Friday, 6 March 2009
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Q2
While searching for sources, I had come across some things that were quite advanced and quite interesting to learn about.
On the second page of google after searching “Realism in TV Dramas”, I found a report somebody had done and had gotten the chance to visit the Casualty set, she said that on the set you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between this and an ordinary hospital, the prosthetics used for the program is very detailed n it matches the actors exact skin colour and even goes down to putting on freckles and hairs to show as much realism as possible.
"Walking around the Holby City sets, I was struck by the fact that the surgical wards look so true to life that if it wasn’t for the distinct lack of sick people and the presence of higdh-tech recording equipment, it would be easy to mistake it
for a genuine hospital ward on a regular day at work,
Also there there was somebody who written to say where had all the tv dramas gone in the 00s as the tv drama is now demizing.
“That era now appears to have passed. 'Reality' now means something else, while documentaries often mock their subjects. So it's up to the dramatists to hold a mirror to our society once again. But where are they? Not in Britain. “
There are still some dramas in Britian, the common ones being long time medical dramas like Casualty, Police Dramas like the Bill and Wire in the Blood and there's the completetly different style of dramas like Skins which follows the lifestyles of 9 totally different teenagers in Bristol.
Normally, reliable sources such as Wikipedia plays a big part in anybody's research as it has most things you need to know but in this instance it didn't help much relating to the hypothesis. But despite not having much help from wikipedia, it did go into detail about CSI been critisized because of the lack of realism when it came to dealing with some crime of the scenes but it had nothing to do with Casualty. The source below is a quote from CSI's page on Wikipedia.
“Another criticism of the show is the depiction of police procedure, which some consider to be decidedly lacking in realism. For instance, the show's characters not only investigate crime scenes (as their real-world counterparts would), but they also conduct raids, engage in suspect pursuit and arrest, interrogate suspects, and solve cases, which falls under the responsibility of uniformed officers and detectives, not CSI personnel. However, some detectives are also registered CSIs, although this is exceedingly rare in actual life”
This source explains some of the unrealistic nature of some of the police activity when dealing with certain crimes. Also it suggests that people who are registered as a CSI personnel shouldn't be going out in police raids, as they wouldn't do in real life. I think this source has helped me as it tells me the weaknesses of the show and it shows me how it lacks realism in some key areas which helps towards my hypothesis.
According to www.screenonline,com Casualty on the other hand has a more realistic nature comparing to American medical dramas,
“It revealed that a quarter of patients in Casualty who suffered a cardiac arrest survived after being resuscitated - a similar proportion to real life - while in American medical soaps like ER an over-optimistic three-quarters of patients pulled through."
The source has gathered an interesting statistic relating to my hypothesis, it shows that comparing the patients suffered from a cardiac arrest in Casualty and in different American sitcoms. People in Casualty a quarter of the time survive, which is similar to real life while in America a quarter end up dying while the remaining ones survive. I think this source helps me as it compares the differences between Casualty and American sitcoms and it proves a point towards my hypothesis.
CSI uses strong police force on most cases while Casualty it varies from one crime to another, this varies from cases like gun shots, bulgalries etc. While CSI is more action based so it is expected that more police are involved in it than Casualty, which is just a basic medical drama. Which is typical examples of differences between American dramas and UK dramas.
On the second page of google after searching “Realism in TV Dramas”, I found a report somebody had done and had gotten the chance to visit the Casualty set, she said that on the set you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between this and an ordinary hospital, the prosthetics used for the program is very detailed n it matches the actors exact skin colour and even goes down to putting on freckles and hairs to show as much realism as possible.
"Walking around the Holby City sets, I was struck by the fact that the surgical wards look so true to life that if it wasn’t for the distinct lack of sick people and the presence of higdh-tech recording equipment, it would be easy to mistake it
for a genuine hospital ward on a regular day at work,
Also there there was somebody who written to say where had all the tv dramas gone in the 00s as the tv drama is now demizing.
“That era now appears to have passed. 'Reality' now means something else, while documentaries often mock their subjects. So it's up to the dramatists to hold a mirror to our society once again. But where are they? Not in Britain. “
There are still some dramas in Britian, the common ones being long time medical dramas like Casualty, Police Dramas like the Bill and Wire in the Blood and there's the completetly different style of dramas like Skins which follows the lifestyles of 9 totally different teenagers in Bristol.
