Sitcoms

          TV Research - Sitcoms

List of Sit-coms:

Gavin and Stacey

Brooklyn Nine Nine

The Big Bang Theory

Fawlty Towers

Frasier

The Inbetweeners

Keeping Up Appearances

Red Dwarf

One Foot In The Grave

Only Fools and Horses

Examples of a sit-com:

Gavin and Stacey Series 1 Episode 1 Opening Scene

Gavin and Stacey Series 2 Episode 2 Clip



Gavin and Stacey Series 2 Clip




Sit-coms run in series instead of running all the time like soap operas. They are usually yearly like shows such as Brooklyn Nine Nine and The Big Bang Theory. They can also be aired years apart such as shows like Faulty Towers which had series 1 in 1975 and series 2 in 1979. This can be due to popularity of a show with its audience who want it brought back for another series. Sit-coms usually air between the hours of 5 to 6pm, week days. This is usually around the time people are back from work and about to have their tea. This allows more people to be able to watch them whilst they are on the TV. Depending on the nature of the sit-com they can air later at night so that younger people are not able to watch them if they are inappropriate. During the series of a sit-com there can be a bit of a difference in the way they use the episodes. For example shows like Fawlty Towers have each episode as a separate episode from the rest of the series. Like a reset button is pressed every episode so that everything can go wrong again. However shows like Gavin and Stacey have all their episodes connected so that they can tell an entire story in only 3 series. There are always hints for later episodes and episodes can start straight after one another. The most popular format for a series though is having each episode separate like Fawlty Towers, Red Dwarf and Keeping Up Appearances.

The appeals of sit-coms are identity. Sit-coms are often based on and reflect the current society of the time. This means that the audience can then identify with the characters in the show because the way the characters act and talk can be very similar to themselves or who they would like to be. The characters in the shows can be considered role models for the audience because they reflect the current times so they can see what the current society is like from all angles of it. They are also there to entertain. They provide escapism for the audience so that the audience can temporally forget about the worries of modern day life and what is to come. This is done through the use of comedy to make people laugh to forget the stresses of life. The productions of sit-coms have changed over time. An example of this is the sit-com Red Dwarf. Over time as sit-coms grew in popularity the budgets were higher. When the series started in 1988 the sets and production of the show was very limited which is clear when watching it now. The series is still going however and has a much higher production value 39 years later were the seta are very large and more detailed and the production looks better and feels better as a result.

The target audience for sit-coms are varied. For example older sit-coms such as Only Fools and Horses and Keeping Up Appearances are aimed at older people such as 30+. Newer sit-coms however are aimed at a younger audience such as teenagers and people in their 20s. This is shown through the feel of the different types of sit-coms because the newer sit-coms have a younger feel to them and the jokes are more aimed at the younger audience and a lot of joke made are related to things only younger people would find funny. Over time the jokes have been adapted to fit a younger audience.

Burqa

     Ban the Burqa

When France brought in the ban the burqa scheme they were warned about the consequences of what they were planning to do and years later we can see what impact it did have on French society.many people who wore burqas were told to stop there beliefs and take it off because society didn't like people wearing them. Many people have also said this was one of the reasons they went to war with Syria.

In my opinion, banning the burqa just only made things worse because people weren't allowed to be who they are and show what they believed in. This meant that riots broke out and made French society start to fall apart and it made everything worse.

Coursework Corrections.

Try to get more quotes as some weren't very good at times.

Try to make it flow smoothly as sometimes it is repetitive and I need to fix that.

Try to get the word count correct as I have gone over slightly.

Do more research so that I can make the essay run smoothly and be able to talk about different topics on the alternative narrative and how it is used.

Coursework Quotes

Quotes from The Guardian newspaper article about portmanteau story telling.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/17/portmanteau-films-wild-tales-pulp-fiction-short-cuts

"Rediscovering our love of portmanteau".

"Cultural Landmark".

"We didn't have a lot of examples of similar films". Damián Szifrón.

"The industry thinks stuff like this can't find an audience". Szifrón.

PO MO

"It is difficult to imagine the face of contemporary cinema without the presence of Quentin Tarantino"

"The work of Tarantino and his 'video store' have been profoundly popular"

B and FF

"The strange timeline emphasises just how differently events can look from another perspective".

