TV Drama essay practice techniques.

When you are given the question in the exam, one should automatically start to think about what they are going to see.

This is can be done because, each genre has a set of key concept and a set of codes and conventions that they each follow. 

Key Concepts 

• Ideology- a set of beliefs, sort of like a stereotype. e.g.- 'Blonde girls are thick'
• Audience
• Realism- verisimilitude which is alternatively known as surface truth or accuracy. 

when writing the essay these ideas should be clear in your head, because if you already have an idea of what you are going to see, before the clip starts you will be more likely to pick out the technical elements. 

The elements you should always keep a look out for are:

-mise-en-scene 

-editing

-sound

-camera angles

For an example to predict what you are going to see lets use the idea of gender. How will gender be represented typically?

The male character may be deemed to be more powerful so high angled shots would be used, loud strong sounds longer amount of screen time.- Parallel editing. 

However the female would probably have quite music backing her, less screen time and low angled shots to show she is less significant. 

Once these ideas have been planted in your head you are likely to pick out more techniques to write about.