Narrative Structure

A couple wake up and go downstairs to breakfast. They do not realise that they are being watched by terrorists. The husband, an undercover police officer, is getting the kids ready to be dropped off at school, whilst the wife stays home due to a late night out the previous night. Once the husband leaves, suddenly swarms of terrorists raid her house and take her hostage, warning her if she didn’t then harm would be taken to her children. The husband gets a call from his children saying they haven’t been picked up, he looks into why and realises what’s happened. Eventually, he tracking fingerprints and clues, and within no time has his wife back home will only minor injuries to her body.

Narrative conventions:
I used beginning, middle and end. Incorporating the typical conventions of Equilibrium- Disruption- Equilibrium.
Beginning: Family having breakfast, cheerful and oblivious it’s any different to their standard morning.
Middle: Wife is taken hostage, anger, confused. Husband is unaware.
End: Happy, thankful, and relived.

Also I had some good characters and some bad; the terrorists were the bad guys and her husband was the good guy for rescuing her.
It did result in a happy ending, as the wife was saved with no major wounds made to her.

Why do most stories end happily?
Most stories do end happily because the producers know that this is what viewers want. People expect a happy ending as they do not want to be left upset and depressed. It’s a sort of pick me up, they watch television when they have nothing else to do, its something they do in order to avoid having to do chores and so they don’t want to go and watch anything leaving them down. It leaves them as an audience happy and thankful nothing happened to the ‘good’ guys, because over time, the audiences become attached to characters and want to see the ones they like finish happily.

The beginning of Spooks feels like a narrative because it starts of as an ordinary start to anyone’s morning, this being the equilibrium. The beginning lets the audience understand the characters slightly, and that later when we find out the disruption, we realise how it affects the couple.
In this episode there are binary oppositions, for example the classic good and bad, along side villains and victims. From the start an audience can tell the couple are the ones who are the victims; this is shown through how happy they’re & the fact it’s her birthday is a key signifier. Because we could relate to the couples morning, we know they are good. The people sitting in the car watching the couple, this isn’t a normal everyday activity & so immediately we notice they are up to something.


What are the different narrative structures associated with the following TV drama forms?

Single drama/film: Margaret
Equilibrium- Disruption- Equilibrium
This happens in every episode/ film

Two-nighter: Trial and Retribution
This also follows Equilibrium- Disruption- Equilibrium, but instead, it is extended across two episodes. The first equilibrium happens in the first episode, whilst the disruption will begin in the first episode and continues onto the second, and then it will finish with the second equilibrium.

Soap (continuing drama): Eastenders
Soaps are on going dramas and so its hard to tell. But I assume they do start with Equilibrium- Disruption- Equilibrium, its just we are unable to notice any resolutions to these as new good & bad characters enter the soap.

Serial: Bleak House
As I said in the above, they are on going too, which again means its hard to tell whether they have distinct disruption. Sometimes they end on a last equilibrium. But in some cases, for example, Desperate Housewives, they end on a cliff-hanger, leaving the audience anticipated and intrigued to what happens next.

Anthology series (self­ contained episodes, each based on different characters): Skins
These have Equilibrium- Disruption- Equilibrium as well, each episode contains a different one, however it does also have an underneath storyline that carries out through the series.

Long­form series drama: Lost
Equilibrium- Disruption- Equilibrium. Again, they have an underneath storyline through the series. Sometimes, the minor storylines are resolved in the same series to make it more interesting. The binary opposites are introduced gradually as the series progresses.

Long­form series drama with some narrative experimentation: 24
Equilibrium- Disruption- Equilibrium. And again, there is also an underneath story line that is resolved by the end. The new series may begin with a totally different equilibrium, but may still have minor storylines tied in that never were resolved in the last series.

Hovis

1. In the bread shop
Costume: Baker is wearing big baker’s hat. Boy is wearing a white shirt with a brown flat cap. Would assume it was a working class outfit. Baker then says “here ya go lad”, in northern English accent.
Props: In the background you can see the bread is stored on wooden shelves, unlike nowadays.

2. Cart
As he’s coming out onto the street we can hear a horse neighing, then it’s a shot of him running out in front of the cart and it just missing him. It’s an old fashioned cart.
Costume: man in cart is wearing a bowler’s hat, and old clothes. Nurse is wearing an apron and blue pinafore.
He runs down the road pasting the nurse, and then we see him pass a poster of the titanic, showing its 1912. Runs through a large gate, with a chain, he looses his cap.

3. Woman’s March
Boys costume slightly changes.
Costume: The suffragettes are wearing Victorian dresses whilst waving placards with “votes for women”. Men are in suits clutching briefcases.
There’s a lot of screaming and shouting. There are lots of people trying to stop the protest. Men are trying to take the women away.

