Analysing sound and music in The Office

I’ve chosen to deconstruct the sound and music from episode one, series one of hit television drama ‘The Office’. During this scene David Brent, the boss of the particular team followed throughout the series, goes about what appears to be his daily routine; conversing with co-workers about the weekend and getting jobs sorted around the office among other things.

The opening sequence features the show’s theme tune ‘Handbags & Gladrags’ by Rod Stewart, this piece of music serves as just about the only soundtrack throughout the series and is non-diagetic in this case. After the title sequence we are introduced to David Brent who is talking to one of his employees about getting a job in the warehouse, the sound in this scene is all diagetic whether it is him clicking his ballpoint pen, the dialogue between him and his co-worker or him speaking on the phone. The other scenes follow a similar style where sound is concerned as it is all interviews with or dialogue between him and employees, however in the establishing shots and conversation in the main office area there is office ambience which is amplified in the establishing shots and becomes quieter in the scenes with conversation. A feature used in this scene and often throughout the series is a sound bridge of someones voice as the scene switches to an interview with them, this often serves it purposes as a sound bridge but also as narration as what's happening in the scene reflects whats they are talking about.

The office as a whole doesn’t contain much sound and music apart from diagetic sounds from the office as it is supposed to be in the form of a documentary to create the comedy and dramatic values it performs so well.

Explain how representations of family are created in the shown extract of Shameless (Series 1, Ep 5, 37.23 - 40.00)

In the lesson we looked at an episode from the first series of hit television drama ‘Shameless’, in this particular scene Philip finds out his Dad, Frank, is ‘having fun’ with Philip’s girlfriends, Karen, despite being in a relationship with her agoraphobic mother, Sheila. When looking how family is represented in this particular exert it becomes quickly apparent, from the ridiculous plotline amongst other things, that the main representation of these families is of them being dysfunctional. However I am not going to deconstruct the plotline or how the family is portrayed using physical entities, I am going to look at how the camera work and editing conveys the dysfunction to us, perhaps unconsciously.

To begin with there are a couple of shots showing Frank presumably walking home from the pub where he seems to spend most of his time. The first shot is long, wide shot of Frank walking with another man, in the corner of the frame a car slowly follows him, this is repeated in the next scene however the shot is of the camera tracking Frank around a corner. This gives us the idea that something isn’t correct as the car seems to be stalking Frank, as it is always in the corner or background of the shot. If you were to know this was Philips car immediately you would know that something was wrong between him and his father, this reinforces the idea of dysfunction between the father and son.

The next technique is a match on action method of editing, this is used when Philip attempts to run down Frank when he is crossing the road however He crashes into a lorry instead. Match on action is used here to get a full picture of what has happened, it gives us as the audience a view from different angles, one of which is Philips POV shot. The fast editing used during the crash creates the idea of danger and once again relating to the representations mentioned earlier, creates this sense of anger between Philip and his dad therefore creating a representation of family dysfunction. After this it cuts to a close up on Franks face to show his response as he sees Philip climb out the car, then another editing technique is used called shot-reverse-shot when it switches between Franks POV and an over the shoulder shot from behind Philip. This works in a similar way to the match on action by giving us more than one point of view on the action, in this case the action being Philip hitting his father in the face.

Once Karen has noticed they are fighting in the street, she goes into a state of panic and worry. This is shown by using a fish eye and a high angle shot to make her look powerless and debilitated, the fish eye lens shows a slightly distorted view to reflect the way she is thinking at that moment. This reinforces the dysfunctional representations that are created throughout the scene.

Use of editing in Skins (Series 3, Episode 1, 0.00 - 5.11) to support representation of age.

Deconstructing Scene one, Episode one, Series three of ‘Skins’

Symbols of Youth

* Skateboarding, stereotypical youth motif

* Swearing

* Policeman shown to be object of ridicule

* Drinking alcohol

* Getting drunk before college

* Effie’s dad shown to be object of ridicule

* Young audiences can identify the characters, and will be able to relate to one of the three.

* The youths are unified together

Editing Techniques

• Black screen creates anticipation
• Hear skateboard before you can see it
• Low level, close up, tracking shot. Long take – shows Freddy’s skill on the skateboard.
• ‘Turd Shot’ light hearted humour
• Match on action, skate jump, shows that he is going fast and knows what he’s doing
• Anticipation/enigma of not seeing his face is solved
• Close up on sparks exaggerates his greatness
• Close up on phone, a youth icon, shows texting and shows drug reference
• Texting and drugs reinforces youth culture
• Low angle shows we should look up to him
• Establishing shot in form of eye line match
• Also shows the feat he has in front of him, however the camera switches between close up on Freddy’s face and the road ahead. The road looks dangerous however Freddy smiles, the close up reinforces this and he skates down in anyway
• Editing speeds up, increasing the pace of action, the camera stays on the side of the 180° line
• Unsteady camera shows danger, contrasting with static camera on the policeman to show lack of danger and rebellion
• Slow motion jump, makes it look really good, exaggerates the jump
• Switching between POV and close up on skateboard shows urgency to stop
• Shaky camera continues throughout conversation with the boys
• Constant shot reverse shot between Freddy and Cook
• The camera keeps with the 180° rule
• Often use of over the shoulder, most noticeably when looking at Effy’s car this makes you seem like part of the group
• Music is played and the group talk over Effy’s dad’s voice which is faded out slightly to get the effect that no one cares about what he is saying