Master and commander 1. Explain two ways the characters and/or events in the extract fit the action adventure genre. [10]

2. Explain how each of the following is used to create effects that fit the action adventure genre:

Soundtrack

Camerawork

Editing

Mise-en-scène. [20]

3. Discuss how people are represented in the extract. [20]

 

The characters in this film fit into the action adventure genre firstly through what they are doing. The majority of the way through this clip most characters are seen to be using cannon balls and shooting at the ship opposite. The shooting itself highlights conflict and danger, but when you see the characters behind the weapons, they appear angry and sometimes frightened foreshadowing a build-up to the current dispute. The communication between characters is aggressive and they are often shouting at each other, this shows the panic and fear amongst the crew on board and also shows how on edge they are. This affects the audience as it makes them feel for the characters on screen and also keeps them watching to see how the action plays out. Use of explosives, gun shots etc. is what ties it to the genre. The sounds that fit with the huge explosions make the impact greater on what is happening on screen.

The scene has a lot of establishing shots so the audience can see both ships, this gives them a further understanding of the location of the scene, and the impact of the conflict. There is also a lot of ariel shots to show the action from high up looking down on deck. This gives the audience an insight to the action on the whole top of the boat.

Hurt locker task

Q1. Explain two ways the characters and/or events fit the action adventure genre.

Q2. Explain how each of the following is used to create;

Camera work, soundtrack, mis-en-scene, and editing.

The characters in Hurt Locker clearly fit the genre or action adventure, this is firstly evident through what they wear; the soldiers are dressed in army outfits matched with helmets. This signifies how they risk their lives and put themselves in danger to help others. They are also holding hand guns and machine guns, foreshadowing peril coming up in the film. All these elements create mis-en-scene throughout. As the scene continues relationships between characters start to emerge, furthermore they use aggressive tones and scream to communicate signifying tension/suspense relating even further to the action adventure genre, it also shows how the soldiers are on edge.

As the scene progresses there is mostly diegetic sound coming from characters speaking on screen, there are also noises such as vehicles driving into the shot, making the source visible for the audience. There are also some examples of synchronous sound, for example gun triggers; this sound is expected because the amount of visible guns constantly being held up in the scene. It creates expectancy for action from the audience.

There are no evident antagonist characters, only the circumstances of antagonist’s actions. This shows there is dispute and disagreement in the film. The soldier who attempts to save the ‘victims’ life is clearly the protagonist character in the scene. Hinting at him being the hero and taking down the antagonist characters.

A variation of shots are used throughout the whole scene, firstly there is a point-of-view shot, showing the action from the perspective of the soldiers, it makes the audience see what is going on from the perspective of a character and feel like they are in the action with them. There is also an establishing shot from a high up perspective, used to show the audience a general perspective of the whole scene on the ground. There is a frequent use of cutting from one shot to another showing all the different aspects of the action as it happens. Doing this creates continuity editing, which keeps the audience’s attention on the story as the action plays out.

Dolly zoom is also a commonly used technique as the camera zooms in and out on the ‘victim’ who stands still as this happens; he remains the same size on screen throughout. Dolly zoom is used on the victim to show the bombs that are strapped to him; this implies to the audience something terrible could potentially happen.   

Q 1. Explain two ways the characters and/ or events fit the action adventure genre.

Use examples from the extract. [10 marks]

 

The genre for this film is action/adventure; you can identify this because of how the protagonist character is represented, furthermore in the beginning of the film he is not blatantly the strongest or most powerful character, meaning that there is room for him to develop and become an underdog so he can prove everyone wrong. If this wasn’t the case there would be no storyline for the character to improve with. His behaviour at the start of the film makes him a relatable character for the audience, meaning that they create an attachment to him and are rooting for him to get better so he is able to survive.

The conventions of this film also add to the action/adventure theme. Throughout the storyline there are many action sequences which include explosions and shooting etc. The sound effects for these make everything seem more realistic and more intense, adding to the films believability, this is called realism. The less significant characters build up the context of the film and represent the genre by building up the background scenes through fighting. This makes what’s going on more clear. The antagonist characters highlight the protagonist’s weaknesses meaning that there is tension throughout the film, when the protagonist comes back stronger the audience is more affected by his victory because he succeeds against all odds.

(4a) written up answer

Compare how and why two programmes were scheduled on different channels.

Bad Education is on BBC Three and shows usually at the time of 9.00pm on weekdays. It runs for 30 minutes on a once a week basis, I believe this happens because its a small story every week that has a brief beginning middle and end therefore doesn't need to be on for a massive period of time. Friday night dinner on the other hand shows on a Friday night because that night suits with the theme of the programme, Although they both have the same showing time which is after the watershed, this could be due to the slight inappropriate content that younger viewers would not want to watch.

The audience for Bad Education has a more specific audience because it is humerous for teens at school that can relate to the characters lives and find what they are doing relatable, It also has an appeal for teachers as they will  be able to relate to the teacher characters also appreciate their issues and day to day occurrences. Other than this there isn't any other audience that this programme would appeal to because all the story lines and jokes are always based on and around the school life, This never differs as it is the theme of the programme.
This is different for Friday Night Dinner, the audience for this is more varied because there is a larger range of characters that an audience can relate to. There is a mum dad and 2 sons, also neighbors and occasionally grandparents. Due to the fact that it is a family based comedy it means that all audience members who are in a family themself can find it appealing and will be able to appreciate the comedy. Many of the situations from this programme are often ones that will happen to every average family. An example of this was visit from Grandma, whereby the sons received awful presents but had to pretend to like them.

