Textual Analysis of TV Drama Title Sequence

Title Sequence:
-attract people with the theme tune
-signitaure
-identity
-so people know what they are watching
-show where the programme is set/time period
-name of the show
-alerts people that show is starting
-shows the characters
-people in the setting
-tone/style/pace


Dexter Title Sequence:

Normal morning routine filmed to make it look weird and scary.
-normal with a hint of sadisium
-Dexter
-name of main charactor
-dark tone
-theme of murder
-he looks miserable/empty
-associations of him with death
-casual killer
-music
-sneaky but casual/jaunty


Sound
-emphasising sound
-foley track when he is:
-eating
-shaving
-cooking
-slicing orange
-killing the insect
-blood dripping
-flossing
-pulling out keys
These are all digetic sound.

-creepy music
-jolly music but the sounds he is making make it creepy
-ding at the end
- music tune fades away when he gets outside (matches his facial expression)
-odd sounds within casual tune
-rattling shakey noise makes it creeps
-music anchores the meaning of the image
-unnatural
-wrong
These are al non-digetic sound.

Cinematography
-Start - focus on mosquito, kills it, camera focuses on to Dextors face (smile)
-Extreme close ups - e.g. cleaning blood, cooking, cutting orange,
-shows intimate detail
-close up on face before leaving house
-air of mystery. Do not see his face properly until the end
-mysterious, there is a dark side of his face and a light
-he seems like a normal guy but he has a dark side
-when you see the meat it is like the camera is in the pan
-focus on the lock showing him looking away


Editing
-Dexter is written in blood
-jump cuts : him waking up and him shaving, the blood drips in the sink and him wipeing the blood slithering down his neck and him cutting open the meat
-jump cuts - normal things have been cut out to emphasise death related things
-meat has been slashed loads of times connotes slashing flesh
-way he eats sounds crunchy - cannablism
-in control does not seem like a crazed killer - calm killer planned well
-crushing grounding coffee beans

Mise-en-scene
-blood - alot of red= orange, ketchup, title, murder, violence
-clothese white t-shirt (normality) t-shirt used to show smothering when being put on
-facial expression- creepy and seems like a physco, but is the opposite when he leaves the house
-props - the way he shaves shows that first sign of blood
-normal things- morning routine - but the way they are being used and anchorage of music suggests murder and violence
-way he does things e.g. putting knife in egg and twisting eating meat straight off the knife etc shows evilness

Textual Analysis

Textual analysis is the process of breaking down a text into its various elements and studying them to analyse how meaning is created. When analysing moving image media (such as film or television) we must examine the following areas:
* camerawork (shots, angles, movements)
* editing (how shots have been put together)
* sound (both digetic and non digetic)
* special effects (if there are any)
* mise-en-scene (costume, make-up, facial expression, props, setting, performance)


Wide shot/ establishing shot


Long shot


3/4 shot


Mid shot


Medium close up


Close up


Big close up


Extreme close up

Camera movements:
* crab - the camera moves sideways, like a crab does.
* pan - the camera stays in the same spot but pivots left or right
* tilt - the camera stays in the same spot but tilts up or down
* dolly - also known as tracking, the camera moves backwards or forwards
* stedicam - the camera is fixed and will not shake or wobble at all
* hand-held camera - the camera is hand-held

Skins trailer

In this trailer, teenagers are represented as:
* drug-takers
* aggressive
* drinking
* youthful
* energetic
* voilent
* destructive
* rebellious
* aggresive
* vicious
* out of control
* no respect
* vandals
* promiscuous

These representations are constructed by:
* using pacey music - loud
* we can't hear them, we can only see what they are doing - focous on their actions, it is like we are on drugs
* structure - as advert progresses kids get more and more out of control

http://kristina3.glogster.com/televisiondrama/

Defining the genre

Within the genre 'Television Drama' there are various sub-genres which each have their own unique codes and conventions.

Codes and conventions are the defining features of a genre - they are what makes a media text what it is. With moving image texts (TV shows and films) codes and conventions can be elements of:
* Narrative/structure
* Setting
* Character
* Theme
* Sound,
- Digetic - in the world of the show (the characters can hear it)
- Non digetic - not in the world of the show ( voice overs, sound effects/music)
* Cinematography - camera work

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*Skins is broadcasted on E4 at 10pm every Thursday.

*Skins was premiered on E4 on 25th January 2007. The fourth series was officially announced in 2008. Filming will commence with all the series three cast in July 2009.

*The show was created by father and son television writers Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain for Company Pictures.
Executive producers: Bryan Elsley and George Faber
Producer: Chris Clough

*The pilot episode of Skins averaged 1.5 million viewers.
The rating for the second series which launched on E4 on 11 February 2008 peaked at 884,000 viewers (a further 160,000 watched it an hour later on E4+1)which gave it 5.9% audience share and taking 60% of the 16-24 demographic,however this was still more than 500,000 viewers down on its series one premiere. 809,300 tuned in to the second episode, which aired one week later in the 10pm slot. The series finale attracted an audience of 740,000 on E4 equating to a 4.65% share of the audience. The start of the third series drew in 877,000 and 113900 including E4+1, which did well with its key audience demographic of younger viewers (56.2% were aged between 16 and 34). The second episode was up in figures as 889,000 watched (including E4+1). Episode three drew 857,000 on e4. Episode four drew 866,000 viewers on E4 (including E4+1).

*The first series received positive reviews, although some critics complained that the series depicts teenagers unrealistically and stereotypically. Writer and producer Marieke Hardy was extremely admiring of the show, and particularly enjoyed the fact that the show was "beautiful and sad and poignant and perfectly hurtful", while also managing to give impression of being drama that is "edgy, funny and rude". Comedian and writer Stewart Lee has remarked during an interview on the BBC4 programme Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe that he feels lucky for having been a teenager watching TV for teenagers in the 1970s and not the 2000s as "there was something really comforting for nerds and weirdos about programmes like Children of the Stones and The Changes." He said that watching Skins as a teenager today would make him feel lonelier than he already would have been. Gordon Farrer writing in Melbourne's The Age called it a "refreshing, entertaining and worthy series" and wrote it was "compulsory viewing for parents of teenagers as much as for teens."

*The target audience is for teenagers and young adults as they can relate to Skins.

*The programme won the Best Drama prize at the 2008 Rose d'Or ceremony. It also won Best Production Design (Drama) for Amelia Shankland's work on "Cassie", at the Royal Television Society Awards 2007, in addition to being nominated for Best Photography (Drama). Tal Rosner's graphics for Skins won a BAFTA for Best Title Sequence at the British Academy Television Craft Awards in May 2008. It was announced on 18 March 2008 that the show had been nominated for Best Drama Series in the British Academy Television Awards 2008. Skins won the Philips Audience Award at the BAFTAs 2009, beating The Apprentice, Coronation Street, Outnumbered, Wallander and The X Factor.

*The Dawson Bros, co-writers of Skins, say the series represents the everyday lives of adolescents: Skins revolves around the lives of a group of 16-19 year-old friends who live in Bristol and attend the fictional Roundview Sixth Form College. Each episode has a self-contatined theme and focuses on a different character, although several story arcs span different episodes. Accompanying the episode title at the beginning of each episode is a short montage of that episode's central character. Each character is stereo-typical of teenagers, for example; the geek, the naughty one etc.

*To see the trailer for Skins, click on this link: http://www.e4.com/skins/interactive-trailer.html