Discuss the ways in which the extract uses camera shots, editing, sound, mis en scene to construct representations of relationships

The clip we were shown shows a complex relationship between a newly wed husband and wife. From the clip we can tell that the relationship had a lot of trust issues and problems with the past. The short clip takes us through many emotions and events within a short time. The main 

Sound has a large part within the clip shown. This is because sound tells the story that is happening. In the first scene, the man and woman are sat in the back of a taxi. The man then says "Second time lucky" this means that they have already had a marriage or relationship before now, which may have had a bad ending, but they are now giving it another go. This shows that the relationship may now be rocky and untrustworthy with what may have happened in the past relationship. From this scene it then shows the wife getting out and going into a hospital, this then shows the women sat down in an office with her consultant having his hand on what may be her results file. This scene has no dialogue but has dull music playing over. This makes the audience question about what may be going on and whether she is receiving good or bad news, because we are unable to hear what is being said within the conversation. After this scene the woman returns to where her husband is,this is when she shouts across "Guess what?" with a smile on her face. These words make the audience and her husband think that she has received good news from her consultant, but whilst crossing the road is hit by a car. As her husband views on and see's her lying down on the street the camera slows down and no sound but a heartbeat can be heard. This heartbeat can be effective because it means that he may have gone into shock about what he has just seen, and what he can now see. It shows that he is scared for his wife, the sound of him going into shock shows that he is scared for her as if his life has flashed before his eyes. The heartbeat sound suddenly speeds up showing that the man has gone back to normal and now needs to take control and see what may be happening to his wife. The sounds used within the scenes make it show as if the husband and wife's day has gone from good to bad to good to awful. 

Camera shots have an important role within the clip shown. This is because the first scene starts off with a newly wed husband and wife sitting in the back of a taxi acting close and cuddly with each other. From this shot, it then goes onto a close up of them holding hands and their wedding rings on their fingers. This shows that they may be happy with the fact that they are now newly back together. The camera shot then goes into a wide shot of them both as they are getting out of the taxi in front of the hospital. In this shot you can see the husbands facial expression as confused as to why he is there. From this we then see the woman turn her back and walk inside. After this scene we see the woman inside with her consultant, the camera angle is as though it is looking down onto the desk where they are both sat, this may be seen as though heaven has already seen her fate and is watching down on her ready and waiting, 
After this scene it shows a wide shot of her walking out of the hospital all sad and suddenly turning it into a smile when her she see's her husband, this makes you question on whether she received bad news and is lying to her husband, or received good news and is crying with happiness. When she goes to cross the road she then gets hit by a car, this leads onto a close up of her husband being shocked. As he walks closer the camera starts to shake as if it is the man shaking himself not knowing what to do and going into shock. After this the camera angle then goes onto another shot of looking down on them both as she lies on the ground, this may show that she may have got bad news because it relates to the office angle of looking down, which means that she may have to go soon. 

Mis-en-scene has the biggest impact within the clips. This is because all things within the clips give off the impressions. In the first scene they are in a black taxi, this may show that they are well off because they have the money to pay for a taxi instead of having to pay for public transport

Types of TV drama- Research task

Soap operas-  These dramas never end and carry a sense of reality. They depend entirely On audiences accepting them as 'socially realist' e.g. Coronation street, eastenders.

Teen dramas-  Depend on the target audience Emphasising with a range of characters and age-specific situations. E.g. Skins

Medical/hospital dramas- Interplay our vicarious pleasure of witnessing trauma and suffering on the part of patients and relatives with a set of staff narratives That deploy soap opera conventions. E.g. Holby city, casualty

Police/crime dramas- Substitute the health context for representation of criminals and victims. E.g. The Bill

Assessment

Hannah Withers
Compare the way two TV dramas construct representations of gender

There are many way in which gender can be represented within the media. They can be represented with their roles, such as cross over roles. Where the woman may be the strong minded character along with a fearful man. Or the man may be saving the non-strong woman with his strength. The two TV dramas given show two completely different representations, ‘The hustle’ includes more of a sexual relationship between the man and the woman where as ‘The Killing’ has included more of a horror streak towards it.

