From Detailed Description to Big Picture Analysis page 14 Bullet point notes on the four areas of technical analysis required for unseen exploration. Doing Analysis via Practical Work page 18
3.
4.
Task 1: Directors Commentary page 18 Creating a still-image textual analysis with voiceover, using screenshots, and/or a slideshow program such as PicturePower 3, PowerPoint, Photostory or iMovie. Task 2: A Sweded Re-make page 19 of the Cutting It Extract Reconstructing a low-tech version of the Cutting It extract as a hands-on way into critical analysis. Task 3: The Text: A Two-Lesson Group page 20 Screenwriting Exercise Brief screenwriting task around a 60-second scenario in a range of drama genres. Resources page 22 Three sets of photocopiable cut-up-able cards, which could be used throughout the pack in dierent ways, covering: A: Macro Analysis Key TV Drama Questions B: Micro Analysis Technical Codes and Conventions C: TV Drama Genres Key Features D: E: Transcribed Script Cutting It Extract Series of Screenshots for Cutting It Extract These screenshots are also available as both a slideshow on the DVD and as individual jpeg images in the Cutting_It_Assets folder. The Contexts, the Cast, the Curlers
F:
Doing TV Drama
Reading TV Drama
Teachers Notes
This introductory unit aims to develop skills of moving-image analysis for use both in classroom study and in unseen contexts. The extract oered here is from Cutting It, a BBC1 prime-time hairdressing drama series. Its important to emphasise that this is not a guessing game, although students may recognise the series or the casting. To de-familiarise the viewing experience, weve used the nal sequence from the penultimate episode of the nal series. The extract is highly conventional and chosen for its wide range of familiar technical features, narrative enigmas and melodramatic impact. Starting from an Instant Recall activity, where students make immediate personal responses to this extremely accessible extract, they are then oered a structure for organising their ideas, using a system of prompts on photocopiable cards, a transcription of the screenplay, and screenshots. NB: The cards are reproduced on pages 22-26. They need photocopying onto sti paper, cutting out and folding down the dotted line; use a dab of glue or a staple to create doublesided cards. Note that these cards are not intended to be definitive or exhaustive; you may prefer to use these as the starting point for creating your own. The cards are generic, so you could re-use them where relevant with dierent extracts (and, with minor adjustments, other TV genres).
The Big Picture Cards for Macro Analysis (Resource A page 22)
These require students to speculate about broad features of narrative, potential back story, genre, and audience appeal, derived from their rst viewing. These aspects inevitably underpin an understanding of the text, whether or not they require referencing in an exam context.
The Character and Dialogue Cards (Resource A page 23)

These aspects have deliberately been separated out. While they are usually the rst things students will want to talk about, and almost certainly key to their identication with the text, they are paradoxically problematic because: as in English, students often tend to discuss characters as real people rather than constructions represented onscreen by a collaborative combination of casting, performance, screenplay and direction. Inevitably, the more skilful the construction and performances, the more emotionally engaging the drama, and therefore the harder it is for students to analyse. students new to media often over-emphasise the signicance of dialogue/script at the expense of mise-en-scne and other audio-visual aspects of meaning and representation; it is important to address this early on, so that when they come to texts which are particularly rich in dialogue, talk and performance are analysed in a wider context.
The Technical Aspects Cards for Micro Analysis (Resource B page 24)
These will form the backbone of an unseen textual analysis, and are central to an understanding of the construction of the text but: they must be discussed in relation to representation and their role in creating meaning. the use of examples is crucial to demonstrate focused and analytic responses rather than vague generalisation; substantial marks are allocated for this. theres a very ne line between detailed illustration and descriptive featurespotting. Weve used screenshots in this early practice exercise to help prompt students recall of key moments; you may wish to do some study skills preparation in helping them to organise note-making or mind-mapping approaches which will help them to make connections between specic features and their impact
8 Doing TV Drama
Reading TV Drama
and representational signicance. The thumbnail models below might be useful templates for note-taking practice; they encourage structured observation but also allow for analytic connections to be made between dierent features and broader representational issues. students rarely have problems in identifying camera language, shot types and aspects of mise-en-scne; however features of sound design and editing are frequently poorly understood, and are undervalued as carriers of meaning. These areas may require particular attention, whether in an exam context or as part of coursework. The same applies to the specialist terminology required at this level, which is often used inaccurately in relation to editing and sound.
Camera Sound
REPRESENTATION
Editing
Camera
Shot/angle
Mise-en-scne
Sound
Diegetic Non-diegetic
Movement
Music PoV Dialogue
GENDER
Locations Costume Lighting
Transitions
Editing
Mise-en-Scne
From Detailed Description to Big Picture Analysis (page 14)

This activity explores the dierence between descriptive feature-listing and a more grounded analysis, based on a minutely-observed account of the Cutting It sequence, written by a Year 13 student. The account is typically overloaded, and far more detailed than students would have time for in an examination context; while it makes some highly appropriate and perceptive observations, it demonstrates a classic example of someone not seeing the wood for the trees. Its oered here as a problem-solving exercise: what should Marina do to boil down her insights to a manageably structured prose response? The aims here are specically not to provide a model answer, but: to provide a sample of the types of points students might be expected to draw from the sequence for students to experiment with a repertoire of dierent strategies for selecting the most relevant material for a representational analysis. In later activities, students could be encouraged to revisit these approaches in peer-marking of each others practice analyses, and in editing their own work.
Doing TV Drama
Reading TV Drama
Doing Analysis via Practical Work (page 18)
We hope that schools and colleges with adequate facilities will want to incorporate as much practical work as possible into the study of TV drama both as an analytic tool and as skillsbuilding exercises towards more extended production coursework tasks; experienced Media teachers will already have a range of tried-and-tested approaches. The three preliminary exercises oered here are not intended as nished production work, but as optional work-inprogress analytic exercises. Based on the assumption that analysis and production are interrelated, and that an understanding of meaning is best acquired through actually making it, they could be adapted for use with any of the extracts in this pack. Dont feel you have to do them all in this section! Task 1 Directors Commentary (page 18) This task is surprisingly dicult to synchronise when organised around a live, real-time screening of an extract; however, the use of screenshots in a low-tech slideshow format allows greater exibility, the opportunity to pause and deconstruct key visual images, and the ability to revisit, re-sequence or annotate key frames alongside a considered voiceover analysis. It also allows students to explore the eect of editing in a simple still-image movie, before moving on to their own production work. The activity can be replicated by grabbing frames from any of the other extracts in Doing TV Drama, using a program like Snapz or WinDVD (ask your ICT Department), and importing them into the PowerPoint, Photostory, or the DIY module of EMCs PicturePower 3. Task 2 A Sweded Re-make of the Cutting It Extract (page 19) As above, this activity will not result in nished work; the point is to re-create the text with a single camera, minimal editing, and whatever comes to hand. Nevertheless, as long as it is undertaken in the spirit of creative experiment, and is kept to a tight time-limit, its a hugely entertaining problem-solving activity which forces students to experience by default the logistics of the shoot, the functions of continuity editing and the importance of sound and mise-en-scne. Its also a genuine test of students ingenuity and resourcefulness (and sense of humour). The activity would be particularly telling with the sequence from Skins, or the prison sequence from Criminal Justice. Task 3 The Text: a Two-Lesson Group Screenwriting Exercise (page 20) This very light-touch exercise, which could be undertaken alongside any of the units in Doing TV Drama, puts students in the position of actively constructing the technical features they have so far only deconstructed in order to: focus on the role of mise-en-scne and camera language rather than dialogue build visual detail within a single limited scenario rather than construct an extended narrative explore the way a single object (here the mobile phone) might have dierent symbolic signicance across a range of generic contexts. The activity can be undertaken, depending on available time and facilities, in storyboard form, as an animatic, a still-image movie, a full in-camera-edited video shoot, or with postproduction editing as required; the outcome is less important than the debrieng on page 21.
10 Doing TV Drama
Reading TV Drama
Reading TV Drama: an Unseen Extract

Youre about to watch a moment of crisis from a popular TV drama series. Youll have no background information about which series it comes from, which channel its broadcast on, which audiences its targeted at, or exactly when it was made. All you will know is that it is a British production, made since 2000 for British TV, and that the sequence is 4 minutes 23 seconds long. Identifying the elements which stay in your mind after youve watched it is a useful rst viewing strategy for any moving-image extract.
1. Unseen Viewing
Instant Recall: a Three-fold Response
1. 2. Watch the sequence straight through without writing anything down. In the frames below, create quick storyboard sketches of three camera-shots which struck you as particularly important or memorable.
3.
Now note down three aspects of the soundtrack which stood out for you for example, lines of dialogue (characters conversation), a particular sound-eect, or a musical motif. Finally, jot down three adjectives which describe the way you personally felt about the sequence.
4.
Sharing Your Response

1. Compare the three shots which stood out for you how similar or dierent were they? Talk about: the type of shot, angle and position of the camera in each the viewpoint of each (whose perspective were you looking from?) the impact or emotion created by each what makes each memorable. 2. 3. Do the same exercise with your three memories of the soundtrack. Finally, combine your adjectives into a single list and use this to pull together your ideas about the clip, for example: what type of TV drama might it be from themes which seem to be emerging your feelings about the extract.
Doing TV Drama
11
Reading TV Drama
2. Analysing an Unseen Drama Extract
The following questions will help you analyse any unseen extract, or any sequence you are watching for the rst time. 1. The big picture overview: whats in the structure and narrative of the sequence as a whole. These are sometimes called macro elements: what its about and the story its telling the kind of drama it might come from the characters and performances of the cast the particular representations of people, groups, events or ideas, and their potential impact on the viewer. 2. The technical aspects of the production, or micro elements, which construct that impact: the use of dierent camera shots and angles the lighting and colour tones used in the sequence the locations, props and mise-en-scne, and their design the soundtrack the editing of the sequence. 3. Representation: how these micro technical aspects have been used by the producers of the text to construct ideas and values around the portrayal of social groups, places, events, or debates.
The unseen extract youve been discussing is from Cutting It, a popular prime-time BBC drama series about the lives and loves of hairdressers, rst broadcast in 2002. You will nd some further background details in Resource F (page 31). In this activity youre going to investigate the way the macro and micro elements of the Cutting It extract t together to create meaning for the audience.
A First Reading: the Big Picture

To break down the process, start by focusing on the macro aspects. 1. In your group read through Resource D: the transcript of the script extract for the scene (page 27). Stick it in the middle of a sheet of A3 paper.
Your teacher will then give you the rst of four cards. On one side is a key aspect of any TV drama, and its denition. On the other side is a series of questions to apply to this extract. 2. 3. Read your card carefully. Using the script to remind you of what happens in this scene, discuss the questions posed on your card and make very brief notes round the extract. Illustrate your points by drawing arrows to examples in the script. Now swap cards and, in a dierent colour, do the same with your second card. Keep swapping until you have commented on all four cards.
4.
Characters and Dialogue

You may have noticed something missing from your discussions so far: characters and their dialogue. Your teacher will now give you cards which raise some issues about: the style and impact of dialogue the characters, casting and performance. 5. Discuss these two aspects together as a whole class, and annotate the extract with your shared comments. English & Media Centre, 2009
12 Doing TV Drama
Reading TV Drama
The Micro Approach: Technical Codes (DVD)
So far youve compiled a broad general picture of the narrative, shape and sub-genre of your sequence the macro approach. The script extract youve been analysing covers dialogue, locations and basic action but theres little else to remind you of what the sequence actually looks like. To get inside the sequence and full the requirements of your analysis, you need to apply the micro approach, focusing on the technical codes the producers have used to construct expectations, emotional impact and representations. Your teacher will give your group another card, outlining one of four technical micro aspects of the text: Camerawork Sound Editing Mise-en-scne You will also be given a sheet of screenshots (Resource E on page 29). 1. 2. 3. Read your card carefully. Watch the extract again, this time with a specic focus on the micro aspect you have been given. After watching, discuss the questions on the other side of your card, ready to report back to the class. Find a screenshot to illustrate each observation.
For example: if your group is looking at mise-en-scne, you might refer to the repeated shots of rings, and what they signify, or the positioning of the ower stall outside the hospital if youre considering sound, you might note the screenshot where particular music rst appears, and its eect, or the impact of particular sound-eects. 4. Feed back the main points of your discussion, illustrating your analysis with reference to the relevant screenshots.
Representation (DVD)
The nal part of the analysis investigates how both macro and micro elements combine to construct representations of people, groups, ideas, issues, or places. 1. Re-form into a new group, consisting of one member of each of the four technical code groups. Choose one of the following representation ideas to investigate: gender relationships health romance. 2. 3. Watch the sequence once more, focusing on your representation idea. Using your technical code notes prepare a short group presentation which answers the following question, referring to specic examples from the extract only:
Discuss the ways in which the extract uses camera shots, editing, sound, miseen-scne to construct representations of . [insert your chosen focus here].
Doing TV Drama
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Reading TV Drama
3. From Detailed Description to Big Picture Analysis
In an unseen textual analysis exam, youll be asked to explain how and why the micro technical codes have been used to construct particular representations. You will need to have a good grasp of the detail but will also need to take a step back and construct a condent and coherent analysis of the extract as a whole. The notes on pages 15-17 were written by Marina, an A2 Media student. They are very detailed but do they explain the ways the representations are constructed? 1. Read Marinas notes and, on your own: highlight each point that tackles how the micro technical codes construct representations cross through anything which does not deal with the use of micro elements to construct particular representations. 2. Compare your decisions with a partner and together agree which points from each area could be used to answer the question.
How could you help Marina turn her detailed descriptive observations into a coherent analysis of the way representations are constructed? Below is a list of strategies which might be useful. 3. 4. 5. Read the suggestions and discuss which of them you would recommend Marina to try, or come up with ideas of your own. Using your edit of Marinas detailed log, experiment with one of these ideas as a way into writing a short analysis of the representations in the Cutting It extract. Feed back your views on the approach you tried out. As you practise unseen analyses, experiment with dierent strategies to nd the one which suits you best. a. Use different coloured pens to identify observations which are analytical and those which are simply descriptive. b. Sum up Marinas ideas about representation in the extract in four to six key sentences. Illustrate the key sentences with points taken from her notes. c. Choose no more than three points from each area that could form the core of a good answer and practise writing a paragraph which analyses the way in which micro elements from dierent areas work together to construct representation. d. Identify one aspect of the representation that seems particularly important and nd one key analytical point that contributes to this representation. From this key point draw arrows to relevant points under other headings. e. Write each of the highlighted points on a separate post-it note, then experiment with moving the post-its about in order to: cluster together points from dierent areas which seem to work together to construct a particular representation rank them in order of importance. f. Write an overview paragraph, then take each of the micro elements in turn to show how each contributes to the representation. g. Write an overview and four or five topic sentences. Illustrate the topic sentences with examples showing how the micro elements work together to construct particular a representation. h. Practise explaining orally to a partner the ways in which the micro elements work together to construct the representation before trying to get it down in writing. i. Shortlist no more than eight points from the notes, then draw a spidergram to show how these work together. j. Brainstorm your own first impressions about representation in the extract. In pencil add ideas from memory about how this is constructed. Then go back to Marinas logging, and select relevant details which support this analysis.
14 Doing TV Drama
Reading TV Drama
The Cutting It Extract: Marinas Textual Analysis Notes
Camerawork
Establishing shot: two characters travelling in a taxi; urban trafc clearly visible through back windscreen a city location. From the dialogue and the lack of an establishing shot, the sequence probably takes place in the middle of an episode rather than the beginning, as we have not seen them enter the cab, and dont know where they have come from or where they are going. This sets up a mystery or enigma. Framing: mid-shot two-shot, with the woman leaning on the mans shoulder, indicating a close relationship; this is conrmed when he takes her hand and kisses it twice, establishing their relationship is romantic or sexual rather than just friendly. Characters framed against the cabs windscreen, both looking into distance, rather than at each other, suggesting some emotional distance between them? Dialogue, indicates they seem to be apologising to each other. Medium close-up shots emphasise the seriousness of this conversation. Insert cutaway mid-close-up of womans clasped hands then caressing his hand, suggests she has forgiven him, and they are even more intimately involved. Also draws attention to a ring on her hand wedding ring, showing shes married. Conversation cuts between motivated close-ups she tries to discuss future plans, but he wont; mystery continues when he asks where they are going, as she gazes out of the window. Wide-shot of a street scene ambulance crossing from left to right; as it exits the frame a black taxi arrives in the foreground from right to left. Characters alight in medium-shot, as he asks why they are there. Over-the-shoulder shot of the woman, en route to see a Consultant hinted at by the ambulance shot, indicating they are at a hospital (answering enigma of where theyre going, but not why). Big close-ups and two-shots, emphasising seriousness of visit; dialogue reveals theyve just got married, and she is hoping for good news another enigma? Shallow focus bustle of trafc in the background contrasts with two-shots to underline drama/tension. She kisses him; cut on action to wider shot as she leaves, crossing road towards hospital. Cut to his serious close-up in prole anxiety. The next section cuts rapidly between inside and outside, to indicate parallel action. Interior location (Consultants ofce) shot from high angle; crane shot composed with overhead lighting against a darker background framing conversation from above emphasises separation of patient and doctor across the desk. Brightly lit outdoor establishing wide-shot of the waiting man outside caf; cut to an extreme close-up of his hands playing with ring identical to the womans, and back to a medium close-up as he looks down at it. Reinforces their love; contrasts happy event (wedding) with the serious implications of her diagnosis. Cut back to interior; over-the-shoulder close-up shot of a hand closing a folder (marked condential); tilt upwards to include mid-shot of woman opposite, halfsmiling. Tension increased: good news or bad? Cut back to previous close-up of man smiling at his ring. Cut back again to slow pan round from behind the doctors back into close-up of womans tearful smile. Enigma maintained is she cured, or is there is nothing more to be done? Cut back to mid-shot of the man stirring coffee, rising slowly; cut to his PoV to the road and hospital as he sees her emerge from the gate, obscured by trafc. English & Media Centre, 2009
Doing TV Drama
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A series of rapid motivated cuts follow, back to him as he rises, watching her; cut back to her from his PoV in a panning medium long-shot as she composes herself why? She pauses in medium-shot to call Guess what. Cut to mid-shot of his reaction, and back to her as she steps into the road, instantly obscured by a passing bus. Cut back to his mid-shot, tilting upwards as he rises from his seat, with a jump cut to his stunned face. Slow-motion PoV shot of another passing bus, cut back to his face and then back to his PoV of the opposite pavement where she lies spread-eagled. A split-second close-up jump-cuts to a slow-motion long-shot as he leaps up and runs to her, ignoring trafc. Mid-shot from behind him cuts immediately to a hand-held PoV shot emphasising his panic as he runs across the road towards her. His approach shot from a low angle (her point of view) as he leans down over her; quick cut back to a zoom into her face from his PoV. Close-up high-angle shot, framed by his hand on her face, emphasising diagonal composition from bottom left to top right of the screen; this shot is counterpointed with a matching shot from top left to bottom right, and followed by an over-theshoulder shot from his PoV as they speak. As she (presumably) dies, cut to previous low-angle close-up of his agonised face, then to a slow zoom from a higher angle shot of him embracing her. High-angle crane shot of the couple prone, framed diagonally across the screen surrounded by owers, before fading to black to indicate closure of the sequence, if not the episode. Pace of the editing varies throughout the sequence. Slow opening shots, to establish the loving caring relationship between the characters; speeds up through shot-reverse-shot as they discuss the past to emphasise their mutual forgiveness. Viewer positioned as an impartial observer; slightly more attention given to the woman, gazing outside the frame, suggesting that at this point she is both in control of the relationship, and the key to the narrative enigma. As cab draws up at the hospital, we are positioned outside the action; with conversation on the pavement, the edits are more frequent, again with a slight emphasis on her face as she insists on attending her appointment alone; this suggests that she is actually the more powerful gure in the relationship, or the more important player at this point. The style and pace of the editing becomes more urgent and emotive. From the apparent real time of the taxi conversation, the parallel editing compresses the time-scale, highlighted by the extra-diegetic music track; with the contrast of the indoor/outdoor, dark/daylight lighting this heightens dramatic tension as we await the results of the mysterious consultation. Framing of her face and the focus on her ambivalent expression smiling through tears prolongs anticipation. Rapid cross-cutting of the nal sequence further builds up emotional impact. Brief slow-motion shots, used twice to extend tension and vary pace, as the man witnesses the accident, and as he runs across the road, again. Prolonging the suspense, shattered by sudden return to real time with the passing trafc and the hand-held PoV shot. Careful graphic matching of high and low-angled PoV shots position the viewer at the centre of the drama; the woman prompts the nal dialogue, and seems, even now, to be in control, while he falls to pieces over her corpse in the nal aerial shot.
Editing

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Sound
Naturalistic soundscape creates sense of realism during rst part of the sequence, with the diegetic engine noise of the cab, and the heightened street noise outside the hospital. No extra-diegetic music is heard, to focus on the dialogue which reveals the couples relationship. As the woman enters the hospital, change in tone created by low strains of synthesised music, followed by rhythmic percussion; lush echo and child-like female voice of the song with yearning lyrics (about leaving, being free and remembering), emphasise feminine emotion, placing viewer on the side of the female character? Music becomes more electronic as it fades, replaced by amplied street noises leading up to the crash, signalled by a single brief sound-effect of squealing brakes, followed by the reverberating sound of shattering glass. Sound-effects synchronised with close-ups of the mans face a bridge to distract viewers from implausible fact that the bus which caused the accident has already disappeared. After the accident, soundscape becomes symbolic of mans reaction: echoing ambient silence, mufed heartbeat covering his PoV shot across the road. Blaring horn synchronised with the cut from PoV to running shot brings back the real world symbolises the mans stunned shock and horried return to reality. The last few words accompanied by diegetic sound only, but a mournful instrumental score introduced in closing moments, with a single piano motif as we fade to black.
Mise-en-scne
Taxi suggests both afuence of characters (they can afford it) and a sense of purpose (they have somewhere to go). She pays the driver in control of the situation (and the purse strings maybe?). Trafc through taxi window indicates an urban location (accents indicate somewhere northern?). Couple well-groomed and stylishly dressed indication of status and class? His smart suit, and her make-up, hair and expensive looking coat, over a oaty print dress, suggest they are professionals, and/or have been to a function. Repeated focus on gold rings indicate recent marriage and commitment to each other. Hospital signalled by ower stall outside, heavy railings and institutional architecture, on a busy main road buses suggest northern location. Warm golden lighting for two-shot close-ups contrasting with shadow and pastel tones of cab. Consulting room lit from above and surrounded in darkness, to emphasise it as a place of drama and tension; size of room and medical paraphernalia on the desk suggests possibly a private consultation on a serious health issue; closing of green folder on desk suggests either a nal diagnosis or the all-clear. Contrast between dramatic lighting of consulting room and airy brightness of outdoor caf highlights balance between fear and hope. Scattering of owers around her body reinforces pathos of closing shot.
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4. Doing Analysis via Practical Work
In examination, unseen analysis is always required in written form. However, when you are learning about the ways in which texts are constructed, production exercises can provide really fun and memorable ways into analysis. The following three tasks which ask you to produce audio or moving-image texts which will give you hands-on experience of the ways technical codes work to construct meanings and representations.
Task 1: Directors Commentary

1. Look at Resource E (pages 29-30), a sheet of screenshots covering the main shots from the Cutting It sequence.
The same images are provided in a slideshow gallery on the DVD, and as a folder of assets for you to work with on computer. You will need access to this folder of assets, a computer and a software package such as iPhoto, PicturePower 3, PowerPoint or Photostory. Your task is to create a Directors Commentary with a voiceover and still-image presentation of the sequence. This audio-visual commentary on the extract should explain to viewers how the sequence has been constructed to create meaning, using camerawork, sound, mise-en-scne, and editing.
What To Do
2. Upload the folder of images into the program you are using. As a group, decide which of the following processes you are going to use: scroll straight through the images chronologically, to analyse the sequence as it unfolds, sharing the voiceover between you start with selected frames to summarise the big picture of the sequence, then each take one of the technical aspects of the text in turn, selecting shots which particularly illustrate your points and writing the voiceover to go with it break the sequence down into sections, with each member of the group recording a voiceover for a particular section use written captions to mark each new aspect, or, more creatively, to draw attention to aspects such as sound which might be harder to illustrate a combination of these ideas or one of your own. Dont be afraid of using the same image more than once, or pausing on a single image while you comment on framing, camera position, and so on. 3. 4. Once youve decided how to organise your commentary, return to your notes on the sequence, and start scripting your voiceover. When youve completed your Directors Commentary, screen it and compare it with other groups.
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Task 2: A Sweded Re-make of the Cutting It Extract
Heres an opportunity to have a bit of fun with the (rather cheesy) Cutting It script extract. Youre going to create a do-it-yourself version of the sequence, using nothing but yourselves, the script, a single video camera, and any props you can lay your hands on. 1. First, read the denition of sweding, below.
What is a Sweded Movie?

Sweding is the name given to the process of re-making, or creating a summary of, a popular movie using a camcorder, with no editing, with each scene shot in a single take, on zero budget. Upon completion the lm has been sweded. The term and the concept originated in the Michel Gondry lm Be Kind Rewind, in which a couple of characters accidentally erase all the videotapes at a video rental store, and re-make all the movies themselves. These versions become popular with customers, who are told they take longer to arrive and cost more because they come from Sweden. Hence, the lms are referred to as sweded. Urban Dictionary You can watch some sweded mini-movies on http://www.swededmovies.org/ and http://swededlms.com
What To Do
Your sweded version of the Cutting It sequence must stick as possible to the actual camera shots and edits used in the original. You have one hour to plan and shoot your swede. 2. In a group of ve or six, allocate the roles for your sweded production. These include: Cast: Gavin Allie The (silent) Consultant Crew: Camera operator/s responsible for shooting the sequence in chronological order, using the screenshots on pages 29-30 as a guide. Sound artist responsible for recording dialogue and orally providing any non-diegetic sound or sound-eects. 3. As a group, decide whether you will play the extract straight i.e. for high drama, as in the broadcast version or with variations such as role reversals, parody or stylised performances. Problem-solve what location you will use around the school or college, and any props necessary for example, how will you represent the taxi, the caf, the bus etc? How will your sound artist re-create the emotional music score during the montage sequence?
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After Sweding
5. Screen and compare the dierent sweded versions of the sequence. Afterwards, discuss what the experience has taught you about: camera skills, and the logistics of shooting a sequence like this the role of editing in creating meaning the signicance of mise-en-scne, props and location the type of narrative you have been working with.
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Task 3: The Text: a Two-Lesson Group Screenwriting Exercise
You are going to write a group screenplay for a 60-second scene from a TV drama and produce a working storyboard for your scene. You will each be given the same simple scenario for this scene, and a card with the name of a particular type or genre of TV drama, for example soap, crime drama or comedy drama. The screenplay must include: at least 10 camera shots 60 seconds is not very long, but youll need at least that number to create the tension in the scenario no more than 10 words of dialogue. All the drama will be built up through your use of camera language and framing, mise-enscne, sound and editing.
The Scenario
Two friends, A and B, are waiting for an important phone message. The phone rings to deliver a text message. A answers it and reads the text. A shows the text to B. B reads the text, and is visibly upset. B leaves. A is worried.
Stage 1: The Outline

1. 2. 3. First, read the genre card you have been given (see Resource C: Genre Cards on page 26), and discuss how this scenario might be treated in the genre you have been given. Decide the back story to this scene, bearing in mind your genre. Who are the characters? What is the message? Why is it so important? Down the middle of a blank A4 page, write notes for the broad outline of the action in your scene. Use the Cutting It script (pages 27-28) to remind you of the layout of TV drama scripts. Leave lots of space between each note, so you can add in directors instructions, and dialogue if required.
Stage 2: The Fine-tuning

This exercise is not about telling an entire story. Its about constructing a short, non-verbal piece of action and creating an atmosphere. 4. Talk about each of the following, and note details on your outline where relevant. Mise-en-scne Where and when is your sequence set? Decide on an appropriate location and time of day, and any props you might need. Think carefully about what these things could add to the tension or meaning of the scene. For example, shots of a clock showing the passage of time? Close-up of a mobile screen? Camera shots, angles and framing How will you use the position, framing and movement of your camera to construct an atmosphere of waiting and anxiety? What types of shot will emphasise tension or fear? Can you convey mood or character through the height and angle of your camera? Sound You have a maximum of 10 words of dialogue (you may choose to have none at all). What other sound will you need? Music score, ambient silence, lyrics? Soundeects for example, a clock ticking, a ring-tone, heavy breathing, etc? Editing Pace will you use long slow takes, short cuts, or a variety? What about visual eects to show the passage of time or add tension? Juxtaposition of shots invisible, matched-on-action edits, or jump-cut or montage edits?
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Stage 3: Storyboarding
5. Break your outline script down into at least 10 dierent camera shots and storyboard them. You must visually represent the kind of shots you want to see including props or location features. Indicate any camera movement within each shot by arrows up/down for tilting, right/ left (or vice versa) for panning shots. Show any editing transitions with coloured arrows from one frame into the next. Note down on the right-hand-side next to the appropriate frame how sound will be used including extra-diegetic sound (music, eects, etc) and dialogue.
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Stage 4: Test it Out

