TV Crime Drama –Commentary

This term we have been studying TV Crime Drama. We analysed British crime dramas and American crime dramas. We watched `Out Of Control`, a one off social realist drama for the BBC crime day and we also watched `The Wire`, an American crime drama in seasons based in the projects. Why we focused on comparing these two was because we wanted to see the similarities and differences between American Crime Dramas and British Crime Dramas. We also analysed many more Crime Dramas such as CSI and The Bill. The Bill is a serial drama based in south London and the crimes portrayed are mostly youth crime, drugs or assault. Whereas CSI is a series in New York, Vegas and Miami and the crimes portrayed are mostly murder or kidnapping. The conventions these all share to make up a TV Crime Drama are the use of language, weapons, aggressive youths and mostly dull coloured scenes.

The BBC is one of the world’s largest broadcasting corporation. It is an institution designed to inform and educate as well as entertain through its programmes. The effects their TV

programmes have on the target audience is that they try and deal with issues in society today. Just recently the BBC had a special day devoted to crime, which they called Cracking Crime Day. This was on September 18th

2002 and it was all about crime and what to do about it. On the day they had a one off social realist drama (that centre piece of the whole day) called `Out Of Control` that was 90 minutes long, which we have focused on as our Key Text.

Realism v Hollywood and Television v Film. We wanted to see the difference between crime portrayed on television and Hollywood films. We compared `Out Of Control` (Television) and `Point Break` (Film).

Realism is made up of different factors. These factors are Plausibility, Believability, Relationship, Logic, Presentation and Verisimilitude. We studied the opening scene of `Out Of Control` to see if it ticked the 6 main points you need to have realism.

Plausibility- Are the events in the film the same as real life events?

In the opening scene Sam and Danny mug a boy in a tube station. This has Plausibility as it doesn’t show any cliché weapon to threaten, it doesn’t show exaggeration on the words or it doesn’t show an unrealistic place to mug someone.

Believability- Is this how we would behave in situations similar?

In the scene we would behave just as the boy getting mugged would. Shaken, shocked and begging Sam to leave him alone. Then as a last result we would just give up the phone.

Relationship- Does the story rely on coincidence?

Everything in the scene fits into place. Two hooded boys waiting to mark on someone then they see someone with a phone out and choose him. They don’t go up to anyone and say “hand me whatever you’ve got!”

Logic- If something happens would another follow on?

Presentation- Can we put aside our disbelief and believe the story?

In this opening we can put aside our disbelief as the scene is so realistic and we know that it actually happens like that in today’s world. So we can relate to it.

Verisimilitude- How real is all the content?

All the content in this scene is very real as everything is not over exaggerated or made up. The two hooded muggers is a classic description of today’s youth muggers and they way they do it and where they do it is all so realistic. It’s not a cliché, for example, two guys with tights over there heads mugging people on the streets of New York down an alley.

Crime portrayed in Hollywood is always shown to good to be real, for example in `Point Break`, the bad guy is way ahead of the slow cop but the cop manages to find where the bad guy is running to and they have unlimited stamina at the same time. Whereas crime portrayed on television shows realism, it shows plots we can relate to and it is not good to be true, for example, the bad guys live in regular, down the road, council estate and talk/live the way we do.

The key text we studied was a social realist drama (drama documentary/faction) called `Out Of Control`, a 90 minute episode following the experiences of three teenagers sent to a young offenders institution. The main characters in this were, Dean, Danny and Sam. All 3 of them take the wrong path and get into young offenders where they meet up, but it takes a deep turn as Dean is finding it hard to cope in there. Sam is hated on by the guards and then he starts to bully Dean, to make himself feel like the leader and as he is the “New Boy”. This pushes Dean over the edge resulting in him committing suicide. His mum gets very distraught and blames Charlie-boy (Dean’s friend). Danny however is in young offenders trying to keep out of trouble and he finds out he is going to become a dad, So he sets himself straight to start a new life without crime.

Dean

(Danny Young)

Danny

(Akemnji Ndifornyan)

Sam

(Leo Gregory)

Personality, Mood, Appearance, Clothes.

Respectful, loves mum very much which makes him weak, easily lead,

temptation for bad friends, deep down very nice and trying to get a clean break

but can’t. Wears casual things and

hoodies.