Normally, reliable sources such as Wikipedia plays a big part in anybody's research as it has most things you need to know but in this instance it didn't help much relating to the hypothesis. But despite not having much help from wikipedia, it did go into detail about CSI been critisized because of the lack of realism when it came to dealing with some crime of the scenes but it had nothing to do with Casualty. The source below is a quote from CSI's page on Wikipedia.
“Another criticism of the show is the depiction of police procedure, which some consider to be decidedly lacking in realism. For instance, the show's characters not only investigate crime scenes (as their real-world counterparts would), but they also conduct raids, engage in suspect pursuit and arrest, interrogate suspects, and solve cases, which falls under the responsibility of uniformed officers and detectives, not CSI personnel. However, some detectives are also registered CSIs, although this is exceedingly rare in actual life”
This source explains some of the unrealistic nature of some of the police activity when dealing with certain crimes. Also it suggests that people who are registered as a CSI personnel shouldn't be going out in police raids, as they wouldn't do in real life. I think this source has helped me as it tells me the weaknesses of the show and it shows me how it lacks realism in some key areas which helps towards my hypothesis.
According to www.screenonline,com Casualty on the other hand has a more realistic nature comparing to American medical dramas,
“It revealed that a quarter of patients in Casualty who suffered a cardiac arrest survived after being resuscitated - a similar proportion to real life - while in American medical soaps like ER an over-optimistic three-quarters of patients pulled through."
The source has gathered an interesting statistic relating to my hypothesis, it shows that comparing the patients suffered from a cardiac arrest in Casualty and in different American sitcoms. People in Casualty a quarter of the time survive, which is similar to real life while in America a quarter end up dying while the remaining ones survive. I think this source helps me as it compares the differences between Casualty and American sitcoms and it proves a point towards my hypothesis.
CSI uses strong police force on most cases while Casualty it varies from one crime to another, this varies from cases like gun shots, bulgalries etc. While CSI is more action based so it is expected that more police are involved in it than Casualty, which is just a basic medical drama. Which is typical examples of differences between American dramas and UK dramas.
Q1
Q1 Format
Hard Referencing
Positive Points
Negative Points
How it links/helps with my hypoth
INTRO
For me to find a hypothesis, i had to choose one of the seven topics and then progress on, here i decided to work on TV Dramas as i have recently got interested in some shows and i have some knowledge of TV Dramas like Skins and Casualty. I arrived at my hypothesis shortly after which is "How much realism is there in tv dramas?"
Although the hypothesis is not very specific, i was mainly focusing on comparing 2 different medical/police dramas. The reasons being was that they are the most common type of drama series so researching them wouldn't be so difficult, i aimed to compare 2 of them, one from an American TV series and one from a UK series, so it would be interesting to find which nation has more realism in their program and i ended up choosing the CSI franchise (USA) and Casualty (UK)
INTERNET
My first way of researching was to go onto the Google search engine and type in the two TV series separately (i.e. "CSI" and "Casualty". I also typed in "Realism in TV Drama" which generated 166,000 results. Obviously i wasn't go to spend days looking at all of them, and i think most of the search results wouldn't be relevant but the first 2 pages did provide me with allot of secondary sources to decide on what is useful at what isn't. The first few pages weren't too helpful however.
Wikipedia is normally very reliable but none of the links that came up where to do with my hypothesis but instead talking about the the realism in TV dramas, it just talked about the dramas that were on programs like the BBC and where it originated from. When trying the same method which i did with Google, Both Casualty and CSI had their own pages. Both pages gave out brief overviews of the 2 shows, in CSI's criticism section, there was a bit about lack of realism when it came to police procedure.
POS: Found out about CSI's lack of realism comments made by a few different websites
NEG: Wikipedia normally helps alot with peoples research but didn't have much to say about my hypothesis
HYP: Was Useful, helped with the USA's side of realism.
On the second page, i found http://student.bmj.com/ which was a report done by student called Rebecca Chellaswamy who shared the same hypothesis as me but this is for her Medical Course in the University of Nottingham. She was fortunate enough to visit the Holby City set to talk to the actors and see what they do with prosthetics and how they make it look as realistic as it can be. This was most likely the best source that I had gotten because it was a bonus that she got to do the report on Holby City which is created by the same writers that made Casualty. So this almost completely covers the Casualty side because is that detailed about the standard and advanced procedures when dealing with emergancies.
