TV Drama - How to approach

Showing 1 - Look carefully and identify key scenes - you will probably notice mise-en-scene/Camera first. Make mental notes of things to look out for on the next showing - you are FEATURE SPOTTING

Planning Time - Draw up your table and start putting your notes in - don't worry too much if you have got much in the way of sound/editing. Start identifying your weaker areas and identify at least THREE things to go back to.

Showing 2 - Now fill in those gaps - start looking in more depth at your camera and mise-en-scene - sound and editing can start to come in - aimed for a completely filled table.

Showing 3 - Now hit those sound and editing areas that you have looked at the least - only focus on these - try to ignore the more obvious things and go for the subtleties in sound and editing.

Showing 4 - NOTHING NEW - try to develop the presentation side of things WHY have these features been used?

Slumdog Technology Convergence

"I had to find a camera set up that would be ergonomic enough for me to throw myself around the slums chasing the children whilst, at the same time, withhold as much detail in the shadows and highlights” says Anthony Dod Mantle. Our producer, Chris Colson, had hoped for Danny and Anthony to repeat the efforts on Mini-DV”. This was all well and good, except for the monumental difference between shooting multi camera fiction on sets where I could light, sometimes quite heavily. We needed a digital camera with enough latitude to hold highlights and something very small so we could enter the children’s world at their level. “Slumdog Millionaire” needed a completely different tactical approach.”
They found the right combination in the innovative IT-centric Silicon Imaging SI-2K Digital Cinema camera. It delivered over 11 stops of dynamic range, flexible connectivity and film-like digital content, which could be easily inter-cut with traditional film footage. Unlike modern HD cameras, which develop and compress colorized imagery inside the camera, the Silicon Imaging SI-2K streams 2K (2048x1152) data as uncompressed raw “digital negatives” over a standard gigabit Ethernet connection.
An Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based computer embedded in the camera or tethered to a laptop up to 100 feet away, processes the digital negatives, where they are non-destructively developed and colorized for preview using the cinematographer's desired "look" for the scene.
 The digital negatives and "look" metadata are simultaneously recorded to hard drive or solid state disk where up to 4-hours of continuous footage are captured on a single 160GB notebook drive; this is the equivalent of 14-reels of 35mm film which has an associated cost exceeding $25,000 for materials and processing. The recorded files, can be immediately played with the target color look at full resolution, without the need for film scanning, tape ingest, format conversions or off-line proxies.
A customized camera support and recording package had to be built to meet the unique form factor demands of the Slumdog shoot. . They enlisted Pille Film, of Wiesbaden Germany, to create a custom solution which included a gyro stabilizer for the base of the SI-2K Mini. Instead of using the traditional film-style camera body, they elected to use Apple Mac book Pro notebook, running Windows XP, for the recorders, and built them into ruggedized backpacks, to be worn inconspicuously.
Stefan Ciupek, the show’s technical supervisor and additional camera operator, coordinated the design and modifications of the camera system with Wolfgang Damm of Pille, whose team worked around the clock to get the 2K Mini rigs built.

Slumdog Millionaire Statistics

Slumdog Millionaire - Statistics
Scripting	Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (British) wrote Slumdog Millionaire based on the Boeke Prize-winning and Commonwealth Writers' Prize-nominated novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup.
Directors and Producers	Danny Boyle (British - Danny Boyle has built up a reputation for highly stylised cinematography and fast cutting.), Loveleen Tandan Anthony Dod Mantle (Danish), DoP on Slumdog was with Boyle when he experimented with early digital cameras on UK television films in 2001 British director (Danny Boyle), producer (Christian Colson), screenwriter (Simon Beaufoy)
Music	A.R. Rahman (Indian) – soundtrack Sound Recordist - Resul Pookutty Remix of Jai-Ho with the Pussycat Dolls
Casting	Casting in Mumbai One UK actor Stars of Bollywood and parallel cinema Non-professional actors cast in India
Crew	Almost entirely Indian cast with the lead being English star Dev Patel Indian Film Crew with UK Heads Shot in India, editing in the UK
Awards Won
Sets
Finances	Warner Searchlight Pictures (USA) - $5 Million offered
Production Companies	Celador Productions – (Who Wants to be a Millionaire) Film4 Productions -
Distribution	Originally to be distributed in North America by Warner Independent Pictures. Jointly distributed by Fox Searchlight and Warner Bros -      Fox Searchlight part of Fox who are in turn owned by Newscorp -      Fox has recently signed a deal with Star Studios to become Fox Star United Kingdom: Pathe Pictures - A British/French distributor in the UK and France An Indian subsidiary of a Hollywood studio as distributor in India Warner Bros Icon Pictures – Distributor in Australia (owns by Fox Searchlight) Prokino Filmverleih GmbH (German Distributos) Icon Entertainment International, Lucky Red, Myndform, 20th Century Fox International, Gulf Film, Celador Films, Distribution Company, Acme Film, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Forum Film (Bulgaria), Volga, Filmladen GmbH, Bontonfilm, FS Film Oy, Silverbird Cinemas, Svensk Filmindustri Norway, Monopole Pathe Films AG
Revenues	US $100 million UK $37 million After these, the biggest markets have been France, Australia, Italy, Spain India (Hindi) $2.6 million India (English) $3.4 million (Note that the film has not been a big hit in Hindi markets, but has done very well in English language markets (don’t forget it is still a third Hindi in the English prints). Since tickets for Hindi halls are generally likely to be lower priced than the English language screens, it still means a sizeable audience of around 8-10 million Indians)
Languages	Filmed in English and Hindi
Subtitles	Released in English and Hindi in India and to NRI
Tropes	The rags-to-riches, underdog theme underlying the film was also a recurring theme in classic Bollywood movies from the 1950s through to the 1980s Fantasy sequences Montage sequence where "the brothers jump off a train and suddenly they are seven years older" Canted Angle Shots
Influences on	Salim Javed Salaam Bombay Satya (1998) (screenplay co-written by Saurabh Shukla, who plays Constable Srinivas in Slumdog Millionaire) Company Black Friday (2004) (adapted from S. Hussein Zaidi's book of the same name about the 1993 Bombay bombings) – Chase scene Deewaar (1975), which Boyle described as being "absolutely key to Indian cinema", is a crime film based on the Bombay gangster Haji Mastan, portrayed by Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, whose autograph Jamal seeks at the beginning of Slumdog Millionaire.

