TV Drama Contextualised "Barracuda" Robert Connolly ABC/BBC Drama

Barracuda is an Australian Drama about Australia's Sporting obsession. It follows the main character Danny Kelly who starts a new school on a big sporting scholarship.

He is recruited by the swimming coach to be a part of the team and he has many rivalries in this first episode alone.

In this opening sequence we can tell so much, he's a swimmer, he is competitive and he is super serious about what he does.


The episode starts off with him joining the classroom and he is seen walking into a full classroom, it feels awkward because we have all been in that situation. It is filmed so we can see the reaction of the classmates and we see them laughing and giggling so we know that Dany probably feels self-conscious.

This is a directorial choice because he could have had the other students just ignore him but the fact he decides to show them laughing means that we now feel sorry for Danny as most of us have been in that situation.

There is a big use of diegetic sound in the first scene. As he is walking around the campus we hear the campus announcer reading off news as well as background chatter and a horn/siren going off. I like the effort they went to in the sound design to show as that because that in a way is realistic of what we would all hear whilst walking around a campus, and it's much more engaging that just background murmuring.

On the picture to the right we can see the segregation between the students. Danny is dressed in black whilst the others are dressed in white so right away we can see they have been separated. This is an interesting directorial decision because they are purposely making sure the viewer know there is some divide between these characters and that Danny is currently alone and probably slightly worried.

The use of non diegetic whilst he is swimming gives the scene more emphasis because we're now more focused on what is happening and it is making it feel more "epic".  It's an interesting use of sound design because i personally think that you could actually just leave in the pool splashing and emphasise that and make it sound "epic" but they took the other approach and it still works well.

The coach in this scene also lets the viewer know if they haven't figured out already that this is very competitive and it really shows Australia's intention in sport to give it everything and see what happens.

Also throughout this show they show that silence is powerful and sometimes you can show more with nothing than lots of effects. The silence or ambience in a scene with little dialogue creates that raw friction between to people who dislike each other and it works really well in this show.

There are a wide range or shots used in this show and two that are frequently used are the long shot to set the scene so we can know what Danny's surroundings are and also the medium long shot which does express emotion but not quite as magnified as the close ups and I think that they are used because Danny seems like the character that doesn't really care so his emotions are hard to read, even close up so sometimes a medium close up can show the situation partially as well.

The high key lighting used in the running shot and the gym makes them look in a way super-natural and makes them seem even better than the average person. They do a very good job of this throughout this show in getting the lighting right for the occasion and some scenes have little light because it reflects the current mood they are trying to show in a scene.

The use of the wider shot in the gym also shows a seen setting and Danny's "road to redemption" after falling out with the coach. It's almost like him going back into battle to prove himself.

The shot looking out the window gives us the idea that Danny is contemplating what is going on in his career. He want's to be the best but at the same time the struggle to fit in is tough. It's a great shot because we have all looked out a car window and had deep thoughts. The correct time for a deep thought seems to be out the window on a motorway!

The final screenshot shows that his task has been completed and yet he is still not happy. They won the race and Danny still struggles to be happy with his achievements. I didn't like this show as much as the rest of my research and that's probably because it's not a subject I really care about but I do find sports interesting and that's why I clicked on it.

What I learned from analysing Barracuda:

1) Casting is very important - I liked how danny played his character, the point of his character was to be blunt and to the point as well as seeming uninterested and he played that role very well as a lot of the time it didn't look like he wanted to be there. This means that when I chose my actors that they must know their role and play it how I want them too, not how they think it should be, because then we may get into dangerous water over the actor controlling my film.

2) Silence can be key - You don't need to have sound effects for the sake of it. Whilst I know I'll mostly need to use sound effects it was great to see how a show can also be great with just ambient noise. It can really create a friction between characters. This means for my project I need to make sure that I keep a close eye on sound design and make sure not to do too little/ too much or the wrong kind of sound editing as it can ruin a scene.

3) I also learned that seen setting is very important. You can set the mood of s whole scene with one 3 second shot right at the start so when I film I'll need to closely see what will make for a great opener and setter, otherwise the scene could look silly.

4) I really liked the handheld shaky cam in this show for certain scenes as it really helped show the emotion of craziness going on in Danny's life. It's something i would really like to try in my shoot but at the same time I don't want to film too much like that as it may ruin the scene completely.

5) Finally, it shows how important costume is. The classic black/white opposite in costume is powerful if you analyse it as you know that there is friction between the characters. I will need to make sure my actors are wearing suitable costume but as they are brother and sister you imagine they will look similar as they have similar interests in the show.