Character

In episode 10, “Sort of Like a Family,” we are exposed to the concept of Ellen slowly becoming Patty Hewes. The development of Ellen’s character grows through each episode. At the beginning of the episode, Ellen and David are having some fun and suddenly, Patty’s face appears where Ellen’s face should be. This freaks David out and he asks where Ellen is. She replies, “We’re right here.” This chilling episode sends a signal to viewers. Immediately after David wakes up from the nightmare, he finds Ellen out on the dock, looking out to the sea. She says she “could get used to this.” The line merely indicates the fact that she really likes the place and the idea of success; however the subtext suggests the fact that Ellen may be getting used to becoming more like Patty. It is a heads up to the slow fusion of Ellen and Patty. Another example is when Patty took Ellen off the deposition; Ellen does not like it – a sign of her persistence and desire to want to work closely with Patty. This may suggest Ellen’s desire to work closely with Patty and learn from her, which can easily lead to Ellen morphing into Patty.

There are so many hints at the dualism between Patty and Ellen; these hints are found throughout the entire season. For instance, in the episode, “Blame the Victim,” Ellen fires her assistant and we are given a glimpse of her behaving like Patty Hewes. When the assistant was fired, Ellen was in the elevator and right as she fired him, the music came on. This emphasized the growth, the change in Ellen. She was slowly becoming Patty. The music added to the suspense so much that Ellen does not seem to be aware of the fact that she is turning into Patty. It is daunting.

It is through the characters we are given the premise of the show. The question of how much damage a person is willing to take in order to achieve a goal. Sometimes, the character does not realize it until it is too late. Will Ellen figure out what is going on before she loses her own identity?

The first 5 minutes determine the last 5 minutes...

Damages, by far, is one of the most dramatic and suspenseful television shows I have come to watch. Each episode is filled with flashbacks, clues, and surprises. Up until recently, I had gotten into the habit of passively watching the episodes and walking away with confusion, shock and perhaps a little bit of fear of what’s to come.

Through Fr. Gary’s classes and with his encouragement, I have begun to actively watch the series. Little did I realize that there are so much to analyze in Damages. There is so much material; it would take months to get through everything. That’s what makes it work – the complexity of characters, plot, premise, EVERYTHING.

At this point, I have begun to look for clues, to try and see if I can figure out what will happen in the last 10 minutes of the episode. Fr. Gary has said quite a few times that in every movie and television show, everything you need to know about that particular episode is given in the first 5 minutes. Unable to believe Fr. Gary, I set out to prove him wrong.

I watched the “Blame it on the victim” episode. Amazingly, no matter how hard I tried, I got sucked into the drama of the series. I was able to pick out a few things that seemed to connect with the beginning of the episode. For instance, the inability to choose was emphasized in the beginning and end – only the situation has changed. In the beginning, she had to decide which kind of cake she’d like to have for the wedding (a much happier situation) and in the end, Ellen is forced to decide between David and her job. The situation is much more intense and dark compared to the wedding cake choices.

Another example is the discussion Tom and Patty had in their office; they were trying to figure out the next move because Gregory Malina has disappeared. Because Gregory is no longer available for trial, Patty has no case. In the end of the episode, we find out that Patty now has a move to make.

I can easily say this – it will be awhile before I am able to really keep my eyes open for clues. The plot becomes thicker and more complex as the episodes unravel. I can only imagine how much more dramatic everything is going to be when I get through the season.

A 30 second challenge...

In the wise words of Shawn T.

"Get Fit or get out!"

This here is a commercial that captures the intense workouts of Insanity.
Special thanks to Pat May, Kathleen Horton, and Kyle Finegian!


Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm_ZXVDbiWo

6 word memoir

This video is based off the six words I would use to describe my life.
Here it is - my first ever movie...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1eFQxCn-Zg

Premise! Beat!

Premise, Premise, Premise! Beat, Beat, Beat! The two words ring around in my mind as I watch television shows and analyze them. I struggle to recognize the premise and beat of the stories; it seems that there are so many beats fit into a single act in a single moment. I watched ‘Lone Star’ mainly because it had just premiered for the first time. I thought it would be helpful to watch the pilot of a series to see if I could pick up the premise. I was right. It is definitely much easier to pick up on the premise of the series from the pilot. However, according to most screenwriters, viewers should be able to figure out the premise at any point especially since the premise is the purpose, theme, idea of the entire series. As I attempted to analyze the premise of ‘Lone Star,’ I began to think about applying the concept of premise to everyday life and realized that my own life has a premise. We all have premises, as Egri explains, “everything has a purpose, or premise. Every second of our lives has its own premise, whether or not we are conscious of it at the time.” Thinking about premises has forced me to look closely at the things we do, why we do them, and what they lead us to.