9. Depending on your schools facilities and the time you have available, you could do one of the following production tasks. Whichever outcome you go for, the aim is to give you a sense of whether your ideas have or havent worked, rather than produce a nal polished product. Create an animatic. This process is often used by creatives in the advertising industry to demonstrate early ideas for TV campaigns to clients. Take a series of digital stills of your groups storyboard, one for each frame, and upload them into a program like iPhoto, PicturePower 3, MovieMaker, Photostory or even PowerPoint. Edit them together to run as a sequence, adding sound as required. Shoot a still-image movie. Cast and shoot your storyboarded sequence as a series of digital stills, using members of your group as A and B, and real props. Then upload and edit as above. Cast, rehearse, and shoot your storyboarded sequence, then try editing it in MovieMaker or iMovie.
Stage 5: Share and Compare

Youve all worked to the same scenario, and the same constraints; but each group played with a dierent drama sub-genre. So how dierent are your nal sequences? 10. Watch the different sequences and talk about the dierences in terms of: back story and narrative (how did the sub-genre inuence the sort of sequence you produced?) the use of camera (types of shot, angle and movement) mise-en-scne (how did choice of locations, props and visual motifs vary according to sub-genre?) sound (what variations in use of dialogue, music, sound-eects?) editing (harder to evaluate in a 60-second sequence, but were there intended dierences in pace and ow of cuts? Do the sequences use dierent editing techniques to create the tension? Is the editing style invisible, creating the illusion of realism, or deliberately disjointed or disruptive?) genre (how did the sub-genre inuence your choices of mise-en-scne, sound, camerawork, etc?).
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Resource A: Macro Analysis Key Drama Questions
Back Story
The history or context behind a situation The background cause and events of a narrative. The biographical history of a fictional character, usually revealed as the narrative develops. The previous experiences of characters which contribute to their motivations and reactions. Events which have led up to a particular narrative moment. Information that helps flesh out the skeleton of a screenplay, for example an accident in a characters past that informs the persons actions in the present. Without the help of background information, what can you tell from a rst viewing of this extract about the following elements of the back story: the characters and their relationship the events leading up to this sequence the structure of this sequence what might happen after this sequence?
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The TV Drama Genre
The type, variety or category of TV drama to which a text belongs, e.g. soap, hospital or crime, drama-doc, etc Each genre has its own specic codes, conventions, narrative structures, visual styles, motifs and themes Linking a drama to a particular genre helps: audiences to know what to expect producers to market their dramas to the right audiences. Dierent drama genres often sub-divide into further sub-genres e.g. in crime drama: procedural, forensic investigations, detective-led, undercover cops, etc. Genres change over time, to reect changes in society and culture. Many dramas are hybrid i.e. they contain a mixture of elements from dierent drama genres. What kind of TV drama might this come from? What makes it special to television (rather than lm)? What other genres of fictional programme does it remind you of e.g. soap? Medical drama? Actionadventure drama? Real-life drama-documentary? Are there visual motifs, images, characters or ideas which link the extract to a particular genre of TV drama? What clues to genre can you nd in the visual style and pace of the extract?
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Narrative Sequence
A series of shots linked by time, place, and action that forms a coherent unit with a start, middle, and end. TV drama narratives are closely linked to a particular scheduled format. Narrative formats can comprise: One-off single drama. High production values, usually 60-90 minutes, often on a controversial or current topic. Mini-series, two-parter or five-nights. Often event TV with a story structure of peaks and clihangers, and big budget and promotion. Serial. Continuing narrative over several episodes, with a narrative resolution. Series. (Usually) 60-minute self-contained dramas, with regular repertory characters and locations. Soap. Usually 30-minute continuing dramas with multiple storylines based around the life of a community. What actually happens in this sequence? Whats the shape of the sequence can you represent it in a diagram? Is there a turning point or crisis in the sequence? Is the sequence resolved (completed) or to be continued? Where in the longer narrative might this extract t and why?
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The Audience
Audiences are the Holy Grail for broadcasters. However brilliant the idea or concept, all TV drama is commissioned with specific audiences in mind. Audiences will read and make sense of the drama in different ways according to their gender, race, class, age-group etc. They may not respond to drama in the ways the producers intended. Broadcasters constantly look for new ways to increase audience share and boost ratings. Scheduling and promotion of drama is crucial in attracting audiences. Audiences are increasingly powerful in: shaping producers agendas communicating their responses interacting with, or contributing to drama. Who might be the primary demographic audience for this sequence in terms of gender, age, social class group etc and how do you know? What techniques does the sequence use to attract, talk to, and appeal to, audiences? What ideas, values or messages might the audience take away from this sequence? How might different audience groups respond to the sequence? How do audiences access the sequence e.g. through broadcast schedules, DVD, iPlayer, video on demand, YouTube and what dierence might this make?
Characters and Performance

Characters in TV Drama are not real people! They are constructed representations. Audiences may respond in dierent ways to characters, depending on: the role they play within the narrative the conventions of the drama genre the style and intentions of the producers the quality and style of their performance the viewers own values, age, experiences etc. Characters dont have to be realistic or psychologically motivated for audiences to relate to them. Who is in the sequence? (Think in terms of gender, age, class, ability/disability, race/ethnicity, etc.) Do characters represent particular ideas, values, types or stereotypes? Are the actors familiar, or associated with other media? If so, which? What can you assume about the characters, and their relationships to each other, from dress, body language, accessories, framing? Whats their role in the story within this sequence? Are some more important than others? What style of performance is involved e.g. realistic, melodramatic, stylised, comic, etc? With whom do you identify or sympathise, if anyone, and why?
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Dialogue
The lines spoken by characters whether in a TV drama, on film or in literary fiction. Dialogue is not always the most important aspect of a screenplay. The style and realism of dialogue varies according to the genre of drama. TV drama dialogue is always crafted and rehearsed, however random or spontaneous it may seem. Dialogue has many different functions to construct aspects of a characters personality, to provide specic narrative information, to create atmosphere or represent a profession or area of knowledge, as in the specialist vocabulary of medical dramas. Realistic dialogue has its own conventions such as overlapping speech, mumbling, slang, use of jargon. What kind of talk is it? Conversation, argument, instruction, gossip? Does it reveal aspects of the characters personality, or their relationships, or is it intended to further the plot? Whats the talk for? To demonstrate the relationship between characters? To ll in gaps in the plot? To move the story on? To create a sense of place or time? Is it scripted, or improvised and how do you know? How does it dier from spontaneous speech? Does the dialogue feel authentic (i.e. real) or is it stylised, deliberately old-fashioned or mechanical?
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Resource B: Micro Analysis Technical Codes and Conventions
Mise-en-scne
The hugely important design aspects of a production: locations, lighting, colour, props, clothing and make-up. Production design is crucial in shaping visual impact and meaning. Originally used in the theatre, the French term mise-enscne literally means putting on stage. In lm or TV, it refers to everything that appears on screen, and the way it is arranged sets, props, costumes, colour palette and lighting. Mise-en-scne can also include the positioning/ movement of actors on the set or within the individual frame (called blocking). Usually involves collaboration between the Wardrobe, Properties, Lighting, Set Design, Make-up and Art Departments. What dierent settings are used in the sequence? Interior or exterior? Studio-based or shot on location? What information or meanings can you draw from the dierent places in which the action takes place? What objects, props, images or symbols, do you particularly notice in each location, and what associations or ideas do they suggest? How is lighting and shadow used to create meaning in the scene? What colours stand out in the sequence, what associations do they suggest, and what eect do they create? What information can you draw from the ways the characters are dressed, made-up or accessorised?
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Sound
Includes: verbal soundtrack (for example, dialogue, voiceover, narration) sound-effects (for example natural sound, pauses, silence) music score, themes and stings, bridges and motifs ambient sound (such as general background noise used to establish place, and create a sense of realism). Can be: diegetic i.e. a natural part of the ctional world of the narrative; or non-diegetic i.e. added from outside the narrative (e.g. heartbeat, music score, voiceover) in postproduction (created by the Foley artist) synchronous matched to the images on screen, or asynchronous deliberately contradicting the ow of images. List all the dierent types of non-verbal sound you can hear on the soundtrack. Which sounds are diegetic (i.e. part of the narrative action in the world of the drama) and what clues do they give about the characters? Which sounds are non-diegetic (i.e. additional music or sound eects, added to create atmosphere or mood) and what eect do they create? Has music been used, and if so, where, in what form, and why? For example, instrumental sound motifs, a song with meaningful lyrics, a bridging music track which covers the images from one scene to the next, etc?
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Camera: Shots, Angles, Movement, Framing

To establish place and time: establishing shot/master shot; aerial shot. To emphasise character, narrative, relationships: closeup, mid-shot, long-shot, wide-shot, two-shot, over-theshoulder-shot. To construct a subjective point of view through the eyes of a character (PoV shot) or an editorial viewpoint of the action or a character e.g. high, low or canted camera angle. To follow action or focus on significant details e.g. pan, tilt, track, dolly, crane, steadicam, zoom in or out. To frame important details within the shot to create emphasis, mood, tension, balance: deep and shallowfocus shots; framing devices; the rule of thirds. What use has been made of dierent types of camera shot, and why? What kind of shots open and close the sequence, and what is their function? How do the height and angle of the camera contribute to meaning and impact at dierent points of the scene? Camera movement: at what points in the sequence does the camera itself move and what eect does this have on the way we read the action? Framing/composition: does the position and angle of the camera encourage us to read a shot in a particular way? From whose viewpoint are we looking, and what details are we being positioned to notice?
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Editing
The post-production selection, sequencing and joining together of camera shots, sound and/or text. Editing is used: to create a particular visual style, pace or mood to create a narrative sequence, through cutting to construct the illusion of reality through invisible processes such as continuity editing; the 180-degree rule; shot-reverse-shot; match on action; eyeline match to show the passage of time through visual eects or transitions: dissolve, fade in, fade out or to black; wipe, slow motion or fast-forward; short or long takes; ashback to represent simultaneous activity: insert; cutaway, cross-cutting, parallel editing to disrupt or challenge the viewers expectations: jump-cut, montage editing, post-production special eects. Whats the pace and rhythm of editing in the sequence? Try: counting the shots to gauge the variety of shot lengths and variations in pace mapping the edit points in a diagram to get the shape of the sequence. What different types of edit are used at dierent point in the sequence, and why? Is the editing style invisible i.e. a natural ow using conventional continuity techniques or is it disorientating or disjointed and what does this add to the narrative? Are sound and image synchronous or contrapuntal (that is, do the images work with or against each other)? Are particular editing devices or visual effects used, and what is their impact?
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Resource C: TV Drama Genres Key Features
Medical Drama Crime Drama
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Series or serial format Multiple storylines, often interwoven Usually ensemble cast Big themes personal v professional; medical ethics; impact of science on human problems, life and death etc Specialist medical vocabulary Broadly realistic visual style Pacy editing, graphic visual detail
Series or serial format Variety of sub-genres detective drama, police procedural etc, each with dierent narrative styles Usually ensemble cast although sometimes led by a single hero cop Big themes personal v professional; social problems; topical law and order issues Specialist vocabulary Broadly realistic visual style
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Soap
Continuing serial format usually 30 minutes Multiple interwoven storylines, and large regular cast, drawing on recognisable character-types Domestic settings, usually realistic locations within a particular community Balance of everyday trivia, humour and high drama Clihangers and melodramatic story arcs Topical references and regular coverage of current social issues or problems
Issue-based Drama
A big topical problem, theme or debate e.g. the legal system, corruption, terrorism, the environment etc Range of naturalistic characters, often representing dierent points of view in the debate Realist visual style and locations Often authored by inuential writers and cast Often water-cooler TV to promote media controversy
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Fantasy Drama
High-end popular (often) family drama with very high production values and huge budgets Futuristic dystopian storylines, with recognisable human and social elements Archetypal characters, often hero and side-kick Elaborate use of special eects and futuristically-constructed mise-enscne Big environmental or philosophical themes
Youth Drama
Predominantly young characters/cast adults often in stereotyped authoritygure roles Focus on relationships, sex, drugs, rock n roll Often self-consciously cool quirky visual editing style Intertextual referencing other media genres and styles Humour essential Music denotes style, tells story, reinforces themes etc
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Resource D: Transcribed Script Cutting It Extract
INT. BACK OF A BLACK TAXI. DAY ALLIE and GAVIN are sitting in silence as the taxi drives through trafc. ALLIE Second time lucky. GAVIN Dont you mean third? Or doesnt Finn count? ALLIE Im sorry I had to do that to you. Im sorry I never trusted what we had. GAVIN Forget it. Its gone. (Pause). Let him without sin ... A pause. She takes his hand ALLIE I know about Melissa. (Pause). Clean slate? A pause ALLIE You know, we should talk about what happens ... GAVIN Shhhhhh shhhhhhhh ALLIE ... if I ... GAVIN Dont. You wont ALLIE But if I do ... (Pause) Id want you to go on, you know. Id want you to love someone else. GAVIN Its not even an option. (Angrily) Why are you saying this? Where are we going? EXT. DAY. OUTSIDE HOSPITAL. An ambulance passes by. A black cab pulls into the frame and stops. ALLIE and GAVIN get out.
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GAVIN Why are we here? ALLIE I have to see my Consultant. GAVIN You planned this. Our wedding just before you were due to see ... ALLIE Its going to be good news. I know it. GAVIN OK. Well, lets get it over with. ALLIE No no no, dont come with me. GAVIN What do you mean? ALLIE Just wait for me here, please. Please? (She kisses him) ALLIE runs across the road towards the entrance to the hospital. GAVIN watches her thoughtfully. Montage: cut between GAVIN anxiously waiting in caf and ALLIE in consulting room, receiving test results from the doctor. She is weeping. MUSIC. EXT. GAVIN rising to he feet as he sees ALLIE emerging from hospital and striding to kerb. ALLIE Guess what? ALLIE waits as trafc passes to cross the road. She steps off the kerb and walks into the path of a bus. We hear the sound of squealing brakes. GAVIN is rooted to the spot. ALLIE lies spread-eagled in the road. GAVIN runs across the road to her. ALLIE (Fading fast) Was it the perfect day? GAVIN (Heartbroken) It was the perfect day ALLIEs eyes close. GAVIN holds her, prostrate with grief.
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Resource E: Cutting It Screenshots
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Resource F: The Context, the Cast, the Curlers
The immediate context: Allie and Gavin had in fact married immediately before the start of this extract, after three series during which their secure relationship faltered, followed by its break down, partner-swapping, pregnancy and a range of other implausible plot devices. In fact, we later learn that Allies visit to the Consultant conrmed that her cancer was cured. In the nal episode, Gavin leaves Manchester to make a fresh start with their child.
The Overview
Cutting It was a prime-time popular drama series launched in 2002, to the following blurb: Amanda Holden and Sarah Parish sharpen their scissors in a war of passion and peroxide, to run the best hair salon in Manchester in Cutting It, which transmits on BBC ONE from April 2002. The competitive world of hairdressing provides the backdrop for this new series from the pen of award-winning writer Debbie Horseld: Hairdressing salons are no longer the place to go to have your hair restyled; you can chill out, get a massage, or go in and talk to your stylist and ofoad all your problems, says the writer. There are so many human dilemmas going on a writer is never going to run out of ideas. (BBC Press Pack) Horseld was already known for writing gritty workplace-based dramas, set in the North of England, including Making Out (based in a factory), Born to Run, based around the car industry, and The Riff-Raff Element. She was inspired to create the drama by her two sisters Jeannie and Lynn, who once ran a successful hairdressing business in Radclie. A repertory cast: Cutting it (a tale of hairdressers in love and war) also starred Jason Merrells (Clocking Off, Fat Friends, and Waterloo Road) and Angela Grin (Coronation Street, Holby City and Waking the Dead). Later cast members came fresh from Holby City, Emmerdale, Queer as Folk and other prime-time drama series. The rst series was produced by Diederick Santer, now Executive Producer of EastEnders. The Manchester connection: The show was particularly renowned for its Manchester focus; its early series alternated a down-to-earth realism with glitzy location shots of salons, bars, clubs and night-life, celebrating the renaissance of the city and particularly popular with northern audiences. Soapy storylines: At its peak the series regularly pulled in 5 million viewers per episode. Narratives included professional rivalry, love triangles, arson, mistaken identity, mid-life crises, indelity, adoption, kidnapping, the biological clock and cancer a mix of serious issues tackled with northern humour and plenty of glamour. The show was cancelled in October 2005. Star Sarah Parish had left, Debbie Horseld had moved on to other projects, and audiences were dwindling. Jane Tranter, then BBC Drama Commissioner, said: It was absolutely critical in terms of us getting a much higher prole with younger audiences, particularly in the North of England. It was iconic. There are not that many returning drama series in the UK that get that kind of iconic status, and Cutting It did. She said she felt the series had come to a natural end. We were either going to have to introduce an entirely new cast or begin to stretch credibility with where we were taking the characters. The series has had major appeal in terms of European sales; all four series were sold to Finland and a German version of Cutting It was also highly successful. It has since won huge audiences in Australia.
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Criminal Justice
2. Issue-Based Drama
Contents and Teachers Notes

1. Before Watching Definitions, Mindmaps and Predictions page 35 Definitions and associations of the title, and an audit of the sorts of narratives, themes, characters and issues it suggests. Narrative predictions: annotating selected still images for visual cues as to content and perspective. These are distributed randomly so that students ideas about possible narratives and identications are partly inuenced by the sequence of images they receive a variation on the Kuleshov experiment in montage editing, which suggested that meanings are constructed by the viewer on the basis of their own emotional reactions to the juxtaposition of images. 2. Bens Trial: the Justice in Criminal Justice page 38
The back story to the extracts, and a brief role-play in which students take on the role of participants in the courtroom sequences, to analyse the ways their technical and performance aspects position the central character, Ben, as guilty or innocent. Commentary from Kate Harwood, Controller of Series and Serials for the BBC and screenwriter Peter Moat about the visual construction of these sequences. 3. Interrogating the Evidence page 40
Close textual analysis of the second courtroom extract, and the ways in which technical aspects represent both Ben himself and the legal process. 4. The Other Side of the Story: the Criminal in Criminal Justice page 41
Students discuss the implication of the legal process on innocent defendants, and brainstorm media representations of prison life. Analysis of the prison extract, an interview on the construction of the physical environment, and the screenwriters commentary on the signicance of the extract. Students review the extract in the light of different aspects of the text, and make 60-second post-it note presentations to demonstrate what each feature adds to the representation of prison life. 5. Crime vs Justice page 43
Students map the relationship, contrasts and parallels between courtroom and prison extracts.
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6. The Talkaboutability of Criminal Justice page 43
Students watch Harwood and Moats analysis of the impact of the serial and discuss reasons for its controversial public reception, supported by a range of responses from the legal profession, press, and online forums. 7. A Production Task page 44
Following a summary by Peter Moat of the new series of Criminal Justice on which he was working at the time of the interview, students devise a treatment for the new series, focusing on a female defendant. Resources A: Responses to Criminal Justice B: Post-Production: Creating a Sound-Scape and Colour-grading page 45
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Issue-Based Drama: Criminal Justice

1. Before Watching
What is Criminal Justice?
1. In pairs, talk about what you understand by the term criminal justice, then read the denitions below:
Criminal justice is the branch of law that deals with disputes or actions involving criminal penalties. It regulates the conduct of individuals, denes crimes and provides punishment for criminal acts. (www.arwarbukarl.com.au/default.aspx) Criminal justice n. The system of law enforcement, the bar, the judiciary, corrections, and probation that is directly involved in the apprehension, prosecution, defense, sentencing, incarceration, and supervision of those suspected of, or charged with, criminal offenses. (http://www.answers.com/topic/criminal-justice) Criminal justice is the system of practices, and organisations, used by national and local governments, directed at maintaining social control, deterring and controlling crime, and sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties. When processing the accused through the criminal justice system, government must keep within the framework of laws that protect individual rights. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_justice)
A 3-Minute Mindmap
What does Criminal Justice suggest to you as the title for a TV drama serial? 1. Use your own TV drama expertise and the denitions above to mindmap: dierent ideas and themes suggested by the title types of narrative you might expect the serial to deal with the sorts of characters, relationships and perspectives you might nd in a serial with this name. 2. Swap your mindmaps to see how your ideas compare, overlap, or dier.
Narrative Predictions: a Visual Card Game

In groups you are going to focus on a series of individual screenshots taken from a drama entitled Criminal Justice. You will have only two minutes to study and make notes on each screenshot before passing it on to the next group. As you study each image, make brief notes on the characters, their relationships and the themes which seem to you to be represented in the drama. Dont worry about guessing an exact storyline but speculate about the possible narratives being developed. 1. Use the visual cues framing, camera angle, lighting, contrast, etc to annotate the image with some immediate ideas about the character(s), the location, and what might be happening in the narrative. If the image seems familiar i.e. you recognise a typical location, a character type or actor, or echoes of another drama youve seen note down the associations it has for you.
2.
Comparing Your Predictions

3. Share your responses to the images and the ideas they have provoked so far. Talk about the following: the themes, characters and relationships predicted by each group whether your predictions were aected by the order in which you encountered and discussed the images.
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6 8 7
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2. Bens Trial: The Justice in Criminal Justice
Reviewing the Evidence: the Back Story
1. Before you go on to watch an extract from Criminal Justice, read the following synopsis: Ben is an ordinary fun-loving student who picks up a young woman on a night out, drives her to the seaside, and ends up passed out in her kitchen. He wakes up to discover her brutally murdered. He has no memory of what happened. He is arrested for her murder, imprisoned on remand, where he learns the hard way who really runs the prison, before being sent to trial. He is allocated an apparently sleazy and cynical solicitor determined to get him off at any cost; his barrister encourages him to plead guilty of manslaughter. Ben has no recall of the events of the murder, but believes he is incapable of it; he refuses to accept a plea bargain, and is determined to tell the truth, convinced of the justice of the legal system. The problem is, he doesnt actually know what happened that night and neither do we, the audience.
A Mini Role-Play
Youre going to watch two extracts from Bens trial, from the perspective of dierent participants in court. Your teacher will allocate your group a role card (see page 39).
Courtroom Extract 1 (DVD)

2. 3. 4. Read the card carefully then, in role, watch Courtroom Extract 1. In role in your group, discuss the evidence. Hows Bens trial going so far? Out of role in your group: discuss and note down any examples of visual and audio techniques e.g. camera shots, sound cues, editing techniques, aspects of performance and so on which help to construct your own view of the way the trial is going. As a class, and out of role, share the main points of your discussions so far. Then take an interim vote on whether or not you think Ben is guilty, based on the evidence of his testimony, together with the way he has been represented on screen so far.
5.
The Controller and Writer Discuss Courtroom Extract 1 (DVD)

Peter Moat, the screenwriter and Kate Harwood, Controller of Series and Serials for the BBC, describe the ways they have constructed the visual aspect of the courtroom. 6. 7. Watch the clip. How eective do you think they have been in achieving their aims? Pick out two or three examples from the sequence to support your views. From what you have seen so far, how would you describe the view of the legal process represented in the courtroom in this scene?
Courtroom Extract 2 (DVD)

8. In role, watch Courtroom Extract 2, then discuss what new evidence is revealed, and what it adds to your understanding of the case. Depending on your role, think about: the prosecutions tactics questioning, language, tone of voice, visual presence the defence strategy of letting Ben speak up for himself Bens performance in the dock the atmosphere within the courtroom. 9. 10. Note your in-role comments in the appropriate box in a grid like the one on page 40. Now, out of role, move to an interim vote. On the basis of the evidence so far, will Ben be found innocent or guilty? English & Media Centre, 2009
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Role Cards
Bens Parents
Half the group should take the perspective of Bens Dad, the other half that of his Mum. Bens Dad: You adore your son and trust him completely and blindly. You cannot believe he could do this, and are convinced the British legal system is fair and just, and that the truth of his innocence will prevail in court. But are you fooling yourself? Bens Mum: You adore your son, but you understand him better than your husband does. You know he has a darker side. You will stand by him and support him whatever happens, but you have doubts. All you want is to see him acquitted, by whatever means.
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The Defence Team
Your job is to get Ben o by whatever means. Because you know the legal system is a tricky game, you wanted him to accept a plea bargain (i.e. to plead guilty of manslaughter under diminished responsibility) but hes refused. You believe his best chance is to take the witness stand and be himself but its a high-risk strategy. You believe Ben is innocent, but cant be sure; you do know hell be bullied and undermined by the Prosecution. How will he stand up to cross-examination? Can you rely on his vulnerability and honesty to sway the jury?
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The Prosecution Team
Your job is to get Ben found guilty by whatever means. You have close relationships with the Police, who are desperate to get a conviction; and you have a reputation to maintain. You wont actively abuse the justice system, but youll use any available evidence to secure your conviction, including anything which discredits Bens character.
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The Jury
Your job is to listen to the evidence and come to a fair and just verdict. Your dilemma is in deciding whose arguments are most persuasive and whether to believe Bens claim that he has no recall of the events of the murder in the light of slurs on his character. Can you trust Ben?
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3. Interrogating the Evidence
1. Watch Courtroom Extract 2 for a second time, this time out of role, bringing to bear all your analytic skills as Media students. Focus on one of the following technical aspects of the scene (your teacher will tell you which). The mise-en-scne the features of the courtroom e.g. layout and seating plan, costume and wigs, lighting, position of non-speaking characters, etc. The sound use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound cues to create atmosphere and tension, emphasise key moments etc. Camera shots, angles and framing in particular, camera movement, eye level and size of shots. Editing length of shots, pace and timing, continuity (i.e. shot-reverse-shot) and cutaway shots. 2. Note down in the grid below what your technical aspect contributes to the impact of the scene, and to the representations of: Ben, whether innocent or guilty, victim or fool the justice oered by the courtroom process. 3. 4. Feed back your responses, completing the boxes in your chart to build up the full picture. On the basis of the evidence you have considered so far, what bigger debates or questions does this scene raise about the legal process represented in the courtroom?
The Prosecution The Overall Impression The Defence The Parents The Jury
Mise-en-scne
Sound
Camera
Editing
Kate Harwood Discusses Courtroom Extract 2 (DVD)

1. 2. Finally, watch the clip of Kate Harwood, Controller of Series and Serials for the BBC, commenting on the signicance of this scene. On your own, use the two courtroom extracts, your notes and discussions to write a short essay explaining how the technical construction of these sequences position the viewer, to reach particular conclusions or ideas about either Ben or the legal process. English & Media Centre, 2009
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4. The Other Side of the Story: the Criminal in Criminal Justice
Youve analysed the representation of Justice in Criminal Justice in the courtroom; but thats only half the story. When Bens not being cross-examined in court, hes on remand in prison, treated as a criminal. Peter Moat, Writer, Criminal Justice comments:
People forget that you can spend up to 18 months, sometimes as long as 2 years on remand, waiting for your trial and be acquitted, and theres nobody giving you anything back, nobodys going to say heres the 2 years that youve just missed out on, no ones going to give you any money, nobodys going to restore the things that youve lost. And most importantly, emotionally, mentally, everything that youve lost isnt going to be returned to you.
1.
Before you watch a further clip, do a class brainstorm of images of prison youve seen in TV crime dramas, documentaries, news items, or lms, and compile a list of the sorts of mise-en-scne, locations and characters you might expect to nd in Bens prison.
The Prison Extract (DVD)

1. Watch the extract focusing particularly on the following issues: The character types Freddie Graham, inmates, the prison ocers. How are they represented in their appearance, behaviour and performance? And how far do they conrm or challenge your ideas about prisons and prisoners? The visual representation of the prison environment notice particularly the use of space, lighting and colour tones. (See Resource B2 on page 50.) The use of sound in this sequence how many dierent layers of sound do you notice, and what eect do they create? (Resource B1 on page 49 provides useful information on this.) The editing of this sequence camera movement, pace and point of view.
60-Second Presentation (DVD)

