Research: "Under Fire"
Cold viewing, analyze the opening of a TV show
In class today, we had a cold viewing of the TV program. We played the opening scene of the first episode from the TV program "Under Fire". We analyzed the opening scene, answering these three questions:
1. What type of film is it?
- When seeing the opening scene, it can be interpreted that the film will include drama, action and suspense.The show is about firefighters, since we can see fire trucks and firefighters, we can tell that there will be action and suspense with the firefighters doing their job. It can also be drama, because with the first clip we see, a man is getting ready to go to his last day at work, signifying how that day will be important and filled with drama.
2. What is likely to happen?
- We can tell that the character from the opening scene is going to his last day of his job as a firefighter. What is likely to happen is that this character and the rest of the firefighters are going to go put out the fire that was called in by a person calling about a fire in their neighbors house. What can happen is that the firefighters will attempt to put out the firefighters but troubles can come in their way since the opening scene is building up a suspense environment with the desperate voice of the person on the phone and the loud firetruck sounds.
3.Who is likely to watch it?
- It is probable that people who enjoy suspense, drama and action would watch the TV show, because it builds up a sense of eagerness to know what happens next and making the viewer stay focused on what is happening to not miss any important factors that contribute to the full meaning of the show. The sound and bright colors like red can make viewers suspenseful and engaged.
The objective of answering these questions was to analyze the objective of every frame, setting, costume, typography, and Mise-En-Scène, as well as the audio and how the characters are presented. While doing this exercise and answering the questions, I realized that before I never put much though into the way the camera moves or how scenes are presented that affect the way viewers get impacted with the opening scene.
