Wednesday 26 November 2008

Doctor Who - Cinematography Task.

Okay, so the other day, Mrs Francis showed us an episode of Doctor Who. We were split into four groups, and in these groups we had to discuss one area of media production...
1. Mise en Scene
2. Cinematography
3. Editing
4. Sound
My group was set the challenge of Cinematography, and here is what we came up with:

How does cinematography create a representation of belonging or identity in Dr.Who?
The scene starts with an establishing shot, which is also a wide shot, enabling the viewer to create a sense of place. All the people are wearing the same army clothes, suggesting they are soldiers' belonging to this space and this regiment.


Later on in the scene, the Doctor, Donna, Martha and Jenny are locked away in a prison cell. There is a group shot of them all standing as if they are the four points of a square. The camera looks into the cell from outside of the bars, so the cell bars are in shot, this gives the sense of exclusion that has been set upon these four strangers. Being in the cell itself gives a sense of exclusion, from the hath, a completely different species. These humans do not belong here.
At the climax of the scene, the humans and hath go to war, and fight. The camera pans around with the hath marching towards the humans, which also gives an establishing shot, giving a sense of belonging and identity, as it shows the viewer where these creatures are from and what they have been living in.


A new character appears in this episode, Jenny, she is the Doctor's biological daughter. The Doctor has two hearts, there is a poignant moment, when The Doctor realises that Jenny does belong with him, Donna holds a stethoscope onto Jenny's hearts, the Doctor listens. There is a close up on one heart, then a close up on the Doctor's reaction to this finding, then back to the other heart, then again back to his expression, so the viewer can see how he shows his emotion to finding out that this girl who was made in a machine is his biological daughter and belongs with him. This is a key point in the scene to show belonging and identity.

Martha, who used to travel with the Doctor, is stuck on the other side of the block in this place. This could show that she does not belong with the Doctor anymore, that she is supposed to be in a different place to the Doctor, Donna and Jenny. Martha and the Doctor then have a phone conversation, the camera flicks quickly from the two places with the two characters, with very different settings, showing two different people, and two different identities.

Susie, Hannah, Bobbi and Vickie.

1 comment:

Sacha van Straten said...

A good team effort.

Well done.