1. Now watch the two interviews: The Look of the Prison and The Writers Commentary on the Prison Sequence. Draw on the points made in the following activity.
On page 42 dierent aspects of the drama have been singled out. These aspects all contribute to the types of representation constructed in this Prison Extract sequence. They range from the construction of individual characters to the performance of the actors (for example, body language) to non-verbal sound, and from technical features (for example camera movement and lighting) to abstract concepts such as justice. 2. 3. Watch the Prison Extract again, this time focusing on the particular aspect that you have been allocated. On a post-it note, make at least three dierent points of the ways the aspect you have been focusing on contributes to the representation of prison life. Illustrate each point with a specic example from the sequence e.g. a particular camera shot, line of dialogue, edit and so on. Use your notes to make a 60-second presentation on this aspect of the drama and the way it constructs a perspective on prison life. Make your 60-second presentations around the class. As you present, you could post each one on a noticeboard, so you can make comparisons, draw connections between them, and see how the dierent aspects of the drama each contributes to the representation of prison life. English & Media Centre, 2009
4. 5.
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............................................................................................................................... ...............................................................................................................................
Prison Ofcers
The character of Freddie Graham
Prison architecture
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Body language
Colour and lighting
Non-verbal sound
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Justice
Character types
Camera movement
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Framing of shots
Point of view
Edits and pace
.....................................................................................
Realism
Casting and performance
Dialogue
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5. Crime vs Justice
Youve now got to grips with two dierent perspectives on Criminal Justice in two very dierent locations. But how do they relate to each other? Do they contrast with each other or are there similarities or parallels between them? 1. Try mapping the relationship of the courtroom and prison scenes in the grid below. Weve started it o for you. Contrasts Between Court and Prison Similarities or Parallels Between Court and Prison
Dark lighting vs pale well-lit environment Brown colour tones vs cool bluegrey palette Rule of law vs street justice
Judge // Freddie Graham Jury // Freddies gang
6. The Talkaboutability of Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice attracted a very strong audience share for BBC1, with over ve million viewers for each episode over ve consecutive nights. It also generated huge controversy in the legal profession, and became a front page news story in its own right. 1. Watch the final DVD clip in which Peter Moat and Kate Harwood discuss reasons for the impact of the serial. Make notes about the dierent features that made it appointment to view TV, including: the writing process and structure of the serial the 5-night scheduling of Criminal Justice the role of the BBC iPlayer debates about the legal system media coverage. 2. Finally, you can read a selection of public responses to Criminal Justice in Resource A. These include: the original letter of complaint from the Chair of the Bar Council published the day after the rst episode was screened the Guardian front page news article reporting on the controversy an article published in Guardian Society by a former prisoner a selection of online responses.
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7. A Production Task
1. Read the comment below from Peter Moat. Im writing Criminal Justice 2 the same format, different characters, completely different story. The main character this time is a woman, and its a completely different sort of crime that shes alleged to have committed, but I am very keen to look at a womans experience of the criminal justice system. She has children, and Im very interested in the family law side of things, on what happens to children and what Social Services do faced with the incarceration of these childrens mother. So thats very interesting and very different, and great fun, and fascinating. Womens prisons are really appalling and, again, I think thats something that we need to talk about and think about. Im not even sure that, in their current form, that they should exist actually. The majority of women are in prison for offences of non-violence, and the great majority of them are very damaged people, and prison life isnt going to make them better, it is going to make them worse, it is going to damage them more, is going to make them more likely to re-offend when they come out, is going to break up families, is going to break down relationships between those prisoners and their communities and, at the end of the day, is going to produce more crime. 2. 3. In your group, brainstorm storyline ideas for the new serial, based on Moats concerns. Consider your range of potential characters, the balance between court and prison, and the narrative techniques you will use to dramatise the issues about womens experiences within the legal system. Break your narrative up into ve potential episodes, and develop each as a short singleparagraph treatment. Sum up your pitch in a single sentence. Take it in turns to make your pitch to the class, starting with a one-sentence summary, and explaining how your serial will unfold.
4. 5. 6.
The second series of Criminal Justice is scheduled for broadcast at the end of 2009. Kate Harwood says: Whats sneaky about Criminal Justice is that it gives you a state of the nation piece that masquerades as a crime drama. A murder takes place in the rst episode, raising a whole different set of questions to the rst series. By spring 2010, you will be able to compare your own pitches with the real thing.
8. Taking it Further
Together with the close analysis youve done, these case study resources should support your work on any of the following: textual analysis and representation the media and democracy broadcast ction representations in the media text, industry and audience.
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Resource A: Responses to Criminal Justice
A1: The Bar Council Representing the Legal Profession
The BBCs Criminal Justice serial is not the basis upon which one can draw any sound conclusions about our system of justice, as Marcel Berlins points out (June 30). The drama shows barristers acting in breach of their professional obligations. In episode two a QC encourages a client to provide a false defence to a court a grave breach of professional conduct that would be grounds for the barrister to be struck off. The Bar Council is very concerned at this portrayal of a profession which works to the highest ethical standards. Peter Moffat, the writer, appears to have missed the real story. Publicly funded criminal defence practitioners continue to serve the public in the most difcult circumstances. Even though the system is chronically underfunded, they act to the highest standards. Counsels rst duty is to the court and to the interests of justice. Criminal justice is not a game and it is a travesty to suggest practitioners see it in that way. Timothy Dutton QC, Chairman, Bar Council Guardian letters, 2nd July 2008
A2: The Front Page News Story: The Guardian, 3rd July 2008
If the BBC was hoping its new drama about Englands courts and prisons would rufe a few wigs, the corporation can indulge in a leisurely moment of self-congratulation. Criminal Justice, which charts one young mans journey through the prison system, has provoked a terse exchange between the head of the Bar Council and the writer behind the thriller, which is drawing in almost 5 million viewers. For the council, Timothy Dutton QC, has taken a dim view of the way barristers in the programme, particularly in the second episode, are portrayed as underhand, unprincipled and overly aggressive. The writer, Peter Moffat, says the Bar has to face the facts. And hes a trained criminal barrister too. The exchange has taken place through letters to the Guardian sent in after the start of the series on Monday. Drawing on one scene, Dutton wrote: The BBCs Criminal Justice serial is not the basis upon which one can draw any sound conclusions about our system of justice. He added: Criminal justice is not a game and it is a travesty to suggest practitioners see it in that way. But Moffat disagreed with his learned friend as he makes plain in a letter in todays paper. Timothy Dutton ... seeks to reassure us that defence practitioners act to the highest standards, he writes. Does this include the barrister disciplined recently for punching his opponent in court? Or the defence practitioner who sent documentary evidence (in fact invented and drafted by himself) from an internet cafe in Oxford Street to his opponent? Like his adversary, Moffat is keen to dispel confusion over his stance. It is, he says, about time the Bar faced the fact that like every other profession it has brilliant and fair-minded practitioners, those of average ability, and the violent, dishonest and stupid all working within it. Although the serial billed itself as a rollercoaster ride through the criminal justice system ... where the truth is optional and what counts is playing the game in order to come out on top, barristers were still put out by a scene which, they felt, unfairly depicted their world as a sleazy realm where unethical behaviour goes unremarked and unpunished.
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Duttons main objection arose from the second episode, in which a QC encourages a client to provide a false defence to a court. Such behaviour, he wrote in his letter, represented a grave breach of professional conduct that would be grounds for the barrister to be struck off. He and his fellow barristers were annoyed that the drama had not made it plain that such an action was unethical. I have had concerns expressed to me because what isnt brought out in it is the fact that this is improper conduct, he said yesterday afternoon. In a docu-drama, its worth pointing out that this conduct is unethical. Every profession will have people who misconduct themselves, and if barristers have misconducted themselves, they would be disciplined. Moffat, though, remained unmoved. It is absolutely common practice for defendants to be prodded towards giving instructions which suit the best available defence, he writes in his letter. We have an adversarial system. By denition we are not after the truth in any criminal trial. Im grateful to Timothy Dutton for helping open up debate about professional ethics. He wants to see things in black and white. At the Bar, just as in life, standards are all too often a different colour grey. Over to his learned friend: The portrayal of that scene is not a grey area, said Dutton. It is clearly unethical. Theres nothing grey about it. Nor could the two agree over perhaps the legal professions most pressing concern. [Moffat] appears to have missed the real story, Dutton wrote yesterday. Publicly funded criminal defence practitioners continue to serve the public in the most difcult circumstances. Even though the system is chronically underfunded, they act to the highest standards. Leaving to one side whether this would make for interesting television drama, replies the writer, it is certainly true that defence barristers at the junior end are badly underpaid for the work they do. This is potentially very bad news for ethical standards. Moffat, who practised law for six years, has become one of televisions most soughtafter writers. As well as creating Kavanagh QC, he wrote the short-lived legal drama set in Leeds, North Square. But will that pedigree be sufcient to ensure that the nations barristers stay tuned to Criminal Justice? One, at least, had other plans yesterday. Regrettably, Im working tonight, said Dutton. But there will certainly be members of the Bar Council watching it. Guardian, 3rd July 2008
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A3: The Prisoners Response
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
At last, a drama that gets prison life right. Erwin James explains why cons will be lapping up the BBCs Criminal Justice. George was a chronic nail-biter in his mid-30s, with dark ginger hair and heavy rings around his eyes. We were both on remand, in a big London prison. George started talking to me one morning at the tea urn. Have you seen the shrink yet? he asked. I hadnt. He hasnt got a clue, he said. Then he pushed his face close to mine and, rmly tapping his temple, added: Nobody but nobody can see in here. With often chilling accuracy, BBC1s new ve-part thriller Criminal Justice, which starts next week, took me right back to the beginning of my own prison journey, back to those days with nail-biting George and his stale tobacco breath. Like the shows main character, Ben Coulter (played by Ben Whishaw), this was my rst time in the adult prison system. Like Coulter, I was afraid, defensive and nave. George had been arrested close to the body of a man who had been bludgeoned to death. Spatters of the mans blood were found on Georges clothes. I told them I found him like that, George said and winked. Anyway, if I go down, I go down fuck em. From what I gleaned of him during the time we shared in that fetid little place, I was certain he was guilty. I was shocked to hear later, on the news, that George had been cleared. Just as some innocent people end up serving life, I reminded myself, so some perpetrators go free. And that can mean killers. Criminal Justice, written by Peter Moffat, offers a similar scenario to Georges, and it is the most realistic portrayal of life in prison I have ever seen. Coulter is the son of a cab driver. He lives an ordinary, happy-go-lucky life with mum and dad until he has one wild night he cant remember and is arrested near the scene of a murder. The weapon is found in his pocket, the blood of the young female victim on his clothes. Its a done deal as far as the police are concerned. From what I remember of my time inside, the thriller should go down well among the prisoner population the ercest critics of dramatic renderings of their reality. We loved Porridge for its mostly accurate portrayal of prison life, albeit without the violence, and loathed Bad Girls for its over-the-top parodies. But its the characters in Criminal Justice that really struck me. Remanded in custody, the young ingenue Coulter is lucky: he makes a friend, an ageing, weary con called Hooch, played by Pete Postlethwaite. In reality, there is a Hooch on every prison landing in the country, men who have spent the best years of their lives inside, yet who appear to be undefeated. Appearances can be deceptive, of course, and nowhere more so than among men in captivity. The mastery of the psychological arena by such individuals their absolute pragmatism renders their true selves impenetrable, sometimes even to themselves. But one thing they know for sure is that a prison landing is no easy place. Above all, what matters there is not how strong or how brave you are, but what sort of deal you cut to get by. In the world of men like Hooch, compromise reigns supreme. Its only the deal that matters here, Hooch tells Coulter. Always make the deal, the contract. Like everybody who ends up in prison, Coulter is on a journey of sorts. Some days go his way, others do not. He bleeds a lot, cries a lot, learns a lot about life and all its grime, about himself. As Criminal Justice shows, prison has huge value as a setting for self-discovery ... Erwin James, Guardian, 26th June 2008 You can read a more detailed response from former prisoner, Erwin James on his blog (http://www.erwinjames.co.uk/blog/).
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A4: The Viewers Respond
Engrossing and involving, if highly ctional BBC drama shown over ve consecutive nights, highlighting, or should that be low-lighting the British criminal justice system, effectively putting in the dock for viewers consideration the police force, legal system and prison ofce, all of whom, on the evidence here, are found wanting. The programme effectively combines three main narrative strands around these institutions of modern society, from the murder incident itself and the police detective (defective?) work alongside it, the trial process set at length in a court of law and perhaps most effectively the dehumanising incarceration process within the connes of prison. Some bits work better than others ... What will stay in the memory most however are the scenes in prison where the vilication of the prison service is damned to hell. There are no upholders of the law in the jail, the prison ofcers invariably displayed as weak, conniving or both. I really cant or maybe dont want to believe things are that bad in UK prisons with a Freddie Graham character running the place as his own efdom. That said, it made for taut drama, with many memorable if shocking scenes of rampant moral corruption inside. The acting is mostly very good, with Pete Postlethwaite unsurprisingly given his pedigree taking the honours with a completely credible performance as Hooch, the hard-bitten lifer whos learned to adapt and survive but ultimately at the expense of his own conscience, which he redeems but pays for in full at the end. There are other excellent turns too, principally by Con ONeill as the Colombo-type gumshoe who plays the situation for all he can get, Bill Patterson as the too-longin-the-tooth detective who now blurs the line between right and wrong and Lesley Duncan as the experienced cynical senior barrister who rides roughshod over her clients feelings to get the easiest and quickest result for her. Special mention must go though to Ben Whishaw as the innocent, out-for-a-good-time youngster who is drawn into a latter-day Kafka-ish nightmare who emerges at the end physically intact but obviously deeply affected by his horric experiences and who in the last scene now feels outcast from the friendly football kick-about in which he participated in the opening scenes. He has a face reminiscent of John Lynch in Cal or David Bradley in Kes, and portrays what must have been a gruelling role with conviction and realism. On the whole an excellent, thought-provoking drama, let down only slightly by its probably necessary concessions to TV drama with perhaps more cliffhangers than would probably be the case with more typical, I would imagine, hum-drum real-life criminal cases. One caveat would the BBC please stop its infuriating habit of trailing the succeeding programme at the end of the current programme. Its unnecessary and insulting to viewers intelligence, especially in this instance when the programme was shown over successive nights. Jc-osms, UK, International Movie Database User Comment This mini-series hits the ground running, the rst episode including the seaside scenes and part of the second are just fantastic, but then the drama engages in the ambitious task of analysing whatever may or may not be wrong with the British penal and judicial system. I praise the intent, but to incorporate seamlessly and successfully this sort of concerns into a drama is not an easy task, we are promised some sort of rigorous examination, but instead of Oz [brutal US prison drama], we get some sort of sub-Dickensian ambiguous horrors, where a lot is promised but very little delivered and there is always a little army of semi-benevolent Artful Dodgers and Fagins to save our heros day, like Peter Postlethwaites Hooch the listener and David Harewoods master criminal Freddie Graham; the latter does a really good job of injecting true menace in its role ... In the last episode where all ideological concerns need to be shed to wind down the narrative the drama seem able to re-create some of the original dramatic tension of the rst part. ON THE WHOLE Highly RECOMMENDED! International Movie Database User Comment
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Issue-Based Drama
Resource B: Post-Production
B1: Creating a Prison Sound-Scape for Criminal Justice
BBC Post-Production carried out full sound work on the critically acclaimed vepart thriller, Criminal Justice, made by BBC Drama Production for BBC One. Sound Designer Kian Wong was responsible for the sound design and audio track lay for episode two, whilst Dubbing Mixer/Sound Editor Paul Batchelor delivered the sound design and track lay on the remaining four episodes. Dubbing Mixers Steve Hudson and Chris Graver carried out the overall stereo mix, ensuring that the sound was balanced effectively and the productions creative vision was achieved ... Sound for the drama was complex. As many as eight separate digital tracks were recorded on location, which meant that there was a huge quantity of audio media to manage, but it also equipped the sound team with plenty of wild tracks to draw upon. In the digital world, it is possible to access all tracks throughout the entire process, so the production team had the option of making changes right up until transmission and beyond. The second episode, where the main character enters prison, was especially challenging from a sound perspective. The directors and producers were keen for the sound to evolve and develop, rather than using a simple a blanket of sound. BBC Post-Production needed to create a prison soundscape, with many layers of background chatter, banging and shouting, to provide depth and disorientate the viewer in the same way that the main character was disorientated on entering the prison. The production budget would not allow for a cast of hundreds, so it was important to give a sense that there were more prisoners than extras on the set. The solution was for Kian Wong to create an off-camera narrative using pieces of background dialogue recorded on location, which came with natural reverb and acoustics. He strategically and artistically placed relevant dialogue onto the prison scenes, for example in the kitchen, mess hall, cells or games room. These conversations poked through the main dialogue to provide authenticity and give a sense of what was going on with the other prisoners. For example in one scene you overhear a prison guard calling: Next one, please, This is your bag, this is your cell and prisoners listening to music and being a bit rowdy to give the idea of the procedure of checking in to prison, says Kian Wong. The directors and producers also wanted the night time scenes to have life rather than silence, so video games are heard being played and voices from other cells. Occasionally extra dialogue, not recorded on location, was created and inserted to add richness to the shots for example Two 99s please where far in the background, you can just about make out a person buying ice-cream. Steve Hudson had to ensure that in all these cases, the voices were distinct enough to make them real, but not loud enough to encourage viewers to start listening to them and interfere with the main dialogue. In addition to a UK sound version, BBC Post-Production produced a dialogue-free music and effects international version, which demanded a lot of foley. The drama used a lot of music and Steve had to balance this and also ensure that appropriate music was used for the UK and international versions as copyright varied. Some of the locations were extremely noisy such as the exterior for the police station, so the BBC Post-Production sound team used a Cedar to reduce hisses and clicks. http://www.bbcresources.com/postproduction/london/sound_criminal_justice.html
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B2: Post-Production Colour-grading for Criminal Justice
June 2008: BBC Post-Production has graded the compelling new ve-part thriller, Criminal Justice, made by BBC Drama Production for BBC One. It was shot and post produced in high denition to ensure it is future proof and to support international sales Criminal Justice has been graded using BBC Post-Productions new Digital Vision Film Master non-linear grading system. This is the rst major project to benet from BBC Post-Productions Film Master. It gave Colourist Chris Packman access to a huge creative toolset and also greater exibility and freedom, as he could work in data, which allowed him to jump between shots without having to spool tapes. It also meant that the master tapes were never at any risk. Criminal Justice was directed by Otto Bathurst (Five Days, Hustle) and Luke Watson. The directors wanted to create a cinematic look, so they used a Pro35 adaptor on the HD camera, which allows the use of 35mm motion picture lenses. This combination produces a shallow depth of eld and allows backgrounds to be thrown more out of focus than when using normal lenses. They also used nets on the back of the lenses to further diffuse the highlights. Considerable testing was done before the shoot started with the DOPs Eric Maddison and Nic Knowland and Chris Packman in the Film Master, to optimise the look for the series. In the course of the drama, Bens world becomes a labyrinth of oppressive places: police station, prison and courtroom, which BBC Post-Production needed to accentuate through the grade. A strong element of the grade was bringing out the cool blue green cyan of the specially made prison set, to create a chilling effect. The court, which was shot at Hackney Town Hall, plays a major part in the story and was graded to create a warmer, but formal look. The grade was also important for controlling highlights, as a number of scenes used bright sunshine ooding through windows, which needed to appear as sunshine and not burnt out. http://www.bbcresources.com/about/archive/080624_criminal_justice.html
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Youth Drama
Skins
1. Representations of Youth: the Labels page 53 This unit explores the importance to broadcasters of the 16-24 age group, and the strategies employed to access and address it. Here students are invited to: consider how they are described by researchers and commissioners, and the implications of broadcasters perceptions audit their own media consumption patterns, and discuss the relative signicance of TV in their lives watch, critique and respond to an interview with Kate Harwood, BBC Controller for Series and Serials, about youth audiences and their relative interest in dierent forms of TV drama. 2. Skins the Trailer: Series 1 page 54
3. Youth Drama
Students watch the iconic trailer for the rst series of Skins, unpick its features and impact, and share responses. They map the trailer on a range of attitudinal continuum lines, compare it with the promotional blurb issued by Company Pictures, its production company, and debate both its representational accuracy and its appeal to the youth audience. Finally they relate the trailer to the marketing strategies used to promote the rst two series of Skins, and its creators description of it as a traditional and morally responsible piece of narrative drama. 3. Skins: the Extract page 57
Students watch the opening sequence of Series 2 Episode One, summarise it in under 30 words, and compare their rst reading with the perspectives oered in the trailer. They watch again in the light of contextual information, using screenshots to focus on the representation of disability. In a third screening, groups conduct a close textual analysis of a specic segment of the extract to show how each of the four technical aspects has been used in their segment to construct particular ideas about disability. They share ndings to explore how segments relate to each other, and to the representation of youth, and their impact. To challenge the assumption that this sequence can be fully meaningful out of context, students can then discuss a precis of the following scenes which oer a broader narrative perspective and raise further issues about audience responses to Tony as a character, and the experience of disability. Finally students can read and evaluate an analysis of the same extract by an A2 student, which could later be used to model ways of integrating the technical aspects within a broader English & Media Centre, 2009
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discussion of representation. If you are teaching to the OCR G322 textual analysis paper, you could share with students the weighing of marks 20 awarded for explanation, analysis and argument, 20 for the use of examples, and 10 for use of specialist terminology; if your specication requires a case-study approach, you might prefer to focus on how students might develop the social, political, and institutional context of this analysis. 4. Skins Online page 63
Students investigate the role of cross-platform and online activity in constructing an identity for the show, and building a virtual community of 16-24-year-olds. They read a digest of social networking and marketing approaches (Resource C3, page 78) and in groups research and report back on specic aspects of the Skins website. They discuss and rank a series of statements about the website, and circulate their views in an Opinion Chain. 5. Youth Drama: Is Skins the Future? page 65
Students research a series of industry perspectives on the 16- 24 youth audience (Resource A 1-4 on pages 70 to 74), drawn from BBC market research, Thinkbox, a Guardian Media blog, and commissioning policy for BBC and E4. They present and debate their ndings in role in a simulated seminar on the topic: The Future of Youth Drama: What Do Young People Want From TV. 6. Follow-up Practical Work page 66
An invitation to write, blog or podcast a manifesto or mission statement reecting students views on youth TV in a choice of media formats. A treatment, pitch and/or production of a trailer or website home page for a new drama series targeting a specic demographic group. This will involve consideration of representation, stereotyping and marketing strategy, as for the Skins trailer. 7. Skinsvestigations: A2 Research Activities page 68
Ways of using Skins to explore some A2 Media concepts: ve independent research activities which explore theoretical perspectives and debates, including genre, postmodernism, We Media and democracy, cross-media synergy, and collective identity. Resources A: TV Industry Perspectives B: Commissioning for Young People C: Reviews, Online Data, Further Trivia page 70
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Youth Drama
Youth Drama: Skins

The purpose of this unit is to investigate the way production companies and broadcasters try to appeal to a particular age group. The case study focuses on Skins, a drama aimed specically at the 16-24-year-old audience, an age group which is both particularly important to production companies (and advertisers) and increasingly regraded as dicult to capture.
1. Representations of Youth: the Labels

As cool people, with ngers on the pulse and potentially high spenders on media, technology and leisure activities, market researchers, broadcasters and commissioners are particularly interested in 16-24-year-olds. The following labels are all used to describe this demographic: Young People Young Adults Generation Why should I care? 1. Generation WhatEver Youth The Young Kids
In pairs, take one of the labels and brainstorm its associations. What does it suggest about the way the commissioners perceive this group? What does the label suggest about the type of programming they might commission to appeal to this audience? Share your ideas as a class and talk about which representation you think is likely to be most successful in attracting this demographic (which is, of course, your peer group).
2.
Being Part of the 16-24-Year-Old Audience

If 16-24-year-olds are the demographic most sought by broadcasters, they are also the most elusive. Its claimed that this group your peer group no longer watches TV in real time, nding its media pleasures in a wide range of places and at times to suit them: online, in video games, on MP3 and 4 players, on-demand and so on. How true is this of your experience? 1. Do an instant audit of your own media consumption, by ranking these dierent media activities in order of preference, with your most frequent activity at the top, and the least frequent at the bottom. Playing games online or on a console Online in other activities Watching DVD Watching TV on demand Listening to music via MP3 player or phone Other 2. 3. Share your instant audits. Can you make any generalisations about where TV viewing ts in your preferences, and why? If you were an advertiser hoping to target consumers in your own age-group, which media would you choose to reach them? Online social networking Watching scheduled TV The cinema Listening to the radio Mobile phone
Kate Harwood on Youth Audiences (DVD)

1. 2. Watch the DVD clip in which Kate Harwood, Controller of Series and Serials for the BBC, talks about youth audiences and what they want from TV drama. In pairs, draft an email to Kate Harwood responding to what she says, for example: anything you want to challenge or correct in the way she characterises this demographic and their relationship with, and attitudes towards, TV drama your own view of what the youth audience wants from TV drama examples of drama aimed at this audience which you think get it right examples of drama aimed at this audience which you think get it wrong the dangers of trying to appeal to this audience, and how these can be avoided.
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2. Skins the Trailer: Series 1
1. 2. 3. Watch the trailer for Skins, a drama series commissioned by, and rst broadcast on, the digital channel E4 in 2007. In ve or six key words, make a note of your immediate impression of the trailer and the programme it is advertising, including whether or not you would be likely to watch. Test your powers of recall with our Skins Observation Quiz. a. How many snogs did you see in this sequence? b. How many vomiting incidents did you spot? c. How many times does the bear appear? d. What toys do you recall being used to enhance the party? e. How many edits are there in this sequence? f. How many undressed torsos can you spot? g. How many ethnic groups are represented? h. What was the soundtrack for the trailer? 4. Feed back your answers and see how many you got right. Talk about which aspects of the trailer you remembered most clearly and accurately. How do these t with, or reect, your immediate key word impressions?
Whats the Trailer Saying About Young People?

How does the trailer represent young people? And how do you, as a member of this group, respond to this representation? 1. Select the three adjectives from the list below (or come up with your own) which best describe your own feelings about the view of young people constructed in the trailer. Spend 60 seconds justifying your choice of adjective to your partner, using details from the trailer to illustrate your argument. Then listen to your partner doing the same. Take it in turns to feed back your adjectives in class discussion. Focus your discussion on any choices which seem contradictory (for example did anyone choose realistic and stereotypical, or appealing and insulting?) or about which there is disagreement. Parodic Patronising Humorous
2.
Eye-candy
Insulting
Charming
Postmodern
Stereotypical
Realistic
Hyper-real
Off-beat
Accurate
Appealing
Optimistic
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A Trailer Based on a Stereotype?
One reading of this trailer might suggest that it exploits a particular image of young people based on stereotypical assumptions held by adults. 1. 2. Watch the trailer again, this time focusing on any stereotypical assumptions you identify. As a class, talk about how these stereotypical behaviours and representations relate to your own life experiences. For example, are they completely accurate, completely inaccurate, or exaggerated versions of what young people are like? Try rating the representations of young people in the trailer on the four continuum lines, below. Put your cross on each line to indicate whether you feel the representations are:
3.
Authentic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Fantastic
Realistic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Surreal
Entertaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Embarrassing
Offensive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Acceptable
4.
Read the blurb below, by Company Pictures, the independent production team which produces Skins for E4. How accurately do you feel the trailer reects the representations suggested by the blurb and vice versa? Skins is an off-beat comedy drama series about a group of 16-17-year-old friends. Sunny, optimistic kids who grab life by the balls and give it a twirl. Kids who party hard, pass exams, have sex, self-harm, manage their parents, interface with their teachers and push boundaries both home and abroad. The result is a hilarious mixture of sweet, charming and sometimes heartbreaking stories which focus on comic potential as well as proper emotional development.
Agree, Disagree, Dont Know

1. 2. Label three corners of the room agree, disagree and dont know. Read the statement below and go and stand in the corner of the room which best represents your opinion. The representation of teenagers in the Skins trailer is fair and accurate. 3. Now do the same for the following statement: The Skins trailer is effective in appealing to a youth audience. 4. Talk about anything which strikes you as interesting about your views on the representation of teenagers in the trailer and its appeal to this audience.
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Responses to the Trailer
1. Read the following information on the way the rst two series of Skins were trailed in the run-up to their launches.
About the Trailer

This was one of several differently cut trailers for the rst series of Skins, screened at various points during the evening on C4 and E4 over a period of months. The trailer you have just viewed is the least raunchy and x-rated of the various versions on offer The other trailers are available, together with a range of stings, idents, back stories, ancillary scenes and other Skins material, on the DVD Box sets. In July 2008 posters featuring stills from the marketing campaign for Series 2 were found by the Advertising Standards Authority to have breached the rules of Taste and Decency, and were withdrawn. Nevertheless, the shows innovative promotion techniques won Best Advertising Campaign at the MediaGuardian Awards for Innovation in 2008, and the viral marketing for Series 2 won the Entertainment category at the Interactive Marketing and Advertising Awards 2008. Skins creator Bryan Elsley said Skins sexually charged marketing campaign had been a successful way of attracting viewers who otherwise might not have watched an essentially traditional and morally responsible piece of narrative drama.
2.
In the light of this contextual information, look again at your rst reaction to the trailer. As a class, talk about how far it reects your own responses. You might also think about how the very dierent reactions to the trailer reect its attempt to appeal to a particular audience. As you go on to watch the extract from Skins, consider Bryan Elsleys comment that sexually charged marketing has been used to attract audiences to a traditional and morally responsible piece of narrative drama. Whats your response to this view of both the youth audience and of the programme being trailed?
3.
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10; 3; 5; trike; water gun and bubbles, whipped cream, lipstick and felt-tip, pills, bong; 78; too many to count; 4 ; Gossips Standing in the Way of Control.
Answers to Skins Observation quiz:
Youth Drama
3. Skins: the Extract
1. 2. 3. 4. Watch the Skins extract all the way through without writing anything down. Then, on your own, and focusing only on this extract, summarise what you think is happening in not more than 30 words. Share your readings. You might nd it interesting to draw out any dierences in interpretation between those who know the programme and those who dont. Talk about how this extract relates to the representations of young people you noted in the trailer. In particular, consider how the two boys, Maxxie and Tony, conrm or challenge the expectations of their behaviour set up in the trailer.
A Contextualised Screening
So far you have been thinking specically about representation of young people and the extent to which this exploits or plays with commonly held stereotypes. You are now going to have a look at the way in which the programme represents disability another area which, arguably, is often represented insensitively, supercially or stereotypically.
This extract was taken from Series 2 Episode One of Skins. At the end of the last episode of the previous series, Tony, the desirable but arrogant and selsh leader of his group of friends, has been cut down to size by his mates, and has just declared his love for girlfriend Michele from a phone box. There is a squeal of brakes. End of episode.
5.
With this contextual information in mind, watch the sequence again, this time focusing specically on the representation of disability. Make key word notes alongside the screenshots to remind you of your ideas.
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A Close Reading (DVD)
1. In your group, take one of the segments to analyse in detail, focusing on the representation of Tonys disability, exploring the ways the segment constructs particular ideas and audience impact through the technical aspects.
Segment The title sequence Camerawork Sound Mise-en-scne Editing
The church
The bus and the estate
Maxxies kitchen and Tonys bathroom
2.
Present your analysis back to the class, and discuss the ways: each technique contributes to the representation of both disability and youth each segment relates to the others the representation of disability is inuenced or shaped by the representation of youth the impact of the techniques and representation on you as members of the audience.
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More Context What Happened Next?
In the next ten minutes of this episode, we see the following: 1. What do the events of these further scenes suggest about: the ways the writers and producers of Skins are constructing the representation of Tonys disability its relationship to the representation of youth the ways dierent audiences may (or may not) respond to Tony as a character the house-style of Skins the problems with viewing any scene from any drama out of context?
Effy (Tonys sister) enjoying herself on the disabled loo.
Maxxies dad (Bill Bailey) doing a dance routine with his dog, then sorting out some youths who have been harassing Maxxie for being homosexual.
A visual doubleentendre where Chris and Jal (two other Skins friends) spot Maxxies mum on her knees doing up Tonys zip, and mis-read the situation.
Tony being awkwardly excluded from the party everyone else is going to.
Tony unable to undo his trousers for a wee, and being helped by Maxxies mum.
Tonys ex, Michele, drunk, sexy and snogging in a bar.
Tonys best friend Sid distressed by photos of Tony wired up in hospital after his accident.
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A Sample Analysis: Kirstys Version
Kirsty Leslie, an A2 Media student from Long Road College, Cambridge, has analysed the complete Skins sequence. 1. Read the analysis and talk about whether it: gives you any fresh knowledge/information thats useful in analysing a) the representation of Tonys disability and b) the sequence as a youth drama confirms or develops your own interpretation of the sequence challenges your interpretation of the sequence. 2. Evaluate Kirstys analysis and her demonstration of key media concepts. Consider: her explanation of concepts, analysis and argument her use of examples her use of specialist terminology.
Textual Analysis by Kirsty Leslie