4. Soldiers
Boy is running through crowds of people, they are wearing army outfits and holding guns. Music repeats itself and is quite happy. Looking at the soldiers we think around WWI. Very busy and noisy, the soldiers being waved off. Girls are wearing ribbons on their straw hats. From quite happy music it changes slightly to a lower pitch, sounding slightly sadder.

5. Street with car
The car is still old fashioned, but more modern than horse and cart. The boys costume changes too, long socks, shoes and grey shorts. People standing by the car are wearing suits and top hats. Music is quite lively again.


6. War
Houses are black and ruined, furniture destroyed. Debris everywhere. People walking down the road with their baggage looking very sad, with smoke coming from the houses and streets around. Fighter jets are flying over head. And Winston Churchill’s speech on the old fashioned radio “we will fight them on the beaches”. The boy looks worried and upset, wearing a grey vest, blazer and shorts. The interior of the houses are dark, showing how bad the outcome was. Boy stands on the rubble looking around him.

7. Street party
Now in the 1950s, boy turns up in the street for the queen’s coronation party. Music is much faster and upbeat, such a happy feels to it. There is cheering, shouting; overall sounds like the enjoyment from a lot of people. There is much more brightness, children running around wearing nice clothes. The long table is full of nice food; the boy takes a glass of lemonade as he goes past.

8. Girls/football players
Costume: boy changes to brown leather jacket and a jumper underneath. The Girls are wearing outfits like Twiggy’s; red boots, mini skirts.
Just from the costume we know it is the 1960’s. As the boy runs down the street, a car passes him, there are men waving flags and shouting out “champions”. This is when England won the world cup in 1966. There are specifically British flags not English, showing the true best of British and nothing else. The houses are terraced, more working class.

9. Street with Asians and TV shop
Costume: flared collar, patterned shirt and bright jumper.
The TV shop shows how the technology is developing. There is also an Asian couple with connotes the multi cultural Britain.
This is the 1970’s; the guitars show the music of that time.

10. Cole not Dole strike/protest
Costume: The boy is wearing a blue t-shirt with a brown jacket.
This is the 1980’s miners strike, there is no music here, and all you can hear is the shouting from the protesters. “Ey lad ain’t it past your bed time”- again with the northern accent and its trying to say why are you out this late shouldn’t you be at home safely.

11. Fireworks
There is more modern music, quite dancy. And all the shot shows are a pan of him running along the river with loads of fireworks in the background. This is showing the Millennium.

12. Home
Costume: wearing a brown hoodie. The bread has been packaged now into a plastic bag with the ‘Hovis’ sign on the side. The mum shouts down “that you home love?”, again in a northern accent. The kitchen has lots of wooden surfaces and looks rather modern; he sits at the table looking quite pleased with himself. “Yeah” he says back with a grin on his face. The way his mum talked to him was as though he’d only ‘popped’ out to the shops, unaware of the journey he really had.

13. Sound throughout the sequence
Overall the music is generally quite fast, as they flick through the different decades it changes slightly. At the miner’s there is complete silence but then begins up as we reach the next year. As I said before you can hear the shouting and screaming and also the young boy running from place to place.

14. Narrative/story development through whole advert
It starts in the 1800’s with the young boy buying bread from the bakers, then he runs though the different decades exploring different times, until he returns himself back home to his mum in 2008. The advert emphasises the fact it is Britain and not England, with the flags. It connotes that Hovis has still managed to stay with us, strong, whilst all these events have happened over the years.

My chosen TV drama- Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl

We were asked to choose a Tv drama we enjoy watching, in order to analyse and evaluate it for out project. Although I have chosen Gossip Girl, it wasn't an easy decision, I am just as in love with Desperate Housewives but thought it would be easier to chose Gossip Girl as the new series is already out!

So what is it about?
Gossip Girl is an American Drama based on the popular by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series is all about a group of privileged teenagers who attend an elite private school in New York City, Upper East Side. All of the characters, Blair Waldorf, Serena Van Der Woodson, Chuck Bass and Nate Archibald, are pretty well off and belong to families that will give them anything they want. Just because they attend a well educated private school doesn't mean they too aren't any less interested in sex, drugs and scandals, they are a group of very ordinary teenagers. The series includes numerous episodes on arguments, jealously and many other everyday issues. The programme is a narration from 'Gossip Girl', they own a blog which is a day to day summary of all the gossip (no details spared) of all the richer peoples personal lives. It seems to be the most exciting element of the normal peoples lives... then again who doesn't want to hear the miserys of the rich?

XOXO Gossip Girl

TV Drama Definition

Working Definition
TV Dramas are one hour weekly episodes that usually run for 10-25 episodes. They are generally fictional, and set in everyday surroundings (schools, police stations.)
They usually follow equilibrium and disruption but don’t return back to the equilibrium by the end. Their plots are on-going, but with occasional sub-plots included in episodes.