Thursday 6 February 2014

Peaky Blinders is a six part period drama based in Birmingham in 1919, the programme uses many key factors to attract an audience. The show on a whole is very cinematic, more so than other T.V shows found on BBC 2, the use of large scale panning shots and effects like slow motion help add to the cinematography and gives its audience gratification through adding more entertainment and an extra enjoyment factor. The show also casts movie stars to add to the effect, the use of well known actors can furthermore increase the amount of viewers the show gets as they might already have hardcore fans. The fact that the show has been successfully placed on BBC 2 helps attract an audience as they are the desired target audience anyway.

In the opening scene of the first episode the shelby brothers attempt to make a deal with some black blood gypsies. The short clip of them confronting each other and then fighting is a perfect example of the high level of cinematography used.

Tuesday 28 January 2014

   Mad Men is a period drama based in the 1960's aired on 'AMC' an American subscription based cable channel. The show appeals to its audience through the intricate attention to detail it uses, from the clothes and cars all the way to the colloquialisms used in that period of time. As it is a subscription channel the makers of the programme already know what their audience expects, hardly any enigma is used and it forces the audience to make ties on their own.
   
   The scene I focused on is a prime example of making the audience think for themselves and unlike many other television programmes there is a definite lack of non-diegetic sound. The way this scene is shot and edited makes it look like the two time periods of Don Draper and Joan, and Joan and Herb are running simultaneously. When we see Herb in the room of the conference everything becomes more obvious. It is now clear that parallel editing is not used. The scene ends where it begins - we now have an omnipitant view on the events. Its editing tricks like that that make this show appeal to its audience, it is not a conventional drama.