The sequence of Skins shows the beginning of the rst episode of Season 2. In it we see how people are dealing with main character Tonys disability as is shown through peoples reactions, attitudes, preconceptions and opinions. We also see how audience expectations are challenged throughout the sequence. At the start of the episode the viewer is led to believe that a funeral is taking place due to diegetic organ music and a church setting. This is the rst preconception of many, as the setting is actually a dance studio in a converted church not a working church as the organ music may have led the audience to believe. As the previous series ended with Tonys accident, the audience assumes that it could be his funeral. However this is not the case and the scene actually begins with dancers. There are three dancers; one is female, another is black and the other is Maxxie, who is homosexual. They act as a representative for the versatility of human bodies and human nature in our multicultural society that is the UK. Continuity editing is dropped for faster, edgier jump-cuts that highlights the exibility of the dancers. The camera jumps between short mid-shots and tracks around their bodies, showing the action from tilted angles, with closeups of faces and limbs. This reinforces the ductile nature of the dancers. This image of pliancy acts as a substantial contrast to our next shot, showing Tony, his face in shadows sitting still and watching the action. His isolation is suggested through the way he is shot, the darkness acting as a contrast to the light that Maxxie stands in, and the emptiness of the frame showing how Tony is once removed from the action and isolated by his disability. Although the mid-shot has only enough light to show his body and facial features, this helps to communicate the fact that Tony is not entirely disconnected from the world and still has some power over his mind. The mid-shot of Maxxie shows him standing in the light from the stained glass window. This image suggests biblical thoughts and shows how Maxxie emanates kindness and patience for Tony.
Your Annotations
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We later see the striking difference between what emotions Tony can and cannot express with his new disability. He does not react to the dancers spectacle and cannot appreciate it but when riding on the bus to Maxxies home, a bus passes at high speed and Tony jumps, grabbing at Maxxies hand. This is the only physical contact that Tony instigates throughout the entire sequence. To emphasis the enormity of this act the sound of the bus is amplied and fast editing creates sharp tension which pulls the audience into empathising with Tony. When the characters nally arrive at Maxxies home, it is decorated with Maxxies dancing awards and photos of him dancing in competitions, dressed up in leotards. The character of Maxxies Mother treats Tony with familiarity, but after his accident, Tony has no recollection of Maxxies mother, which is reinforced as the camera cuts her out of the shot. As she leans in to clean his face Tony inches, demonstrating his discomfort at her touch. The mise-en-scne is claustrophobic and new to Tony. Maxxie tries to make Tony feel comfortable even though he is cutting up his food for him, stating casually Here you go mate. Overall this shows a contrast of two different outcomes in life and a need for the characters to get back to normal. It forces the audience to face up to disabilities and make their own decision as to whether the character of Tony should have the same level of respect as he did before the accident. Should his disability mean that we as the audience perceive him any differently, should his place in the narrative hierarchy of the rst series now be questioned? Audiences preconceptions are also challenged in other ways in this sequence. After the dance we see Maxxie and Tony walking along the street. They are stopped by a group of Tweenies. A group of six 12-year-old girls lie across a car bonnet. They are dressed up to look older and are sexually aware of themselves. Their speech code and body language tell us they are more aware than they should be, but the idea of sweet little girls is long gone from this imagery. These girls again challenge the audience to confront their ideas of disability. One asks, Are you mental? to which Tony replies, matter-of-factly, Yes. Tony is aware of his condition and how it has affected his life, so he is able to articulate a response without difculty, which contradicts the idea that he might have a complex at all. The girls also acknowledge this as they point out he is still physically attractive despite his strange behaviour. We meet Tonys mother in a totally different setting, a darkened bathroom surrounded by equipment to help with her sons disability. This is accompanied by harp music that is suggestive of her dreaming about the past. The darkened room shows her low mood and state of mind with the equipment making her own home unfamiliar to her. The mother momentarily forgets that her own daughter is ablebodied and nally even pulls on the wrong cord; setting off an alarm instead of putting on the light. These actions illustrate the mothers feelings of isolation and confusion in coming to terms with the disability of her son. This resonates with the audience, who must also learn how to adjust their own expectations in the face of the disability of such a main character within the series.
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4. Skins Online
At the beginning of this unit you carried out an instant audit on your own media consumption. 1. Remind yourself of the ways in which the people in your class access lms, music, TV and so on, and the other media activities you engage in (for example, blogging, creating YouTube videos, surng).
Its been claimed that one of the biggest factors in Skins success in attracting the 16-24 youth market is its web-presence and its adoption by social networking groups. 2. Read Resource C3 (page 78), which provides some background. As you read, highlight the three or four points you think are most pertinent in explaining the relationship between the TV drama, its target audience and its use of new media technologies.
The Skins website (http://www.e4.com/skins/) uses a range of dierent strategies to represent and get you involved in the drama: the look: the design, layout, use of graphics, fonts and images. How does the look represent the drama? Who do you think it is intended to appeal to? Do you think it is eective in reaching back into the drama and out into its audience? the mode of address: how it talks to you, its language, appeals, the uses or gratications it seeks to address. How do these aspects of the site reect or develop the programmes mode of address? interactivity: for example, games, blogs, message boards, style advice, catch-ups development of the programme: trailers, video clips, exclusives, out-takes, character proles and so on branding/advertising/selling: what is the relationship of these aspects of the site with the drama? And the audience? (For example, do the adverts use the same mode of address or look the same as the site or the TV programme?) 3. In pairs, take one of these strategies, making sure that they are all being investigated by at least one pair. Spend 15-20 minutes browsing the dierent areas of the site, noting down anything which particularly strikes you about the strategy you are focusing on. Make sure you explore a range of different areas (for example cast and crew blogs, Skins on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, the games). In your pair, select the three issues or points which you nd most interesting about the strategy you have been investigating. Share your ndings with the class, to build up a snapshot of the way the site works and what it is aiming to do (for example, encourage you to watch the next episode, buy clothing, music or box sets, increase your loyalty to the Skins brand, involve you in the lives of the characters).
4. 5.
A Skins Opinion Chain

1. 2. With a partner, discuss the statements on page 64, made by a range of industry personnel, critics and audience members. Choose the statement you most closely agree with, and write a sentence justifying your view on the top of a piece of paper with a concrete example to illustrate your point. Then pass your paper on to the next pair. Youll then get a second piece of paper, representing another pairs point of view. Read the statement and comment, and add your own views, either conrming or challenging the views they represent. Pass it on again. And so on. By the time youve passed it on several times, you should end up with a chain of ideas, opinions and examples which you can draw on in a case study or essay. English & Media Centre, 2009
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The Statements
Skins has developed into a real talkaboutable cult thanks to its brilliant online presence.
Despite all the interactivity it is actually a deeply traditional comedy drama. Its success lies in good writing, strong stories and robust characters.
The website is no more than a particularly trendy form of lifestyle marketing.
The website gives young people the opportunity to nd out whats new, bond with other fans, and create a special relationship with the series and the characters.
The interactivity of the website has created a whole new community and a virtual world for its users.
Its jobs for the boys someone somewhere is making a lot of money out of this website.
This is a perfectly ordinary drama series which has exploited digital platforms to generate publicity.
Skins was developed onscreen and online by people who dont have a clue about their target audience and its watched by an older demographic trying to be cool.
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5. Youth Drama: Is Skins the Future?
A Seminar Simulation
Skins deliberately targets the 16-24 youth audience not only in its storylines, characterisation, style of lming and editing, but in its marketing and online presence. Has it got it right? And if it has, what is that makes it an eective and successful youth drama? How does Skins t with research into the interests, likes, dislikes, watching habits of this age group? You are going to take part in an imaginary seminar on youth drama.
Background Research
1. Work in groups of ve. Within your group each person should take responsibility for reading and pulling out four to six key points from one of the following resources. a. A summary of market research from the BBC into the Young Adult 16-24 age group. b. A research survey into TV and Young People, commissioned by Thinkbox, the television marketing body for the main UK commercial broadcasters, with a brief to sell TV to advertisers. c. The Secret Life of Students: An Interview also commissioned by Thinkbox on the TV habits of full-time students. d. A blog on the hunt for youth audiences, by Gareth McLean, TV journalist for the Guardian, and a brief summary of non-youth programmes favoured by 16-24s. e. An extract from the commissioning policy statements for both BBC3 and E4, the two channels which currently have a particular remit for the 16-24 age group. 2. 3. In your group, feed back your key points, making sure that you have to hand the research, statistical evidence or quotations to illustrate each point. In the light of your ndings, share your thoughts on the ways in which Skins seeks to appeal to the 16-24 age group. Based on your experience of the trailer, the extract and your online investigations, how successful do you think the writers and programme makers have been?
Preparing for the Seminar

As part of a wider conference on the future of TV drama, broadcasters, programme makers, market researchers and journalists have been invited to participate in a seminar on youth drama: a producer for BBC3 the commissioner for E4 responsible for bringing Skins to the screen Thinkbox market researcher Guardian journalist a 17-year-old blogger. 4. In your group, use what you have learned from both your research and study of Skins to prepare an opening statement and brieng notes for one of these participants on the subject: The future of Youth Drama: what do young people want from TV? Your teacher will tell you which participant to work on.
Holding the Seminar

5. One person from each group will be asked to play the role of the participant you have been preparing. Your teacher will host the discussion, asking for opening statements, chairing the debate and opening the oor for a studio discussion. English & Media Centre, 2009
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6. Follow-up Practical Work
1. Youth Drama: the Future
Choose one of the following forms to devise and promote a manifesto or vision statement on your views on the future of youth TV: a blog a podcast a letter to a broadsheet newspaper a formal brieng report, with images a PowerPoint or other form of interactive presentation, with written, spoken and visual material a MediaMagazine article. (If you email your article to jenny@englishandmedia.co.uk it might be published in the magazine.)
2. Targeting a Specic Audience: a Production Task

You now have a great deal of information about the ways in which broadcasters and programme makers target a particular audience (the 16-24 age group) through its marketing, the programmes storylines, style and the representation of youth characters, and through its online presence. You are now going to have a go at targeting a dierent specic age-range, either through a trailer or a proposal for a website. Like the creators of Skins, you will have to think both about what will appeal to this particular demographic and the way they are represented in the drama (will you, for example use stereotypical images and associations, or draw on these only to challenge them?). a. Seniors: a new drama for older people, set in a retirement community for the over55s. You can nd research data on this age-group on the BBC website (http://www. bbc.co.uk/commissioning/marketresearch/audiencegroup5.shtml). b. Creatives: a new drama for 24-35s based in a cutting-edge independent production company, where nobody is over 35 (the 24-35 demographic is now known as Middle Youth). c. Educators: a new drama for 35-54-year-olds based in the staroom of a 6th form centre or FE college at least 100 miles away from your own.
Option 1: The Trailer

2. Using storyboarding, or a digital stills or video camera if available, devise a treatment for your trailer, set around a set-piece event such as a party, a meeting or an open day. You should indicate the range of shots and the visual style of your trailer, and provide ideas about the editing style and soundtrack. Pitch your trailer to the class. Be prepared to unpick the images and ideas you have devised. If you have deliberately used stereotypes, you will need either to justify your use of them, or explain how you have used them as a strategy to get your target audience interested. Once youve heard all the pitches, discuss the dierent representations, values and ideas constructed in each trailer, and their intended impact.
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Option 2: The Online Presence
2. Draft an annotated home page for the website which would accompany your drama, indicating: the look the mode of address interactivity development of the drama branding/advertising/selling. You should also indicate the ways in which the dierent elements of the site are designed to appeal to and represent the target audience. 3. Present your website proposal to the class, explaining the thinking behind your decisions. If you have deliberately used stereotypes, you will need either to justify your use of them, or explain how you have used them as a strategy to get your target audience interested. Once youve heard all the presentations, discuss the dierent representations, values and ideas constructed in each website proposal, and their intended impact.
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7. Skinsvestigations: A2 Research Activities
As E4s rst ever commissioned drama, with a multiplatform presence, Skins makes an ideal case study for exploring a whole range of e-media and theoretical perspectives and debates. For further Skins links, references, and production details, which will be useful for any of the tasks listed below, visit its Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/skins_(TV_series)#Unseen_skins
1. A Comparative Genre Study

Compare Skins with another drama targeting a youth audience the obvious example is Hollyoaks, but you could look further aeld at 90210, One-Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, or even Being Human. You might want to focus your comparison particularly on: target audience and actual audience format and narrative structure use of dierent platforms, mobisodes, online presence etc types of representation and ideology visual style and production values.
2. Skins and Postmodern Media

A postmodern text is a text which:
draws on a wide range of inuences, contributions and techniques openly borrows ideas and references from a wide range of other existing texts uses humour, parody or satire celebrates aspects and ideas from the past expects its audiences to be active, knowing, and to work at making meaning is very aware of its own construction, and draws the audiences attention to it.
Use your knowledge of Skins, its website, and other ideas about postmodernism you have already discussed in class, to research and write about your views on the following statement: Despite all the interactivity it is actually a deeply traditional comedy drama. (Bryan Elsley, creator of Skins) Is it? Or does it draw on the references and stylistic techniques of postmodernity?
3. Skins, We-media and Democracy

1. 2. Using your own new media experiences as a starting point, explore the dierent functions of blogging, video-sharing, podcasting and citizen journalism. Examine what use Skins has made of two or more of these developments. Online networks and YouTube should be particularly helpful here make sure you investigate any mash-ups, sweded versions or parodies. Use your examples to discuss ways in which these technologies could be claimed to be democratic.
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4. Skins and Music: Synergy and Cross-Media Promotion
Skins has been hailed for its use of cutting-edge music, promoting The Gossips Standing on the Edge of Control in its rst trailer, using a whole-cast in-role singalong of Its a Wild World at the end of Series 1, and airing MGMT in Series 2. Its use of the foundtrack or songtage is now an acknowledged convention in TV drama (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/09/ television-popandrock). Conduct a research trail based on the study of an episode of Skins to determine: what music is used, from which artists, and in what contexts, to illustrate which characters, and with what impact. You will be able to source music tracks from the Skins website. the legal, copyright and marketing issues involved in the use of these tracks, and the impact it has had on their sales and success.
5. Skins and Collective Identity: Television Representations of Youth

Using case studies on Skins and another contrasting TV youth programme, possibly from a previous decade: explore the ways youth culture is represented, with detailed reference to two extracts from each show how each text constructs a shared experience in which the audience participates, through use of scheduling and marketing strategies, the use of identication with character types, and the role of narrative structure and visual style.
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Resource A: Industry Perspectives
A1: BBC Audience Data Young Adults: the 16-24-Year-Old Audience
A summary of market research conducted by the BBC into the Young Adult 16-24 age group. You can read the report in full, in BBC-speak, at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ commissioning/marketresearch/ Young People are a highly amorphous, fragmented group of individuals who are changing rapidly between the ages of 16 to 24. At this phase in life there are enormous differences between genders, ages and lifestages. The Young consume their media very differently from the rest of the population. Entertainment is important for them, factual content less so. The Young often relate best to media that is relevant to them. Media is one of the most powerful guides on what to do and how to feel. They actively look to their media to get clues on how to live their lives. The Young are much more comfortable with media choice the more the better. They have grown up with it and are more adept at ltering than older people. They know how to navigate and nd what they are looking for be it on the internet, on TV, or on mobile phones. less likely to read newspapers and more likely to go to the internet for their news. The Sun is the most popular daily and News of the World is the most popular Sunday paper. not shocked by sex or drugs. Over 40% of The Young have smoked cannabis and 86% of young people support its legalisation. Among todays 16-24 year-olds, 20% of men and 15% of women have already had 10 or more partners. quite similar in their attitudes to life. They grew up in the early 90s and were brought up with enormous consumer choice and are very demanding as a result. technologically literate. They are the rst generation not to know life without mobile phones and credit cards. trendsetters not only for one another but also for the rest of the population. Younger kids look up to them to check out the latest fashion, and adults often observe them to nd out what is in. They are dened by the brands they consume whether its media or clothing. Not old enough to remember: Thatcherism Live Aid Space Invaders life without Channel 4 or multichannel TV high ination and mass unemployment studying without the internet computers without a mouse. The Young do not often associate the BBC with things that are relevant to them.
Who Are They?

There are around 7 million 16-24s in the UK (11% of the population). This number is slowly declining in 1971, they accounted for 13% of the population. They are: ethnically diverse. More than 13% are from ethnic minorities double that in the rest of the population (ONS 2003). generally single (83%). Only one in twenty is married and only one in ten is living with a partner. better educated than ever before. The number of people in further and higher education has more than doubled in the past 10 years. However, according student debt is dramatically rising. Expected debt for the average student (2005) is 8,666.
What is the Role of TV?

The Young do not watch much TV on average, 15.9 hours per week and this gure is in decline. Its over two hours less than they were watching in 2004. Gaming and online activities are new competition for TV. The younger you are, the less you watch. 44% of their viewing goes to non-terrestrial channels much higher than the adult population as a whole (where less than a third of viewing goes to digital channels).
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But, despite numerous new media distractions for young people, TV still dominates their evenings. Most 16-24s have multichannel (the overwhelming majority) and spend most of their time watching it. Their favourite channels are any of the MTV channels, Sky One, Sky Movies and E4. They are more likely to watch and value Channel 4. Soaps and entertainment make up the foundation of their viewing. Big Brother, is one of the most watched terrestrial TV programmes, though numbers decline as more and more turn to multichannel. The Young want to be entertained. They expect to understand immediately what they are getting or they will turn over. They love big dramas, American comedies and lms and are more likely than average to watch music, animation and reality TV. The Young say they avoid serious factual and news. Young audiences for news bulletins on all channels have declined signicantly over the last ve years. The appeal of celebrity cannot be ignored, but The Young treat celebrities as peers not stars. They love to see the aws in their celebrities, and are more likely than average to think that pop stars are more important than politicians. The Young do believe that the BBC maintains a high standard of quality and makes great programmes. But their share of viewing of the BBC (terrestrial) is lower than for all individuals 22% compared to 32%. This is mostly due to the uptake of Sky and Freeview. Mobile phones are a necessity not a luxury. 95% have a mobile phone. Young people are the age group most likely to download news on their mobile phones over a third of 16-24s claim to do so, 10% regularly. 82% of 16-24s play electronic games and are more likely to play games on a console, and to have bought a computer system or games in the last 12 months (BBC State of Play, July 05).
What is the Role of New Media?

Internet use is much higher amongst 16-24 year olds with 83% going online. Over a fth of all adult internet users are in this age group (compared with 63% of all adults). 16-24s use the internet more than any other age group. Usage dips between 6pm and 7pm when young adults watch TV (Hollyoaks and The Simpsons on Channel 4 34%). The Young are far more likely to use the internet for entertainment. They download music from sites like Kazaa, use sites like MSN Messenger, and play games.
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A2: TV and Young People: a Thinkbox Research Case Study
There are a lot of claims made about young people and not just that they cant read, like knives and are getting fatter. In terms of their media consumption, a claim that received far too much attention in the last year is that they dont watch TV. Wedded to this is a further claim that theyve swapped TV for the internet. Eye-catching, headline-grabbing stuff but all patently untrue. Even though BARB only measures domestic broadcast viewing, its full year gures for 2007 showed that 16-24s watched an average of 31 TV ads a day in 2007 a growth of 1.5% on 2006 and that their viewing has remained stable. Social networking has been an incredible phenomenon but it is the latest incarnation of a timeless pursuit hanging out with your friends. This has been a popular activity since time immemorial (watching and talking about television is the second favourite activity, according to the Television Opinion Monitor). People understand now that what social networking displaces is other ways of hanging out with your mates: on the phone, via email or, in real life, round the back of the bike sheds or outside the newsagents. Why hanging around outside a newsagent is so compelling, neither BARB nor TOM can yet explain. Research from respected sources such as TGI and the IPAs Touchpoints shows that young people spend about a third of the time online that they do watching television. But young people can also be online at the same time as watching TV. They have off- and online conversations about what they are watching as they are watching, they can respond to what they are seeing, searching for more info. And sometimes TV ads can provoke this response. Google attests to the instant effect TV ads and programmes can have on branded search. Consistency and continuity are not as newsworthy as catastrophe and loss or signicant growth but they can still be hugely signicant qualities. In fact, the stability of young peoples TV watching is an astonishing feat of resilience given the ever-growing draws on their attention. It is a measure of their ongoing love affair with the box. Supporting this is recent research by MTV and Microsoft (a partnership of TV and online that ensured balance) that showed the young claim watching TV as their second favourite activity behind listening to music. Going online still very important was ninth. It should not surprise people if they nd out that young people watch less than the average amount of TV. They have always been lighter viewers, watching about an hour a day less than the average. But they have also always grown into adults who spend more of their time with their TV. And we must not forget that BARB, in addition to not recording out-of-home or on-demand viewing on online or mobile platforms, does not capture the viewing of the 1.5 million students when they live away from home during term-time. Other Lines of Inquiry research, commissioned by Thinkbox, has indicated that students ll their copious spare time with all kinds of TV up to 7 hours a day. BARB gures are therefore probably the minimum hours that young people watch TV and its gures are as high as they have ever been. However, given the enthusiasm young people have for some of the new ways to watch TV that BARB doesnt measure, maybe the top-line gures may dip at some point in the future. If they do, it wont necessarily mean they are viewing less, just viewing differently. Thinkbox
Thinkbox is the television marketing body for the main UK commercial broadcasters Channel 4, Five, GMTV, ITV, Sky Media, Turner Media Innovations and Viacom Brand Solutions. It works with the UK marketing community with a single ambition: to help customers [i.e. advertisers] get the best out of television. Thinkbox was launched in February 2005.
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A3: The Secret Life of Students: Thinkbox Research interview
There are 1.5 million students living away from home, and the numbers are growing every year. Theyre not covered by BARB except as guest viewers when they return to the family home and yet they are keen viewers, and pro TV advertising. We need to know more about how we can reach and inuence them. Hopefully, this is a start. Dave Brennan, Research & Strategy Director, Thinkbox The following extract is from a discussion between Dave Brennan and Justin Gibbons from Work Research, who conducted a qualitative study into the TV viewing habits of students. DAVE: Im interested in this relationship between broadcast TV and online because we talk about them having lots of kit and lots of time. JUSTIN: We saw a very strong relationship between television and online, stronger than Ive seen in all the other research that we do. Whats it driven by? Partly theyve all got PCs in their bedroom and the bedroom provides quite an important kind of hidey-hole for them. This is their little bit of independence, so thats important. We saw lots of the broadcasters on demand services: 4oD is being used by just about every student we spoke to. Theyre keeping up with series, theyre using it to ll dead time, especially in halls of residence, where they havent got sophisticated multichannel TVs. But 4oD means they can constantly dip into a lot of their favourite programming and theyre envisaging lots more converged services. Theyre looking for things that live across lots of different platforms and instinctively they can imagine it on their mobile and on their PC and on their iPod and on their TV. So theyre a really multiplatform bunch of people. I suppose theyve just come into a period in their lives where the doors of choice have opened up for them. So when they live at home their parents pretty much tell them what to watch, and suddenly theyre allowed to watch what the hell they like and theyve discovered a world out there where theres tons of choice. At the same time they realise that this has been their golden age of TV. Theyve never watched as much TV as this past three years and I got a feeling they were already starting to realise what theyre going lose: theyre going to get jobs; TV viewing is going become completely squeezed; theyll never get the chance to play with the TV set as much as they do now. Theyve got one eye on the future. DAVE: So if I was planning a campaign aimed at students what would you advise me I should be looking to do? JUSTIN: In terms of TV day part, I suppose some of the key adult areas, post nine till 12, is not where students are going be focussed. Theres tons of daytime viewing, so youre picking up loads of them then. That kind of soap and pre-soap period is really important. Dont bother with really early mornings. Theres some late-night stuff, which is not to be frightened away from. There are certain bits of cult programming. In terms of genre, there is lowest common denominator stuff that a lot of them go for in big households, day-time time stuff. But equally lots of that is semi-factual, for example Grant on Gangs. Cult comedy really comes through as being as important as soaps. Thats the grammar of their day so theyre building lots of programming around that and there are lots of opportunities to reach them. I think creatively there are probably some insights too: if they can play with your advertising, if theres a bit of negotiating space around the ad, if theres something in there that they can toy around with, then this the audience who will play with advertising more than any other. Theres also the online stretch. This is an audience which is very aware of brands in that TV online space. So there is also some opportunities there I would have thought. Thinkbox
Thinkbox is the television marketing body for the main UK commercial broadcasters Channel 4, Five, GMTV, ITV, Sky Media, Turner Media Innovations and Viacom Brand Solutions. It works with the UK marketing community with a single ambition: to help customers [i.e. advertisers] get the best out of television. Thinkbox was launched in February 2005.
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A4: A Blog and a Summary of NonYouth TV
a) Chasing the Youth Audience: a Trivial Pursuit? As BBC3 and E4 increasingly target a younger market, will the youth of today appreciate being handled with kid gloves? Think back to your late teens and early 20s. Go on: the cocaine-induced dementia cant be that bad. What were you doing? Were you watching television? Really? I know I was but I didnt have any friends. But were you social butteries that you are staying in, staring at the telly? Or had you taken the advice of Why Dont You? and gone off to do something less boring instead Anyway, you were, in all likelihood, off out snogging and smoking and doing stuff that young people do. (Remember when the most dangerous things you could do were snifng glue or playing with a Frisbee by a pylon? There was no crystal meth around then to dissolve the bones in your face.) With this in mind and I mean young peoples lack of interest rather than the effects of crystal meth you have to wonder about the wisdom of broadcasters pursuing a youth audience. BBC3 relaunches soon becoming, judging from the on-air idents Ive seen, BBC Three. In an interview with the Guardian, new controller Danny Cohen promised to move the channels centre of gravity younger, to the early 20s. Having been king of E4 when Skins launched, he has seen what use one show can be for a channel, in terms of redening its brand. Certainly, Skins at least slightly dispelled the notion of E4 as home to Friends repeats. Now, I couldnt bear Skins but as Ive heard of broadcasters saying that if people in the 30s dont like, dont get or wouldnt watch youth programmes, said programmes are halfway there, thats probably a good thing for Skins. Cohen, whatever he does with the channel, is putting his money where his mouth is. Among his commissions is Being Human, a comedy about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost starring Russell Tovey and Andrea Riseborough, which sounds promising indeed. Another is the excellent The Things I Havent Told You, one of six drama pilots. Its the story of a young girl searching for her vanished mother while simultaneously negotiating the obstacles, pitfalls and traumas of teenage life. To tell you that she dies at the beginning will in no way spoil your enjoyment of the show, which is smart, dark, witty, authentic, audacious and one of the best dramas Ive seen in a long time. (In this multi-media, many-platform age, the girl, Aisling, even has her own MySpace page.) If in pursuit of dramas that engage a youth audience, Cohen commissions quality dramas everyone can enjoy and The Things I Havent Told You is denitely one of those all the better. But the danger is that audiences who dont fall into that golden demographic are neglected and the very audience hes trying to attract will be repelled by such a cynical courtship. I wonder, are broadcasters panicking about this alleged disengagement of younger viewers? Wasnt it always thus? In response to a report that young people were opting for online pursuits rather than TV, Tess Alps suggested the opposite. Now I read somewhere maybe the Journal of Made-Up in My Head that young peoples brains are forming differently because of the way they multi-task. Clearly, theyre one step closer to becoming the Borg, but lets not worry about that right now. Instead, let me ask: is there any point in chasing a youth audience? Youll never catch them for a start. Not at your age. http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/ garethmcleanblog/2008/jan/18/ chasingyouthaudience b) Non-Youth Programming Although 16-24-year-olds may be watching less TV than before, the fact remains that some very successful shows made mainly for an older demographic, such as EastEnders and Extras, rate highly with this audience. Moreover, bizarrely, CBeebies is more popular with this age group than youth-friendly ITV2. Similarly UK Gold attracts more 16-24s than MTV1 and FilmFour, while two-thirds of this demographic watched an episode of Top Gear last year. Royal Television Society
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Resource B: The Youth Commissioners
B1: E4 Commissioning: the Second Biggest Digital Channel Aimed at 16-24 Year-Olds in the UK
Its been a busy year so far on E4, culminating last month with our best week this year where our share was 4.7% for our target audience 16-34s, easily putting us ahead of our competitors. We have achieved this by acquiring great US shows, commissioning high quality original programmes and skilful marketing and scheduling. Our audience think that what we are is clear and speaks to them, so we must continue to do that. This year we have seen the return of the phenomenal Skins, the stories were as expertly told as the rst series and the writing and acting even better than the rst series. Skins has demonstrated that a digital channel can show a successful, well-written and award-winning drama (weve lost count of the number of awards) that rates and is channel-dening. The holy grail, really. That does however mean, we are not looking for another Skins. Skins has captured the teen world brilliantly and with an authenticity so our next drama that sits alongside it should feel very different, possibly even high concept. What is crucial is that the drama should be unashamedly for our target audience, 16-34s. We are not looking for one-offs in drama, only series. We also saw The Inbetweeners hit our screens earlier this year. E4s rst sitcom, it focused on a group of teenage boys and the pain of growing up in suburbia. It was knowing and funny. Brilliantly written and superbly acted, our audience loved it and a second series has been commissioned. This was a bit of a departure for E4, but I would consider other funny dramas/sitcoms. The equally award-winning and terric Fonejacker returns in the Autumn along with Dead Set, a thriller from the mighty sword of Charlie Brooker, Rude Tube a fact ent series that takes us through a countdown of some of the most viewed clips online. We also have a week of specially written late-night Hollyoaks, and Beehive, a female sketch show written and performed by Barunka OShaugnessy, Alice Lowe, Sarah Kendall and Clare Thomson. As will be clear from the above, E4 are concentrating principally on comedy and entertainment on the one hand and drama on the other. E4 now has a terric track record in this regard so the bar is high. But I know there are lots of great ideas out there and new and established talent to bring these ideas to life. When thinking about E4, think mischievous and fun and always that you should be speaking directly and almost exclusively to the target audience, and generally series. http://www.channel4.com/corporate/4producers/ commissioning/e4.htm
B2: Extracts from Commissioning Priorities for BBC3