POS: Pretty much said everything i needed to know about the cast and crew's strong attempt to show realism in Casualty
NEG: None, was a full very long report on Casualty.
HYP: Strongly helped with my hypothesis, almost completes the whole of one side of the argument
BOOKS
Other sources that i used were books, i found didn't really link to about realism between our modern day dramas but in Media Magazine i found a small article about realism in tv dramas and it mentioned about the "kitchen sink" dramas and how it showed life in the 1960s.
POS: Tells me about the tv dramas in the sixties which are all based on Social Realism and the Artistic Movement
NEG: As it was a small article, there wasn't much else to say about it
HYP: This does refer to my hypothesis but only really touches on it, as mine mainly focuses on finding differences between UK and American dramas.
NEWSPAPERS
The best source i got at this point from going through the newspapers and came across The Guardian asking the simple question "Where did it all go wrong for TV Dramas?" The person who written this (Ben Myers) explains the good things about the 1980's and 1990's with all the dramas out there and looks at the new 2000 era in the UK n sees the demise in all of the tv dramas.
POS: This is somebody who has written an article asking where did it go wrong for the TV dramas because of the demise in popularity over recent years
NEG: Only a one sided argument, there any still some good dramas around today, doesn't say too much about realism
HYP: This does refer to my hypothesis abit, doesn't say so much about realism,
LECTURE
I also attended a presentation by Christa van Raalte which focused on film and censorship debate. It was quite interesting to learn about reality and film, i.e. the Jamie Bulgar Case, the 7 different censorship categories and regulation.
POS: Interesting learning about regulations, good for my personal interest
NEG: Nothing really referred to my hypothesis
HYP: Nothing really referred to my hypothesis
TV
I decided to watch the CSI and Casualty myself, as well as a Wire In the Blood (UK) and ER (USA) so i could compare with a direct equivalent of the shows, as they are different types of drama. Shows that USA dramas have less realism but more action making it more entertainment and watch able, while the UK dramas are the opposite way round but equally coming up with catchy storylines.
POS: Got to see the shows myself and compare
NEG: None
HYP: This did help a lot in comparing the two shows of the same genre from UK and USA. Compares the differences between the two types of shows.
Hard Referencing
Positive Points
Negative Points
How it links/helps with my hypoth
INTRO
For me to find a hypothesis, i had to choose one of the seven topics and then progress on, here i decided to work on TV Dramas as i have recently got interested in some shows and i have some knowledge of TV Dramas like Skins and Casualty. I arrived at my hypothesis shortly after which is "How much realism is there in tv dramas?"
Although the hypothesis is not very specific, i was mainly focusing on comparing 2 different medical/police dramas. The reasons being was that they are the most common type of drama series so researching them wouldn't be so difficult, i aimed to compare 2 of them, one from an American TV series and one from a UK series, so it would be interesting to find which nation has more realism in their program and i ended up choosing the CSI franchise (USA) and Casualty (UK)
INTERNET
My first way of researching was to go onto the Google search engine and type in the two TV series separately (i.e. "CSI" and "Casualty". I also typed in "Realism in TV Drama" which generated 166,000 results. Obviously i wasn't go to spend days looking at all of them, and i think most of the search results wouldn't be relevant but the first 2 pages did provide me with allot of secondary sources to decide on what is useful at what isn't. The first few pages weren't too helpful however.
Wikipedia is normally very reliable but none of the links that came up where to do with my hypothesis but instead talking about the the realism in TV dramas, it just talked about the dramas that were on programs like the BBC and where it originated from. When trying the same method which i did with Google, Both Casualty and CSI had their own pages. Both pages gave out brief overviews of the 2 shows, in CSI's criticism section, there was a bit about lack of realism when it came to police procedure.
POS: Found out about CSI's lack of realism comments made by a few different websites
NEG: Wikipedia normally helps alot with peoples research but didn't have much to say about my hypothesis
HYP: Was Useful, helped with the USA's side of realism.
On the second page, i found http://student.bmj.com/ which was a report done by student called Rebecca Chellaswamy who shared the same hypothesis as me but this is for her Medical Course in the University of Nottingham. She was fortunate enough to visit the Holby City set to talk to the actors and see what they do with prosthetics and how they make it look as realistic as it can be. This was most likely the best source that I had gotten because it was a bonus that she got to do the report on Holby City which is created by the same writers that made Casualty. So this almost completely covers the Casualty side because is that detailed about the standard and advanced procedures when dealing with emergancies.