Once I made that realization – we all have premises in our lives – I began to recognize beats. According to McKee, “a beat is the smallest structural unit within a scene. It is a single piece of behavior.” In ‘Lone Star,’ the main character, Bob, leads a double life in order to make money. In order to get people’s money, he lies about his life, dresses up as a business man, talks about money making opportunities. He behaves a certain way in order to get that money. Then, when he is with his wife, his behavior is different. He acts as the loving, doting husband in order to have sex with her. Interestingly, he is married to her because she happens to be the daughter of a multi-millionaire, who happens to be Bob’s target. All of Bob’s behavior is traced back to the premise – to make money through ripping people off.

To apply these concepts to a more personal level, I thought about why I play soccer, why I do the things I do. The premise of my soccer playing is the fact that I love it, I’m good at it and I know what to do. Therefore, subtly said, my premise is to do what I love and keep at it. The beats are my sacrificing time and energy for soccer, working out, making myself sweat, lifting heavy things, running suicides all because I know it will lead to me becoming a better athlete. The purposes of my playing soccer are probably: it’s good for you, it keeps you healthy and in shape, it gives you opportunities…the list could go on.

The Art of Technique

Miller explains the important elements of setting up a story, a character by using various techniques to reveal such details. Exposure to costumes, setting, tone, dialogue, and more all help connect the audience to the show. The first few minutes of every episode can set the tone of the particular episode and the topic of the entire show. In most cases, we as the audience are given a sense of what the show is about through the credits.

In order to analyze different aspects of technique being used in various shows, I watched the beginning of 3 shows: Psych, House, and Rookie Blue. I have never watched 2 out of the 3 shows and interestingly, I found some common techniques that were used in all the shows.

Psych opened with a scene displaying a ‘1990’ heading at the bottom, indicating that we were about to get some background on a character. There were kids playing basketball, one kid (Shawn) had won the game and demanded a bigger challenge. Shawn’s father comes out of the house and challenges him. The father gave Shawn some advice about being challenged and believing in being victorious. The scene then changes to the future, showing the audience what the setting is. There was an overview of a city near the beach; I am guessing it is either in Florida or California. Immediately after a shot of the landscape, we are taken into a messy, disorganized office and Shawn is asleep on the chair with bottles of beer around him. Shawn’s clothes are casual, which indicates his lack of professionalism. He gets a call from Gus, his longtime friend (the one he beat at basketball in 1990) about a case they were asked to solve. Gus wears casual clothes as well, but his are more appropriate. He wears dark jeans with a button up shirt. Gus and Shawn both argue about little mundane things. Shawn gives off a cocky, smart ass vibe. This all happened as the credits were rolling, the name of the show does not show up until much later into the story.

House began a little differently, to set the scene, the episode began in space. We see stars, galaxies, planets, supernovas and it seems that we are moving backwards, giving a sense of going backwards in time or backwards in perspective. Then, we are taken out of space and it appears that we are in a planetarium and there is a teacher talking about aspects of space. Immediately, the camera and audio are focused on two kids, a boy and girl, talking about not wanting to break up, which gives a sense of their age and the time: they are seniors in high school and are about to go off to college which means we are in the spring semester. The girl took a sip out of the boy’s water bottle and coughed (it was vodka) and the teacher scolds them saying that food and drink are not allowed in the planetarium. Then the conflict happens – the girl is extremely still and suddenly, she starts foaming at the mouth and stops breathing. Right after someone yells to call 911, the credits begin. House’s face appears right behind the name of the show and medical, human anatomy, and buildings (looks like a college campus in Boston) images are shown throughout the credits, establishing the type of show it is. The doctors wear the usual white lab coat, are well groomed, and have a professional attitude whereas House is not. He has scruff, wears jeans, and has a cocky attitude.

Rookie Blue started with a police officer in his office talking about an evaluation of another officer, a female. Right then, we are given the topic of the show – cops, and the tone is professional and serious. There are several props around the office that hint at the ranking of the police officer, perhaps the chief of the station. The dialogue between the chief and the police officer suggests that a tragedy has occurred. Suddenly, the scene changes and gives us a quick look at where the show takes place, at the city and the sun is setting, which tells us that it is the end of the day. Rookie Blue shows up as we see the city skyline and the credits start rolling as the storyline moves on. The next scene shows two more police officers, their dialogue is more casual, which gives the impression that they are of the same ranking and are good friends. There is a ’12 hours earlier’ heading at the bottom which means that we are looking back in time and will find out why the female officer had such a rough shift. The entire time I watched, which was about 6 minutes, the dialogue, action and plot all took place in the locker room, office and conference room of the police station. The mood was incredibly suspenseful and serious.

