The episode that I will be referencing can be found here: http://www.ewatchseries.ac/link/vidto.me/7751705
I have been looking at Doctor Who and in particular Matt Smiths first full episode – The Eleventh Hour. In case you are unfamiliar with Doctor Who – the actor that plays the doctor changes by the Doctor regenerating, bringing a new tonality and changing the target audience of the TV show. I think that this episode was really good and worked as it was the first Doctor Who episode I watched, and I am now a big Doctor Who fan. David Tenant was the previous Doctor before Matt Smith took over. David Tenant was more of a serious doctor. The show was targeting older people. Possibly 16+. But I think the way in which Matt Smith played the doctor targeted a younger age range. The episode starts off in a way which will grab the audience’s attention. Matt Smith dangling from the T.A.R.D.I.S (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space or the less well known Totally And Radically Driving In Space) above London with his sonic screwdriver in his mouth.
There are sparks flying from the T.A.R.D.I.S’s console and he almost hit Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben).
Like me, the target audience could be watching this episode as an introduction to Doctor Who. This means that they have to introduce the new audience to this world they have created. They can’t take too long explaining what the T.A.R.D.I.S does etc. as the returning audience would lose interest. They had to get a balance and I think they managed to do it well. From the beginning bit you understand that this police box can fly. You understand that it is bigger on the inside. You are introduced to the sonic screwdriver. You are introduced to a part of the character of the Doctor with the attribute of being far from perfect as he has lost control of his own time machine/ spaceship. It quickly acquainted to the target audience age range due to the next scene being of a young girl praying.
The T.A.R.D.I.S landing on its side and the doctor then walking into a tree both further the notion that the doctor is far from perfect.
This attribute is used in a lot of TV shows and films because by showing a character’s floors you are making the character more relatable and we tend to root for the underdog. Walking into a tree shows that it is aimed at children due to ‘silly comical’ style it has. His cloths also further this characteristic of being irresponsible. His shirt is half tucked in. His tie is loose and sideways. His shirt is dirty and has holes.
This is then furthered by dipping fish fingers in custard due to them not usually going together (a combination that most would not enjoy).
Doctor who is good at having a very wide target audience and I think that this doctor widens it further still by including younger viewers. The lightness of this doctor and the younger target audience continues to show trough in things such as made up words and the amount of movement and lack of dialog plus over the top facial expressions especially in prisoner 0.
He also has this sort of magic about him that was expressed near the beginning of the episode in the form of regeneration energy coming from the doctor’s mouth. Children like magical/ mysterious things. Most Disney films have an element of magic about them and most films for children have incorporated this. Including this episode of Doctor Who.
The 11th Doctor (excluding John Hurt) showed that he wasn’t very trustworthy straight away as he said he would be gone for 5 minutes and in actuality went for 12 years. He also said he was just going to take a trip round the moon and came back 2 years later. They use techniques such as lens flares to crease the effect or realisation.
As well as this episode introducing a new doctor it is also introducing a new companion (Karen Gillan). It is interesting to see her grow up and stop believing in the doctor anymore until he comes back. It was done in a way in which slowly reviled how long it had been. At first there was the clock changing. So you could see it was more than 5 minutes. Then it was later reviled that this “kiss-o-gram” was Amy or Amelia. She was developed well as a character and she also left you guessing. The “stuff” she had to be back for tomorrow being one of them and the wedding dress being another one. She also introduced the doctor to Rory as a friend. In actuality she is supposed to marry Rory tomorrow. The fact that she didn’t tell the doctor this suggests she has a romantic interest in him and want to appear available. You later find out that she did. The Doctor did a speech to the Atraxi in which he logically reasoned with them. The Atraxi then projects the faces of the previous actors that played the doctor as well as the doctor many enemies.
This is a nice touch for people who have been watching Doctor Who for a longer time and remember these actors and enemies. At the same time, it is also good for people who are new to watching Doctor who as it gives them a brief history of who the doctor is, what he stands for (someone that helps people and protects earth) and the actors which played him. Throughout Matt Smiths time as the doctor they show the previous doctors 2 more times. Once in the name of the doctor and once in the day of the doctor.