Our Priorities: BBC3 is a mixed-genre channel with entertainment at its heart focused on younger audiences. There are three key priorities: The channel needs to be disciplined about focusing on the young its centre of gravity will be 16-35 year-olds, people who are young in spirit and mindset. This will be a point of distinction within the BBC portfolio and with competitors. To be inviting and appealing to a young audience, the channel needs a bigger entertainment story. Our ambition is to reinvigorate pre-watershed content, some of which could transfer to BBC1. The channel needs to play a clear role within the television portfolio it should work closely with BBC1 and BBC2 with its entertainment and comedy commissions. BBC3 should provide an environment for the development of new talent and for existing talent to take risks, becoming a genuine laboratory for BBC1 and BBC2. Comedy: We need to keep the momentum in comedy its at the heart of what the channel does. Little Miss Jocelyn was a new arrival on the channel but proved tremendously popular, whilst Im With Stupid created comedy out of an unconventional situation. Entertainment: A priority for BBC3 is to develop a pure entertainment story, with more live events and series which can make an impact on the channel. A key requirement is an unscripted entertainment show, to send a clear signal to the audience that BBC3 is fresh and spontaneous. Drama on BBC3: BBC3 is looking for drama that reects the lives and aspirations of our young audience, with comedy-drama being a key focus going forward. There is also a particular interest in event drama and shorter series to maximise impact. The Tone of the Channel: the channel is about entertainment in its broadest sense; its tone should be fun, cheeky and unconventional (with warmth and breadth of appeal) to establish a singular and unambiguous relationship with the audience.
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Resource C: Reviews
C1: The Naked Truth about Being Young
TV writer Bryan Elsley wanted to create an authentic teenage drama so he got some youngsters to help him. Good news for teenage viewers everywhere: television drama is making a rare attempt to portray teenagers as they really are. Bryan Elsley, the distinguished TV writer whose credits include The Crow Road and 40, was trying out his latest script ideas on his son Jamie one evening. Jamie was not impressed. Its all turgid, middleaged bollocks, dad, he said, and suggested writing about teenagers instead. But dont do it in the usual way. Let me help you do it properly. To his great credit, Elsley said, OK, but why dont we get lots of people? He duly started a young writers group that is unique in television and rapidly turning into a sort of National Youth Theatre for scriptwriters. The result is Skins, E4s rst commissioned drama series. Shot entirely on location in Bristol, the show is a good-humoured, moral and comic celebration of teenage life, its parties, car crashes and grapples with virginity. The series is produced by Company Television, which made Shameless and so has a track record of glorifying previously unsung areas of British society. With a few honourable exceptions, such as Grange Hill, television generally shows teenagers in one of two ways. They are either dying of a drugs overdose because they have been f***ed by their father or they are impossibly bland, Elsley says. He suggests that there are two reasons for this. First, teenage parts are all written by adults. Obviously you cant have a 45-year-old guy like me writing about teenagers, he says. A lot of the dening principles of Skins were created by Jamie, but I could get the commission so I was kind of necessary in there somewhere. In no time Elsley had set up a talented young writers group with 16 members, all in their teens and early twenties. The rule is that everyone gets paid for their ideas and writing in the group, but all the material discussed or written at the meeting can be used by the designated writer of the episode. In this series, ve episodes were written by Elsley and four by the twentysomething writers, including his son. We have a mentoring system where the more experienced writers, the 23-year-olds, help the 17- and 18-year-olds. The 17-year-olds have written six-minute spin-off lms for the website, but if we get a second series we want them to write their own episodes supported by the group. There is, however, a second reason for TVs unsatisfactory depiction of teenagers. Seventeenyear-olds are at school all day, so on television they are actually played by 26-year-olds. In The OC, the 26-year-olds playing 17-year-olds look like women in their mid-thirties, and the women playing their 40-year-old mums have all had plastic surgery and look 17. To solve this problem, all the young characters in Skins are played by actual teenagers who have mostly never acted before, but were chosen from the 1,000 who attended open auditions. In the series they act alongside the likes of Harry Eneld, Arabella Weir and Sarah Lancashire as the parents. We wanted to show that teenagers have interesting, complex lives, says Elsley. Most teenagers are intensely moral people, but they are given absolutely no credit for this because their parents are all so busy behaving disgracefully. I wanted to portray these kids as the true inheritors of happiness. Kids in our show are attractive not because they have got blonde hair like in Hollyoaks, but because they are funny and interesting. Skins therefore joins a small tradition of good TV writing about teenagers. Brookside opened up teenage life in terms of what we could show, but Grange Hill is the key series. Teenagers were presented as fully rounded individuals with complex problems. Thanks to the writers group, he now understands the genius that is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the group, we watch television and they love Buffy. It is in our tradition. Even though she is sticking staves through the heart of a demon, it is actually about the difculty of being young. ... In Skins, as elsewhere in his work, the central preoccupation is fathers and sons. One day I woke up at home to nd that my father was dead. He had a brain tumour but had been brought up not to make a fuss. He just soldiered on. I would like to have known. He did not even tell my mother. In the series, a bargain is struck. The deal is: we show teenagers as rounded people, but eventually their parents come into focus as real people, too. Jamies episode has a bad-tempered father who never stops shouting and will not let up on his son when his own life is falling apart. Peter Capaldi is the father. Its like watching yourself played by someone better looking. Stephen Pile, Daily Telegraph, 23rd January 2007
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C2: Skins: a Skinful of Stereotypes
E4s new teen drama Skins is, unfortunately, all its cracked up to be: teen TV made by a committee of teenagers. We had plans, Sid, yells Tony, walking quickly across a Bristol bridge with nine calls on hold, and an eighth of Mongolian skunk zipped up inside a paperback copy of Jean Paul Sartres Nausea in his back pocket. Concerning your cock? Wake up you dozy fuck. Tony rings Anwar, his Muslim friend. Anwars in a prayer meeting and gets ejected for taking a phone call. Cheers Tone, says Anwar, my Uncle wants to stone me to death now. No he doesnt says Tony, doing this sort of winking and sneering thing to camera. Your uncles lovely. In between, Tony phones his clarinet-playing black friend, his gay tap dancing friend, his quirky, going-to-have-an-affair-with-his-teacher friend and his hot new girlfriend. Hey Nips, bellows Tony. Stop calling me Nips, Tony, my nipples arent that funny, she says, rubbing cocoa butter slowly into her nubile young thighs. Okay, okay, she concedes, Ill help you with Sid. Hallelujah! Welcome to the groundbreaking new teen drama Skins, which is written by teenagers, for teenagers, featuring teenagers, soundtracked by teenagers, part-styled by teenagers, marketed to teenagers, and advised by a team of teenage consultants, who were on-hand to verify the realism of the weed deals etc. Skins nally debuts tonight on Channel 4s entertainment off-shoot E4 after a great deal of hype on MySpace and on ad teasers, featuring young people pilled up and vomiting. The rst episode focuses in on Tony, and introduces us to his eclectic group of ethnicallymixed, psychologically-disordered and regionally-accented friends, and their efforts to present geeky Sids Mr Happy with the keys to the furry city. Along the way they trek off to a suburban brothel to score three ounces of weed from a drug dealer with a gigantic handle bar moustache called Mad Twatter, go to a party to sell it, fail, OD on too much trampolining, steal a car, lose the weed, drive said car into a river with them all inside all in the name of getting the Skins out of Tonys back pocket. My initial problem with the programme was that for epic stoners they never look stoned, for champion drinkers they never look drunk and for chronic party crashers they never look hungover. But I see this was my mistake and theres now evidence on MySpace to prove otherwise. Now my problem is the very notion of the show being written by a committee of teenagers for teenagers, helped by a barrage of teenage marketing strategy, as if teenagers arent capable of seeing through the whole whingey, middleclass bleating about suppressed emotions that the programme proudly promises to present. In episode one, Cassie the hippy-ish, pilled-up anorexic with the big heart, kindly offers to help Sid lose his virginity. But Sid digs Michelle aka Nips, Tonys girl with the nice legs. Cassie tells Sid that Shell knows all about it. To which Sid replies, What would you do if everything was so fucked-up and you just dont know what to do? I would stop eating until they take me away to hospital, Cassie replies. Oh dear. Isnt it funny how a teen drama written by a committee with an average age of 22 has managed to trot out such a conventional, unimaginative view of teenage life with attendant drug issues and eating disorder. As If without the ashy cutting. The characters, so far, ick up as the same old stereotypes: the savvy teen, the Muslim teen, the gay teen, the hot teen, the posh teen, the crazy fucked-up teen, the teen with image problems, the geeky teen with the glasses whos had virgin scrawled in black marker pen on his forehead As MySpace promises, they get high, get drunk, get laid and get up for their A Levels. And thats about it. Prepare to run the gamut of everything it (apparently) means to be a teenager. Grange Hill goes primetime, only without the school uniforms. It seems that, in TV producers minds, were all bored teens now. Emily Hill, Spiked Online, 25th January 2007
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C3. Skins and the Online Audience
How generation Why should I care came to care about E4s Skins This is an example of a campaign that got it right with Generation why should I care? As Medialife 2006 put it, this is a generation that embraces technology as an essential part of their lifestyle. You are a guest in their attention span, bore them and they will ruthlessly lter you out. Get it right and they will actively market to each other. Rather than just promoting the show, the campaign brought the characters and their lives to life through social networking sites, virals, targeted outdoor, TV, press and PR activities. In the short term, the campaign generated 1.6m incremental revenue. Longer term it is projected that it will generate 4.6m, a return of 1.80 for every 1 spent. MySpace and Skins MySpace is the second most popular social network in the UK after Facebook. Unlike Facebook it focuses on a music positioning and proposition to build its social networking community. Users can enjoy the standard social networking utilities, explore music through prole pages and even buy music through the site. However, while Facebook is bursting with TV-related proles and groups, most of which have been created by fans, TV content on MySpace is far more likely to have been professionally produced. MySpace proles are highly customisable and can be completely reskinned to suit, as a result brand and TVrelated proles are richer than their Facebook counterparts. Indeed, one of the most successful and famous examples of an online campaign was run through MySpace and helped launch the Channel 4 programme Skins. The Skins prole currently has 147,054 friends. Proles were created for all of the characters and their personal information was lled with details about who they were in the context of the character and the programme. This seeding culminated in the rst episode being broadcast on MySpace prior to its ofcial launch on TV. This campaign approach was born out of facilitating contact between a community with a latent common interest i.e. the programme Skins. This approach helped to create buzz and drive WOM (Word of Mouth) around the programme. Moreover, it built a cult following for the programme and developed a sense of authenticity and edge. These are the attributes delivered by a social network to TV, not to mention it delivered a TV audience of programme advocates. Some Wiki Skins Coverage Unseen Skins: Accompanying each episode of the programme was an online mini-episode, released after rst broadcast. The storyline of this mini-episode interweaves with the main episode and shows parts of the story that may not have been elaborated upon before. The mini-episodes for the nal two episodes have not been released online and are only available on the series DVD. A second series of Unseen Skins has been released on the ofcial Skins website. Secret Party: E4 launched a Secret Party and invited fans to get involved. This was the second time the show has offered UGC competitions to encourage the involvement of creative and talented fans. The competitions involved the chance to design a projection for the party, to interview the cast or to take ofcial photographs at the event. A competition was also launched on MySpace to win tickets for the event, that would give fans a chance to be spotted by members of the casting team who would be on the lookout for extras at the event. The Oxford band Foals are featured on the episode performing the song Hummer at the party. During January 2008, E4 began publishing webisodes (web episodes) to bridge the gap between Series 1 and 2. The few-minute episodes are designed to show various developments of the characters in order to enhance the understanding of the events that have taken place between the rst and second series. As of 4th February 2008, all episodes have been released on the website. The programme has given rise to the term Skins party, referring to a debauched night of heavy drinking and recreational drug use. During the 2007 Easter holiday a girl in County Durham threw a house party; it was advertised on her MySpace prole as a Skins Unofcial Party, referring to the party in the rst episode, with the subtitle Lets trash the average familysized house disco party. 200 people turned up, breaking into the house and causing over 20,000 of seemingly deliberate damage. English & Media Centre, 2009
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She alleges that her account was hacked and someone else placed the ad. Similar incidents have taken place in the Republic of Ireland, with major household damage and theft of personal property being reported in Firhouse and Foxrock. Although these attacks have not been conclusively linked to the show, news outlets have reported that they are called Skins parties. Club nights marketed as Skins Secret Parties have also taken shape in Leicester. Following this, a series of parties were run by Company Pictures in spring 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/skins_(TV_series)
C4: The Music of Skins

For an in-depth discussion of the role music plays in Skins see http://www.guardian.co.uk/ music/2009/feb/15/television-music-Skins
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Doing Soap
A Production Perspective
NB: The extended script to screen analysis of Brookside has been adapted from EMCs Soap Pack. Although the soap is no longer on air, weve reproduced the material here because it oers a unique record of the production cycle underpinning a continuing drama. Of all TV drama genres, soap opera is probably the most instantly familiar, easy to access, and most frequently taught in classrooms at Key Stages 3 and 4. Unlike the other units in Doing TV Drama, this section diers in that it uses text extracts as a way of: investigating the functions of continuing drama (i.e. soap) for broadcasting institutions exploring the complex industrial processes and logistical constraints of soap production exploring some of the editorial and aesthetic dilemmas involved in issue-based soap storylines.
4. Doing Soap
The unit divides neatly into two contrasting but complementary segments; while the EastEnders section focuses particularly on trailing and marketing, the Brookside section tracks a single storyline from initial idea right through to the nal edit and post-production controversy. Depending on available time and your students responses to soap, you might decide to focus on one of the sections rather than work through the whole unit, or pick and mix activities from across the two sections. 1. Spot the Context: an Unseen Extract page 83
Students watch a deliberately de-contextualised EastEnders trailer. This is presented in its original broadcast format, without branding, in an unusually misleading visual style framed in suspense or thriller conventions, with few familiar references. The lack of recognisable trailer conventions raises issues about the function of the trailer, its reliance on audiences close knowledge of the characters, and its contrast with the fourth wall domestic realism of the show. Students analyse the anomalies of this trailer and the ways it challenges normal expectations of EastEnders. 2. Why do EastEnders Trailers Matter? page 85
In role as the EastEnders publicity department, students develop and present a promotional strategy in the light of statistical data about the ratings, reach, demographic breakdown and costs of EastEnders, and its value for the BBC. 3. Another Trailer, Another Audience? page 86
Students analyse two versions of a more conventional EastEnders trailer to explore issues of branding, gendered audience appeal, and technical aspects of construction. In role as above, students present a further updated publicity strategy explaining how this trailer addresses a wider audience.
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4. Producing EastEnders page 86
Students watch DVD interview with Kate Harwood, former Executive Producer of EastEnders, commenting on her experience of taking over the show. They read a summary of key aspects of the EastEnders production process (Resource A, page 91), and use as the basis for a brief production simulation, in which groups prepare a listings magazine feature for 7-11-year-olds on the production of EastEnders, in one of a variety of formats. They can then attempt a practice essay debating issues covered so far. 5. EastEnders Online: the Audience Angle page 88
Students can now visit the website to research more fully the appeals and back stories of the characters represented in the trailers, with the aim of exploring how the site reaches out to underperforming demographic groups. 6. Three EastEnders Research Tasks page 89
These are optional research tasks requiring independent viewing of EastEnders, and vary in the specialist knowledge they require. Task 1: a representation case study, probably most useful for students who are regular viewers; it requires them to identify a representational issue, and track it through three storylines across a week. Task 2: a very small-scale audience research investigation. This can be focused around the content of forthcoming storylines (available from listings magazines and the website), and could be undertaken by non-EastEnders viewers. Task 3: analysis of a single episode of EastEnders in terms of its production process. Resource A: The EastEnders Production Process 7. Producing Soap: Brookside from Script to Screen page 91 page 92
This self-contained case study, adapted from EMCs 1997 Soap Pack, is based on a storyline about assisted suicide, screened over ve consecutive nights, and was highly controversial in its day. Students are invited to: watch and analyse the trailer for the storyline, and predict forthcoming themes and issues read the script of Scene 21, a key moment of narrative crisis in the development of the storyline; they annotate, storyboard and, if possible, shoot the sequence in the light of Brooksides production constraints backtrack to a DVD documentary extract in which the storyline is discussed and developed at a scriptwriters planning meeting. The documentary, supported by prompts for discussion, follows the development of Scene 21 through: a production planning meeting, at which logistics and editorial decisions are discussed rehearsals of the scene on location in a four-walled house in Brookside Close the rough cut of Scene 21, and dilemmas about pace and intensity of edits the nal Scene 21 as re-shot, re-edited and broadcast. Students can then compare the nal scene as broadcast with their own speculative treatment, and discuss its reception by audiences and healthcare professionals. Finally they can participate in a Right to Reply simulation, to explore the ethics and debates around the storyline and its representation of terminal illness. Resources B (Audience Responses) and C (The Brookside Production Cycle) page 97
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Doing Soap: a Production Perspective

1. Spot the Context: An Unseen Extract
Investigating Clip 1
Youre about to watch a very short 35-second drama clip as an unseen text. What exactly is it and how do you know? 1. 2. Watch the clip closely. On your own, without conferring, note down what you think it is, and the point at which you were able to identify it. Watch the extract again. After viewing: note down every shot you can remember in the clip, in chronological order have a rough guess at the number of edits, or technical events in the clip create a title or tagline for the extract which indicates where you think it has come from. 3. 4. 5. Join up with a partner and compare notes. You may have noticed dierent shots, or recalled them in a dierent order. Work together to compile a more accurate shot list. Compare your edit count, and your captions. How similar were your ideas? Finally, watch the sequence a third time, this time in slow motion or frame advance. Use this screening to ll in the gaps in your viewing, and note down the impact of the editing.
Everyones Talking About It

The clip youve just watched is actually a trailer for EastEnders, promoting the return of the Mitchell brothers to Albert Square. This trailer is unusual in a number of ways. 1. Talk about: the conventional features of a TV trailer and how far this one has included or omitted them what makes this sequence particularly odd for a soap trailer what makes this sequence unconventional for an EastEnders trailer what other types or genres of drama are suggested in the sequence. Why might these be alluded to? Which particular techniques construct these eects? 2. 3. 4. 5. The grid on page 84 provides you with a summary of the technical features of the trailer. In the middle column, note down associations with other drama genres, and their eect. What knowledge of EastEnders do you need to make sense of the trailer and what assumptions are the producers making about the audiences familiarity with it? What is the trailer suggesting about EastEnders? Use the right-hand column in the grid on page 84 to note down the ways these features help to build up ideas about the soap. And, nally: how does this representation of EastEnders compare with your own knowledge or experience of it?
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Theres More to EastEnders ...
Features of Clip 1: Mitchell Bros EastEnders Trailer Camera Very big close-ups at start, partially identifying characters; followed by parallel action cutting between varied longer shots of brothers, to indicate waiting and preparation for an event. Predominance of prole and silhouette shots. Editing and Pace At least 40 edits in 35 seconds varied pace. Some match-on-action editing; some patterned graphic matches e.g. legs on stairs; some deliberately disjointed jump-cuts and single-frame special effects. Surreal dreamlike impact. Slow motion effect as brothers reach Queen Vic. Sound Repetitive bass notes, with a rhythmic drumbeat; increasingly sharp string motif, plus guitar with echo; three mufed drum beats, repeated at different paces. But no familiar signature drumbeats! Mise-en-scne Unusual interior locations pool hall, unidentiable warehouse-type spaces, corridors steps and doorways before the arrival at the Queen Vic. Signicance of watch (timing is important) and leather jackets. Extremely dramatic and expressionistic night-time lighting, strong use of shadows and silhouettes, black background for nal two-shot. Whats missing? Words either dialogue or caption. Tagline e.g. Everyones talking about it, or Theres more to EastEnders. Familiar music drumbeat motif (doof-doof doof-doof!). Genre References and Impact Representation of EastEnders
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2. Why do EastEnders Trailers Matter?
EastEnders is the agship drama for BBC1, and a national institution. Launched in 1985, it currently hosts 53 regular characters across 10 families, with a very high proportion of crossfamily relationships and a back catalogue of several thousand storylines over nearly 25 years. With four prime-time episodes a week, its hard to avoid it and EastEnders audiences are incredibly loyal. So why does the BBC continue to spend money on trailers to promote EastEnders?
Marketing the Flagship

1. 2. Read EastEnders 2008 by Numbers (below), a summary of facts and gures about EastEnders airtime, audience gures and costs. In groups, take on the role of the Publicity Department at EastEnders. You have been asked by the Controller of Continuing Drama (i.e. soaps) to prepare a brief report outlining how EastEnders is currently doing, and identifying a strategy for increasing audiences. Use relevant data from the summary to explain: why EastEnders needs a publicity push to increase its audience share which particular audience groups you think need to be targeted, and why how you would target these groups, and what kinds of campaign you would recommend any advice you would give to the writing team about the types of storyline and characters that would increase these audience groups. 3. Present your reports back and share your strategies.
EastEnders 2008 by Numbers

There were 208 episodes (excluding BBC3 repeats and Sunday omnibuses) amounting to 104 hours of broadcasting. Including repeats and omnibuses, EastEnders accounted for 312 hours of broadcast time. EastEnders average share of the total TV audience is 37%. Viewing gures peaked at 11.7 million in March; the smallest audience was 5.3 million in July. Generally audiences average around 8.4 million. This is pretty solid in an era of fragmenting audiences, but a long way from the massive ratings of 20 million reached during the pre-digital Eighties and currently lower than rival terrestrial soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street. Despite the assumption that soap audiences are predominantly female, males generally make up around 37% to 40% of the audience. Around 20% of the EastEnders audience is under 24 apparently quite a high percentage for this age-group. Young audiences in the 16-34 range are more likely to view on BBC3, or on the iPlayer, for which no gures were available at the time of publication. In terms of social class, the largest demographic groups among the EastEnders audience are C1 (clerical and skilled workers) and DE (the lowest income groups). Each episode costs approximately 130,000 to produce. Over a year this amounts to around 2.7 million thats a lot of licence-fees!
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3. Another Trailer, Another Audience? (Clips 2a & b)
Heres another EastEnders trailer, built around one of the most popular characters of recent years: Stacey Slater. 1. Watch the sequence without making notes, then talk about how it works in terms of: gender (how is Stacey represented in the sequence, through her physical appearance, location, address to the audience, and spoken words?) branding (how does this sequence connect with EastEnders, even for those who are not regular viewers?) appeals to the audience (which audience groups do you think this trailer targets, and why?)
Clip 2b (DVD)
2. Watch the second trailer on the Stacey Slater story. Identify the ways in which this trailer diers from the previous one. Which trailer do you personally nd more eective, and why? Why might EastEnders produce two such similar trailers for the same storyline?
Clip 2b (DVD)
3. 4. Watch the fuller trailer again. How is this trailer more typical of the style and production values of EastEnders than the Mitchell brothers one? Using the information on the production process and set in Resource A (on page 91) to help you, consider the following elements: the set and mise-en-scne location, lighting, colour, props and how they are used in the trailer the camera techniques and edits particularly the range and size of shots the representation of Stacey Slater appearance, body language, mode of address and who shes talking to the narrative storyline suggested by the insert shots in the trailer the elements of the trailer which brand it as EastEnders.
Marketing the Flagship 2

5. In role as a member of the Publicity Department, present an undated report explaining: the dierent audiences to which this trailer might appeal how and why this trailer might help to draw new audiences to EastEnders how it reects the production style and values of EastEnders why it might be cost-eective to produce.
4. Producing EastEnders
Kate Harwood on Soaps
1. Watch Kate Harwood, Controller for Series and Serials for the BBC, describing her experience of starting work on EastEnders.
A Quickre Production Activity: Kidswatch!

For this activity you will need Resource A (on page 91), an outline of the complex processes involved in producing EastEnders. In your group, prepare a pitch for the brief on page 87 from a TV listings magazine.
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kid watch! what are YOU

s
watching?
We are introducing a new regular feature: Kidswatch! a double-page spread for 7-11-year-old youngsters which will give them the lowdown on the ways their favourite TV programmes are made. The feature will be supported by a special Kidswatch! webpage. The rst Kidswatch! feature will be on EastEnders. It needs to show this age-group a taste of what goes into the making of the BBCs biggest continuing drama, including: why EastEnders is popular, and the audiences it appeals to the production process behind EastEnders where its shot, the use of the set, interesting facts about the writing and production. the different ways EastEnders targets and responds to its audiences look particularly at the role of their website. We know from our research that this age-group is thirsty for knowledge, and is passionate about TV. However, you will need to be selective in nding the most relevant and interesting facts, and the right tone of voice. Wed like to see your ideas for one of the following: an illustrated webpage and/or downloadable fact-sheet for the Kidswatch! website, explained in language 7-11-year-olds will nd accessible. a short video presentation for the Kidswatch! website in a format they will be familiar with e.g. a Newsround-style item an illustrated feature article titled: 10 things you didnt know about the ways EastEnders is made. Pitch us your outline ideas, and well consider whether to commission
you to take it further.
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Putting it in Writing: A Practice Essay
Use the new information and experience you have gained from your work in this section to write a short practice essay on one of the following questions: 1. EastEnders is both the jewel in the BBCs crown, and a logistical nightmare. How far do you agree with this statement? 2. Why is EastEnders such an important asset to develop for the BBC? 3. What new strategies could EastEnders use to extend its appeal to young audiences?
5. EastEnders Online: The Audience Angle

These group activities involve a trawl of the BBC EastEnders website to help you to consider how the trailers have built on audiences familiarity with regular characters, long-term narratives, and soap conventions.
What Does Trailer 1 Promise for Audiences?

1. 2. 3. Briey research the back stories of the Mitchell brothers on the EastEnders website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/). Which particular audience groups might the BBC particularly want to appeal through the Mitchell brothers and why is this so important? What strategies are used to attract these demographics and what aspects of masculinity are represented in the trailer?
What Does Trailer 2b Promise for Audiences?

1. Briey investigate the ways Staceys character has been constructed in the past on the EastEnders website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ eastenders/). Which audience groups might the BBC particularly want to appeal to in this trailer and why is this so important? What strategies are used to attract these demographics and what aspects of femininity are represented in the trailer?
2.
3.
What does the EastEnders Website Offer Audiences?