I found it interesting that both, Psych and Rookie Blue, used the technique of showing something that happened in the past with headings to establish the timeline. All three shows used a scan of the landscape to establish where the show takes place. The costumes were helpful in distinguishing who was what and how they were perceived. Miller explains that each component enriches the story; it brings the audience closer and captures the attention. In House and Psyche, the conflict was presented right away, within the first few minutes of the episode whereas in Rookie Blue, the conflict happened in retrospective. I agree with Miller on the importance of being credible with the story line, it is annoying when a story line has inaccurate facts because it distracts my attention from the spectacle of the story and eventually, my patience grows thin and I have lost my ability to follow the story. It is certainly is quite important.

Tonight's fight: Cable vs. Network

Television, television, and more television! Is there really an end to all these shows? It seems that no matter what, there is always going to be a steady income of a variety of shows available for us to watch. It really is amazing how much of our lives revolve around certain shows. It also is incredible just how diverse these shows can be, especially between network shows and cable shows.

I watched ‘Rescue Me’ from the FX channel, a cable show about a firefighter named Tom and his life. This particular episode was about Tom’s blackout and the crisis afterwards. The conflict starts when he finds out his ex-wife and co-firefighter are having an affair and his reaction is to drink his brains out. The first part of the episode takes us through his drunken rants and a few of the things he did. At times, some parts of Tom’s past are brought up. Tom spent some time in the bathroom fighting with a ghost, one of his dead co-firefighters. The perspective was very crude and it had this “life sucks” motto kind of feel. Sometime during his drunken period, he picks up his daughter and they both get drunk. He ends up at a woman’s house and passes out there. When he wakes up, he finds himself at his trashed apartment with a huge hangover. Immediately, he gets a phone call from the station and everyone is concerned about his daughter, Colleen. She has been missing for hours and he was the last person to see her, but he cannot remember anything from the night before. I noticed that with cable shows, or perhaps it was only this show, there is no sense of a strong bond with immediate family. His true family really was his firefighting squad. They helped him throughout the entire search. The conversations were filled with swear words, alcohol, and there was a lot of anger involved. The environment was very lower middle class. The show’s big moment was when they all got together and figured out where Colleen was and they went together to search for her at the beach. It was a moment of unity; they all put their differences aside for the sake of Colleen. With this show, there were not much color in the scenes; it all seemed dull, run down. The suspense was his missing daughter; the runners in the show were Tom’s vague flashbacks and getting clues to figuring out Colleen’s whereabouts. When they finally found her, the mood somber, they did not know if she was still alive and when she finally breathed, the show ended. It was, in a word, intriguing.

‘Covert Affairs’ was the network show I watched and it was completely different from ‘Rescue Me.’ I immediately noticed the difference between cable and network shows right at the beginning when the environment scenes began. There was a sense of higher culture and sophistication; compared to ‘Rescue Me.’ It definitely has an upper middle class or an upper class environment. The episode began with an Iranian man in a hotel room who says he is going off to work out and runs off. He wants to go to America and contacts the CIA, tells them he has intel on some nuclear weapon secrets. Annie, the main character, works for the CIA and has recently gone through some sort of breakup with a guy she met in Sri Lanka, who appears to be a secret agent as well. We are exposed to tidbits of that relationship throughout the entire episode, which lets us know that it is the main story of the show. I was immediately drawn into the show mainly because of the CIA thing. Annie’s boss gives her a few days off and Annie accepts. The first thing she does is take a bath and during that, her sister barges in with a crisis. The sister’s husband wanted to put off their 10 year anniversary celebration so he could play golf with his new boss. The sister flips out and forces Annie to go with her on the second honeymoon trip she had planned with her husband. Meanwhile, Annie’s boss requests Annie to work on the Iranian runway case and pick up the guy, who happens to be in Niagara Falls. Annie reluctantly takes the job, but does not tell her sister (sister does not know Annie works for CIA). The conflict is juggling time with her sister on vacation and working on the case with the Iranian guy. It seems that Annie’s desire is to figure out why her guy from Sri Lanka disappeared on her and the jobs the CIA give her appear to bring her closer to figuring him out. Throughout the show, there are scenarios that involve heart to heart talks, which is quite opposite of the cable show. The Iranian guy does not appear to stick to his word and he is highly suspicious. We do not find out whether he is innocent or not until the very end, when Annie saves him from the Iranian agents. The ticking bomb of this episode was figuring out the sincerity of the Iranian guy.

I personally prefer ‘Covert Affairs’ over ‘Rescue Me.’ I think the story was more appealing. It would seem that network shows have a more sophisticated story line with positives and strong family values whereas cable shows are more crude, negative and realistic. Interestingly, each show had similar techniques – they both had flashbacks that appeared throughout the show and the suspense escalated close to the end. Each show had its own ticking clock – Tom needed to find his missing daughter and Annie needed to figure out the Iranian guy’s loyalties before it was too late. The style is completely different; I would say the two were two opposite extremes of the spectrum.

So, for me, network’s ‘Covert Affairs’ wins this round.