Preliminary Video

Codes & Conventions in a bit more detail!

Television drama plays a central role in television schedules and an almost unprecedented range of TV drama is now being broadcast on terrestrial, cable and satellite channels. TV dramas entertain us but also play an important role in shaping the way we perceive the world. In television drama codes and conventions are used by the director to structure the narrative. Television drama is a vast genre which covers large numbers of sub-genres which have developed within this.

Media products uses a number of conventions to make the product appear to be seamlessly produced which means that it appears as though meaning had already existed prior to the construction of the film. In fact the cinematic codes and conventions of production produce an axis of meaning.

The codes and conventions of a text help create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and representative:

• Technical conventions are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film.

• Representative conventions show what is beneath the surface of what we see. For example, a character's actions show you how the character is feeling.

Sound

Sound is said to be the symphony of the emotions and truly plays a key part in TV dramas. Music has the ability to alter our mood, change our point of view and force us to think, act, and respond a certain way.

Fahim -- Mihali -- Toby

A trio! When we were discussing ideas, we came up with ideas that we felt passionately about. A film, that would appeal to us! So we are in someways the target audience!! Our final idea is a short film about authority and power. Power comes in some many shapes and forms (money, strength, fear, etc).

Our short film is different to most short films because it is shot in black and white. I chose to do this for two reasons: firstly because it makes it less obvious that we are not actually filming in a night club (due to budget and time constraints), and secondly because I felt it added to the tension of the drama.

Camera

For our preliminary task - we used a very basic canon mini DV and had no tripod, so all our filming was hand-held.

I have operated cameras and editing software for the previous two years, therefore this was more of a refresher.

Key Points we revised:

• Camera angles - the position of the camera in relation to the subject of a shot, may affect how the audience see the subject -- small/vulnerable or powerful/dominant!
• Camera shots - e.g. Aerial shot, [CU], [ECU], [ES], [MS], [POV], [OSS] and two shot.
• Camera movement - e.g. Pan, track, crane, stedicam, tilt and zoom.
• Sound - Non-Diegetic sound and Degetic sound.

-- This link show you the specifications of the camera --

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Camcorders/Digital/md160/index.asp

Representation

The process by which a constructed media text stands for, symbolizes, describes or represents people, places, events or ideas that are real and have an existence outside the text.

Stereotypes of Eastern European people? - The men are stereotyped as being short tempered, very macho, poor, proud, rude, and maybe they're alcoholics too?

Codes & Conventions

The codes and conventions of a text, help create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and representative:

• Technical conventions are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film.
  
• Representative conventions show what is beneath the surface of what we see. For example, a character's actions show you how the character is feeling.
  

Some codes fit both categories – music for example, is both technical and symbolic

Basic conventions are audio, visual and technical effects which are used along with dialogue to shape the plot, the themes and genre of a text. I'm unable to summarise the conventions of a media product, as it's such a vast field and each product follows, its own codes determined by the target audience and the sub-genre they are categorised in.