Reflections on Practical: TV Drama Stills

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Our groups's plan for each of our shots, the first row being mine

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The final shot

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Provide a brief summary of how you planned out your photography practical:
In planning for the photography practical, our main hopes were to get a photo that had a lot of mystery and enigma to it; and so the genre of thriller was chosen, as it provided a lot of flexibility to our shots. Initially, my still intended to consist of a close up hooded figure in the dark, surrounded by guns pointing to their head. I would have done this but taking multiple shots of the gun in different positions, then edit the photos to superimpose the guns onto one photo to make it look like there were multiple guns, but due to our time limit, we did not have time to take all these photos so instead, we chose a machete to use instead. The shot would look weird if there was just a flying machete, so we added another character in the background, and with some nice lighting, the shot was complete.

Analyse your chosen shot and identify in what ways it could be described as signifying your chosen TV Drama genre/subgenre:
My chosen genre was thriller, and one of he ways i conveyed this was through the use of colours and lighting. The still has a very dark background and colour scheme. This brings a lot of enigma to the scene as not much is known, and this is a convention of the thriller genre. The dark background also helps the main focal images stand out, and matched with the harsh lighting on the side of the actors' face, leaves one side of their face dark. This is to partially show the audience the emotion of the characters, the character at the back having a very cold look in their eyes, whilst the other character is just seen looking down almost as if he is accepting or unaware of what is about to happen.


How did you intend the audience to interpret your still? What narrative moment were you attempting to create? What meanings were you attempting to communicate?
I wanted my audience to see the actions of the characters and think about what will happen next. This is connoted to be that the character in the front may be killed, as he has a knife to his through with some blood already visible. I also kept a lot of mystery in my shot as the purpose of thriller movies is to keep the audience on the edge of their seat wondering what will happen next. In this case, the mystery is in the 'why is he about to die?' rather than 'how is he about to die?'.

Identify what is successful about your shot:
The lightning is what makes this shot work in my opinion. It helps hide the character's face whilst also showing some of their faces to reveal some emotion, and the lightning also just about shows the blood on the machete, connoting the events about to occur. The mise-en-scene also helps the audience identify the genre which is key for this still.

 What would you do differently if you were to repeat this activity?
I would have spent more time planning if we had the time, but overall i am very happy with my still.

Continuity Task 1 Evaluation

The in cut camera clip:

1. Explain the story of your video
     A student is doing their homework. Another student realises that he may be late to class and makes his way to his class. On the way, he notices the first student, and reminds him of the time. This student panics, shoves everything into his bag and starts to run to class. But as he starts to run, he trips over a curb and hurts himself.

2. How did you attempt to create 'Narrative Flow' (continuity)?

• The same costumes were used throughout
• The main story was kept as clear as possible and linear in chronological order

3. Did you achieve full continuity? If not, why not?

     I believe we did as the main key elements of the story were conveyed. However, we could've done a few things to help the audience understand the full scenario and scene as explained in the next question.

4. In hindsight, what would you do differently to improve the narrative flow of your video and tell your story more effectively?

     In order of shots:

1. Wider shot as the framing makes everything feel a bit cluttered and busy.
2. No sense of placement in relation to first shot. If it were a cross cut, we would need more shots. Shot is too long. If this student is late to class, he would be running not walking.
3. Too much empty space on right hand side as there is no reason for it.
4. 30 degree rule broken, jump cut feel.
5. Continuity error with objects on table.
6. Tighter cuts needed to portray action feel.

Here is a slightly edited version of the clip too:

My TV Still Analysis - Death In Paradise

In this still, there are four characters in what is seemingly a boat. Three characters are facing just left of the camera with a harsh look in their eye. They are facing where the last character is, and this man is facing the three presenting the framing as an OTS shot. This help the audience see the harshness in the three's eyes, connoting possibly and interrogation aspect of the scene as the still is from a crime TV show. The three characters of which the frame generally focuses on all seem to be apart of a group as they are all glancing in the same direction with similar looks on their faces. One of the characters is in a police uniform; this is a convention of crime TV dramas. This helps the viewer understand the genre and possibly the situation in more depth. The character of which the frame is centred on (Humphrey), is the head detective of the group, and this is connoted to the audience by his slightly higher position in the frame compared to the rest of his group. In this still he is wearing a blazer and a shirt, typical from an upper middle class man to wear, denoting his current standing and some possible character traits. He also is wearing gloves in this shot which could help the audience denote that he is currently investigation evidence from a crime scene. His costume design is very representational of a rather relaxed head detective as he is not in uniform, and this is a growing convention in crime dramas in order to make the protagonist a bit more relatable for the audience. This convention can also be seen in other shows such as Sherlock.