TV Drama Contextualised "Thirteen" BBC Drama Directed by China Moo-Young

I remember watching this show when it was first aired on TV, and my first thoughts before even clicking play was that I would not enjoy it, as it's a subgenre that I never really watch. However after watching the whole season through I had a completely different opinion. It was an incredibly well directed show with an amazing use of the camera, editing and mise en scene. For my research I will be focusing on Episode 5 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03nkxt7) which is the finale of the series.

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.

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES - Representation & Race

What do we mean by race? - Skin colour? (Not purely defined by genetics)

Broadly shared cultural identity, history & experience shaped by marginalisation / exclusion

"The other" Which is alien or different to homogenous group or culture

Critical contexts:
- Ideology
- Hegemony
- Pluralism
- Mediation
- Reception Theory


Ideology:
-A set of opinions, values, beliefs and assumptions constructed and presented by a media text.

Hegemony Is a dominant ideology within society - In sitcoms that's traditionally reflected in the "nuclear family".

Mediation and representation:
- What we see is not objective reality or truth. but firstly the filmmakers vision of reality, what the mediated.
- The process of mediation, the editorial decision making process. Directly affects representation: through judgement and selection editorialises how gender race and class are presented.
- We as the audience are also complicit in mediation, through our understanding and reading of media texts (Semiotics and ideology)

Reception Theory:
- How we as the audience ediate texts and the factors that might influence us.
-Meaning is created as the viewer watches and processes the film
- Factors include elements of the viewer's personal identity

History of cultural politics.
- Dominant grouping is superior
- Other cultural groupings are inferior by virtue of difference
- Defined by crude stereotypes X are doctors and Y are athletes

Establishing identity through opposition to (and sometimes vilification of) a group of individual who displays difference.

Love Thy Neighbour:
- Sitcom written by and for dominant society (hegemony)
- Reflects manifestations of "the other" and freud's "narcissism of minor differences" XENOPHOBIA
- Racial step-characters on equal social / class status
- Mediation affects audience reception: Satire/ Comedy provoking empathy

Black-ish:
-Sitcom written by and for a pluralistic society - Identity politics
- Radical step - characters on equal or superior social class and status
- Mediation affects audience reception: Satire/comedy provoking empathy

Auteur Presentation - Luis Buñuel

Luis Buñuel was born in 1900 in Spain and started his director career in his late 20's in 1929 with one of his most recognizable film " Un Chien Andalou".

Luis Buñuel won 36 awards and was seen by many as one of the greatest Auteur directors in history. 

His early work was seen as surrealist, which can be seen in his work on Un Chien Andalou. He has some incredibly strange scenes in that film, include a scene where the eye is cut with a razor and also scenes with a dead donkey. It is really a horrible film to watch, but it it shows his use of surrealism. It stood out because not many people of that generation where going to that length to prove a point and he was.   

I find one of the strange things about this film is the scene with the moon being pierced by the moon. It would normally be seen as a metaphor of the eye being cut without us actually seeing it. However we see this metaphor and then we see it actually happen, which makes it incredibly uncomfortable for the viewers.

As a director who is obsessed with exploring radical concepts he always wanted to show us something different on our screens in comparison to what would have been normal at the time. 

He also had a agenda of social criticism and a strong belief in breaking the traditional representation of people and places. This means that a lot of people may not agree with what he portrays but at least he is speaking his mind and not following a trend.

In his film "Land without bread" his interesting use of film language actually mocks the audience so that they get provoked. It seems that one of Luis Buñuel tactics in film making is to disturb the audience so that then they will talk about it with other people.

After looking into more about how he got some of his shots I was surprised to find that for one of his films he actually shot a goat to get his desired effect for a film, something that would be unacceptable today. However this did surprise me that he was willing to go to such lengths to show the story in a correct way, even though it is very inhumane. 