Camera shots play an important role within TV dramas. They help up to analyse different sections of what may be going on or people’s expressions to what emotion that they may be feeling. In ‘Hustle’ it starts off by showing the character Dexter Gold at his desk in a mid-shot. From this shot we can already tell the different power between the two genders. This is because Dexter is clearly the head of the office. From then on it goes into a wide-shot of a woman walking in. From this shot which then goes on to show a close of up Dexter Gold’s face shows that he clearly, straight away has a sexual attracting towards this woman. The camera then zooms into the close-up to have an extreme close of his face which shows attraction towards the woman. This then leads on to his fantasy of his woman. In this fantasy it shows a mid-shot of the woman moving around in a sexual way, the camera then expands to showing the woman three times at once. From a mid-shot the camera goes to a wide-shot showing a full body length of all three pictures of the woman. We then go back to a close up of Dexter Gold’s face when he has clearly come out of the fantasy and tells his ‘colleague’ to go for a break. This shows the patriarchy within the office. 
However, in ‘The killing’ women are represented in a less sexual way. ‘The killing’ shows more of a female dominance within the scenes. The camera starts as a wide shot of the woman as she enters the abattoir, the camera moves along the setting with her as if the camera is acting as though someone is watching her. The camera uses many wide shots throughout showing that where she is isn’t a safe environment. When something is pushed to knock her over. The camera follows her along as she sets out to chase this unmasked character. The camera zooms into a close up as she chases the suspect through the abattoir; the shot shows the expression on her face which is fear and determination. When she enters a nightclub setting the camera turns to wide shot which shows the whole scene as if we are all looking for that one suspect. It suddenly turns to close up as she spots the suspect and chases after them; it turns to wide shot so we can have a view of the chase which brings us all down to an intense mood wanting to know what happens. The camera follows her outside where it stays as a wide shot; we are still able to see that her facial expression is confused as she has lot the suspect. We then see the suspect come up behind her and hit her with some sort of object. The camera stays at wide shot so we are able to see this happen and see her fall. This scene shows that the dominance then changes over to the suspect, who we presume is a man, and shows that men have dominant power and therefore has more strength than woman.
Mise-en-scene is used within the media to show different representations of gender. ‘Hustle’ is set in an office. This shows a more professional environment with Dexter Gold sat behind a desk in a suit. This represents the power that he has. When the woman walks in, she is also wearing a skirt suit which shows that she also is trying to be taken in a more professional way. But the way Dexter Gold views her is as in a way that he is abusing her professionalism. This is because in his fantasy she is seen wearing a gold sort of dress that shows off a lot of skin underneath, this means he is viewing her in a sexual way. The way she is set out is on a gold setting which shows that he sees her in a very attractive and wanting way. This can be seen because many people may want to get their hands on something like gold, so he his viewing her as in comparing her to gold. During the fantasy the woman is rolling around moving her hands slowly over her face, this may be seen as a sexual movement. When Dexter comes out of his fantasy we see his facial expression, this is the same facial expression he had when the woman walked into the room. The facial expression shows immediate attraction towards this woman. However, it is like the woman has caught on to immediate attraction and told him that she is only here to discuss business. Dexter then turns to his colleague and tells her to give him time to spend with the woman. Viewing over to his colleague shows that she has a smaller and more untidy desk than Dexter, this yet again shows that he has more power within the office, by telling her what to do, and also by her having less space than him. But when she is told to do so by Dexter she acts as if she is annoyed by him wanting to spend time with this woman rather than her, she then slams her pen down and walks off, this may show a sign of jealousy because he hasn’t recognised her. 
In ‘The Killing’ it is set in a less professional abattoir, the environment she is in shows slaughtered animal meats all around her, this may show that the environment is more of an unsafe, and shouldn’t be in one. The fact that the abattoir is where animals go to be killed could be a sign for her walking into her own death. As if she is one of the animals about to be killed. The character is wearing casual clothes as if she has suddenly turned up from her everyday life. This may show that she was unprepared for where she may be going and the task she may be undertaking. Her high heeled boots show that she was unaware she may be running after a certain suspect. The lighting all around her shows a dark environment which shows that there is less likely anyone going to be around. When she suddenly has a cart shoved towards her, her facial expression changes from fearful to determination. When she starts chasing this suspected character she starts chasing. We are able to take a look at what the character is wearing. The fact that the character has a large hood over their face raises suspicion as to who the character could be, along with wearing baggy jeans and trainers shows that they may have been there for the right reasons, wearing more suitable shoes to run in, ready for a race. When the race turns into more of a nightclub setting it shows that the people within the ‘nightclub’ may be workers of the factory having a staff party. But as the chase continues through there, they are all unaware of what is going on around them and who is between them. They are all wearing party clothes, so it shows that the suspect may not have been someone there for the party. As the chase goes on the surrounding people ignore what may be happening and carrying on with a party, even though some of the characters stand against the hooded presumed male, none of them make any looks or comments at him, or don’t even acknowledge him. When the chase leads to outside the woman stops as though confused as to where the suspect has gone, we are able to see that it is pitch black outside so therefore night time, so unlike her we are able to see the male character approach her from behind and hit her over the head with an object. From our view we can see that the object looks like a gun, this means that the suspected character is a danger to her. We then see her fall into a ditch which then leaves the audience with suspicion as to what happens next with the tension that it has ended with.