Visit www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders and dip briey into dierent areas of the site to investigate the range of dierent approaches used to broaden the appeal of the show to underperforming audience groups. Try two or three of the following micro-sites: characters and cast places archives games and quizzes interactivity Your Say, News, Interviews, FAQs.
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6. Three EastEnders Research Tasks
The following activities all focus on a specic concept area and all require you to present your ndings in the form of a class presentation, a podcast or a blog.
Task 1: A Representation Case Study

1. Using your EastEnders expertise and your familiarity with characters and current themes, select one of the following aspects of representation to track through three storylines in the episodes broadcast over the course of a week: age gender race family life. 2. Consider how your aspect of representation is constructed through: the development of the characters in your three chosen storylines, and their relationships to each other narrative structure the contrast between dierent storylines, and the shape of the episodes mise-en-scne camera and editing. 3. Use the grid below to help you prepare an expert guide to the ways in which EastEnders constructs your representation focus.
Representation Focus Story 1
Characters & Relationships
Narrative Structure
Mise-en-scne
Camera and Editing
Story 2
Story 3
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Task 2: An Audience Research Task
Kate Harwood, former Executive Producer of EastEnders, and now Controller of Series and Serials for the BBC, claims that the soap is particularly popular with young 16-24-year-old audiences, in part because there is a wide range of characters with whom to identify, from very young to very old. Your task is to conduct some simple small-scale audience research in your own peer group to see whether she is right. 1. Make a list of the upcoming storylines and their key characters for the coming week. You can nd this in the Radio Times or another listings magazine, online at http://www.radiotimes.com/ or at http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/episodes/ Identify the types of characters and issues you think are likely to occupy most screen time. Summarise each storyline in a single sentence, focusing on its central character, and the theme or issue it raises. For example: Stacey tries to support her bi-polar mother this tackles the issues facing young carers dealing with mental health problems. Roxy is caring for her young baby as a single parent, overseen by her domineering father this focuses on dysfunctional families, interfering in-laws. 3. Devise up to five questions to nd out which of these storylines would be of interest (or not!) to the 16-24-year-old audience. Keep the questions as limited as possible. For example: rate the storylines in order of interest; give three reasons why youre interested/ uninterested in this storyline, etc. Add one more open question designed to nd out what young people like or dislike about EastEnders e.g. list three features you like/dislike about EastEnders. Try out your questions on a small sample of young people, both male and female, and note down their responses to your questions. Analyse your findings to see how your 16-24-year-old sample has responded to the dierent characters and storylines, and whether you can draw any conclusions about why EastEnders appeals or doesnt appeal to your sample. Remember that these can only provide a snapshot view, and reect the views of your own particular community. Prepare a brief presentation of your ndings to the class.
2.
4. 5. 6.
7.
Task 3: Theres More to EastEnders ...

1. Select one of the forthcoming weeks episodes to watch, and break it down into its dierent storylines. It might be helpful to create a grid to help you log the dierent narrative elements, and then make connections across and between dierent characters and storylines. Choose one storyline to explore in detail, focusing on the aspects of its production process. Using the EastEnders website and the data in Resource A (page 91), investigate: where each scene is set studio-based, outdoors on the EastEnders lot, or recorded on location? the mise-en-scne of each location, and what it communicates about the characters and storyline the dierent types of camera shot, framing and editing techniques used in your storyline, and the impact created for audiences the ideas or issues represented in your storyline, and their appeals to dierent audience demographics. 3. On the basis of your research, make a presentation demonstrating the dierent techniques used in your chosen storyline.
2.
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Resource A
The EastEnders Production Process
The Cost of EastEnders
In terms of cost, EastEnders is by no means high-end TV drama. Compare the tarrifs (production budgets) per hour for different types of drama on BBC1: Drama series: Drama serials: 500K to 750K 700K to 850K
Single dramas: 700K to 900K EastEnders: 260K
In fact, EastEnders is remarkable value for money; the complexity and scale of the production process is organised to reduce cost and maximise the budget. Heres how it does it.
Use of Standing Sets and Locations

One of EastEnders most important assets is its studio set and location in Hertfordshire, where every interior, from the Queen Vic to the caf to the Slaters home, is constructed with moveable walls. This allows room for multiple camera set-ups so that characters can be shot from 360-degrees and thus preserve the illusion of realism. Thus Stacey Slater can be seen in long-shot in a bedroom which in reality would only have allowed medium-shot coverage. Most interior scenes use three or four cameras at any one time, thus speeding up an incredibly complex production process and allowing concurrent shooting of a number of different episodes at different stages of production. The main studio complex, Stage 1, houses three permanent sets: the Queen Vic, the caf, and the launderette. Other interiors are re-assembled in the studio every time they are needed, and a second studio is used for non-regular sets; others are designed and built as required. Exterior material around Albert Square is recorded on a specially constructed lm lot with three cameras, and supplemented with location shooting when necessary. This is a more expensive process, and used sparingly for special event episodes e.g. a visit to Ireland or Spain, Dot Cottons memories of her past, or peaks in the arc of a particularly popular storyline.
Developing Storylines
Storylines are overseen by a Chief Storyline Editor, whose team breaks them down across a sequence of episodes before commissioning writers to work on individual episodes; the most experienced writers work on groups of four episodes at a time. The Script Department includes a Series Editor, six Script Editors with two Assistants, a Researcher, an Archivist, and two Secretaries. Writers usually have a month to submit a rst draft to the Script Editor responsible for their storyline; they will redraft twice more before it is delivered to the director and crew who will produce it. It then becomes a rehearsal script, and will be broadcast in this version.
The Production Cycle

At any one time there may be ve or six production teams working on the programme, each including a Producer, a Director, two Assistant Directors, and a Production Assistant. Four episodes are recorded and completed every week, lmed over eight days. The cast is expected to arrive on set with lines already learned, and to record with only few rehearsals: this is called rehearse/record. The complex schedule often requires the cast to be working on six episodes at a time. Filming is completed six weeks before transmission; editing is organised around three episodes at a time, usually over 2 days. Further editing is required if the episode overruns the maximum length is 27 minutes 30 seconds. Sound dubbing takes place a week later, for the addition of music and additional sound-effects. The episode is then ready to go.
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7. Producing Soap: Brookside from Script to Screen
Youre going to look at a case study example of the production process behind a single soap scene, in this case a highly controversial issue-based storyline culminating in euthanasia. In the 21st-century euthanasia has become an increasingly urgent topic with news stories, documentaries and both ctional and biographical dramas about the issue of assisted suicide.
The Context
The soap in question, Brookside, no longer exists it was axed in 2003, after a 21-year run on Channel 4. At its peak, it regularly pulled audiences of 8 million strong ratings for Channel 4 and was a frequent source of controversy, featuring stories such as domestic abuse, incest (resulting in a famous body under the patio scandal), illiteracy, substance abuse, the rst ever lesbian kiss on TV, and much more. Originated by maverick Liverpool independent producer Phil Redmond (now Chair of Liverpools Culture Company) at its height it was Channel 4s agship equivalent of EastEnders, but more edgy. Many of the cast and crew associated with it are now household names. Brookside was unusual, and way ahead of its time in that, unlike EastEnders, it was shot entirely on location in a real housing estate, as a single-camera shoot in real four-walled rooms. This imposed particular problems for the production but gave its visual style a very authentic and intimate feel. This case study follows a key sequence from a storyline broadcast over ve consecutive nights in 1997. Resource C (page 98) outlines the timing and sequence of the production schedule. Although the material is now part of TV history, the processes and issues it represents are still relevant to an understanding of the way the production processes of continuing drama impact on the meaning and representations offered in soap drama.
The Brookside Trailer (DVD)

1. This trailer was produced in 1997 when it was regarded as being state of the art. Watch it in groups, with each group focusing on one of the following aspects: the look, visual style and soundtrack (what cues and techniques can you spot which help to date it as a product of older technology?) the narrative enigmas it oers the representations and issues it highlights the ways audiences might be positioned by the trailer (what are we being asked to do, and why?). 2. 3. 4. Feed back your responses to the way in which the trailer is constructed. Share your expectations of the programme it trails, then read the synopsis below, to see how accurate your predictions were. How do you think this might storyline might be resolved?
The Background
Mick and Elaine are caring for Gladys, Elaines elderly mother, who is in the end stages of terminal cancer. She is in terrible pain, and living on morphine, which is no longer helping her. She has refused to go into hospital where her pain could be managed more eectively; she has hoarded paracetamol so she can be in control of her own death. Meanwhile, Mick and Elaine are emotionally and physically exhausted, but determined to honour her wishes. 5. 6. Read the script extract for Scene 21 on page 93. It is the form used by director and camera operator during the shoot. The location is a very small bedroom, at midnight. Talk about your reactions to the script. Is it what you expected? Is the content of the scene i.e. what actually happens emotionally convincing? If so, what makes it so? If not, why not? What do you notice about the way the script is organised?
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SC.1910.21 (INT) JOHNSONS GLADYSS ROOM (NIGHT) 0:00PM THE TEARS ROLL DOWN GLADYSS CHEEKS AS A BROKEN ELAINE PUTS HER THINGS BACK INTO THE HANDBAG. 1 MICK: (QUIET, BROKEN) You know what she was looking for, dont you? 2 ELAINE: (NODS, CAN BARELY SPEAK). Yeah (GLADYS IS STILL CURLED UP IN PAIN, HER HEAD HAS COME OFF ONE OF THE PILLOWS) 3 GLADYS: (AS SHE LOOKS UP AT ELAINE IN TEARS, IN AGONY. QUIET BUT STRONG) Please ELAINE LOOKS AT HER, UNSURE AS TO WHAT SHE WANTS. THEN GLADYS MUSTERS UP ENOUGH STRENGTH TO PULL THE PILLOW OVER HER OWN FACE. HER HANDS PRESS IT DOWN AS SHE TRIES TO SMOTHER HERSELF. ELAINE AND MICK EXCHANGE A HORRIFIED LOOK AS THEY STARE IN HORROR AT WHAT GLADYS IS TRYING TO DO TO HERSELF. ELAINE STEPS FORWARD TO TAKE THE PILLOW OFF GLADYS FACE. 4 ELAINE: No, mum dont do that please BUT AS SHE TRIES TO TAKE THE PILLOW AWAY, GLADYS GRABS ELAINES WRIST AND PUSHES HER HAND INTO THE PILLOW. SHE WANTS ELAINE TO SMOTHER HER. ELAINE FREEZES, HER HAND LOCKED IN GLADYSS. SHE LOOKS AT MICK. MICK IS FROZEN WITH FEAR. ELAINE LOOKS DOWN AT HER HAND ON THE PILLOW, GLADYSS HAND STILL ON HERS. GLADYSS HAND STILL FIRMLY GRIPS ELAINES WRIST. ELAINE AGAIN LOOKS TO MICK FOR HELP, THEYRE BOTH UNABLE TO SPEAK. MICK SWALLOWS, A SMALL NOD, ALMOST TO HIMSELF ITS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. HE STEPS FORWARD AND FIRMLY PLACES HIS HAND ON TOP OF ELAINES HAND WHICH IS STILL GRIPPED BY GLADYSS. THEY PRESS DOWN ON THE PILLOW, NEITHER OF THEM ABLE TO LOOK EACH OTHER IN THE EYE. END OF EPISODE ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND TEN
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Organising the Shoot
Shooting an intimate scene like this can be extremely challenging. Read the comment below from director Steve Garwood, worrying about the problems hes expecting to face:
One of the problems we have on Brookside is that the houses are remarkably small. They dont look small on the TV and the reason for that predominantly is because to achieve three or four to six people in a room, you very often have to go wide angle on the camera and so the room looks bigger than it really is ... And by the time youve put lights and camera and four actors and six crew and so on in that room, its diminishing, it gets very hot. These are all interior scenes and take place at night, which means that well have blacks on the windows because well be shooting by day. And you can imagine what that will do when its full of lights and people and its June or May. Its going to be an incredibly hot, conned, cramped space ... incredibly difcult working conditions, and to keep peoples concentration up is going to be the hard thing. And God knows, its going to be depressing.
How Would You Shoot this Extract?

1. On your copy of the script, note down: where you would place the camera at dierent points in the scene what you want your audience to be looking at, and why any instructions you might give the three actors about their performance how you would shoot the actual suocation sequence how long should it take, who or what should the camera be looking at, and for how long what might be your closing shot for the sequence, before the credits roll? 2. Use your notes to construct a shot-by-shot storyboard for the scene, remembering the following: its shot in a very small, four-walled room not in a three-walled set its night-time lighting and shadow will be important its the climax of a long and dramatic storyline. 3. If you have the kit to do so, get into a small group, and try shooting the scene on video as youve storyboarded it. Note down any diculties or dilemmas you encounter during your shoot.
Later you will be watching the nal version of this scene as it was broadcast in July 1997. But rst, watch the DVD documentary footage, which tracks the entire production process.
Scene 21 From Script to Screen: The Writers Planning Meeting

This two-day planning meeting is attended by: Executive Producer Phil Redmond, Head of Mersey TV; the Producer; 14 Scriptwriters; Script Editors; a Researcher and a Script Secretary. The storyline has been agreed three months earlier, and is now being developed. Watch the extract and comment on: the gender balance of the meeting, and the age, style and behaviour of the participants the way the meeting is organised and minuted who seems to be in control? the ways ideas are developed and debated, and the concerns and issues being raised.
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Production Planning Meeting (DVD)
Two months later the Producer meets with the director and writers for the storyline to discuss the logistics of shooting Scene 21 the death scene. NB: The ITC (captioned onscreen) was the watchdog forerunner of Ofcom, responsible for guidelines on what it is acceptable to show onscreen. Talk about the following: who seems to be in control in this meeting what problems do the group face in deciding how much to show why is medical research so important in this scene how does this discussion compare with your own when you tried to interpret the script?
Rehearsing and Shooting (DVD)

1. Talk about some of the following: why is it so important to rehearse the scene in the actual space where it will be shot the dierent issues the cast will have to keep in their minds during the shoot the possible problems the director faces in shooting the scene? 2. Take a look at the rst edit of Scene 21. How eectively has the director interpreted the scene? What comments or criticisms would you give him? How does this rst version of the scene compare with yours? This scene was re-shot on the request of Executive Producer Phil Redmond. 3. 4. What reservations does he have about the rst edit and what concerns does he have in terms of audience response? Finally, take a last look at the re-edited Scene 21 as nally broadcast, focusing on the following aspects: the sequence and framing of shots. Try the Technical Events Test, noting down each time the shot changes, and the camera position in each shot. the use of lighting in the room where is it coming from, and what eect does it create? the pace of editing how does this aect the tension and drama of the scene? the closing shots, and their impact on the viewer.
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Audience Responses to Scene 21 and the Euthanasia Storyline
1. Does the scene work? How did you respond to it and, more importantly, how did audiences respond to it at the time of transmission?
Unsurprisingly, this storyline provoked strong controversy, as the producers expected. 2. Read the selection of responses in Resource B on page 97.
A Right to Reply Role-play

After the transmission of the Brookside episodes, Channel 4 broadcast a special Right To Reply programme, in which nurses and other health carers attacked the storyline for its melodramatic scenario. They claimed that Gladyss death was unnecessarily painful, that she was the victim of a bad doctor and uninformed relatives, and that solutions such as hospice care were not mentioned. They claimed the storyline was alarming and negative for many viewers with experience of terminal illness. 1. Prepare your own 10-minute Right to Reply debate, on the following topic:
Scene 21: cynical sensationalist ratings-fodder, or a brave attempt to raise a difcult public debate?
2.
Each person should take on one of the following roles: a viewer distressed by aspects of the storyline a viewer who strongly supports the way the issues have been brought out into the open a representative from Brookside defending the aims and representations of the programme a healthcare professional.
3.
In role, prepare a list of arguments or issues to raise in support of your particular views. With your teacher as host, be ready to contribute your ideas, and to come up with new ones if your point has already been raised by someone else. At the end of the 10-minute debate, take a vote on the statement above.
4.
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Resource B
Audience Responses
The Journalists Response
I think what was very important was the way Gladys character was established as someone who was very sure what she wanted. She wanted to go on until she couldnt which is actually quite life-enhancing. We knew she was strong and in charge of herself. There was no question that she didnt know what she was doing. I think the despair of her family that she was in pain and not getting enough drugs is an experience a lot of people have, and its important to show it. Not to frighten people, but to show them how to argue on behalf of others ... They could have been simple made it all work out but theyve shown the repercussions of doing that in a society where its illegal. Suzanne Moore, journalist
Readers Letter
I am a nurse working in the community and I am angry, incensed and appalled at Tuesdays storyline in Brookside have they not heard of the wonderful work of nurses who work for the Macmillan and Marie Curie support teams? Families who are willing to look after terminally ill people can have help. There are night-sitters and patients can have 24-hour pain control. The portrayal of Gladys writhing around the bed in pain is so wrong. It gives many people, who perhaps have a terminal illness, fears that they may end up the same way. Get your facts straight, Brookside. D. Ayers, Esher, Surrey
The Daily Mail TV Critics View

Brookside seems to be deliberately designed to make the rest of us regard Liverpudlians with hatred, ridicule and contempt As they always do when they decide to shock and outrage, they indignantly deny the charge of sensationalism, crediting themselves instead with the courage to raise important issues On Tuesday night, in a scene that gave every sign of having been borrowed from an under-rehearsed amateur production of Othello, the daughter and son-in-law smothered the mother with a pillow. The moral justication for the act of murder was that since theyd found a jar of painkillers and a bottle of whisky in her handbag, this was proof of her voluntary wish to die. It is difcult to see this as a useful contribution to any debate on the subject of euthanasia Peter Peterson, Daily Mail, 3rd July 1997
Responses via the Brookside Helpline (for those affected by the storyline)
513 calls were made. 81% were women (compared with 67% of the normal Brookside audience). 49% rang to discuss the issue of bereavement, 28% to discuss illness generally. Responses were evenly divided between favourable and negative comments. Most calls were about bereavement after terminal illness, in some cases many years ago. Some callers expressed anger that Brookside was triggering feelings that had been dealt with in the past and the caller did not want those feelings resurrected. There were some very sad calls from people who still feel guilt for not being able to reduce the suering of the person who had died, and guilt for having wanted them to die quickly. There were also a few calls from people with terminal illnesses who had not realised that palliative care is available, and who had as a result of watching the programme and ringing the helpline may have gone on to make contact with hospices, Macmillan nurses, etc. There were calls from doctors and nurses, some of whom felt that Brookside did show an accurate picture of a cancer patients last days, though most felt that Gladys and her family would have had more support.
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Resource C
The Brookside Production Cycle
October 1996: Long-term story meeting at Mersey TV to establish the development of future storylines over the next six months to year or so. This sets the agenda for the themes and issues which will be covered, with rough outlines of the types of story which will affect each family on the Close. The meeting is attended by: Phil Redmond, Executive Producer and Head of Mersey TV; Ric Mellis, Producer; 14 Scriptwriters; Script Editors; Researcher; Script Secretary. February 1997: Long-term planning meeting, attended by the same group, to rm up ideas discussed in November. Storylines are conrmed and rened, and future directions established for each family. 28th February: Regular Monthly Planning Meeting. Discussion of one months stories in a block of 12 episodes. Here storylines are plotted for each family, on an episode-by-episode basis. A whiteboard is used to chart visually each familys progress through the 12 episodes. After the meeting, the Producer and Script Editor write up a six-page summary of each episode, again broken down into family storylines, which will be used as the basis for the nal scripts. These are then sent to the writers to read. 6th March: Commissioning Meeting. Here the Producer packages out the scripts to commissioned writers who have had a weekend to prepare usually in either single episodes, or blocks of three episodes. Details of the storylines are teased out and claried. The chosen writers are given two weeks to complete the rst draft of their scripts. 18th March: The First Draft Meeting. At this full-day meeting, the commissioned writing team go through the months episodes, one by one, with comments, amendments, and queries. The writers are then given a further week to deliver a second draft of their scripts. Late March: The script team evaluates and makes changes to the second-draft scripts. They are then sent on to the Directors of the episodes, and to the different departments of the production ofce: costume, make-up, lighting, and so on. Each script is circulated to around 60 people so condentiality and the importance of avoiding leaks of the storylines is essential. 1st May: The Writer/ Director Meeting. Here the Directors of each weeks episodes have a chance to talk through each script in detail with both the writers and the Producer and the Production Manager. Details and interpretations of the stories are sorted out, and technical requirements organised for example, if a specialised piece of equipment might be needed, such as a crane-shot, which needs to be organised in advance. Scripts sent to actors two weeks in advance of the recording. This gives them enough time to respond to or query any aspect of their scripts. 15th and 16th May: Pre-shoot meetings, where production crew is briefed. 19th to 23rd May: Shooting of episodes 1909-1913 starts, and continues over seven days. 26th to 30th May: Off-line editing* takes place over ve days. On 30th May, the rough cut version of episodes 19091913 is screened to Executive Producer (unusual but this is a seriously heavy storyline), Producer, and Director. Arrangements made for any further lming, pick-up shots, etc and cuts episodes often over-run and need pruning. 2nd to 6th June: Dubbing, re-shooting inserts, etc and on-line editing*. On 6th June ne-cut edit completed and screened. Further inserts may be shot at any point up to transmission. 30th June to 4th July: Transmission for the ve nights episodes. Helplines provided by Broadcasting Support Services on 1st July and 5th July, after the omnibus edition. 2nd July: Louis Emerick (Mick) appears on This Morning, discussing the dilemmas facing his character. Discussion of episode 1910 on Today Programme on Radio 4. 6th July: Producer appears on Channel Fours Right To Reply and a Radio Five live phone-in defending the Johnson story against accusations of unnecessary scaremongering. Tabloid furore. * Off-line refers to a rough edit of the nal material, without addition of all soundeffects, etc. On-line edit is the nal version which goes out on air.
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The Literary Adaptation

This unit focuses on an iconic literary moment: the Asking For More scene from Oliver Twist. This forms the basis of a structured adaptation/ production exercise, and is then developed as the starting point for comparative analysis of four dierent versions ranging from 1922 to 2008. The unit aims to highlight: the cultural and economic significance of literary adaptations for broadcasters the importance of mise-en-scne, location and lighting in constructing representations of social class, poverty, and childhood social constructions of social class, poverty and childhood over time, and the impact of changing technologies on their representation. The unit can be worked through in a linear mode, section by section as a coursework case study; alternatively students could start from the second section and use it as a way into a close reading of the 2008 version alone, or indeed move straight to the close comparison of four dierent adaptations. 1. Researching the Field of Classic Drama page 102
5. Classic Drama
Doing TV Drama
The idea here is to prompt discussion of the function of heritage literary adaptations both as a source of narrative inspiration, and as a specically British (and therefore marketable) form of branding, particularly important to the BBC. Students brainstorm and discuss the pre-1914 texts they believe would make successful adaptations, share their common features, and vote for their most popular. They debate the connotations of different terms used to describe literary adaptations a discussion which should throw up ideas about the literary canon, ideas of heritage and Britishness, and the cultural values attached to English literature both here and internationally. In groups, they take on the role of researchers for a new digital broadcaster seeking to upgrade its status through the production of a new classic drama serial. They use pre-selected resources (see Resources B and C, pages 117-119) and websearches to inform their presentations on the appeals of classic drama to audiences and to broadcasters. In the light of an overview from Kate Harwood, Controller of Series and Serials for the BBC, they should then be able to attempt a piece of writing about the appeals of literary dramas for broadcasters and audiences.
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2. Adapting a Sequence page 104
In groups, students work to a simulated brief on a modern adaptation of Oliver Twist, focusing specically (on the grounds of its familiarity and ubiquity) on the Asking For More scene. In a structured, step-by-step approach, students: brainstorm ways of updating the mise-en-scne, and of constructing a visual style and appropriate casting for the adaptation annotate the original text of the scene (page 107) for camera instructions, point of view, pace of editing, and mise-en-scne consider the details of mise-en-scne, lighting, colour and framing they will focus on in their storyboarding work on a detailed storyboard for a segment of the scene, indicating camera movement, transitions, and soundtrack instructions pitch their treatments and compare their dierent interpretations. Watch Kate Harwood on DVD explaining the rationale for choosing to make yet another adaptation of Oliver Twist, and the construction of the representation of Olivers persona, the set and the visual style of the piece. Asking For More Across the Decades page 109
3.
This exercise focuses on close analysis of the Asking For More sequence in the 2008 BBC adaptation. Students watch the sequence, and attempt to map their emotional responses to it on a class grid representing contrasting extremes of emotions (page 109). They can then compare the scene as broadcast with their reading of Dickens original text, and with their own modern adaptations. In groups, they conduct a close textual analysis of the sequence, focusing on one of the technical aspects; using post-it notes, they identify the four most signicant examples of the ways in which their technical aspect contributes to the representation of childhood. These are presented to the class, and could also be posted onto the class grid. As the post-its accumulate, the class builds up a master list of the ways in which the technical aspects have constructed this particular version of childhood. This can be used as a framework in comparing the sequence with a range of others from dierent time periods. They watch and discuss Kate Harwood on DVD commenting on the 2008 construction of this scene. Oliver Over Time page 111
4.
This quite challenging activity involves comparing four dierent versions of the same scene to explore two big issues: the changing values and ideas about childhood and poverty represented over time the changes in moving-image technologies, and their impact on the representations they construct. The activity starts with analysis of a range of screenshots from four versions of the Asking For More scene (Resource A on page 114). These have been taken from a 1922 feature-length silent movie version, starring child star Jackie Coogan as Oliver; David Leans expressionistic 1948 masterpiece; Roman Polanskis semi-autobiographical version, made in 2005; and the BBC adaptation already studied. Note that the three earlier versions are all feature lms rather than TV adaptations; early classic TV serials were sadly not archived and no longer exist.
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Students attempt to identify and group the screenshots into four groups, and date them approximately by decade. The main cue for them will be the use of colour, and their familiarity with the 2008 sequence; however there are various other visual features which they may be able to identify, such as: Leans use of highly dramatic Expressionistic lighting and framing the theatrical staging and grainy texture of the 1922 version stylisation of costume, body language and facial expression. Groups explore recurrent motifs and repeated images across the images, and then work on a single group of images, to explore their technical features and any generic associations they suggest. Students revisit the bullet points they compiled as a group on the 2008 BBC adaptation. Using the screenshots as prompts, they also speculate on the possible impact of technological developments, the inuence of dierent lm and TV genres, and changing styles of performance and direction. They watch the four versions of the scene in chronological order. After each version, they could compare their emotional responses to those they have already plotted on the Emotional Impact grid they worked on earlier. They can now broadly compare the ways each version constructs diering representations of children, adults in authority, and the workhouse environment. Finally, using the grid format on page 113 they can conduct a closer class textual analysis on a further screening of the four extracts; each group should take one technical aspect to track across all four versions, so that they can begin to explore the ways in which technological developments have changed over time, and the eects these have on the representations within the sequences. While some of these developments will be obvious (for example, the increasingly sophisticated use of sound, the increased mobility of lighter-weight camera use); others, such as the impact of digital editing, may be harder to identify. The timeline on pages 125 to 127 oers further contextual data. This activity aims to raise awareness rather than providing a denitive history of technical change and changing social values. Resources A: Screenshots Asking For More Over Time B: Audience Appeals Some Hypotheses C: Books and the Broadcasters D: Twist Trivia E: Bleak House a MediaMagazine Article F: A TV Drama Timeline page 114
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Classic Drama: the Literary Adaptation

1: Researching the Field of Classic Drama
A Three-Minute Brainstorm
If you had to come up with an idea for a major TV Drama serial based on the adaptation of a classic work of English Literature written before 1914, what would you choose and why? 1. In your group, in three minutes, brainstorm a list of all the titles of pre-1914 British novels you can think of which might make good TV drama. You can include ones you know have already been screened. Feed back your list to the class, to create a whole-class longlist. Compare the types of novel that have come up, and their historical periods. Then edit your list to include only the titles which have come up more than once. As a class, talk about what these repeated titles appear to have in common (apart from the fact that they are all classic works of English Literature). Finally take a vote on the various titles you have identied, to choose the one which you think is most likely to make a really popular serial. Make sure you can oer a strong defence for the title you have chosen.
2.
3. 4.
Dening Your Terms

1. Back in your group, consider the terms below, all of which are frequently used to describe TV drama based on famous works of English literature. Period drama Literary adaptation Heritage drama Classic drama Costume drama 2. 3. 4. Note down the associations or ideas suggested by each term. Decide which of the terms your group would prefer to use, and prepare a 60-second explanation of why. Compare your choices, and agree a single term you will use for the work which follows.
NB: In this work, we are using the term Classic Drama.
An Independent Research Brief

Channel 09 is a new (imaginary) digital broadcaster, which is considering commissioning a high quality prime-time classic drama as a way of raising its prole and positioning itself as a serious broadcaster. Your group is the Research and Development team for Channel 09, briefed to research the market. 1. You are requested to research one of the following areas. a) Audience appeals: What are the main appeals of classic drama for audiences and who are those audiences? To guide your research, see Resource B: Audience Appeals Some Hypotheses (page 117). b) Producers: which broadcasters tend to screen them, when and most importantly, why? Which writers, directors or actors have been associated with them? For useful weblinks and articles, see Resource C: Books and the Broadcasters (page 118). 2. You should present your overview of the issues clearly and coherently, illustrated with concrete examples, in a 3-minute pitch to the Channel 09 Executive at your next lesson. English & Media Centre, 2009
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Unpicking Your Findings
1. 2. Present your groups research back to Channel 09, and listen to the other research teams. Discuss your ndings, with a focus on the following: whats in it for audiences whats in it for broadcasters? 3. How do these issues work in practice? Which broadcasters, producers and talent cropped up regularly across your research? Which titles headed the list? And how do these compare with the brainstorm you did earlier? Finally, read the following soundbites from Kate Harwood, Controller of Series and Serials for the BBC (who is interviewed on the DVD):
4.
I think what makes a successful period drama is when you nd the modern in the period, and when you make it relevant to a modern audience. Its not about historical accuracy, its about convincing the audiences with strong stories and robust characters which they care about. Classic drama is one of the biggest brands of the BBC; 11 million people watched Cranford every week. The range of ages of people who watch it is very broad, including young people. Trying to sell our shows abroad is a constant challenge. On the one hand, licence fee payers spend an enormous amount of money every year on the BBC, and for that we should reect back our nation, our culture, our stories. However, if we can get any help from other nations, then thats great. So BBC Worldwide and our other distributors are out there trying to maximise what they can sell abroad in order to put money back into programmes. Thats where the money goes ... our drama does travel, but it usually travels to very niche audiences; its thought to be very high quality, and its thought to be very British.
A Piece of Practice Writing

