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.