Hard in front of friends, respects mum, mummy’s boy, follows Sam around, wears baggy hoodies with

hoods up.

Very aggressive, not confident, wears hoodies

(designers) but always wants the new ones,

wants acceptance from dad, mum doesn’t live

with him, tries to impress people, very sly and lies a

lot.

Relationships with family.

Mum loves him a lot, has a sister who he loves, obeys and respects mum very much. His mum is trying to help him

down the right path.

Respects mum, his mum is very strict yet caring, and she wants her boy out of trouble so she tries to tell him

to stay out of it.

Dad doesn’t want to know him, mum doesn’t live

with him, he needs love and acceptance from

them and he has no home life.

Relationships with other teens and friends.

Easily pushed into bad things by

Charlie-boy, follows them and is very weak for them.

Follows Sam around, wants to tell Sam what to do, shows off with

Sam to the other guys.

He is the leader (or tries to be), he wants to impress the other boys, but not

very confident.

I think the characters in this drama were realistic representations of teenagers, families, modern London life and crime today. It was set in the London council estates today; they all talk the usual modern day slang; they wore whatever people on the streets wear; the crimes were every day to day crime e.g. drugs and car robbing; the families were not rich or very poor just in the middle like most families in London are today and they did not cliché speech lines or cliché weapons.

As a part of our coursework we had to create episode 2 to `Out Of Control` called `In Control`. My script is where Danny, Sam and Sandra (Deans Mum) all meet again and then about what happens when the meet. Danny is working in a supermarket and Sandra is just casually shopping. But on the outside Sam is planning to rob the supermarket. When Sam enters with a gun he shouts and screams “gimmie the money!” and Danny tries to explain they were mates, but Sam doesn’t want to hear it and just wants the money. Then Danny quite cunningly presses a security button which is linked to the police. Throughout this time Sandra is very scared and asking Sam to stop but all he does is swear and shout at her. And then suddenly the police arrive which gets Sam very angry and aggressive and in his rage accidently shoots a women. This now alarms the police so they break in and take Sam by surprise. The scene ends with Sam being arrested and threatening Danny.

My script links to `Out Of Control` as it contains the same characters as before and carries on from where `Out Of Control` left. For example Dean died in `Out Of Control` and he was kept dead in the second episode, I didn’t bring him back to life. And also my script shows the same attitudes and same way each character spoke in `Out Of Control`. There are changes in my script and they are that Danny is now working and back on track whereas Sam has now become worse than before.

As part of my coursework I had to produce a suitable `In Control` DVD cover. I created my DVD cover on Photoshop but also created a draft by hand. However my Photoshop final piece came out totally different than what I had drafted. My draft was of a hoodie on a bike pointing a gun at the screen in front of a council estate. But then I decided that was quite a common DVD cover so I changed the whole idea on Photoshop. My final piece overall came out quite well. I created the front cover by getting various images cropping and blending them together. For example the grey clouds and the man in jail are two separate images which I blended together to make it look more realistic and as one. Why I chose these pictures was because they are quite dull and yet they give us an idea about what this episode might be like. I had to also add the age restriction on the back, spine and front.

Then I wanted the title to stand out a lot and be bold so I thought I would write it on myself to give the rough yet bold and big look. I also changed the colour to white to make it stand out more. Moving onto the back I kept the font basic as I didn’t want it to look quite messed up and I shifted my tagline to the back to (all the font was white to stand out clearly). On the back I also added some screenshots from `Out Of Control which I faded in (changed opacity) to the backing so that they would be there yet not distract audience away from the blurb. However I did also add a comment and rating from The Times to make the DVD look known and lastly I added a billing block which I modified to my settings. In the blurb I included questions and also gave a bit of what it’s about away but not too much just enough to keep the audience wondering what happens next. I don’t think my work looks like a school project because if you compare my cover to other DVD covers it looks quite professional and like how a BBC cover normally is.

From this unit my Photoshop skills have upgraded and I have learnt how to use it properly. For example I didn’t no how to lighten/darken pictures and how to change the opacity and now I do. In this unit I have also learnt about how to do script writing and learning how to compare the conventions in TV Dramas throughout the world. I think my vocabulary has changed quite a bit a as well as before I used to use quite slang words but now im using quite a wide range of vocabulary. These days I also start comparing movies from around the world and pin point different conventions.