From researching into Luis Buñuel I see that he is a director that really likes to be different, he isn't scared to do something crazy just to get the right show and he isn't worried about upsetting people, because 's what he wants. He want's as many people to talk about his as possible. His strange storylines are also another reason why I see his as an Auteur because a lot of people nowadays would not want to do anything that risky.

I see his style as one that likes to tell a story in a very un-linear way, and he was not worried about juxtaposing the real and the surreal. He is seen as a surrealist director who really doesn't care if the film has any logic to it, as long as it told the audience something they could talk about.

Shoot Scheduling - Orphan Black Remake

Just a quick rundown of how I plan my shoot days to pan out:

Wednesday 15th (Purple timetable):

10am: Arrive at the location and scout out possible shots.

11am: Jessica Arrive Film opening shots on the station

11:55am: Film on the train

1pm: Stop for lunch break (30mins?)

2.30pm: Film shots getting off train

2.45pm: Film more shots from station platform

4pm: Finish


Thursday 16th (Yellow Timetable):

10am: Arrive at location (cafe) talk to them about my ideas

11am: Jessica Arrive - Arrive at train station to film any extra shots that may be needed or re shot OR film scene where Sarah is running from station.

1pm: Stop For Lunch (Jamie Arrive?)

1:45pm: Finish Lunch and go to Cafe

2pm: Cafe scene Walk through

3pm: Filming at cafe

5pm: Finish

How I Developed My Initial Ideas

Initial plans for my scene:

I would do 3 scenes (Station, Bar and apartment scene)

I would need 3 locations booked - Station, Cafe and an apartment 

I would need two actors, 1 male 1 female to play Felix and Sarah

I would have more close up camera shots that the original scene to convey emotion more

I was planning to use my drone for some shots

I was planning to use the Sony EX camera for my project

I was planning to film handheld

What I have changed

1) I am now planning to only do the first two scenes on the station and the bar turned cafe scene. This was for a few reasons. Firstly because out scene was only suppose to be around 6 minutes, with the apartment scene it extended over eight minutes. Secondly because it would not have really added anything to the scene, It would have been a good chance to use my drone but the scene is not necessary. Finally because apartment cost was incredibly high and even then they would not let you film there.

2) I might take my drone, incase I feel a very good shot could be taken, but in reality I probably won't be using it. I feel that it is a lot of hassle for a shot that would look very different because of the quality of the drone camera. Whilst it has a higher resolution, it can't really capture the colours as well as the Sony EX camera.

3) I was never planning to use a dolly in my scene but after using it for the first time in a DSLR workshop a few weeks ago I thought it created a very good look so I would like to use them. I did email Feg but unfortunately It was booked, but none the less it was an idea I had not thought of before.

4)  Actors have changed slightly in appearance but it will not effect my film, as I went through casting call pro I was selecting people that looked similar so that you could still recognise who they are suppose to be, but for instance Jamie (Playing Felix) has slightly lighter hair than he does in the actual scene.

5) I was planning to film completely handheld however I now think I will take a tripod as backup incase. This would be especially for the scene at the cafe which could probably work well, but maybe might make the scene a little boring, but it will be good to have the option.

Director Research - Martin Scorsese (Film)

 Martin Scorsese is one of the most famous movie directors and I wanted to do more research into him because of his incredible use of colour.

A quick look through his Filmography shows his depth of knowledge and skill in the film industry. The now 74 year old has directed and produced many award winning films. The wolf of wall street, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver and Shutter Island to name a few.

He has a very interesting use of colour in his films and we can see that in the first few pictures a lot of his films use the colour red. It is tough to decide what exactly the red resembles, is it love, death or even hatred? Or possibly a mix of them and many more? I wanted to research further because whilst red is prominently used in his films so are other styles.




As we talked about Taxi Driver in a lecture I wanted to do some further research into possibly what Martin himself said about the use of red so prominently in his films.