Use your own notes and the research your class has conducted into the popularity and context of classic TV adaptations to try a 30-minute practice essay on the following title:
What are the appeals of classic literary dramas for broadcasters and for audiences?
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2. Adapting a Sequence
Step 1: Planning the Big Picture
1. Read the memo through in your group to ensure you understand the task. To remind you of the narrative, read the following synopsis of the opening section of Oliver Twist:
Oliver is born into poverty and misfortune the son of an unmarried mother, who dies shortly after his birth, he is soon delivered to the workhouse. There, the cruel Mr Bumble oversees children tormented by starvation and suffering. When Oliver dares to ask for more gruel, he nds himself cast out, forced to make his way in the world ...
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From: Channel 09 Commissioning Editor for Continuing Drama To: Independent Production Companies On the basis of research and some data on overseas sales, its become clear a Dickens adaptation is just what we need for our new big budget heritage serial. Weve opted for Oliver Twist after all, there have been 49 different versions, and the musicals back in town, so we know the story still works for audiences especially for international audiences. Our research on Twist Trivia (Resource D, page 120) might be helpful here. We need a 21st-century adaptation with a difference, which brings the narrative bang up-to-date: modern-day, engaging, relevant, and most importantly, an audience-puller. Now we want to see what you can do with it. We need to see some examples of your work. And where better to start than the most memorable moment in the novel (and arguably, in English Literature): the sequence where Oliver asks for more. Please provide us with the following: A detailed treatment of this sequence, using the original text as a starting point (see page 107). A storyboard for a section of the sequence rough draft only, and not more than 10 frames giving a sense of the look, the style, and the way you will appeal to home and international audiences. Some suggestions for: new and different screenwriting talent casting the adult characters (the child talent will be dealt with separately) mise-en-scne, locations, lighting, production design music and additional soundtrack.
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2. Brainstorm dierent ways in which the story of Oliver Twist might be recreated in a 21stcentury setting. For example, could the workhouse become a failing boarding school, a detention centre, an under-funded care home, a Young Oenders institution? Whats the 2009 equivalent of gruel? Discuss the issues raised in the nal bullet point of the memo, and pool your ideas of the sorts of talent you might want to employ, and the look and style of your version. Think intertextually i.e. about other sub-genres of TV drama production which might suit this adaptation. Will you aim for slick, glitzy production values (Spooks, Hustle), soap-style melodrama, or grainy drama-documentary techniques? Note down your decisions to include in your treatment at your pitch.
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You may nd it useful to look at: the links and articles in Resource C (page 118) to remind you of whats been done before and whats gone down well, particularly http://www.independent.co.uk/ news/media/tv-radio/is-it-all-over-for-costume-drama-1031226 Resource E (page 121), an article on the BBC adaptation of Bleak House, rst published in MediaMagazine.
Step 2: Adapting the Sequence

5. 6. Now read aloud the extract on page 107, on which your treatment and storyboard will be based. Go through the text annotating it with your ideas about: the most important visual aspects of the sequence what the audience needs to see at each point, and from whose point of view how tension or drama could be heightened by soundtrack music, silence, diegetic sound eects, etc the pace of the sequence long slow shots, rapid cuts, a montage of close-ups? important elements of mise-en-scne the all-important detail of lighting, background, colour tones, props, clothing. These points should also be included in your treatment notes. any aspects of the scene which might need adapting, for example updating of dialogue.
LS Mr Bumble and Oliver in doorway Board in foreground
Diegetic sound cutlery and crockery, eating, conversation
Clash of cymbals then sudden silence
Mr Limbkins, I beg your pardon sir! Oliver
zoom into CU Bumbles furious face Tilt down to CU Oliver scared MS Board frozen in horror Montage of XCUs of Board members faces, shocked silence
Twist has asked for more! There was a general start. Horror was depicted on every countenance.
single sound of fork dropping on plate
silence, the uproar of angry voices
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Step 3: Think Visually about Mise-en-Scne
7. Before you storyboard, focus briey on the image below, taken from a recent TV adaptation of the same passage. This single shot contains a great deal of visual information about the location, characters, representation of the workhouse, and viewpoint of the narrative.
You will not be able to storyboard your shots in this degree of detail but these are the sorts of ideas your frames need to suggest, however loosely.
Mise-en-scne: Framing: carefully composed 3-shot indicating status of staff. focus on Christian slogan/ values; dingy grey walls, grimy window; drab functional costumes.
Lighting and colour tones: chilly pale blue and grey - quite bright, from windows and key lighting. Cold mood.
Low-angled mid-shot to emphasise hierarchy and power/pomp of Bumble.
Point of view/eyeline: downward gaze and low angle suggest a childs eye view (Olivers?).
Costume elaborate ceremonial robe, indicating status; only colour in shot.
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The Extract: Asking For More
A council was held; lots were cast who should walk up to the master after supper that evening, and ask for more, and it fell to Oliver Twist. The evening arrived; the boys took their places. The master, in his cooks uniform, stationed himself at the copper, his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out; and a long grace was served over the short commons. The gruel disappeared; the boys whispered to each other, and winked at Oliver; while his next neighbours nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said, somewhat alarmed at this own temerity: Please sir, I want some more. The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupeed astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder; the boys with fear. What! said the master at length, in a faint voice. Please sir, replied Oliver, I want some more. The master aimed a blow at Olivers head with the ladle; pinioned him in his arms; and shrieked aloud for the beadle. The Board were sitting in solemn conclave, when Mr Bumble rushed into the room in great excitement, and addressing the gentleman in the high chair, said, Mr Limbkins, I beg your pardon, sir! Oliver Twist has asked for more! There was a general start. Horror was depicted on every countenance. For more! said Mr Limbkins. Compose yourself, Bumble, and answer me distinctly. Do I understand that he asked for more, after he had eaten the supper allotted by the dietary? He did, sir, replied Bumble. That boy will be hung, said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. I know that boy will be hung.
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Step 4: Storyboard It
8. Using your annotations and treatment notes, take one of the following sections of the extract to storyboard. The lots-drawing scene (rst sentence only lots of opportunity to be creative here!) The meal scene The reactions of the Board 9. Aim for at least 10 shots. Use pin people artwork, but make sure you represent exactly the type of shot you intend. Use arrows to indicate camera movement within a single shot. Indicate any editing eects or transitions between each shot with a coloured arrow. Write notes on the soundtrack, including any dialogue, beside each frame. Any visual or aural information you cant include in your artwork should be added to your production notes which will help the Commissioning Editors at Channel 09 to understand your groups storyboard and the visual style of the sequence.
Step 5: Pitch It (DVD)

10. Prepare a brief presentation of your storyboard and treatment notes, with a persuasive explanation of why you have chosen to adapt the sequence in this way, and the atmosphere and visual style you attempted to represent. Listen to the presentations made by dierent groups, and note down elements they seem to have in common. Youll be going on to compare your own versions with a range of dierent lm and TV versions of the same sequence. Now watch Kate Harwood, Controller for Series and Serials for the BBC, discussing the BBCs views on classic drama and on Oliver Twist.
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3. Asking For More Across the Decades
Asking For More 2008
1. Watch the clip from the BBCs 2008 serialised adaptation straight through without writing anything down.
Rapid Response: Your Own Emotional Reaction to the Sequence

As a novelist and storyteller, Dickens strength is often thought to be his ability to generate dierent emotions or moods tragedy and humour, horror and reassurance, anger and pity and so on. What does this sequence do for you emotionally? 2. Put a cross on the grid below to show where you would place your own emotional response to the BBC sequence. Add a note explaining why youve chosen this place in the grid.
Sympathy
Anger
Fear
Amusement
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Compare your responses across the class, using a giant-sized class version of the grid. Then put the grid aside youll be using it later. Discuss the following: were there any surprises in the representation of this iconic scene whats been omitted from the original text whats been added? If youve already storyboarded this scene, how does this version dier from your own ideas?
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Instant Analysis Post-it Style (DVD)
1. Watch the clip again in your group, focusing closely on one of the following technical aspects of the sequence: camerawork sound editing mise-en-scne. 2. 3. In ve minutes only, work together to write notes on the technical aspect you have been focusing on. Now focus on the representation of childhood in the sequence. Look again at the notes you have made and highlight the four points you think are both most signicant in portraying the plight of the orphans, and in creating impact for the audience. Write each point on a separate post-it note. The example below shows you the sort of thing you might write on one of your post-it notes.
Mise-en-scne Point 1: The dirt, squalor, and contrast in clothing codes between the children and adults.
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In turn, present your groups four post-it notes to the class and explain why each is signicant. You could stick them in an appropriate place on the class grid, to indicate the emotional impact of each point. As each group presents, youll build up a master list of the aspects of media language which have been most eective in constructing this particular representation of childhood.
The Producers Perspective: Kate Harwood on Oliver Twist (DVD)

Watch Kate Harwood, Controller of Series and Serials for the BBC, talking about Asking For More. Discuss her comments on: the value of using Sara Phelps, a writer acclaimed for her soap opera writing the reasons for omitting the lot-drawing scene from the sequence the visual style of the sequence and how it was constructed the representations of the key characters in the sequence.
Putting it all Together: a Summary of the Process

1. Youve now prioritised around 16 points as the core of a textual analysis of the clip, with a focus on the representation of childhood. You could add to these any relevant points made by Kate Harwood. This selection doesnt mean that all the many other points you made in your groups are irrelevant but it shows that you have focused your thinking on one particular aspect of representation, which is what you will be required to do in an unseen examination. Youve also now got a framework you could use as a point of reference in comparing this BBC sequence with a range of others from previous adaptations of the same scene. English & Media Centre, 2009
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4. Oliver Over Time
Asking For More (and More and More ...)
Oliver Twist is one of the most frequently adapted novels of all time; the earliest known lm version dates back to 1906. And each new version reects not only changing social contexts and changing ideas about poverty, childhood and social justice, but also changes in the media technologies and techniques used to tell the story.
Mapping the Changes

Look at the screenshots on pages 114 to 116 from four dierent versions of the Asking For More scene. All except for the BBC version are full-length feature lms. These images range over 60+ years, and reect some of the changes in moving-image technology during this period. But what evidence do they show of changing ideas and social attitudes to childhood and poverty? 1. See if you can sort the images out into the four dierent versions, and organise the groups chronologically. Using your own viewing experiences and previous study, try and give a rough date to each version, for example the 30s? The 70s? etc. In your group, note down: any obvious similarities or repeated images across the dierent groups of images ways in which the later adaptations may have been inuenced by the earlier ones. 3. Take one group of images and note down your observations, to report back on: the position, variety and height of camera shots the ways lighting is used to heighten the drama of the shots the production design costume, make-up, set, the use of locations in the staging and framing of the shots, the position of characters in relation to each other and to the camera the visual style of the direction and performances do these shots suggest melodrama, comedy, social realism, horror or a whole range of emotional appeals? 4. Listen to each groups ndings. Theyll be sketchy theres a limit to how much you can deduce from a handful of screenshots but should give you some starting points for the next activity: tracking the changes across all four versions.
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Comparing the Versions: the Representations (DVD)

1. Before watching the sequences: remind yourselves of the bullet points the class made on the 2008 BBC version think about the potential of the following developments in creating meaning and atmosphere: developments in sound recording new types of lm stock, and the move from lm to analogue and from analogue to digital video increasingly sophisticated camera technologies the inuence of television formats and styles changing styles of dramatic performance and direction. 2. Watch the Lloyd, Lean and Polanski versions one after another. Each one starts at a slightly dierent place in the narrative this will give you a handle on the ways the producers of each version have interpreted the original Dickens scene. For example, where do we rst see the Board, and from whose perspective? English & Media Centre, 2009
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3. Immediately after viewing each extract, go back to the emotional impact grid you compiled when you looked at the BBC 2008 version. In your group, decide where to place your responses to that version, and add them to the grid. Talk about the dierent ways in which each of the four productions youve now watched deal with the representations of: the children in the workhouse angels, urchins or victims? Helpless? Cunning? Innocent? Desperate? Cute? the adults the Board, Bumble and his assistants the workhouse environment. 5. Take ten minutes to note down your preliminary ideas about these representations.
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A Second Viewing
1. 2. 3. In your group, track one of the four technical aspects across the four different versions of Asking For More. Make notes on the most important aspects of your own technical aspect on the grid on page 113. Use the examples to start you o. Looking across the four Asking For More sequences youve studied, consider how your technical aspects have changed over time, and the ways dierent developments in technology might have shaped their impact. Finally, as a class, consider the dierence in the styles of performance across the sequence, and their impact on your emotional response to the narrative.
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Technical Aspect
Oliver Twist (Lloyd, 1922)
Oliver Twist (Lean, 1948)
Oliver Twist (Polanski 2005)
Oliver Twist (BBC, 2008)
Camera Number and variety of camera shots Movement of camera and framing of shots Point of view of camera, particularly height and eye-line Impact of music motifs
Note formal staging and static camera
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Note dramatic expressionistic shadows and low key lighting A self-possessed Oliver who is not a victim?
Sound
Diegetic sound including dialogue
Impact of theatrical organ accompaniment
Non-diegetic sound
Use of music type of instrumentation, motifs, recurrent themes/stings
Mise-en-scne Location/studio design Costume and make-up Colour palette Use of lighting and shadow Blocking/positioning of characters
Consider style of captions and fantasy sequence
Editing Length and pace of shots count them! Transitions and special eects.
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Performance and Representation of Character
Jackie Coogan was already known as a cheeky child star.
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Resource A: Screenshots Asking For More Over Time
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Resource B: Audience Appeals Some Hypotheses
Classic drama serials on TV have always been regarded as important and prestigious audiencepullers. Below is a series of hypotheses suggesting possible reasons for their continuing popularity. 1. 2. In your research group, discuss them, and add any views of your own which you think have been left out. Choose two or three of the hypotheses to investigate in detail, using: web research (including the links in Resource B on page 118) some informal, small-scale audience research to provide you with a snapshot view.
Producers spend massive budgets on them so they look really good.
Theyre thought to be worthwhile, because theyre based on Great Big Books by Great Big British Literary Names. They have dozens of colourful characters, so theres usually at least one person you can really relate to.
They teach us about the old days and the historical periods in which they were written.
They tell really good stories, tried-and-tested thats why they are re-made over and over again. Novels were often published weekly in serial form, a bit like the episodes of a TV serial so the way the stories are told suits this new medium. They dont usually have too much sex or violence, so they can be watched by the whole family together. The old stories are always the best and on TV you can get the stories without having to read all that prose. Publishers often re-package the original novels to go with the serials, so parents think watching them will encourage their children to read more books.
They often deal with big emotions, themes and issues which are still relevant today.
They often sell well abroad as examples of our English literary heritage, and make lots of money for the broadcasters. The roles are often meaty and challenging, so they attract high quality acting and screenwriting talent. Public Service Broadcasters like the BBC are supposed to educate as well as entertain, to justify the licence fee; and classic literary adaptations do both.
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Resource C: Books and the Broadcasters
B1: Weblinks and articles
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1052941/index.html http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/drama/drama_plays.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/is-it-all-over-for-costumedrama-1031226.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/why-bbc-costumedrama-needs-to-go-beyond-bodices-997577.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/tvratings
B2: Best of British: the Frocks and Fops Weve Loved

Middlemarch (1994)
The BBCs 1994 adaptation of George Eliots Middlemarch mesmerised millions of viewers and heralded a mini-craze for Victorian ction. Receiving Baftas for best actress for the understatedly charismatic Juliet Aubrey, best make-up and best original television music, Middlemarch will be adapted as a feature lm to be directed by Sam Mendes in 2009, screenplay again by Andrew Davies.
Pride and Prejudice (1995)

This highly acclaimed dramatisation of Jane Austens most famous novel, hailed as denitive, became an instant success, being honoured with several awards, including a Bafta for Jennifer Ehle for best actress and an Emmy for outstanding costume design for a mini-series. The rehabilitation of its Byronic hero, Mr Darcy, is beautifully portrayed by Colin Firth the scene showing him emerging from a lake in a wet shirt being recognised as one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history.
Bleak House (2005)

Produced with an all-star cast, including a magnetic Gillian Anderson, the serial drew much critical and popular praise with viewing gures peaking at 7.2 million. Held to be one of Dickenss nest novels, Bleak House was published in instalments between 1852 and 1853. The 2005 serial was designed to air in the format of a 15-part soap opera to reect this, a highly experimental move for the genre.
Cranford (2007)
The 2007 series directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson was broadcast in ve parts on BBC1 last November, before being picked up by PBS for broadcast in the US as part of its Masterpiece Theatre series. It starred a whos who of female British acting talent including Eileen Atkins, Dame Judi Dench and Imelda Staunton and the cast was said to be so strong it was almost distracting. Cranford won three Baftas best actress for Atkins, best production design, and best sound in a ction/ entertainment programme and two Emmys. Helen Smith, The Independent, 7th November 2008
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B3: Lost in Austen: ITV Goes Period Drama Crazy
Its all bonnets, bodices and barouches this autumn as a urry of period drama adaptations from the likes of Dickens, Austen and Hardy hit our screens in the coming season. The BBC will air a fresh, sexed-up version of Tess of the DUrbervilles starring Gemma Aterton as Tess and Gavin and Stacey co-writer Ruth Jones as her mother. The new adaptation of Hardys magnicent rural tragedy promises to be big, passionate, violent, romantic, sexual according to screenwriter David Nicholls. The novel has already been screened several times, most notably by Roman Polanski in a lm starring Nastassja Kinski in the title role. Aterton also stars in ITV1s Lost in Austen, a drama inspired by various Austen novels. Amanda Price (reference Fanny Price of Manseld Park fame) is a frustrated romantic who adores Jane Austen novels and wishes she could escape to a world of English country houses, country dances and suppressed passion. Then one day she nds a secret door to the world of her favourite novel, Pride and Prejudice. But the real story is in danger of being thrown into disarray by her presence. Whilst conceding theres been a lot of Austen on the box in recent years, the shows producer Kate McKerrell said the show is original in that it is trying to think of a way of retelling the story on modern television. Other historical dramas on this season include an adaptation of Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. Austen Powers, August 21st 2008
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Resource D: Twist Trivia
Oliver Twist was the second novel written by Charles Dickens, when he was 25 years old. It was the rst novel ever to have a child as its hero. The storyline was rst published in serial form in 1838, in Bentleys Miscellany magazine, two chapters at a time in monthly instalments rather like a soap opera. Dickens literally made it up as he went along which is why there are rather a lot of loose ends at the end of the book ... It was published in novel form the following year. Dickens wanted to make his readers aware of the terrible conditions in which poor people lived. In particular he attacked the recently passed Poor Law of 1934, which set up workhouses so that local parishes no longer had to provide alms for the poor. He drew attention to the direct route from the poorhouse into a life of crime even though he sometimes used humour, exaggeration, and sarcasm to do this. Oliver Twist was hugely popular; throughout his life, Dickens toured the country giving public readings from it, with other novels. In middle-class families, parents would often read the story out loud to the rest of the family. Some poorer children learned to read at Sunday School and Ragged Schools (free schools for poor children). Some factory owners employed people to read stories to their workers. Because its about a child, Oliver Twist has often been seen as a childrens book yet it deals with very adult themes and issues, and was promoted as a murderous melodrama. There have been 49 different adaptations of Oliver Twist, including 14 feature lms and many TV adaptations. The rst silent version was made in 1906. Disney has made an animated feature very loosely based on Oliver Twist Oliver and Co (the characters are dogs).
The hugely successful musical adaptation, Oliver!, was a massive hit in the mid-60s, and lmed in 1968 by Carol Reed, winning six Oscars. The musical has been revived regularly every decade, and is currently (2009) on stage in the West End, following massive publicity from the Id do Anything BBC Talent show http://www.independent.co.uk/ arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/ oliver-the-real-story-of-britains-greatestmusical-1232964.html; http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/gallery/2009/jan/14/olivertwist-stage-screen?picture=341701161 Oliver asking for more is such an iconic image it was used to advertise Terrys chocolate; this image (rather than the novel itself) was the inspiration for Lionel Barts musical adaptation, Oliver!. The penultimate UK TV adaptation was a 1999 serialisation for Carlton TV. It was written by acclaimed screenwriter Alan Bleasdale, who felt there were three aspects of the book he needed to change for modern audiences: the anti-semitism with which Fagin is described the gaps in the story, which are never fully resolved some very sentimental passages.
As a result, he developed a new back story which created a whole background for Olivers birth family and a far more sympathetic approach to Fagin.
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Resource E: Bleak House A MediaMagazine Article
Bleak House, an 1852-1853 Novel by Charles Dickens, as Contemporary Television?
Why study it? Because its an excellent case study of the relationship between media products, their audiences and the organisations which produce and distribute them. All media products are shaped by what media organisations think their audiences want a pattern you will have seen in your studies of the media. Bleak House offers an excellent example of media packaging how something like a classic drama can be repackaged to attract a broader audience and how that affects the nature of the programme itself. Its also a clear case of how the medias marketing of a programme almost disguises the issues it raises. For you might be forgiven for not realising that Bleak House is in many ways a radical and challenging drama, highlighting inequalities of social class; a corrupt and exploitative legal system which favours those who can afford to use it; the injustices delivered by those with power; and a range of gender issues. All of these issues are presented as popular melodrama with intrigue, murder and intricate relationships bringing together all levels of society. Indeed, its a lot like the soap opera EastEnders the drama Bleak House was scheduled to follow in similar 30-minute episodes, complete with cliffhangers.
New Audiences
Classic dramas such as the near-iconic production of Pride and Prejudice in 1995 are traditionally associated with slightly more mature audiences a demographic of mainly 30-somethings and over. The BBC, and Indigo Productions, the production company who made it for the BBC and WGBH Boston, went to unprecedented lengths to attract younger viewers as well as viewers who might not normally be tempted by a classic drama (i.e. audiences of soap operas). So BBC marketers stressed from the start that Bleak House was like a soap opera in its subject matter. Bleak House author, Charles Dickens, after all, used melodrama to explore issues, and published his novels in a serialised form just like a soap opera, according to marketing and promotion material. In fact, its a slight exaggeration to say that Dickens novels reached the same broad audience as soap; but there is some similarity between Dickens melodrama and contemporary soap opera a form which arguably grew out of melodrama. And the scheduling emphasised the similarity: it was broadcast in twice weekly, 30-minute episodes and was designed to inherit EastEnders audience, being shown immediately after it a weird-but-workable juxtaposition, according to television critic Rupert Smith. The programme itself sported a contemporary visual style with fast-paced editing, transitions punctuated by a series of tableaux and ashbulblike sound effects, much hand-held camerawork, camera ramping, whip pans and expressionistic, chiaroscuro lighting as part of evocatively designed sets. Indeed, you dont need to go much further than the title sequence to spot the contemporary accent. It may not be in the conventional EastEnders mould but its not in the conventional classic drama mould either (a quick comparison with the 1995 Pride and Prejudice or indeed most classic dramas since makes the point). Think of the shortness of the sequence a 33-second teaser as well as its contemporary graphic design with stylised graphics, superimposed images and motivic, sample-like music. In addition, the casting was important in attempting to extend the audience reach. There were actors associated with literary adaptations (like Charles Dance, Ian Richardson and Timothy West) but most of the actors were not closely identied with the genre and were intended to bring audiences with them (Johnny Vegas, Warren
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Clarke, Pauline Collins, Phil Davis, Liza Tarbuck and of course Gillian Anderson herself, most obviously known from The X-Files). The DVD blurb sums it up: Bleak House features a galaxy of major stars from feature lm, television and comedy.
Whats Happening to the Genre?

Part of what weve been talking about is how producers and broadcasters vary and adapt generic conventions to attract and extend audience reach. This was particularly important for the BBC in 2005 and 2006. At that time, the BBC was arguing for a substantial increase in the licence fee through its charter renewal the legal framework which enshrines the BBCs public service broadcasting brief and its authorisation to continue to be funded through a licence fee rather than through advertising. This meant demonstrating that the BBC could provide quality programming which was accessible to all. Bleak House and Doctor Who in their different ways were agship examples of the BBCs case. (As we now know, the BBC failed to convince the Government of the need for a signicant rise in the licence fee.) Bleak House thus demonstrates how genre works: repetition of the expected with some variation in order to provide a balance between industry and audience needs. Bleak House combines the standard classic drama conventions (welldened characters, meticulous reconstruction of the historical past through sets and costume, highly visible production values and a clearly dened narrative involving a romance element) with the less conventional (contemporary visual style, faster pace of editing, multiple narrative). The result is that the generic expectations of traditional audiences for classic drama will be fullled, whilst the less expected variations on the conventional will provide added pleasure; and newer audiences will be attracted by those unconventional elements, which were in part designed to reach out to them. Have a look at the opening of Bleak House and compare it with just about any other classic TV adaptation you know. Following the near-teaser title sequence, youre immediately introduced to dramatic action thunderstorm and rain as a hooded woman enters a carriage about to set off in a hurry. Theres pace to the editing, with cuts to close-ups, but this is familiar enough as a dramatic opening. When you cut to the female gure who takes off her hood, you perhaps notice that her face is shot against a black shadowy background there is no realistic mise-en-scne of carriage upholstery. The following scene is introduced with a high angle shot of a courtroom where, again, close-ups and expressionistic lighting (the chiaroscuro lighting familiar from lm noir) contribute to a somewhat unconventional courtroom scene. The third and fourth scenes, however, register more dramatically that this is unconventional stylistically. The presentation of Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson) echoes the two previous scenes: the torrential rain (a pathetic fallacy to underline her emotional depression) links the scene with scene 1, and her close-ups visually echo those of Esther in scene 1 and the judge in scene 2. We hear her opening pronouncements of her boredom and emotional emptiness, accompanied by cuts between prole shots against dark background and a sh-eye lens, giving the effect of placing Lady Dedlock in a kind of convex mirror foreground. Scene 4 shows Esther remembering her childhood via whip pans, camera ramping and stylised chiaroscuro lighting as with the single light source of her guardian against the window shown from a distance (a direct echo of 17th-century Dutch painting, one of the artistic origins of the chiaroscuro effect). By this stage, audiences are clear that this a contemporary visual approach to a classic drama.
Narrative structure the conclusions audiences are led to make?

