The Bill : The Forgotten Child (Part 1) - Analysis

The Bill is a "soap" series, that doesn't have a certain set number of episodes, as its continuously in production. It follows the lives of the police officers who work in Sun Hill Station, and follows stories, trials, and arrests of the people who live in the surrounding area. Each episode is an hour long, and usually the crime is solved in one episode, however sometimes they have a 2 or 3 part episode, each an hour long but on different days.
This episode was a part-episode, following the story of a young girl gone missing then found dead. It is from the 24th series, which shows again how it is not a limited movie-like special.
The extract we were given to watch, started with a high angled shot of a car pulling down an alley way off a main road, beside a pub. We hear digetic siren sounds in the background, and are told it is 5am by the main police investigators, who are shown predominantly in the shot, walking toward an obvious crime scene. There are police officers, and police tape around the area, and we then receive a close long shot of a young girl slumped against a fence, dead. Close-ups of her arm reveal self-harming and a heroin injection overdose. The background for this extract is a closed alley behind a pub, wet and damp in the early morning. The setting is quite dreary, matching the matter which the police are solving.
We are shown a point of view shot from DC Jo Masters, looking at the dead girl, as she claims she recognises her from somewhere.
We are then taken with DC Masters toward 2 other police officers, who are interviewing the owner of the pub on the corner. Not too much is said, but it is obvious the pub owner doesn't have that much interest in what's going on.
The camera then cuts to the offices in Sun Hill Station, with DC Masters and DC Micky Webb searching through files looking for the young girl's identity, however, once found, the information "Kelly Kong, Brother King and lives in the Jungle" proves unhelpful. The office desk has a few papers scattered on it, and DC Masters doesn't take care when searching through the folders, leaving the desk quite messy.
We are then shown another short section inside the Station, where 3 DC's are discussing the matter. DC Masters, the only female in the shot, seems to be in charge of actions and information, and seems to be quite blunt and to the point.
Behind the 3 DC's in the corridor, are many offices and rooms partly concealed by slatted blinds which are a typical thriller signifier, and the Station has many of these. Although the Bill isn't really a full-on thriller, as its more crime-scene/thriller, it still holds a few subtle hints. Another thriller signifier, mystery and deception, also come into this episode, as the cause of the young girls death is unknown and unsure of, and how we are shown some people obviously lying.
We are then shown another damp grey street with 2 police officers walking down the road. They stop to talk to a woman who is sitting near a phone box, and we hear sirens in the distance. We are shown a picture of the woman's daughter, and are told her name is Kelly, and the audience immediately knows that the woman's daughter is the dead girl from the alley, however she does not know this. This can create tension in the audience, as we wonder how she will find out and how she will react, and the audience has the upper hand on one of the characters, as we know more than they do.
We are then taken back to the station, where we are taken into a room with DC Masters, where the mother of Kelly is. The mise-en-scene of this shot has a sense of power, as DC Masters is close to the camera, and Kelly's mother is sat on one of the comfy sofas, small and worried. The room has pleasant colours and is almost child-like, so is obviously not used for interrogations but is more like a waiting room or care room. As the news of her daughters death is brought to her, Mrs Porterfield breaks down in tears, this is shown with a mid shot, no close-ups as you'd expect to build on her emotion. The room is quite silent throughout this scene, although there is a distant phone or two ringing in a businesslike tone, however ignored by whoever is meant to answer them. The atmosphere of the waiting-room-scene is calm but tense, as we are waiting for an outburst of emotion from Mrs Porterfield, or more sympathy from the DC's, however neither become present.

Throughout the extract, the police force are not portrayed as stereotypical as you'd think, baring in mind the theme of the soap. They make a fair few jokes throughout the extract, for example when they interview the pub owner, who claims his pub gets busy and popular, we hear one of the officers sarcastically comment "can't think why", which we would not usually expect a police officer to say when interrogating someone during a crime scene. We are also shown more humour when DC Masters & DC Webb are looking through files for the identity of the dead girl, as they know her name starts with a k, DC Webb pulls out a file and says "Keith" with a picture of what seems to be a girl, but is a transvestite, at which they both laugh. Another joke, sex-related, is between the 2 police officers who find Mrs Porterfield. As they are leaving the Sun Hill Station we hear the male officer ask the female for help on a case, at which she replies "I'm all yours" to say she will help him, however he comes back with a "you wish" implying she was talking about something else. The female officer then says "yeah right" as if to imply he's not her type, and to emotionally hurt him.
These jokes are not how we usually view the police, and although are not that shocking, are still surprising to see in a "serious" police crime drama.
Another factor concerning the portrayal of the force, is how most of the woman dress. They seem to wear lots of make-up, practically the same amount as a model, and how their uniforms are quite tight and seem to enhance their bodily features. Again, if we look at our every-day police force in our own city, we don't usually see female or male police officers looking so "good" or seeming to take pride in their appearance as much as someone who had a career in make-up would!

