Single Camera Drama- MESC- The Inbetweeners- Age

Introduction

The Inbetweeners is a British sitcom following the life of four teenage guys in Sixth Form at Rudge Park Comprehensive (fictional school).

It was written, directed and created by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris and stars Simon Bird (Will), Joe Thomas (Simon), James Buckley (Jay) and Blake Harrison (Neil).

The series was launched on E4 on the 1^st May 2008- 18^th October 2010 and consisted of 3 series.

Mise-en-Scene

Location

The main location in the part of the episode I watched was Thorpe Park. I felt that this helped represent age as it is a very common place for students to visit and is always full of them. Normally when adults go they normally go with their families as for students will go with a group of their friends which is what Will, Simon, Jay and Neil did.  

Costumes

The costumes that were used for the main characters were simple casual clothing. Older generations could wear what some of the characters were wearing as some of the clothing was almost ageless for examples Will’s stripy polo and plain beige trousers or Simon’s plain jeans and jumper. However you could argue that Jay’s clothing represents his age as he’s got that very casual almost chavy look with the Adidas tracksuit top, which is a look more common in younger generations.

Actors

As the characters in the series are all supposed to be aged 17-18, they require young actors to play them so they’ve used actors in their very late teens to very early twenties to play the roles.

Props

I wouldn’t say there were many props used, but one of the main ones used that to me represented age best was Simon’s car. It is very common for a student to get passed down their parent’s old car to have as their own car. You don’t normally see adults driving old second hand cars from the 80s/90s period anymore as they usually have change their car over the years and get newer models. As for students will have whatever they can get for as cheap as they can get which would be an old banger from a dealer or one that belonged to their parent’s years ago.

Other

Other Mise-en-scene elements that I felt were used to represent age were things such as employment. Thorpe Park is one of those places students would aim to get a job at for weekend work and holidays. In the clip we see a young adult who looks like a student and is working at the entrance of Thorpe Park. We also see Neil later on dressed as a monkey working as an entertainer at Thorpe Park. Another element I also felt represented age was the 
personalities of the characters. They’re at that age where they’re very into girls and will try very hard to impress them for example when Simon tries to park his car near some girls and ends up having his car door fall off. I also noticed they’re harder to embarrass when it comes to situations that would be considered very embarrassing but a lot of younger generations have higher confidence and so less harder to embarrass than older generations, and because they’re not as mature.

Sound

Diegetic

Diegetic sound is sound that originates from the world of the film. In the clip I watched, I was able to identify some diegetic sounds:

·         The car being driven

·         Roller Coasters

·         People screaming on roller coasters

·         Background noise of the public talking

·         Speech from the characters

·         Jay running

·         Neil screaming in the monkey suit

·         Neil opening his locker

Non-Diegetic

Non-Diegetic sound is sound that is outside of the world of the film. There were quite a few non-diegetic sounds that would also be considered diegetic but may have been enhanced in post-production. The sounds were:

·         Narration from Will

·         Roller Coasters (enhanced)   

Background music was played at the end of each scene to form a sound bridge from one scene to another. The music represents age as it is energetic and lively which is what a lot of young people are like.

·         Neil opening locker (enhanced)

·         Neil screaming in monkey suit (enhanced)

·         People screaming on roller coasters (enhanced)

·         Background noise of the public talking (enhanced)

·         Car being driven (enhanced)

·         Jay running (enhanced)

Sound Effects

I don’t think any sound effects were put into the clip. Except maybe for the roller coasters they could have gotten their own sound for but I think they just enhanced the original roller coaster sounds in post-production.

Sound Track

The sound track for the series is the instrumental of the song Gone up in Flames by Morning Runner. They play this at the beginning of every episode and then use parts of the song for sound bridges going from the end of a scene to the beginning of the next one.

Cinematography

Shots

I noticed that there was a variety of different shot types used throughout the clip. Close-ups were common when it came to conversations in that the camera would cut to each person close-up during a conversation. Close-ups were also used to show individual reactions to situations happening in the scene. Mid-shots were used to either fit multiple people in a scene for either reactions or conversations. And finally long-shots or extreme long shots were used to fit multiple people in a scene and to get a lot of the surroundings in a shot as well.

Angles

Overall the angles in the clip were simple straight on angles. However there was the occasional angle looking up at a ride or high up looking slightly down to fit in multiple people with the surroundings in as well.

Movement

The camera was mostly static throughout the clip as the actors remained stationary in the majority of the clip. There weren’t any pans, tilts or tracking shots in the clip. Whenever the actors would walk they would have the camera at a distance from them and let the actors walk towards it.

Composition

As it is a single camera sitcom, there wasn’t any complex arrangement with the camera. It would always be placed in front of the action and facing straight on.

Editing

Transition

There weren’t any tacky transitions used such as wipe, dissolve or dip to black/white. Instead it was clean cutting with a sound bridge to help a clip transition from one to another.

