TV Drama - Mock Exam

Summary of the 'The Street'

The first part of the clip starts off as a stereotypical argument that is expected between families going through money problems. The argument ends with the the husband storming out of the house. The wife then sends the kids to school, after composing herself as she got worked up during the argument. When the husband goes to work it shows that he is a builder. This shows that the family is a working class.
The second part of the clip shows the wife in a now calm scene whilst she is eating breakfast. There is a whistling sound that makes her stop eating her breakfast as she follows the sound. She opens the cupboard as the pipes burst leaving her distressed. In her distress she runs outside to look for help which she gets from her neighbour, whom she catches going to work. In the heat of the moment they kiss and eventually have relations. Before they have relations the women happily states that she is 'happily married' but she clearly excepts the invitation for relations as she doesn't push him away. This could relate to the women watching this as they too are more than likely loyal to there husbands but want a fling or dash of excitement in there lives.
This leads to them making further plans like this in the future.
The clip then skips to later on in the day. The husband is back from work, watching the football with his two sons whilst the daughter is at the table drawing.
It then shows the neighbours family. It shows that he is in a high respecting career and obviously works
hard for what he has got in his life. When his wife is shouting at his daughter about her attitude in school it shows there high expectations of there kids. In a hurry to get to work he quickly drives off not looking at the road as he looks for something in is car as he hits the daughter of the women he had an affaire with. A witness faints on scene due to the hit.
Everyone is distraught as the daughter is taken away in an ambulance in critical condition. The wife from the beginning not knowing who to blame for the incident as she gets into the ambulance with her daughter. Her husband left distraught about the event and the man she had an affair with looking at her with pleading eyes, pleading for forgiveness.

Analysis of Characters 

In this clip the main characters (The working class wife and the middle class husband) all have one major thing in common. They are unhappily married which clearly leads the the set of events in the clip, but the unhappily married part represents most of society today as there is a increase in divorce rate and most elderly people don't think that the generations after them are raising there kids properly reflecting on the husbands views making this appeal to an older audience as well. The wife represents the stereotypical housewife that feel unappreciated by her family's and the husband represents the stereotypical working class husband that works on a building site, watches football when he comes home expecting to be treating like the king of his very own castle. Both families are going through a hard time whether it'd be money troubles or misbehaved kids that cause both the wife and husband alot of stress. This making them both unhappy and wanting something to spark up their life. An affair being the answer. Appealing to the older audiences this could have an effect on marriages as if they are unhappy they see that the answer is a spark, something to spice up their life to make it once again magical. This then goes back to the children who in the working class family are used to conflict between parents and stay quiet. In a bid to get away from her short tempered father the daughter leaves the house. Fathers watching this that like football would become more alert at the idea that football went ahead of family for this man, as they could probably relate to a time when they left the kids with their wife to go and watch football with friends, or was even in charge in them when football was on. Whereas the middle class family obviously have trouble controlling their family as they have gotten much more out of life.

At the beginning it shows the working class husband having the most dominance as no matter what the women does he still continues cussing around the children. But towards the end the working class wife has dominance as she is upset and frustrated that her daughter has been hurt, especially by a man that she just had relations with.

Analysis of 'The Street'

About the clip
From looking at the summary and the characters of 'The Street' clip. It is clearly a Soap Opera; this is because it has a sense of reality and the audience would understand that this would happen in real life and could even possibly happen to them.
Due to the clip being so open it would be linear and omniscient.

Throughtout the clip although much happens there isn't a lot of music. The small amount of music that  appears in the title sequence at the beginning and when the affair is taking place and also when the daughter is being taken away in the ambulance as it gives the increase sense of dread more so than before. I think this is because not much is going on so they need the music to build more suspense and the use of no music make it more realistic but also effective as the audience cannot use the music to judge what is going to happen next. 

How is it done?
Throughout the clip there a four main types of camera angles used; Extreme close up, medium shot, long shot and closeup. This is too enhance the scene as the extreme closeup and closeups mainly happen when the people are going through times of distress or when something serious has happened e.g. when the pipe exploded or when the daughter got hit by a car. But it is not only done in times of distress as it shows the joy on her face before the relations happen. The medium shots and long shots help build the scene for the clip when each incident happens but it also builds the scene about the surrounding but also about the characters backgrounds, being either working or middle class.

The whole composition of the clip builds up to the dramatic event of the daughter being hit by the car, the argument, the affair, the realisation that life is chaotic to the hit. This may been taken by the audience as almost the odds being against her for what she has done. 

Mise-en-sćene

As the name of the clip suggests it is clearly filmed on a typical high street filled with well acquainted neighbours. This makes it even more so a soap opera as it relates to the every day working and middle class families. 

The most significant prop used in this is the teddy bear that belonged to the daughter as it highlights her innocents and just how young she is as she still has a teddy bear. 

The working class family are all dressed very casual and even a bit scruffy, the husband being in tracksuit bottoms and a vest with the wife in a t-shirt and jeans, whereas the middle class family are all dressed nicely, the husband being in  a suit and the wife being in nice almost casual business wear.

The lighting is very dim throughout, this as it's too enhance the depressed feel for most of the clip and the lighting increases when the affaire is happening to show it is a happier time for both. 

Peer Review
- Little to no mention about editing
- No mention about sound
- Don't summarise the clip, go straight into the points of the exam.
 - Talk about the characters but not in depth