In terms of the narrative, youre aware of the generic hybridity of Bleak House: it blends classic drama with soap opera and crime drama. It borrows multiple
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storylines, cliffhangers and a concentration on family and human emotion from soap opera and has touches of crime, mystery and investigation (via one of the rst detectives in ction, Alan Armstrong as Inspector Bucket, and Tulkinghorn who is engaged in more sinister investigations into Lady Dedlocks background). But the multiple storylines rooted in different worlds also hint at a view of society which is interdependent. For all elements of that society turn out to be interlinked and the actions of the highest class of society impact on the lowest. This is similar to the aspiration of soap operas to portray all aspects of society through a single community but it also makes a political point: that society does function like a community where individual actions have consequences for the whole of society. It may be an idealistic image of society but it is one that challenges the idea of a classbound society in which each class is totally separate from every other. In both Dickens novel and the television drama narrative, the social criticisms made are explored through a binary structure. The emotional spine of the narrative (a term adaptor Andrew Davies frequently uses and which derives from Robert McKees and Syd Fields scriptwriting ideas) and its main binary opposition is between Lady Dedlock and Tulkinghorn between Lady Dedlocks secret, and Tulkinghorns attempt to expose it. Audiences are introduced to that opposition at an early stage in the narrative Episode 1 shows their rst icy confrontation, which is framed by scenes of Nemo, Lady Dedlocks former lover. Flowing from that central character opposition are the worlds of an altruistic group of people whose life is not rooted in nancial gain: Esther, Woodcourt and John Jarndyce in opposition to the corrupt legal system and the aristocratic world it supports (Tulkinghorn, Vholes and Sir Leicester Dedlock). At the root of these oppositions is thus a conict in social class between the landed aristocracy and a rising middle class shown to be more understanding to the working classes which maintain the aristocracy. The resolution of the narrative in a happy ending where Esther and Woodcourt marry and all classes are seen to be dancing together in an idealistic image of a new society is probably just that: an idealistic image. It is a resolution, as Barthes and Levi-Strauss both argue, which is possible in ctional narratives but not in the real world. Representations of Gender and Class Still Making us Think Today? You could analyse the opposition in social class further, and nd that it rests on issues about power: the differences in the power people have as a result of their social class (Sir Leicester Dedlock, Rouncewell, Esther and Woodcourt, and Nemo and Jo) and the institutions they can call upon (law); and the differences in the power people have as a result of their gender (explored through Lady Dedlock, Esther and Tulkinghorn). You can explore that by looking at how each of those are represented in some key moments in the drama. Have a look at Episode 9. Tulkinghorn, now fully aware of Lady Dedlocks secret, displays complete power and control over her. How are you as an audience positioned here? How far is this an image of patriarchal power of mens power over women, in this case of a man able to manipulate the law to control a woman? By contrast, Esther, the illegitimate child of Lady Dedlock, is shown as being able to make some choices and show a degree of independence. However, it is signicant that only after John Jarndyce recognises that it would be an abuse of his power to marry her when she is clearly in love with Woodcourt is she able to follow her desires rather than what she sees as her duty. Women are thus not represented as being completely free to choose, or as fully independent. This element of the narrative is played out in the nal episode. Another key moment to explore is in Episode 6. Here the authority of Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock is challenged by Rouncewell. Although audiences are positioned
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in many ways to sympathise with the Dedlocks on this occasion, the confrontation symbolically questions the aristocracy, suggesting that its days are numbered and that it will destroy itself (like the spontaneous combustion which destroys Krook). For Rouncewell represents a rising middle class, who work to achieve their material gains. He becomes a kind of forerunner of Woodcourt and Esther, who not only work, but work for the good of others. Bleak House thus represents a challenge to the social order. How far that was achieved either in the 1850s or in the 2000s is a debatable matter. However, it is a set of ideas which does break through the way the television drama is packaged, although not all audiences will see the drama in this way. Which makes a nal point: that this drama is a good example of a television drama which can relate to and be interpreted by different audiences in several ways. That is arguably what is required today of all television and, perhaps, all media: products which are accessible in different ways to diverse audiences. Jeremy Points, rst published in MediaMagazine 22, December 2007
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Resource F: TV Drama an Overview Timeline
1920s: Boom and Then Bust
America leads the lm industry. Foundation of British Broadcasting Company Ltd. First full length drama broadcast on radio. 1923: John Logie Baird develops television: Seeing by Wireless 1926: First UK public demonstration of television. 1928: First US televised drama. BBC founded, establishing public service broadcasting (radio only). 1927: Sound comes to cinema, with The Jazz Singer.
1930s: The Depression Era; Golden Age of Cinema

1932: John Logie Baird pioneers rst experimental TV broadcast, from Broadcasting House, Portland Place. First UK televising of a drama: Pirandellos The Man with a Flower in His Mouth. 1934: A Government White Paper entrusts the development of British TV to the BBC. The rst live Outside Broadcast. 1936: Inauguration of the BBC Television Service, at Alexandra Palace. 1936-38: Theatre Parade: broadcasting scenes from London theatre productions. 1939: British TV suspended for the duration of WW2.
1940s: War and Post-War

Colour broadcasting developed in the US. 1946: British TV resumes. Pre-war stock and equipment is old-fashioned and heavy; all sets and costumes need updating. TV drama begins in earnest mainly one-o plays, with theatrical studio-based staging. Small budgets and 15% of all BBC TV output.
1950s: Post-War Prosperity; the Cold War; the Emergence of the Teenager
Beginnings of familiar TV genres hospital dramas, crime series, childrens serials, classic adaptations, and soaps. 1953: First serialised Sci-Fi Quatermass Experiment. 1954: First UK soap: The Grove Family. 1955: Birth of commercial TV, introducing competition and advertising for the rst time. New popular dramas catering for a wider audience, including Dixon of Dock Green and The Adventures of Robin Hood and the rst US imports. First use of videotape in TV.
1960s: The Swinging Sixties, the White Heat of Technology; the Socalled Youth Revolution; the Space Race
New camera technologies allow for easier movement and tracking shots, including increased use of the zoom lens. New drama departments at the BBC: serials, series and single plays. Video now used regularly for archiving. Birth of Coronation Street, Z-Cars, Dr Who.
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1964: BBC2 launches. Location broadcasting technology becomes more lightweight and exible. Rise in realist serials representing working class and diverse communities. Huge popularity of The Forsyte Saga made it the rst major international export. Rise in fantasy series on ITV, including The Prisoner, The Avengers, etc all pulling in younger audiences, and selling well to the US. Enormous success of one-o realist and innovative dramas often dealing with social issues (e.g. Cathy Come Home). 1967: Colour comes to British TV; by 1969 there were 200,000 colour TV sets.
1970s: The decade that taste forgot but a golden age in TV drama
Huge range of innovative single dramas, including early work of Mike Leigh and Dennis Potter. Rise of gritty action and crime series The Professionals, The Sweeney, Minder. 1972: Launch of Emmerdale Farm (now Emmerdale). 1974: First reality TV documentary, The Family, presented as a continuing narrative. Increasing rise in high-tech US series imports Charlies Angels, Dallas. Very beginnings of home entertainment with rst experiments in Betamax video. Steadicam rst developed.
1980s: The Thatcher years Unemployment; Inner-City Riots, Aids, the Fall of the Berlin Wall
The decade which screened Brideshead Revisited, Boys From the Blackstuff; The Jewel in the Crown; Edge of Darkness; Talking Heads, Inspector Morse, The Singing Detective. 1982: Birth of Channel 4 and inuential growth in smaller independent producers, funded by workshop schemes. Rise in US and UK cops shows featuring women. Brookside begins the rst soap shot in real locations with new lightweight steadicam technology and production values. New interest in dramas about diversity and the legacy of the British Empire. The VCR takes root, and video technology informs style and pace of TV drama. 1984: Casualty begins. 1985: EastEnders begins, to compete with Brookside. Australian import soaps creep in. 1989: Satellite and cable channels widen the stage; pay TV is born. The dawn of the World Wide Web. First use of digital eects in cinema. HDTV rst invented.
1990s: The rise of the Me generation; Britpop; Gulf War 1; Global Media
Channel 4 becomes nancially independent; Broadcasting Act requires 25% of all terrestrial broadcasters productions to be independent. Digital communications on the rise DVD begins to rival VHS; development of mobile phones, email, internet access, gaming, etc. First use of digital cameras. The growth of new cable and satellite channels needs more content! BSkyB becomes a major player.
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Corresponding growth in independent producers, including Company Pictures, Kudos, RDF, etc. First broadcasting of quality US imports, including Twin Peaks, ER, NYPD Blue, The West Wing, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, etc. 1996: Our Friends in the North; Hillsborough hugely inuential in airing the voices of families destroyed by the football tragedy. 1997: Birth of Five; launch of Hollyoaks. 1998: Birth of ITV2; the launch of The Cops.
2000s: De-regulation; Interactivity; Convergence; Multiplatform Drama; 9/11; Another Gulf War (so far ...)
BBC starts to overtake ITV in audience share; launches Freeview. 2002: Launch of Cutting It, Spooks, Life on Mars. 2003: Communications Bill de-regulates ownership, allowing non-European companies and media conglomerates to own UK TV channels; Ofcom set up as a super-regulator. Massive growth in digital technologies leading to birth of new digital channels, pending digital switchover (due for 2012). Launch of ITV3, E4, and More 4 new platforms for drama. 2004: Shameless, Lost and Desperate Housewives. 2005: Interactive drama introduced, followed by mobisodes (drama on mobile phones). 2006: Sky pioneers convergence of satellite, broadband, TV on demand, telephone services; followed by Virgin. Development of new drama formats and US high concept series e.g. Lost, CSI. Five increases its US drama slate; ITV commissions new raft of high-end dramas, and starts ITV3 as a drama channel. 2008: On-demand TV increases, with 4oD, and iPlayer. Multi-platform delivery of TV drama becomes the Holy Grail.
Taking It Further
NB: This is only the highly selective tip of a fascinating iceberg! For much more information, and some interesting pictures, visit: http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/history.htm http://www.teletronic.co.uk/herestv.htm http://www.teletronic.co.uk/missing.htm http://www.teletronic.co.uk/armchairtheatre.htm http://www.teletronic.co.uk/tvplays.htm http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/technology/technology1.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/tvontrial/timeline/
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The Cops
Overview and Contents
NB: These extracts were previously published in The Key Stage 4 Media Pack (English and Media Centre, 2002) as part of an extensive collection of material on TV Police Drama entitled Cops on the Box. The scheme of work includes a range of archive UK title sequences and clips, from Dixon of Dock Green, through Z-Cars to Juliet Bravo and The Bill, and a wide range of teaching approaches around variations on the TV crime genre, narrative structures, and representations of law and order. For this reason we are not including classroom activities to accompany the clips on this DVD. However, the clips themselves are frequently requested in Media teacher forums and quoted in academic analyses as powerful exemplars of realist techniques and unconventional representations of policing, supported by our interview with Tony Garnett. We have included the clips here as Extras, around which you can construct your own more open-ended analytic and research tasks. The notes on pages 130 to 134 summarise some of the activities you might like to undertake around the clips. 1. Approaching The Cops 2. Comments from Tony Garnett 3. A Whole-Class Realist Production Task page 130 page 133 page 134
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1. Approaching The Cops
TV Crime Drama Sub-Genres: a TV Crime Drama Tube Map
This activity is a useful way of developing students understanding of sub-genre and the hybridity of many TV drama texts. The idea is to build up a network of crime dramas along the same lines as the London Tube Map a thought-provoking way of exploring the concept of genre and sub-genre. i) ii) Ask groups of students to write the names of all the TV crime dramas they know, past and present, on individual post-it notes. These can then be categorised in numerous ways by format, decade, potential audience, region, type of crime, gender, ethnic groups, police team vs individual detective, urban vs rural, type of crime involved, etc. Students can then organise them into a wide variety of dierent routes e.g. women cops (Prime Suspect), forensic investigations (CSI, Silent Witness), cold cases (Waking The Dead), undercover cops (The Wire), urban realism (The Wire, The Bill, Prime Suspect again) etc . They will nd a number of overlapping areas and hybrid texts which cross over a number of dierent categories, and could form interchange stations where dierent routes cross. Using the interchange texts as the starting point, students can then try and plot their map to demonstrate the dierent connections between dierent types and formats of TV crime drama series. Its likely that groups will face major problems of categorisation, and will come up with very dierent types of map this opens up useful discussion of the problems of genre denition, issues of similarity and dierence, intertextuality, and the uses and gratications of crime drama for dierent audiences.
iii)
iv)
v)
The Codes and Conventions of Realism

One of the criteria frequently used to evaluate TV drama and particularly crime drama is its relationship to the real world i.e. how realistic it is. Students frequently nd it hard to accept that what they identify as realistic, or like real life in a text are in fact the conventions of a particular aesthetic, produced through a variety of formal codes, techniques and technologies, which change over time. What was accepted in the early 1960s as the ultimate in realism in Z-Cars, with its then new exploitation of mobile location units and inner-city mise-en-scnes, night-shoots, authentic dialogue and regional accents, today appears stilted and staged in comparison with the uidity and apparent documentary/vrit-style of The Cops itself made possible through steadicam and lighterweight camera technology. However, they both share a major contradiction: what makes something feel real is not simply a matter of capturing what happens, but of considerable preparation, editorial selection and skill. For a useful general discussion of the aesthetic, social and political implications of realism as an aesthetic style, see The Media Students Book (Branston and Staord, Routledge, 2003).
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The Cops and Realism
The Cops is acknowledged as groundbreaking realist drama, and the opening sequence of Series 1 Episode One is a particularly clear example. You might want to draw out the following points from your viewing: The sequence runs for 4 minutes 48 seconds. It comprises 12 separate shots remarkably few for a sequence of this length. The opening shot lasts 56 seconds; the locker room sequence is 1 minute 20 seconds long, and the nal shot of the sequence lasts 45 seconds extraordinarily long for drama. As a whole, the sequence constructs the impression of continuous movement, with little evidence of editing; a single hand-held camera is used, in almost continual motion, motivated by the action of police personnel preparing for their shifts. The use of zooms and shifting focus constructs an impression of a confused and chaotic situation quite unlike the reassuring routine and formality associated with a police station. The soundtrack is multilayered and blurred, replicating the 360-degree ambient soundscape of the locations. Dialogue is overlapping, apparently improvised, and occasionally inaudible; all sound is diegetic i.e. part of the on-screen action. Mel, the young rookie policewoman who opens and closes the extract, is rarely out of shot for longer than a few seconds; this positions her as a central character without the need for expository dialogue. While a police hierarchy and back story unfolds in the closing moments of the extract, the viewer is positioned as a y-on-the-wall observing a police team literally dressing up in role and exposing the human frailty behind the uniform again, far removed from the authority and order normally associated with it. The recent loss of a respected ocer mentioned in the brieng underlines the vulnerability of the police presence in a dysfunctional community.
Ways into The Cops Extract

You will probably have your own ideas for strategies which will work on this extract. Heres a selection of some starting points weve tried.
a) Watch With Your Ears

Before a full screening, play the rst minute of the sequence with sound only, and ask students to list every sound they hear throughout the sequence. On the basis of their aural observations, they can then speculate on the locations and possible genre of the extract.
b) Listen With Your Eyes

Before a full screening, play the sequence without sound. Pause at various points in the narrative, and ask students for their predictions of the genre and characters, using only the visual cues of framing, body language, and mise-en-scne while the police context will become apparent fairly quickly, the relationships between police personnel and ideas about status and hierarchy are subtly implied.
c) The Technical Events Test (aka Spot the Edit)

On a second full screening, ask students to clap each time they identify an edit point in the sequence. This should reveal the unusual length of many shots, and the seamless editing technique which creates the illusion of continuous and random surveillance, and positions the viewer in the heart of the action.
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Tony Garnett on The Cops (DVD)
Screen the brief interview extract on the DVD, and ask students to evaluate how eectively the opening sequence constructs Tony Garnetts view of: the willing suspension of disbelief being there. Students could then go on to read further extracts from the interview (see page 133) where Garnett explains the research methods and collaborative processes used in developing The Cops.
Research Opportunities
Ask the class to conduct some light-touch online homework research on the work of Tony Garnett, perhaps allocating small groups opportunities to look at some of the following: Garnetts early TV work during the 1960s, including Z-Cars and his ground-breaking Wednesday Play drama-documentaries such as Cathy Come Home (http://www. world-productions.com/wp/Content/reference/tony/index.html). Garnetts collaborations with Ken Loach on lms such as Kes The work of Garnetts production company World Productions with a focus on The Cops microsite (http://www.world-productions.com/wp/Content/shows/ cops/cops.htm). Groups could briey report back on the development of Garnetts idea of distilled naturalism, before viewing the nal additional extract.
The Cops in Crisis: Additional Scene (DVD)

NB: This scene covers an extremely violent confrontation between two young women, culminating in a stabbing. Please preview before screening. This scene is from the penultimate episode of the nal series of The Cops. By now we know that Mel is disillusioned with policing, and fears she may be in the wrong job; meanwhile Roy, the older old-school cop, has just lost his wife and is on the verge of breakdown. Screen the extract, with a focus on the naturalistic techniques Garnett describes in the interview, including attention to the technical aspects of camera, sound, editing and mise-enscne. Discuss some of the following: the contrasting responses of Mel and Roy to the incident, bearing in mind the ways they have been constructed as characters the depiction of violence in the scene (what dierentiates it from representations of violence in other crime drama series students are familiar with?) the function of the violence in this sequence, and how it relates to Garnetts comments about the reassurance of most crime drama the messages or values the sequence represents to students about the realities of policing and its role in the community.
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2. Comments from Tony Garnett
NB: These extracts are taken from a longer interview published in MediaMagazine 1, 2002
On Crime Shows the Drama of Reassurance?

Crime drama is safe: you see a crime, or the consequences of a crime, but the criminal gets caught. So although the dramas frighten you with the idea that this is a dangerous world full of dangerous criminals, you go to bed feeling safe, happy that the men in blue always catch the criminal. Most police dramas from Dixon of Dock Green, which was the main police drama in the Fifties and Sixties, right the way through to The Bill feature cops who are honest. I didnt think this reassuring picture had much to do with the real world. My approach with The Cops has been to take this reassuring genre and turn it upside down.
The Development Process of The Cops

What I want to do is to try to make sense of the world for the audience. Thats my sense of the world, and it is subjective. Ive dedicated most of my life to trying to learn how to make things work in what I call a distilled naturalism. To achieve any results with that, the rst thing I have to do is send the writers out into the world to nd out how it really is. Every writer on The Cops spent at least two weeks out every day, every night, in the cars, or on the beat with some cops. What I say is: research and research and research, and then bring it back and well make it up ... A writer has to have a source. If they dont do the research they will unconsciously regurgitate secondhand police shows theyve seen, which are themselves secondhand. And whats the point of that? I believe its easier to tell the truth in ction than in documentary ... That truth-telling starts with the writers going out and literally bearing witness to the experience of peoples lives. When we start production the same thing happens all over again: the actors go out with the real cops. The actors have to learn, for instance, to get in and out of the cars with all that stuff round their belt. When you look at a cop these days in the street, and see what they have to carry, theyre like soldiers with bits and pieces all over them. I want our actors to know what it feels like to do a days work like that.
The Visual Style of The Cops

The important thing I try to teach all the young people coming up is that you must never impose a visual and editing style on a piece of work just for the sake of it. It has to arise out of the content and what you want to say. Ideally style is not something separate. Style is an expression of what you want to say. Every one of our shows has a different style, so Im rather irritated when the press says something like The Cops is shot like This Life [a Garnett-devised series about young lawyers which was inuential in the 1990s]. The Cops was shot and edited in quite a different way from This Life. I cant help it if critics and journalists are visually illiterate. Form and content are two sides of the same coin ... What we try to do for each show is discover a visual style, a shooting style, an editing style that best expresses what we want to say. This evolves out of some theory, which I usually put down for discussion, and then some practical work with the whole team directors, the camera operator, the lighting person and the editors.
Representing the Real People Behind the Uniforms

This is part of what The Cops is about: the human beings underneath the uniform. The Public Relations people at the Greater Lancashire Police and all the police in Lancashire withdrew their co-operation because The Cops doesnt present the image of the police that they want the public to have. I perfectly understood this. They have a job to do and their job, as they see it, is to present the image of the police that they want the audience to take around with them. But it isnt my job to do that. Thats not what Im paid to do. My job is just to tell the truth as I see it.
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3. A Whole-Class Realist Production Task
A Cops-Style Opening Sequence
While the opening of The Cops constructs the illusion of a random and improvised documentary-style vrit technique, it is of course a highly sophisticated and carefully-staged sequence and the best way of demonstrating this is through a do-it-yourself activity. The task below could be tackled either as a brief whole-class activity, connecting the camera closed-circuit mode through the data projector so work in progress is visible on the whiteboard, or as a longer task where groups develop their ideas in storyboard or synopsis form, shoot and edit their sequences, and compare them. It is an extremely challenging task the point here is to explore the complexity of the editorial choices and the importance of rigorous pre-planning to construct what appears to be a random and spontaneous series of interactions.
The Brief
To construct a 60-second being there opening sequence in the style of The Cops for a drama serial set in a Sixth Form College. You must adhere to the Being There rules listed below.
The Scenario
The rst day of a new term. The Media Studies students are waiting outside the classroom catching up on the gossip from the holidays. A new teacher arrives, unlocks the door, lets in the students, and tries unsuccessfully to impose order in the classroom.
Resources
The class and teacher, in role each person needs to have decided on a persona or biography (e.g. new member of class, trouble-maker, gossip, class clown, etc) The corridor or space outside the classroom; the classroom itself 1 video camera, camera operator and assistant 1 boom microphone, sound recordist and assistant 1 Director
The Being There rules according to The Cops

Long takes Minimal editing Mobile camera, handheld at all times No tricks, set-ups or special eects Natural diegetic sound only The audience has to feel they are following the cast around, as part of the group.
The Process
Either storyboard or write a detailed synopsis for your 60-second sequence. Consider the following: the position of the camera at the start-point of your sequence who will we be looking at, and from whose point of view? which characters will the camera focus on who and why? How will they be positioned to allow the camera to follow them? What will we learn about them from their behaviour, body language and dialogue? dialogue who will be saying what to whom, and why? audience how will you demonstrate to the viewer that this is the rst day of term, and the teacher is new?
A Variation
While one group attempts to construct a Cops-style sequence, another group could be working on the same scenario, but in the style of Skins. Or soap. Or Cutting It-style melodrama.
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Glossary
A Glossary of Technical Terms

Asynchronous Sound
Sound not matched to the images on the screen, although usually related. This mismatch can be caused by poor sound editing or by the intentional addition of sound, such as an unexpected train whistle, to cause surprise. It also can refer to voiceover narration.
Backlighting
Light that originates from behind gures in a scene. This type of lighting creates silhouettes of peoples shapes, often to sinister or frightening eect.
Blue Screen
A process in which actors are lmed while standing in front of a blue screen. In post-production dierent backgrounds are added where the screen was to create an illusion of the actors physically being in that location. Today, this screen is often green.
Canted Framing
A tilt, either to the left or to the right, that slants objects or people diagonally within the frame.
Cinema Vrit
French for cinema truth, this documentary style movement emphasised the use of available light, hand-held cameras, and long takes. Drama shot in this style tends to strive for as much realism, and as little director intervention, as possible.
7. Glossary
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Continuity Editing
A style of editing that emphasizes the continuous and seemingly uninterrupted ow of action in a story. It constructs the illusion of events happening in real time, and avoids drawing attention to cuts and edits.
Crane Shot
A very high angle shot taken with the use of a crane. Generally, these shots give an overhead view of a scene. (See hospital shot in Cutting It.)
Cross Cutting
Cutting between two separate sequences as they unfold in order to show a relationship between them. Frequently used to show parallel action, or simultaneous events, but sometimes also used to show time elapsing.
Cut
An editing transition, or change, from one shot to another.
Cutaway
A quick shot that temporarily redirects audience attention away from the main action in order to provide commentary, to construct the illusion of continuity, or to hint at an impending change.
Cut-in
A quick shot that moves away from the main action to provide a close up of an object, such as a clock.
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Glossary
Depth of Field
The part of a scene that is in sharp focus within an image. In photography, this is determined by the distance of the camera, the type of lens used, and the size of the cameras aperture. In a shallow focus shot, only areas closest to the camera are in sharp focus; a deep focus shot is one in which everything, including the far background, is sharply focused made more possible through digital technology. (See the 1922 Oliver Twist extract for an example of shallow focus.)
Diegetic
Any element, usually sound, that originates from action within the frame or the immediate world of the drama.
Dissolve
One image fades out while another fades in so that the two are briey superimposed. Often used to signify passage of time, or changes in mood or mental state. A variety of editing transitions such as wipes, keyholes, page turns etc can also be used between scenes.
Ellipsis
The compression of time within a moving-image narrative. The viewer lls in the narrative gaps, using cues from editing transitions such as wipes, dissolves, and fades. Time can also be expanded, using editing devices such as slow-motion, parallel action, or montage.
Establishing Shot
A shot that provides us with a view of the setting, to establish the location for the action.
Eye-Level Shot
A shot taken with a camera placed at approximately the same eye-level as the lm subject, not the equipment operator. This type of shot places the viewer on the same level as the subject. (See the BBC version of Oliver Twist.)
Eyeline Match
A cut between two shots that creates the illusion of a person in the rst shot looking at something or someone in the second shot.
Fill Light
Part of the three-point lighting system, this lower-powered light helps erase or soften shadows created by the key light.
Fly-on-the-Wall
A phrase used originally in documentary referring to a lmmakers role as an unobtrusive observer. (The ght sequence in Criminal Justice arguably borrows this eect.)
Hand-Held Shot
A shot taken with a camera held in an operators hand, usually appearing wobbly or unsteady as a result. A convention of news reporting and documentary and frequently used in realist drama. (See The Cops.)
High Angle
A shot taken from above the subject, usually from overhead. (See the Oliver Twist extracts.)
High Contrast
Sharp delineation between the bright and dark areas in a scene.
High-Key Lighting
A type of lighting with bright, even illumination and minimal shadows. Often used in musicals and comedies.
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Glossary
Incidental Music
Music specically composed to accompany the action of a drama or to ll intervals between scenes.
Intercut
An editing technique that intersperses two perspectives on the same scene; for example, a couple talking at a cafe table and a killer setting a bomb in the corner.
Location
The physical place or setting (outside a studio) where a lm or TV sequence is shot.
Low Key Lighting

A lighting style using only one key light which creates a high contrast or chiaroscuro eect accentuating shadow, drama and a sense of alienation. Often used in horror, lm noir, or suspense; frequently associated with the visual concept of Expressionism. (See the David Lean Oliver Twist extract for a classic example.)
Master Shot
An establishing shot used as a cover for an entire scene, into which further more specic shots are edited to draw attention to detail, point of view, etc. The master shot is returned to throughout the scene, thus creating a sense of coherence and avoiding lack of continuity.
Non Diegetic
Any element, usually sound, that does not originate from action within the frame or the immediate world of the drama; for example, background mood music, a voiceover from a later or earlier date commenting on action. An important way of building atmosphere or mood.
Nonsynchronous Sound
A situation when the soundtrack fails to match the image on the screen; for example, we see a person open his or her mouth in a scream but we hear a train whistle instead.
Pan
A shot in which the camera moves from left to right or vice versa in order to follow the action.
Parallel Editing
A type of editing that cuts between two sequences taking place at dierent locations and possibly dierent times. (See Cutting It.)
Point of View
The perspective from which the camera sees the action. The point of view can be either objective (from the standpoint of a spectator outside the narrative) or subjective (from the standpoint of a particular character experiencing events in the story).
Point of View Shot

A PoV shot shows the scene subjectively, from the perspective of a character, as above.
Production Design
The overall look and visual style of a moving image text, including all aspects of set design and locations, costume and styling, lighting, colour palette, special eects and art direction. A hugely important aspect of the emotional and visual impact of a narrative, involving collaboration with director, producers, director of photography, and editor. (See Skins trailer or Oliver Twist extracts.)
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Rule of Thirds
An aesthetic guideline drawn from art and photography which suggests that the most important points of interest within an image, shot or frame should be situated about 1/3 of the way down. For example, a horizon looks best 1/3 from the top or bottom of a shot, rather than bang in the middle; in a close-up shot or portrait, the eyeline looks most pleasing a third of the way down the frame.
Shot Reverse Shot

An editing convention used frequently in dialogue where A is shown looking (often oscreen) at B, and then B is shown looking back at A. A and B are shown facing in opposite directions; thus the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other. This is a feature of the classical Hollywood style of continuity editing, which aims to disguise editing transitions to create the eect of a continuous action that develops linearly, chronologically, and logically. (See Cutting It.)
Synchronous Sound
Sound that appears to match the image on the screen, such as a persons lips moving as we hear dialogue; or a music score, bridge or motif cut to time with action.
Sequence
A series of shots linked by time, place, and action that forms a coherent unit of narrative with a specic start, middle, and end.
Shallow Focus
A shot focusing sharply on a small area of the frame while the rest of it is blurry.
Steadicam
A professional harness supporting a camera and counterweights worn by a camera person that allows the camera to be moved anywhere with graceful, gliding movements. Frequently used in both drama and documentary to acquire a 360-degree shot, it can create a sense of freedom, disorientation or surveillance. (Possibly used in the Skins trailer.)
Three-point Lighting
A system of lighting that uses light from three sources: one bright (called key), one behind (called backlight), and one ll.
Tilt
The upward and downward movement of the camera.
Tracking Shot
A shot taken while the camera moves on a wheeled platform.
Two Shot
A medium shot with two people in it.
Wide Angle Lens

A type of lens that exaggerates the disparity between the foreground and background within a lm frame. Objects in the foreground become disproportionately larger, while those in the background become disproportionately smaller.
Widescreen
Any image ratio greater than 1.33:1. Academy standard, a type of widescreen image, is 1.85:1, the one used in most 35mm pictures.
Wipe
A visual eect in which one image replaces another by seemingly pushing it o the screen.
138 Doing TV Drama
Bibliography
Books
Casey, Calvert, French and Lewis: Television Studies: the Key Concepts (Routledge, 2002) Cooke, Les: British Television Drama (BFI, 2003) Creeber, Glen (ed): The Television Genre Book (BFI, 2001) Day-Lewis, Sean: Talk of Drama: views of the Television Dramatists now and then (ULP/John Libbey Media, 1998) Fiske, John: Television Culture (Methuen 1987) Holland, Patricia: The Television Handbook (Routledge, 2007) Martin, Roger: TV for A Level Media Studies (Hodder, 2000) Nelson, Robin: State of Play: Contemporary High-End TV Drama (MUP, 2007) Points, Jeremy: Teaching TV Drama (BFI, 2006)
8. Bibliography
Branston and Staord: The Media Students Book (Routledge, 2007; 4th edition)
Weblinks
The BBC
Portal for the BBCs databases on TV and radio drama: http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama Excellent source of promotional material and links to microsites for past and present BBC drama output: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice Fascinating insiders glimpse into BBC audience research and commissioning practices: http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/ marketresearch/
Broadcast Magazine
The website of the trade magazine for the television industry is well worth an occasional (pricey) trawl through the print version to identify whats coming up, identify current institutional issues, budget and production trivia, and industry gossip: http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk
Channel 4
Microsites, clips, interviews, blogs, and downloadables for a range of popular C4 dramas: http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/drama See also http://www.channel4.com/more4/drama/ and http://www.e4.com/search.e4?query=e4+tv+shows for more of the same, including the Skins website.
Off the Telly

Lively site covering a range of drama review, topics and debates: http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/drama
MediaMagazine
The website of the English and Media Centres MediaMagazine contains an archive of over 400 articles, including material on The Sopranos, Lost, Ugly Betty, Shameless, Six Feet Under, Bleak House, examples of textual analysis of TV drama, and examiners guidance: http://www.mediamagazine.org.uk
Doing TV Drama
139
Bibliography
BFI
An extensive and well-documented TV archive and commentary site, with many useful background articles: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/482184/index.html
Television Heaven
Archive of material on popular TV programmes past and present with useful links to reviews, a television history resource site, a forum, features and downloadables: http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk
TV Cream
Fan site for archive TV coverage which includes YouTube features, blogs, links and clips: http:// www.tvcream.org
The National Media Museum

A range of useful lm and TV online resources and images: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/Television/
The Guardian
Indispensable source of industry news and analysis, critical debates, previews, reviews etc: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/television http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/television See also Charlie Brookers Screenburn, Lucy Mangans Cable Girl, the TV and Radio blog, Gareth McLeans TV blog etc. Weblinks checked March 2009
140 Doing TV Drama

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EMC Media Guide

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Issue-Based Drama: Criminal Justice

Youth Drama: Skins

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Understanding impact of production processes and technologies (see Unit 4).

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