(4b) Discuss in detail how one programme (Bad Education) offers audience pleasures. Give examples from the programme. [15 marks]

Bad Education has many audience pleasures that attract the audience to keep watching and have interest. Firstly this programme has a narrative resolution, meaning that the programme starts and ends in the same location and throughout it always links back to the start. This is appealing for an audience because it gives them familiarity and a constant assurance that the problem that occurs in the programme will always be resolved and go no further than the location it is set in (the school).

Another attracting factor about the programme is that you can identify with the characters, their immaturity and relationships with each other makes them easy to relate to and also makes them easier to understand and grow emotions for. Such as Mr Wicker; he always gets himself into awkward situations. An example of this is when he decided to pretend one of the student’s Mum’s had died, to impress another female teacher. He tries to discover a common interest with her through a charity she was supporting and ended up getting himself into a web of lies. Usually this would be viewed and completely awful but because you can appreciate his point of view and relate to his personality it makes the audience feel sympathetic for him and also find what he does humorous. Situations like these are commonly referred to as snowballing narratives, meaning that it starts off with a character making a bad decision or silly mistakes, and then it escalates and gets worse and the programme continues. This is appealing to an audience because it creates a build-up and always leaves the reader intrigued to how they character will get out of the situation. This is called a narrative hook.

Verbal comedy is a major part in Bad Education, as it massively relies on innuendos to make the audience laugh. The jokes in this programme are mostly old fashion/classic jokes, usually linked to rude jokes to do with sexual things and in the jokes about toilets etc. They are usually delivered with word play to make them discretely funny and not obviously offensive. Physical comedy is also used alongside verbal to make it more visually satisfying, an example of this is standing on toilets when they boys were telling jokes. These kind of jokes are often repeated throughout the episode so there is familiar humour for the audience.

Bad Education is largely popular for its transgressive pleasures. A lot of the students are sexualised and sexualise eachother for humour and to make their characters relatable. This is evident between one of the students and Mr Wicker, this makes it funny to watch and also displays an awkward and uncomfortable element. It is called taboo language that appeals specifically to the targeted audience, and is specifically created to pleasure them,

(4a) Compare how and why two programmes were scheduled on different channels.


State the day, time and channel of each programme.

• Who commissioned the programmes?
• Who produced them?

Bad Education is a British sitcom produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Three
production-The first series started airing on 14 August 2012. On 23 August 2012, it was announced that Bad Education would have a second series. The second series began airing on BBC Three on 3 September 2013.^[ Part of the second series was filmed at St. Michael's Catholic High School, Finchley, London. Bad Education was also partly filmed at the former site of Ashmount Primary School on Hornsey Lane on 12 and 13 May 2013




Friday Night Dinner is a British television sitcom written by Robert Popper and starring Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal and Mark Heap.The comedy is focused on the regular dinner experience of a British Jewish family (the Goodmans) on each Friday night. The first series originally aired from 25 February 2011 on Channel 4.

• What audience are they aimed at? Why?

The Gender of the audience for Bad Education is predominately male. This is because of the  crude/vulgar content of the situation comedy and the codes/conventions used through out the show. Stereotypically young males  are quite immature and are easily amused by sexual innuendo, which is a used through out Bad Education. Where as the female of the same age group are stereotypically mature and may not be amused by the vulgar content of Bad Education.


I believe that the target audience age will span predominately between 16-24 year olds as this is the primary target audience for BBC 3 as a channel. This is the age group for the target audience of Bad Education as the show uses current themes and trends which are commonly found amongst the lives of 16-24 year olds


Friday Night Dinner is aimed at a similar audience to Bad Education but could range to slightly older because of the parent element of the show that could be relatable to the more mature adults who may have kids of their own or be married themselves.

• Why are they on at that time and on that channel? Link to 'type' of comedy and target audience. 

New episodes of Bad Education are usually shown after the watershed and on prime times such as 9.00pm, but never on key days such as Friday and Saturday. Usually because the content isn't suitable for earlier slots and their audience is a more mature audience. The programme isn't worth such prime days such as weekends, which is used for more generally popular shows.
Bad Education on BBC 3 can often be repeated from old series during the day. This is called a filler to use up time for day time TV that not many people watch.


Friday Night Dinner is on a Friday night because of the content of the programme. It suits the day it shows and also flows well with the time (9.00pm) as it is a prime time where a lot of families will be watching TV.

• Are they on after the watershed? Why?

Bad Education will be on after the watershed because the content isn't suitable for young viewers.
Friday Night Dinner is on  after the watershed because the content is quite mature that only an older audience will find funny and entertaining.

• Know the audience demographic

You must know:

1. day 
2. time
3. channel
4. for both programmes (Friday Night Dinner and Bad Education).

1. Situation comedies television or radio series in which the same set of characters are involved in various amusing situations which are developed as separate stories doe each episode. Also known as a sitcom.
2. About E4 This is a channel on British digital television, the 'E' stands for entertainment and the channel is aimed at the lucrative 15-35 age group.