Practice Questions for G322

• How have the changes in digital technology and hardware  affected an institution you have studied?
• “Media convergence is simply a response to the rise in digital technology” How far do you agree with this statement, referring to a media area you have studied.
• How has ownership affected the production and distribution within a media area you have studied?
• “Media is nothing without its marketing, especially now marketing is everywhere.” How has changes in technology affected the exhibition and marketing within a media area you have studied?
• “There is no such thing as a single audience anymore, it is made up of individuals with preferences” How has changes in audience behaviour affected a media area you have studied.
• How have changes in hardware affected a media area you have studied.
• How has synergy and media convergence affected the products within a media area you have studied?
• How far has technological convergence been beneficial for a successful media product within a media area you have studied?

The exam board want to know what you understand about the following:

• Media Institutions: Hollywood Studios (20th Century Fox etc.) vs British Studios (Film4 + Warp Films etc)  - and how they all work (with each other)
• Media Audiences: UK film viewers (either in cinemas, or via PC / TV / Phone etc) and how they consume their films and why
• Media Technology: Digital filmmaking (CGI, 3D, Imax, DV-Cams), Online Films (LoveFilm, iTunes, YouTube, piracy), Convergence (gadgets to watch films on)  - how has this affected the kind of films that are made
• Marketing Campaigns: How Studios advertise their films (Synergy, TV + Internet trailers, Print ads – newspapers, magazines, posters, Premieres, junkets, word of mouth, USP, merchandising etc). - and whether this is positive or negative for institutions/audiences
  

ALL OF THE ABOVE NEED SPECIFIC EXAMPLES.

Technological Convergence Gadgets to watch films on:

Smart-phones (iPhone etc)
MP4 players
Portable Games Consoles (PSP etc)
Laptops (Airbooks etc)
 Multimedia devices,

films at home:
Games Consoles (Xbox 360, PS3 etc)
PC (via DVD, BluRay, il/legal downloads)
Home Cinema (Plasma TV / Projector + digital TV)

How do these help/hinder institutions and audiences?

Media Conglomerates

Massive multinational media companies who own: Film Studios TV Stations Record Labels Magazines Newspapers Books Internet platforms Independents Some producers work outside of the major studies. Often British productions are made by smaller outfits like Warp Films, working with Film 4 or the BBC to try to secure extra funding and help with distribution. Often films made this way struggle to get more than £1 or £2 million budgets and consider a success to break even, with DVD after-sales included. US independent film maker Orin Peli made ‘Paranormal Activity’ for just $15,000. But he needed Paramount, a US major studio to distribute his film who spent a fortune on marketing and distribution. In doing so he made over $190 milllion. This shows there are exceptions to the rule that big budget films always do best... Synergy & Cross Media Convergence An example of this: Vivendi Universal make a film in Universal Studios. It releases the film’s soundtrack on Polygram, one of its record labels. The tracks can be bought online at MP3.com, one of its internet companies. The film can be downloaded on Vivendi Telecom phones. The film is then shown in its Odeon cinema chain. See the benefits for Film4 in work with them? Owning all of these assets makes it cheaper for the producer to make, distribute, market and exhibit the film, thus maximising profit, enabling the studio to keep making big budget films. A win-win scenario for Hollywood Studios... but is it always for small production companies