POS: Pretty much said everything i needed to know about the cast and crew's strong attempt to show realism in Casualty
NEG: None, was a full very long report on Casualty.
HYP: Strongly helped with my hypothesis, almost completes the whole of one side of the argument
BOOKS
Other sources that i used were books, i found didn't really link to about realism between our modern day dramas but in Media Magazine i found a small article about realism in tv dramas and it mentioned about the "kitchen sink" dramas and how it showed life in the 1960s.
POS: Tells me about the tv dramas in the sixties which are all based on Social Realism and the Artistic Movement
NEG: As it was a small article, there wasn't much else to say about it
HYP: This does refer to my hypothesis but only really touches on it, as mine mainly focuses on finding differences between UK and American dramas.
NEWSPAPERS
The best source i got at this point from going through the newspapers and came across The Guardian asking the simple question "Where did it all go wrong for TV Dramas?" The person who written this (Ben Myers) explains the good things about the 1980's and 1990's with all the dramas out there and looks at the new 2000 era in the UK n sees the demise in all of the tv dramas.
POS: This is somebody who has written an article asking where did it go wrong for the TV dramas because of the demise in popularity over recent years
NEG: Only a one sided argument, there any still some good dramas around today, doesn't say too much about realism
HYP: This does refer to my hypothesis abit, doesn't say so much about realism,
LECTURE
I also attended a presentation by Christa van Raalte which focused on film and censorship debate. It was quite interesting to learn about reality and film, i.e. the Jamie Bulgar Case, the 7 different censorship categories and regulation.
POS: Interesting learning about regulations, good for my personal interest
NEG: Nothing really referred to my hypothesis
HYP: Nothing really referred to my hypothesis
TV
I decided to watch the CSI and Casualty myself, as well as a Wire In the Blood (UK) and ER (USA) so i could compare with a direct equivalent of the shows, as they are different types of drama. Shows that USA dramas have less realism but more action making it more entertainment and watch able, while the UK dramas are the opposite way round but equally coming up with catchy storylines.
POS: Got to see the shows myself and compare
NEG: None
HYP: This did help a lot in comparing the two shows of the same genre from UK and USA. Compares the differences between the two types of shows.
Monday, 1 December 2008
media audiences
Censorship Debate
At One Extreme
- the media are not sufficiently regulated in this country
- there are things shown on tv that shouldn't b allowed
- sometimes films are given a 12 certificate when they ought to be a 15
- People need to be protected from the media
At Another
- There is too much regulation in the this country
- If people dont like what is on TV they can switch it off
- Sometimes films are given an 18 when they should be 15
- People should be able to read and see and listen to what they like
BBFC - British Board of Film Classification
Criteria
- Theme
- Language
- Sex & Nudity
- Violence
- Imitable Tecnhiques
- Horror
- Drugs
Jamie Bulger Case:
1993 - toddler abducted, tortured and murder by 2 10 year olds
tabloids linked the murder to a scene in Child's Play 3
Both 10 years olds came from rough backgrounds
So it was either they watched the film or the rough backgrounds were the reasons for abducting toddler
Christa Van Raalte
tees.ac.uk
Secondary Source
At One Extreme
- the media are not sufficiently regulated in this country
- there are things shown on tv that shouldn't b allowed
- sometimes films are given a 12 certificate when they ought to be a 15
- People need to be protected from the media
At Another
- There is too much regulation in the this country
- If people dont like what is on TV they can switch it off
- Sometimes films are given an 18 when they should be 15
- People should be able to read and see and listen to what they like
BBFC - British Board of Film Classification
Criteria
- Theme
- Language
- Sex & Nudity
- Violence
- Imitable Tecnhiques
- Horror
- Drugs
Jamie Bulger Case:
1993 - toddler abducted, tortured and murder by 2 10 year olds
tabloids linked the murder to a scene in Child's Play 3
Both 10 years olds came from rough backgrounds
So it was either they watched the film or the rough backgrounds were the reasons for abducting toddler
Christa Van Raalte
tees.ac.uk
Secondary Source
Monday, 24 November 2008
Realism: Casualty
Set in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department of the fictional Holby City Hospital, the programme was devised as a more authentic take on the US series St. Elsewhere and from the outset Casualty shied away from sentimentality and unrealistic success rates for treatments and cures.