"So many media choices nowadays"

"Mainstream Status"

"Pulp Fiction set the ball rolling for a number of high profile films"

Richard Maltby

"Treat a movie and its story as if they were interchangeable"

Edward Branigan

"Narrative is a perceptual activity that organises into a specific pattern"

Thompson Bordwell

"Narrative is a fundamental way that humans make sense of the world"

"Spectators approach a narrative film with definite expectations"

Buckland Narrative

"A narrative does not consist of a random series of events"

Pitch Perfect

Pitch Perfect

The character of Synthia in Pitch Perfect is homosexual and the way it is portrayed is meant to be comedic but this representation can be considered to go to far with the many jokes aimed at her and how she acts with the other girls in the group. When they are rehearsing and the whole thing turns into chaos so she grabs the nearest girl by the breasts and says, “I’ll protect you”, showing how she sees the other girls around her. This is meant to be comedic and to some it is, myself included but to some this is quite inappropriate because this would probably not happen in real life so t some people this can seem quite offensive.

When she is first introduced during the auditions we see how because of her short hair and also wearing a cap that everyone thinks that she is a boy. Immediately the others see her as different and very masculine. This again is meant to be comedic but can be seen as offensive but is more comedic because of the way the boy in the back says “Nope not a dude”. She is very stereotypical of the comedic lesbian as she also looks at all the girls and smiles and all the others talk about how she acts around the others and how they think she is gay.

Out of all the characters in the group we see that she is very different to the others in quite a few ways. She is the only black character in the group along with being the only gay character. She also has short hair when the others have long hair so she is also more masculine than any of the others. Synthia is the films representation of how being gay can make people seem very different to the others and single them out so having the gay character being black and also very masculine shows how she is viewed differently to the others.

When one of the characters mentions that they need to focus on the group more and not on boyfriends she singles Synthia out and says “or partners sorry”. This is singling her out again and when she does this Synthia just sits back and slouches like she is ashamed of who she is and how she feels.

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16170

Representations of police.

Written by Sara Mills on September 21st 2008.

This article is good at showing examples of different films and TV shows that are about police or have examples of police characters in them. some examples of these are the bill and hot fuzz. These are two very different representations of the police. The Bill has been around since 1984 and has only recently gone off air. This programme represents the police in a way that Hot Fuzz doesn't. They are similar in some ways but they both show them in different ways based on their surroundings. In The Bill shows the police being serious as shown below in the video clip.

Insert clip here.

Hot Fuzz however shows the police as serious at first but when Nick Frost is introduced we see how he becomes less serious and more funny and stupid as shown below.

Insert clip here.

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/16810

Media Magazine - Changes in the representation of masculinity.

This article shows the changes in the way masculinity is represented in Martin Scorsese films. This article includes views of Leonardo DiCaprio and also Robert Dinero and the films they were in ant the time periods. This article was written by Tina Dixon.

There is a book to look at called Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities.

Quote from Lynne Segal - To be 'masculine' is not to be 'feminine', not to be 'gay', not to be tainted with any marks of 'inferiority'.

American Drama

American Dramas

These include:

Breaking Bad

Game Of Thrones

24

The Wire

Lost

NCIS

Orange Is The New Black

The Sopranos

Opening credits for The Sopranos.

https://youtu.be/RLxSUKA--Dg

Breaking Bad - Walt kills Krazy 8.

Game Of Thrones - Battle of Hardhome.

https://youtu.be/DsIQHIB9uYs

These shows tend to run in a series rather

Superficial Liberation in Get Carter

Superficial Liberation in Get Carter

Anna on the bed – The scene where Anna is lying on the bed giving herself sexual pleasure whilst Jack is on the phone to her shows the superficial liberation for women because we see how she is trying to pleasure Jack but stops when another man walks in. She says to Jack that she will finish tomorrow but he says no to her and makes her wait until he is back home so that he can share the pleasure. At the start of the scene it looks as though Anna may have some control over her body but Jack immediately shoots it down because he sees her as an object and that she should wait to satisfy him. Jack thinks that she shouldn’t be allowed to satisfy herself because he sees her as something that is only there to satisfy men and keep them happy. Anna is there to serve Carter and not herself because she says that she will finish but Carter tells her no and makes her wait for him because he doesn't allow her to pleasure herself.

Glenda’s Sex Scene- When Glenda is driving the car and Jack is looking at her sexually we see that it might be Glenda in control and not Jack because she is driving and when Jack is thinking about her it may have been her choice and she may have asked Jack. We see that this is wrong later because when they are in the bed after they have had sex we see that Glenda is lying there lifeless like Jack forced her into it. This shows how she has not benefitted from the experience and she may not have even wanted to have sex with Jack but Jack saw her as an object and used her like she was a doll. This all comes together to show how women where not liberated in any way because they where still used as objects. The only thing that has changed for women is that they are now driving men around. They are still used as something to serve men and not serve themselves just like with Anna on the bed.