Sound plays an important role within TV dramas; this is because it plays the background noise to make us understand what is happening. In the ‘Hustle’ it starts off with us hearing paper being rustled about a desk, this shows that it is a professional environment because it is set in an office with lots of paperwork around. We then hear the sounds of heels walking along the floor which means that a woman is approaching him. During his fantasy involving the woman the music background is very deep sounded and a song that may talk about love, this shows that he is fantasising about his feelings towards the woman.

Why do audiences enjoy watching crime drama's?

There are many reasons as to why audiences may enjoy watching crime dramas, this may include many things such as the excitement and thrill the drama would give to them. If the drama was to be a series, the tension and cliff hangers within the series may cause people to have much more excitement and therefore cause them to be hooked to the television when the drama is being aired. The audiences watching the drama may not have much thrill within their own personal lives, so find it interesting and exciting to see what goes on within the lives of the separate characters in the drama.

There are many simple reasons that people may enjoy watching crime dramas. Audiences of crime dramas are more of a older age, so many people may have had a stressful day at the workplace and may find it relaxing to come home and have a quiet night in watching the television and watching other people get stressed about something that is less than likely to happen within reality.
Being a fan of crime dramas myself, it may be due to the fact that people get hooked to watching the drama, it's like people are being dragged into a world of their own whilst they are watching the drama's, this may be because they may be able to relate to a character or a situation that is going on within the drama. They are more than likely to use it as an escape from their daily lives and routines and to relieve stress from the day that they have had.

Also, audiences may relate the crime to the crime that happens in society in reality today. It may be to keep track of how things are more than likely to be handled by institutions such as the police. To see what behavior is right or wrong, and to see what kind of consequences are given now compared to how they used to be in post-modern times. The viewer may also be a criminal themselves and using crime dramas, such as CSI to see how they should go around committing crimes and seeing if they could pick out any pointers on how to do things properly and getting away with it.

People from the elder generation may enjoy watching crime dramas that are set in the past, for example, the show about Inspector George Gently is set in around the 60's showing more of a fun family relationship between the police and how they go about their job. The elder generation may be using these to relate to the past and using it to make comments such as 'those were the days'. And also comparing them to how the policing system has changed from then to now.

This shows that there is many different reasons as to why an audience is attracted to police dramas, from relating to the characters and situations, to relating to the times they are set in as a way of how things used to be. They are also ways of showing how the way many crimes are handled, and may be seen as a secret insight on how situations to do with crime are done and dealed with.