The target audience of this episode was well met as I was 10 when I first watched this episode and it really appealed to me and I have been watching Doctor Who ever since. The episode made it clear that it was a sci-fi show due to the T.A.R.D.I.S, the sonic screwdriver, prisoner 0 and the Atraxi.
I would say this episode was aimed at 9+ aged people who enjoy sci-fi. For the viewers that have been watching Doctor Who previous to this episode. They are introduced to a new T.A.R.D.I.S design and a new sonic screwdriver. This helps to further the notion that the doctor has changed. They introduce us to the new T.A.R.D.I.S when Amy (Amelia) sees it for the first time. They use red lighting in this scene quite dramatically to show the importance of the T.A.R.D.I.S.
This episode of Doctor Who was watched live by roughly 8 million people (7.7 million on BBC and 0.3 million on BBC HD so combined there was roughly 8 million viewers (roughly 7,999,999 if you exclude me)) making it the most watched program of the day (April 3rd, 2010)
Movement task
We focused on movement this week and we went into more depth about how it can be used in filmmaking. We were introduced to some new equipment. We were introduced to the tripod dolly. We were asked to create a short clip encompassing movement. We were given a camera, a tripod, a slider, a Steadicam and tripod dolly.
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We only decided to use a camera, a tripod and a slider as they were the best tools that fit our narrative. Here is the video.
Figure 40 – Movement Task (Chris McNair, 2017): https://vimeo.com/242894600
There were a few problems with the finished product. The main one is that we may have broken the 180 degree rule 14 seconds in. It is a bit tricky to work out if we did however. The original line of action was going from the first camera position straight towards the subject. If this line of action was kept then we would have broken the 180 degree rule. But by introducing a second subject to the scene it could possibly change the line of action to going between the 2 subjects. I think it really depends on how much attention the audience give to the second subject and if it is not much then the audience may get a bit confused due to us breaking the 180 degree rule. But if they give attention to the second subject then it will not be confusing due the line of action subconsciously changing in the mind. In order to get the 2 shots of each subject standing up we extended 2 legs of the tripod and balanced it so the legs acted in a similar way to hinges. We stood on the 2 extended legs to stop them slipping and we used the camera strap to pull the camera up from near the floor. The first shot would have been better if it included the second subject in the shot rather than just outside. Also the 2 shots in which the 1st subject slapped the camera and then punched the camera should have been done in 1 take. We were out of battery and low on time so we decided to just try to edit them together in post. The last shot was also out of focus. This is why we should have had a director to spot this but we didn’t have enough people so we just had a cameraman. Fight scenes are hard to choreograph and none of us had any fighting knowledge so it was a bit of a simple sequence. Also we should have moved the slider faster than we did as we had to end up speeding up the slider footage in post. When the slider was recording me I blinked and due to us having to speed up the footage in post I could have got an award for the world’s fastest blink. We were hoping to put a dolly counter zoom in but we didn’t have enough time. Using the crew to the best of their ability. Apart from those problems I thought it went quite well and it achieved our goal of creating movement within a short sequence.
Bibliography
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doctorwhotv.co.uk. 2010. Eleventh Hour Viewers. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/eleventh-hour-viewers-3563.htm. [Accessed 9 November 2017].
kamerar.com. no date. S-47 Video Camera 47″ Slider. [ONLINE] Available at: https://kamerar.com/products/47-video-camera-slider. [Accessed 8 November 2017].
mapleleafphoto.ca. no date. Ultimaxx TRIPOD DOLLY. [ONLINE] Available at: https://mapleleafphoto.ca/ultimaxx_tripod_dolly_5282000.php. [Accessed 8 November 2017].
soarpix.com. no date. LAING P-04 Steadicam / Stabilizer. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.soarpix.com/. [Accessed 8 November 2017].
Chris McNair 