Anna – Get Carter

Anna – Get Carter

On The Phone To Jack

The scene where Carter is on the phone to Anna makes no sense to the film what so ever and is only put in for the male audience in the cinema and nothing else. Jack is getting no pleasure from her because he can’t see her and he is gazing at Edna the whole time. There are no men in the room with Anna at the time and when one of the Fletcher brothers come in to see what is going on they ask her if she has a stomach ache because they can’t imagine that she is having pleasure on her own and not satisfying a man. Anna is letting Jack control her sexual pleasure because as soon as she knows that it’s him on the phone we see that she sits on the bed as if she is waiting for his instructions on what she needs to do for him. Anna is passive in this scene and Jack is controlling her. When one of the Fletcher brothers does walk in we see that Anna immediately stops due to fear of a man and she doesn’t want to be caught talking to Jack. Throughout the scene the camera is placed between Anna’s legs because the scene is meant to be shot as a POV for the audience and from their perspective of the scene. This is to bring in the male audience and is used as the male gaze in the film. The male gaze is used a lot throughout this film because it was seen as something that needed to be in a film in the 1970s and it was important to include it to attract bigger audiences into the cinema to see the film. Anna is being used as an object in the film and she is not liberated like some women were at the time. Most women where not liberated in any way and Anna is one of these people because she is taking instructions from Carter and she just goes along with it and doesn’t question his authority.

Opening Scene

During the opening scene we see all the men gazing at pornographic images and having Anna there as well so they can gaze at her and try to touch her sexually. We see one of the men touch her and she looks scared and very uncomfortable in that environment. This is very different to Glenda because in Kinnear’s house we see that she had to pour all the drinks and wasn’t allowed to join in with the men but Anna is sat with them joining in and Carter pours his own drink because they all just want to gaze at her and that is the only reason she is there. She is only allowed there because they want something to touch so she is still seen as an object. When she is touched by the man she looks scared but she doesn’t say anything or do anything because she knows that she will be told to shut up and she knows the power that the men have over her in society. She is also not doing anything to stop it because she has a fear of being hurt by the men because she knows that she is weak and the men are strong and they will beat her if she says something that they do not like. The fear that surrounds women in this film relates to real life in the 1970s because there were many cases of men beating their wives.

Glenda – Get Carter

Glenda – Get Carter

Car Scene

Throughout this scene Glenda is seen through Carter’s eyes and his P.O.V and how he sees her whilst she is driving. The gear changes and the close – ups of her body show that he is seeing her as a sexual object and not a real woman. He is only seeing her for sexual pleasure and she is only there for his pleasure and the audience’s pleasure. There are no shots of Carters’ body but there are many different shots of her body. This is for the pleasure of the audience and is part of the make gaze because the film was made by men and the pleasure is for men and there is no pleasure for the women watching the film. When the key is turned to turn of the car we see Glenda flop lifeless on the bed where as Carter is sitting up looking very pleased with himself. Glenda is a perfect example of 1970s women because she is seen by Carter to be an object rather than a person. This is the same as real life and what was happening to women and how they where treated. She lets Carter treat her this way and doesn’t question it just like 1970s women because they saw men as superior. The scene in the car where Glenda is driving the car and Carter keeps looking at her in a sexual way and imagining her in bed which then cuts to her in bed with him didn’t need to be in the film because it does provide us to see her death in the film but it is irrelevant to have it happen in the car. There could have been other ways for her to get killed because of Jack but they have included this scene because of the male gaze and it draws in a male audience because they get to see naked women in the cinema. The male gaze is Laura Mulvey’s theory, which states that women are only in films for men to gaze at in a sexual way. In modern films women can just be looked at but in many old films they where something to gaze at because they where only included to open the film up to a wider male audience. This theory is still relevant today but not as much as in the 1970s.

Kinnear’s House

In Kinnear’s house we see how he treats Glenda because he tells her off for bringing the wrong glasses in for Jack. In modern day this wouldn’t happen because it is seen as wrong but in the 1970s this was just accepted because it was the normal thing that happened. When Glenda is talking to Jack she is providing important information for the film because it sets up the scene for later but we can hear Kinnear in the background louder than Glenda and all he is talking about is his bet and it is not important. This shows how much power men had in the 1970s and how they could just over look women and not care what they have to say. When she asks Carter to put her glass on the table it is the only time in the film that a man does something for a woman. This shows how they are treated like slaves and they where second-class citizens in society but because she gets Carter to put her glass down we see that Carter may want something from her. We find out that what he wants from her is the information on the Fletcher brothers and then sex later on so he will do anything to get them both from her. We see from this that women where not liberated in any way because whenever the y got a man to do something for them they would always have to give them something in return. We also see how Carter is using her to get the information and sex again.