From left to right, the main cast and director (Jodie Comer as Ivy, Valene Kane as DS Lisa Merchent, Richard Rankin as SI Elliot Carne, Peter McDonald as Mark White and Episode 5 is Directed by China Moo-Young)
I think the casting was great in this show and all the main characters portray their persona very well. I think this is a big reason to why this show is so good.
Episode 5 Analysis:
The season finale start off with a shot of Ivy in a shopping center. This shot is very powerful because it shows Ivy by herself, alone and vulnerable. This is seen as a Denotive visual style as we are directed attention to Ivy as she is seen all by herself in her shopping center. This shot is also slowed down to give a sense of the unknown, it makes us feel slightly disorientated, a bit like what Ivy might be feeling in this situation. It's an interesting directorial decision, it would have been similar to have a close up to show her emotion but the decision to have a wider shot showing her surroundings gives a sense of little power for the character. This would mean even if you didn't see the first 4 episodes you could tell she is vulnerable. This shot may not directly influence my shoot but the choice to go for a harder shot to convey surroundings may tempt me to try something on my shoot.
Next we see a low down shot looking up at DS Lisa Merchent, she is a person trying to help Ivy in this situation when they are setting up an interview with Ivy's previous kidnapper. This gives DS Lisa Merchent a sense of power but it's actually a false sensation. Because in this scene the think they have the power over the kidnapper, however as the scene plays out their power diminishes. I think that this choice is a clever one as it gives the viewer a sensation that DS Lisa Merchent is in power, when infact the opposite is reality. This could influence my film because I have a character with little/no power so I could play around with the idea that they might have power through camera angles.
I think this shot of Ivy is interesting as we see her in oversized clothes and looking around for someone. I find it interesting because this conveys a lot of things associated with childered. Clothes make her look like a kid and the fact she is looking around could symbolise her looking for her parents.
When we see the kidnapper, we are slightly confused. he looks the polar opposite to what we expected. He looks shy, timid and the sort of person who would not harm you at all. This is giving the viewer once again a false sense of reality. He may look this way but reality he is a horrible person. It's an establishing shot which tells us the relationship between the characters. But the fact that they are on opposite sides of the shots shows there is some sort of problem in their relationship.
Whilst the majority of the sound in these scenes are diegetic or emphasised diegetic sounds the use of a powerful background song gives all of these scenes as well. It makes them much more intense and in a way without the music this scene could be very stale. I think the whole show does rely heavily on the correct background track as without it our emotions to our scene could be different to what the director wants. This has definitely affected my ideas because whilst my first project did have a decent background track I have given it a lot more thought before I even start filming for this project. The sonic ambience creates an incredible mood especially throughout the first scene in particular in the shopping center. It makes us scared with Ivy which is a hard emotion to convey properly. The enhanced effects are used sparingly so when they are used they have a big emphasis which overall makes the show very powerful.
After the chase and eventual loss of ivy in the scene we have this shot otf Ivy's family in the shopping center. It's nearly a direct opposite to the shot of Ivy at the start but one thing is similar, the sense of being lost and alone. At the start of the show the place was busy and you'd struggle to find an empty space but in this scene we can see how little people are now around. This is also a great shot to show how little power they now have. They believed in the police to help Ivy get out safe and now they are near powerless which this shot looking down conveys really well. It's a great use of expressive visual style as we magnify the qualities of the family. They are now more lost than ever and seem to be at a loose end as they don't know what to do next. The sense of being powerless is something I want to convey in my project. I will struggle to do this as the whole project is mostly low down without no high buildings but if I take my drone I can create a sense of no hope through that.
The editing does suddenly step up when the police are trying to find Ivy. It's a great example of how you convey emotion just through editing. It shows the seriousness of the issue and all the characters are now shown in panic as the editing conveys that. Even though there may not be much movement, the editing being bast means that you struggle to keep up with what is going on. This is an interesting choice and whilst my scene does not have a lot of fast paced action I think the editing will be one of the things that can really change the mood of each scene. if I edit it too quickly it could seem fast for no reason and take some of the emotion out of the scene.
The use of the panning out shot from above here gives a sensation of death, we are not sure if they will survive or not at this part of the scene and director really implants that into us with this shot. This shot is normally use to show death and going to heaven but once again this is playing around with our senses as by the end of the show both of the detectives are ok. Once again the use of reverse - psychology confuses the viewer which I find very interesting.
This shot gives the viewer a sensation of being trapped (behind bars?) and also along. This is Ivy's father outside the police station so a wide variety of emotions are going on here. Fear, Hope and Distress are some and we can tell all of that from this one shot. This is important because like we have been told many times that a picture can tell a thousand words and if we can have shots that are this powerful in our projects it will really improve the viewer immersion. I will hope to capture similar emotion in my scenes and I feel I do have the drama necessary so I just need to make sure the camera shots relay that well.
The lighting in this is very remarkable. You can see that there is only a little light on his forehead and also coming from the bedside light. I'm not exactly sure how they did this but the effect is incredible. It gives him an incredibly sinistar vibe and this is the first time we see him this way. Before he may be seen as innocent but we clearly see him as a "devil" for the first time. This will inspire some lighting in my films. I might have one shot of my main character in an alley way which could be poorly lit so lighting will be key.
This shot is particularly uncomfortable to look at because it's the first time we see the relationship between the characters. It could be seen as a father and daughter but through the lighting and the important use of costume she is seen more as a slave. The radical age difference also makes the viewer even more uncomfortable as they start to realise what is going on. China Moo-Young has done a great job in making the viewer break their comfort zone multiple times throughout this scene and really the whole show. It's a great way to push your agenda because it really makes the viewer take onboard what is going on on-screen.
We finally see Ivy in power at the end of the show with a gun. I think this may be the first time we look up at Ivy giving her that sense of power. However this doesn't last for long as we find out the gun isn't loaded and once again she has no power as White begins to punish her.
Whilst I love this show I think the ending is terrible. The house gets set alight with White inside and it's over in a flash. I guess the director wanted to shock us one last time but for me it's too much too quickly. We are still asking ourselves questions... What was White's motive? Was Ivy special? What is actually wrong with Ivy? Things that never get cleared up which annoyed me.
Overall China Moo-Young did a good job with the finale of Thirteen. The biggest things I took from this show where:
1) The use of shots to provoke the opposite emotion. A low shot to show power when in fact it is the opposite.
2) The powerful use of sound and how it can make or break a scene. If it is well done it can be a masterpiece but even with slightly the wrong music it can be terrible.
3) Use of lighting can also show the power and feelings of a character. A darkly lit character could be evil but also very alone at the same time.
4) Lastly the ending made me think, but for the wrong reasons. Sometimes ending on a cliffhanger can be fine but I doubt we will ever see a season 2 so it does frustrate me so many things where left untold, so I would not make that mistake in my scene.
this is great. well done. s
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