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.