Television
Without perhaps realising it, over your years of watching TV, you have become skilled at reading television narratives, both fiction and non-fiction. Given that narrative = the way in which a story is put together, you have acquired knowledge about the different techniques which TV programme makers use to construct their narratives, and you use that knowledge to deconstruct meaning.
Although TV and Film narratives share some characteristics (they both consist of sequences of moving images) there are some key differences between them. Generally, when people watch a movie, they are prepared to focus for a long period (movies can run anything up to three hours) and, if they're in a cinema, not do anything else while they're watching. Therefore film is regarded as a higher art form. In contrast, TV is watched in a home environment, with lots of other distractions, and viewers may be multi-tasking with another activity (e.g. eating, cleaning) or with a second screen (tablet or smartphone). TV producers have to fight to get (and then keep) the audience's attention.
Therefore TV narratives demand a shorter period of focus, often just a few minutes at a time. TV narratives are constructed around segments, e.g. a single scene in a soap opera, or an individual news story. These short segments don't demand much attention, and often make sense without the need to refer to the segments that came before and after e.g. when sitcoms deliver the set-up and pay-off of gags within a single scene. Segments are easily accessible for casual viewing, and deliver quick, easy chunks of entertainment.
Primarily, TV narratives are made up of a series of moving images. These can be broken down as follows:
| Shot | The
smallest narrative unit, the time in which a particular camera angle (a single
viewpoint) is held on a subject. To move between shots, an edit
is needed. A shot can be extended by the use of either a zoom lens (where the camera zooms in or pulls back from the action) or tracking (where the camera itself moves, possibly alongside a subject, in order to change its point of view). Read more about camera shots, angles and movememnt here. |
| Scene | A sequence of shots that take place in a single location, and which usually represent continuous action. A change of scene takes place if there is a change in location – either in space or time. |
When analysing or constructing TV narratives, consider the relationship between different shots and how they connect together to create a scene. Creative TV directors know how important it is to provide a varied sequence of shots, one that lets the viewer know what is going on, but does not oversimplify or become tedious.
For many reasons, mainly time and budgetary constraints, TV narrative relies very heavily on the image of a person talking. From soap opera to news to reality TV to period drama, the close-up (i.e. the image of a single face filling the screen) is the basic unit of narrative. This helps create a feeling of intimacy and empathy between the viewer and the narrative (these people are in your living room, so you need to feel as though you know them quite well).
However, repeated close-ups can get boring. In fiction programmes, directors must balance out close-ups with the two-shot, to establish the spatial relationship of the speakers, maybe a long shot to include some relevant mise-en-scene, and perhaps some other shots which refer, either directly or indirectly, to what the conversation is about. However, there may not be time or space to shoot this extra coverage, which is why cheap TV drama (soaps) over-uses the close-up – it's the simplest, quickest, cheapest way to tell the story.
Non-fiction programmes use B-roll, sequences of images edited together to illustrate what the talking head is saying.
Each genre of TV show has its own conventions relating to narrative sequences. Some conventions arise from the production constraints faced while creating the narrative, while others are deliberate stylistic choices. For instance, a multi-million dollar historical drama will have elaborate set designs including lots of carefully placed mise-en-scene which warrant the use of lingering close ups, whereas a news story will often use only medium and long shots as the reporters hurry to get footage which gives as much information as quickly as possible back to the studio in time for the deadline.
TV narratives sometimes use these techniques to help tell a story. These conventions are a combination of audio-visual and editing styles, and present reality in a coded fashion. Viewers have seen these techniques used many times before and understand the code.
| Breaking The Fourth Wall | TV characters behave as though the audience isn't there, and go about their business as if no one is watching. The actors are usually working on a set with walls on three sides, and the 'fourth wall' is where the camera and director are positioned. When a character turns and speaks directly to camera, or addresses the audience in any way, they are 'breaking the fourth wall'. This is most often seen in comedies (e.g. Scrubs, Malcolm In The Middle, 30 Rock), but more serious shows (e.g. Doctor Who) have been known to use the technique. | Cliffhanger | A big question raised at the end of a segment or act to keep the viewer tuned in over the ad break, or to get them to tune in again next week e.g. in drama, a character gets shot at the end of an episode. Did they live or die? Find out next time! Cliffhangers keep you hooked |
| Dream or Fantasy Sequence | A dream/fantasy sequence takes the audience for a brief trip inside a character's head, and can be shot from a first-person perspective. Often indicated by blurry edges and tinkling music. Can be used in direct contrast to the reality of a situation, or to foreshadow future events (e.g. in LOST). |
| Flashback/Flash Forward | A flashback or flashforward disrupts the present time narrative to show the audience events outside the chronological sequence. A flashback goes back in time, usually to fill in backstory, or to show a character's memory of events. A flashforward teases the audience about what is going to happen in the future, and creates tension and anticipation. |
| Montage | A continuous sequence of shots (usually, but not always, without dialogue) that show time passing or a goal being reached. A montage can show a change happening for a character (e.g. a training or makeover montage) or a task being performed (e.g. a laboratory montage showing a series of experiments) and is often accompanied by a musical soundtrack |
| Dramatic Reconstruction | Used in documentary, docu-drama, educational programmes and, sometimes, news reporting, the dramatic reconstruction uses actors to restage an actual event. They work from a script, although some improvisation may be involved. Sometimes the dramatic reconstruction is accompanied by an explanatory voice over and or titles, sometimes dialogue gets the information across. Using actors to portray real life characters helps create empathy in the audience, and makes a situation (e.g. a crime or a historical event) seem more emotionally real. |
| Text | Text can appear on a TV screen either as a separate title (usually white on a black screen) or as a lower third (a graphic design occupying the bottom of the screen). Text can be a useful way of warning the viewer e.g. if this is a true story or if there are violent scenes, or establishing place and time (e.g Edinburgh, 2003), or giving some background information about a character (especially useful in documentary e.g. "Milo is a world champion domino player") |
| Voice Over (Narration) | Voice over can be spoken by a character we see on screen (as a way of accessing what's inside their head), or by a faceless narrator. Voice over can be used to interpret events for the audience by giving them additional information – it should never be used to describe what we can see. |
As well as interpreting the more obvious action and dialogue, we interpret lots of other pieces of information given to us on the screen in order to understand what is happening now, and what might happen next. TV programme makers use mise en scène (items within the picture) in order to give us more clues as to what is going on. Perhaps without realising it, we consider scenery, costume, and props as important signifiers when interpreting character and action: if a character is presented wearing an expensive suit, smoking a cigar, driving a glossy sports car down a back street in a poor part of town, we instantly need to know what he is doing there, and why he is so out of place. The same character, presented in shabby clothes, on foot, might just be presumed to be going home.
In order to move forward, TV narratives make much use of binary opposition, and also seek to present equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. Revise your understanding of narrative theory here.
© Karina Wilson 2000-2013 | Privacy Policy | Email me | +Google+