Continuity

The continuity remained persistent throughout the clip. I wasn’t able to spot any errors in clip however that doesn’t mean there aren’t any it could just mean they’re well hidden.

Cutting

There was a lot of cutting in the clip, especially during a conversation as it’s a single camera production they have to cut from one person to another. And when it came to changing scene, they would do a simple clean cut to move the clip on smoothly.

Multi-Camera vs. Single Camera

Single-Camera Setup

A single-camera setup is the technique of shooting by only using one camera. This is done so that you take individual shots to make up a complete scene.

When is the Single-Camera Method Used?

The single-camera technique is used throughout a wide variety of different types of programmes. We can see it being used on Sitcoms (Peep Show), Documentaries (when going on location such as Nick Broomfield’s documentaries), News Reports (on location), music videos and narrative films.

Advantages of the Single-Camera Setup

·         Single Camera setup allows production to try and aim to achieve perfection on each individual shot as they can experiment with lighting, camera angles, blocking of the actors etc. In other words you have more flexibility to experiment with each take.

·         More control over each shot.

·         As you’re only using one camera, you will have the same quality of footage throughout as you’re using the same camera with all the same settings.

·         Footage looks more realistic as you don’t have loads of different camera angles as you do with multi-camera.

Dis-Advantages of the Single-Camera Setup

·         When moving the camera after each take, the lighting in the room will have to keep being re-adjusted in order to keep the continuity of the amount of light in each shot flowing.

·         Continuity may not be persistent as the camera keeps moving for example two people are having a chat. In one shot we see a man holding his keys, the camera then changes to face the person he’s talking to, when it goes back onto him again the keys are nowhere to be seen.

·         Editing will be much more time consuming as there are a lot more shots to edit.

·         You can’t film in chronological order as you are experimenting with so many different shots which also adds more time to editing.

When Might You See a Multi-Camera Scene in a Single- Camera Programme and Why?

You may see this used for the following reasons:

·         Keep Continuity- This is so that they simply don’t have to worry about making sure everything stays in the same place, in the exact same position. They can just keep everything exactly how it is as they don’t have to keep moving the camera.

·         Stunts- It would very difficult to keep performing a stunt whilst changing the camera position each time as it’ll look different every time. They may also have to use multiple cameras for a stunt as it may be one of those stunts such as an explosion where they can only do it the once and need to capture it in several different angles.

Multi-Camera Setup

The Multi-Camera Setup is the technique of shooting by using two or more cameras. The usual amount of cameras used is normally four. The main purpose of multi-camera is that it can take multiple shots using different angles whilst shooting a situation and have the action unfold in the correct order.

When is the Multi-Camera Setup Used?

The Multi-Camera technique is also used throughout a variety of different types of productions just like the single-camera setup. We can see it being used on Live Shows (The X Factor), Game Shows (The Million Pound Drop), Reality TV Shows (Big Brother), The News, Sport and some the majority of sitcoms (Friends).

Advantages of the Multi-Camera Setup

·         You can film in chronological order which also means it is easier to edit as all the scenes are in the correct order.

·         You can catch the action of a scene from a variety of different angles in one go.

·         Saves time shooting as you’re not moving the cameras about constantly and experimenting with different shots as you have multiple-cameras set at different angles. It also saves money as you’re spending less time filming and editing.

·         The continuity is kept flowing as the cameras all stay in one position and stay constantly rolling so you don’t have to keep moving things around to make it stay in the same position in every shot.

Dis-Advantages of the Multi-Camera Setup

·         Although for an advantages you save money, you also have to spend more money as there is more equipment involved (e.g. Cameras) and you need to hire more crew as there are more cameras to operate.

·         It feels less realistic to watch as you constantly see the angles change throughout a scene which we don’t see when we are generally talking to someone or walking to somewhere.

·         The director has less control so they can’t experiment as much as you can do with the single-camera setup.

·         The quality may not stay persistent as although you may be using the same make and model of cameras to film a scene, each camera will see everything slightly differently to one another. For example it’s like a group of people could all be asked what colour is the car outside the window, some may say it’s a dark red, some may say it’s a bright red and some may see its red/brownish. So although they all have eyes they will not see things exactly the same as one another.

Conclusion

I feel that overall you cannot choose whether single-camera is better to use than multi-camera or vice versa as they are both useful for different types of productions. So you can choose which of the two techniques is better to use for the type of production you are doing, for example a live recording show such as The X Factor would definitely be better off with the multi-camera setup as there is so much going on, you need to be able to capture it all at once and in the correct order so that it can be edited and viewed there and then. However if you wanted to film something such as a news report on location, you are much better off with the single-camera setup as you only need to see the reporter and the background and you just want to hear the facts, you would not want to watch a news report like that and keep seeing the camera angle change.