Keeping schtum

Background Information• Casualty is a British medical TV series drama which airs weekly on BBC 1. This is the longest

running medical drama in the world. Created by Jeremey Brock and Paul Unwin, it first broadcasted on the 6th of September 1986.

• Casualty and Holby City are both filmed in Holby city hospital in the south-west of England.

• The TV show is focused on the staff and patients of the hospital's Accident and Emergency Department.

• The original producer of Casualty was Geraint Morris.

Camera angles, shots and

movement • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dFK1M5BRrE

• Throughout the 5 minute clip we see different camera angles and shots that

allows the audience to get familiar to the atmosphere. The camera shots,

angles and movements that I have noticed throughout the clips are: Over the

shoulder, Close up, Extreme close up, High angle, Wide shot, Two shot, Deep

Shot, Cut-In. All of these shots makes the audience more engrossed and

involved.

Mise-en-scene• Settings-The setting of this TV drama distinguish what the genre it is. Because

this is a medical drama, the obvious setting for this would be in a hospital. The

setting influences the audience because it gives them a certain expectation

on what's going to happen. This has an effect of realism.

• Props-Props can help the audience identify the type of character they are. For example in the picture below, the denotation of this picture is a women

has rubber gloves on and a stethoscope. On the other hand the connotation

of this is that it suggests that she is a doctor.

Mise-en-scene

• Costume- The costumes that the actors are wearing immediately tells us what age/society

that they are in. Especially in a medical drama

we can see the different status. In this picture

below we can see 3 different dressed people

below. The connotation of the people that are

in blue shows use that they are nurses which

suggest their at the bottom of the hierarchy ,

then two men that are in green and then the

women in the green dress. The reason why we

can tell that she is at the top is by the way that

she is dressed

• Make-up/hair- The hair and make-up for the staff are all done causal because to create

more realism. However for the patient they are

done more drastically to make it more realistic.

Mise-en-scene

Facial expression/Body language- Facial expression and body language gives use a clear indication of how someone is feeling. The representation of staff

working in hospitals are serious and professional which doesn’t allow them to give

that much emotions however for the patients it’s different, to make the TV drama

realistic there are different emotions. However because it’s a TV drama there are

different emotions that are involved.

• Lighting- Lighting can be used to give a realistic look and it can bring out a dramatic nature in a scene. Different types of lighting can appeal to different

genres. For example in Casualty there isn’t much natural lighting but on

artificial white lighting.

Narrative • Casualty is more a linear structure where the audience introduced to

characters at the beginning, then in the middle the story builds up and then

there is closure at the end. However because this is a TV drama there are a

lot of cliff hangers.

• I think that Casualty follows Barthes theory. His theory described narrative as a

series of codes that are read and interpreted by the audience.

• The codes that he follows are:

• Action code- is something that the audience doesn't need to be explained.

• Enigma code-something hidden from the audience

• Semic code- something that the audience recognise through connotation

• Symbolic code- something that symbolizes a more abstract concept.

• Cultural code- Something that is read with understanding due to cultural awareness.