He uses red in his films to show to show the emotional feelings and danger that revolve around his characters. The use of red as a colour because it can symobolise a warning, showing heightened emotions of the people we are seeing on our screens. It can also show the relationships between the characters we are watching, a red tint however could mean one of two things, pure love or possibly the opposite that it will end in death.



Here are two GIFS from taxi driver. The first shows the main character at the start of the film and the second is at the end. It could be seen as foreshadowing, that we are told right at the start that this story will only go one way, towards a blood bath.

In particular the first GIF shows that the main character is not happy and with the red tint it gives him power, and that shows us that something will now inevitably happen.


I found a great videos showing the majority of the uses of the colour red in his films. I did not create the video but have re-uploaded it to my channel to make sure I have it here.

It shows in a large array of genres his use of the colour red, as either a tint or on a character or prop. Red is a very powerful colour because it can display a large variety of emotions.

I found a great quote whilst I was researching into the colour red "red is associated with passion and violence, blue with coolness and melancholy"





Scorsese's love of the colour started with "The Red Shoes (1948)". He said the colour was not realistic but gave the characters in the film extra emphasis. He also goes on to say that the use of Red in "The Red Shoes" exhibits sexual power and artistic passion. This is interesting because in a lot of Scorsese's films the colour red does mean death and violence but his initial inspiration for using the colour was for the near opposite reason in love.


Whilst it was very interesting to look into the colour red I wanted to balance it out by looking at the
colour pallets from some of his other films that red might not have been so prominent and to establish if he had any other colours that seemed to repeat themselves, or possibly if the majority of his films used are bright or softer, darker colours.


I have found a few colour pallets from some of his other films which show that, at least in these particular scenes darker and subtle colours are often used.

The Aviator

Blue is most prominent here, but red is also used in the darker areas. But this out of all the pallets I found stuck out as it is mostly blue which is unlike most his films.

Goodfellas

High contrast colours used, Bright greeny/yellow car, bright red tree and rich green grass.

Week Mean Streets, 1973

This does use a lot of darker colours but red is still most prominent.

Wolf on Wall Street

Quite natural but the colour of the dress lets the viewer know she is the love subject of the main character.

Taxi Driver

I wanted to include this because even though red was used a lot in this film this colour pallet shows that in this scene in particular it doesn't make an appearance. These colours give you a real 60's vibe.

Overall you can see that Scorsese does generally like to use darker colours in his film, but of course with a few exceptions. The dark colours do generally reflect the characters he has in his films, they are normally bad people and the darker colours make them feel more sinister, even though it's only really lighting or colour that is making the difference. However it does really effect the light we see the colours in (Good/Bad)

I really enjoyed researching further into Scorsese as he shows that lighting and colour shows how the characters we are looking at on screen are perceived. I have already got to work with the actors to make sure they are wearing the right clothes for the shoot (Dark/Gothic) because if they wore everyday clothes it would make us see the characters very differently. I am also still debating on whether to use natural or artificially enhanced lighting for my shoot because it would make a difference once again. I think this will have to be a quick decision I make on the day after testing a few shots in the real locations.

How this research will effect my film:

Costume design was always going to be important in my scene but I have emailed my actors and they have been very kind in looking through their clothes and sending me pictures of  what they thought would be suitable. As I don't have clothes like this myself it was incredibly helpful that Jessica (Who will be playing Sarah and Beth) was able to do this for me and these are the clothes she has picked out for the characters. As the same actor will play two characters Jessica has sent through one set for Sarah and one for Beth and they are visually exactly what I was looking for. And Jamie (Who plays Felix) will be sending me his costume design in the next few days.I

 I was unsure if not to use natural lighting or artificial in my shoot but I think it would be good to have the options. I have booked out the LED Lights incase. I think it is much more likely I will be using the lights on the second day as the light will fade on the end of the shoot so I might make sure there is light throughout and edit the lighting in the editing process so it can all look right.