A study published by the British Medical Journal illustrates the point. It revealed that a quarter of patients in Casualty who suffered a cardiac arrest survived after being resuscitated - a similar proportion to real life - while in American medical soaps like ER an over-optimistic three-quarters of patients pulled through.
Former Casualty producer Johnathan Young says that the programme's medical consultants ensure scripts are accurate. "We know very well that the audience wants to see our characters as doctors and nurses, and we also believe very strongly that it is the realism of it which makes the show sustainable," said Young. "If we didn't make it real, it would become melodrama very quickly."
Source:http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/481713/
Evaluation: This source compares the differences between Casualty and American dramas such as ER. comparing the 2 british dramas show more realism compared to American ones but there are some unrealistic features that british dramas like casualty are still evident
A study published by the British Medical Journal illustrates the point. It revealed that a quarter of patients in Casualty who suffered a cardiac arrest survived after being resuscitated - a similar proportion to real life - while in American medical soaps like ER an over-optimistic three-quarters of patients pulled through.
Former Casualty producer Johnathan Young says that the programme's medical consultants ensure scripts are accurate. "We know very well that the audience wants to see our characters as doctors and nurses, and we also believe very strongly that it is the realism of it which makes the show sustainable," said Young. "If we didn't make it real, it would become melodrama very quickly."
Source:http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/481713/
Evaluation: This source compares the differences between Casualty and American dramas such as ER. comparing the 2 british dramas show more realism compared to American ones but there are some unrealistic features that british dramas like casualty are still evident
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Sources
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/05/26/1179601737383.html
HEALTH experts are following Hollywood's lead and setting up a unit to encourage popular TV shows such as All Saints to present more accurate health messages to viewers.
Academics at the University of Sydney will target writers and producers of local dramas and urge them to create storylines based on timely health issues such as obesity and HIV/AIDS.
The Public Health and Media Research Network met for the first time last week to discuss how to establish closer working relationships between television production heads and health professionals.
"The blue lamp was the first film to show the police with some degree of realism...its difficult for people nowadays to understand exactly what was new because they have been so accustomed to police series, but it was literally the first film that took people behind the scenes in a police station......It was the first film that showed the kind of humdum day-to-day life of a policeman behind the counter of a police station or on the beat in his relationships with his clients, as he called them in those days"
Keating, HRF, Crime Writers, BBC, 1978
http://student.bmj.com/search/pdf/06/11/sbmj427.pdf
Realism in TV dramas
American - Realism is very effectively done when it comes to american TV dramas because very unrealistic and dramatic story lines are used. Mise en scene is very important when it comes to realism because the setting has to look as real as it possibly can in order to make the audience believe that was they see is happening.
British - When it comes to British TV dramas the producers use very realistic story lines, which doesn't make the show quite as effective as the american TV dramas.
HEALTH experts are following Hollywood's lead and setting up a unit to encourage popular TV shows such as All Saints to present more accurate health messages to viewers.
Academics at the University of Sydney will target writers and producers of local dramas and urge them to create storylines based on timely health issues such as obesity and HIV/AIDS.
The Public Health and Media Research Network met for the first time last week to discuss how to establish closer working relationships between television production heads and health professionals.
"The blue lamp was the first film to show the police with some degree of realism...its difficult for people nowadays to understand exactly what was new because they have been so accustomed to police series, but it was literally the first film that took people behind the scenes in a police station......It was the first film that showed the kind of humdum day-to-day life of a policeman behind the counter of a police station or on the beat in his relationships with his clients, as he called them in those days"
Keating, HRF, Crime Writers, BBC, 1978
http://student.bmj.com/search/pdf/06/11/sbmj427.pdf
Realism in TV dramas
American - Realism is very effectively done when it comes to american TV dramas because very unrealistic and dramatic story lines are used. Mise en scene is very important when it comes to realism because the setting has to look as real as it possibly can in order to make the audience believe that was they see is happening.
British - When it comes to British TV dramas the producers use very realistic story lines, which doesn't make the show quite as effective as the american TV dramas.
Thursday, 6 November 2008
CSI Realism
The main lack of realism in the show is the way the police deal with the crimes, the show's characters do the usual things that the real life police would by investigate crime scenes, but they also conduct raids, engage in suspect pursuit and arrest, interrogate suspects, and solve cases, which falls under the responsibility of uniformed officers. Comparing to real life, these events don't often happen unless it is very serious
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