Scorsese will also influence how I make my film look, will it be a darker scene with less colour and emotion, or will I make it high contrast like in the Goodfella's screenshot. I think personally I will make my scenes more dark than the ones in the actual scene. I will make sure that no bright colours are used as it would seen out of place and strange. To be fair in the actual scene we don't see many vibrant colours but it's something I'm going to have to be very particular about when I am filming, just to keep continuity in colours from shot to shot.

Filming Day 1 - George's recreation of Vertigo

Today was our first shoot day and I helped George film his recreation of Hitchcock's vertigo. I was the camera operator for all but 1 shot but most of the pictures show George on camera as it was the last shot of the day and he wanted to get one shot he had visualised.

It was a good experience and we worked really well as a team, George directed and Connor on sound meant we all knew our roles and we got the scenes done in good time.

George had really planned out his scene well with a big shot list, something I haven't done but might do now because it really helped. I have storyboards but I think shot lists might help even more.

Unfortunately I cannot help on the 2nd day of filming but it looks like it will be a very good piece of work, which I am happy to have been a part of.

Art of Directing - Research Beyond The Lectures

I wanted to research into what people thought made a good director in comparison to someone who was not very good for my research outside the lessons.

First up most people thought that a good director is someone that recruits his staff properly and effectively. Making sure that the people you hire are up for the job and are passionate about the project, if they are only there to make up the numbers then there is no point. Even on a small scale project you need to make sure that the people you hire are the right people. Even on
a 2-3 man crew you need to make sure they will improve your project. This is not something I would have first thought of when I thought of a good director but  when you analyse the best films and
tv shows the best directors are always supported by the best crew.

Making sure you are decisive is important as a director otherwise you will not get anything done. Part of this will mean having proper planning otherwise you will not know even what options you have for a scene, and you will be totally lost. However when you have two very plausible options in front of you for a particular shot or scene you need to make a decision on which is better as quickly as possible because questioning it will just waste a lot of time and you will be delayed. This is surely something that every director will come across even on short film like ours, so we will have to make those choices very wisely to make sure that the day runs smoothly.

Demonstrating confidence and being motivational in the right way is something a lot of people see in the best directors. You can tell the best directors in the business are ones who can get their staff up for every moment. It will show in the film because undoubtedly some days are easier than others and making the bad days look as good as the best will be down to the director making sure everyone is committed and up for every shot. It will show over a whole film, because once scene can ruin a great film so making sure you keep your "helpers" motivated and excited about the shoot is vital to making sure the film is great throughout.

Not taking things personally is something a lot of people like in a top director. of course they will have the majority of shots already planned out but if someone has a suggestion which is excellent you should try it instead of just saying no because you're the leader. Just because someone has an idea doesn't mean your idea was bad in the first place so not taking that personally is vital to come out at the end with a good shot. Another example of this would be if actors say they don't want to be in the film. That could be because they don't think it's good or because you won't pay enough, but making sure you don't let it get to you will be important to proving them wrong.

It was interesting to read into what people on the internet thought the traits of a good director where, I know every opinion is different and a good director could possibly be the opposite of all of these, but it is likely most will follow at least a few of these. What I really took from my research is that you need to keep motivated even if something goes wrong, make the best out of it. I also know already that the people in my film group will have interesting ideas that may counter my shots whilst filming, Whilst I will have to have the final say I really welcome any ideas because at the end of the day one of these shots could make the film and I know my group are very good at creative input.

DSLR Workshop - Dolly Shot

In our last DSLR workshop we had the chance to try out some new equipment that we may have not used before. I have always wanted to create a shot using a dolly and today I had the chance to. I doubt I will use it in my film as the outside locations I have will mean this is hard to do, however I am still considering it. The video below shows my attempt at a dolly shot, I wanted to include a short stop in the middle to emphasize the point. It's a really cool bit of equipment that I will hopefully use in the future as it create great shots.