Life On Mars ; Season 2, Episode 3 : Bombs - Analysis

Life On Mars is a British TV police drama series. It was released in 2006 and played on BBC1 at 9pm. It is about a present-day (2006) police detective, Sam Tyler, who finds himself in 1973 after being in a car accident.
The extract we are looking at comes from an episode about bomb threats and bomb attacks, which the police believe are coming from the IRA, however we find out they're not, and the Irish who have been arrested and beaten have been for no reason.
At the beginning of our extract, the camera shows shirts hanging on a washing line, in the middle of the street. The camera moves through the shirts to show a street, which is obviously not one of the richest in the area. The shirts being hung in the street gives us an idea on what the street is like, as it must be a close-knit community for them to trust each other with their belongings. In the modern day we wouldn't hang our clothes out in public in fear of them getting stolen. The houses on the street seem small, and the coloring looks washed and sepia-toned.
There is some non-digetic music playing from a previous frame, up-beat rock music playing loudly but then quietens and stops as the police exit their vehicle.
As the detectives Tyler and Hunt pull up in the car (Hunt driving) they run over a bin on the pavement, not taking care with parking, and exit the car. This shows the audience how detectives in the 70s were more rude and arrogant than present, and they were not as formal and respectable as they now are.
As Tyler hints to Hunt to apologize to the arrested-but-being-freed Irish man (Paddy), Hunt seems distracted by the sky or anything around him as he mutters sorry and "no hard feelings". Paddy starts to explain his situation to Hunt, and complains about how he is treated, however Hunt only looks at him about 3 times during the Paddy's speech. Hunt also keeps his arms folded and has a dis-interested look on his face, a look of impatience.
The camera switches points of view during this speech, and shows various shots of Hunt, Hunt and Tyler, the Paddy, and all three at once. Even when they are not talking, Hunt and Tyler are shown, which captures their different reactions to what the Paddy is saying. This also gives the audience a platform to accuse Hunt of his un-emotional approach to policing. Before the speech, we notice how the Paddy has been severely beaten, with bruises and cuts all over his face. However this provokes no sympathy from either of the detectives, even Tyler who is listening to what he has to say, and seems genuinely sorry. During the Paddy's speech there is a close-up shot that shows the contrast between Hunt and Tyler's expression. It shows Hunt's un-interested and un-emotional face, and how Tyler seems to be hanging on every word but trying not to seem weak to Hunt, and at the same time trying to sympathize with Paddy.
This racism towards Paddy from Hunt is exchanged to another type of foreigner as Paddy disappears. An Indian man, who we see at the start of the extract carrying a table across the road to his new house, is now carrying a TV. Hunt stops him and suspiciously asks him about the TV, to which the man replies "my new house". Hunt had obviously thought he was stealing it, however it was clear he was just loading things to his house. Hunt also displays more racism when he refers to the man's wife as a "paki" because of what she is wearing. Tyler seems quite surprised by this public display of racism, but also knows that that is what its like, as he just rolls his eyes angrily and gets back in the car. This is a huge contrast to nowadays as the police force or any detectives wouldn’t be seen in public being racist and not trying to hide it.
As the scene changes to the pub, the detectives are all sitting around a table as Tyler walks in, with a light background making him almost super-hero-like. This image is enhances as the pub starts clapping him.
The care-free arrogant attitude of the police is displays in this scene as well, as they are all smoking and drinking in the pub, obviously getting hammered. Also Hunt brings out his racism again when he claims he has "never known an Irishman who has refused a drink".
Some humor is added into the extract with the past and future of Tyler coming into focus, as Annie Cartwright claims it might do the country good to have a woman running it, at which Tyler claims he bets that she'll "regret saying that one day" in reference to Margaret Thatcher. Another example of this humor is included in Hunt's racism about the Irish and their drinking, as he claims they'd never bomb a pub because they love their drink too much, which is ironic as the IRA did bomb pubs and other places.
The scene changes, though this setting is the same, it is obviously just a later part of the day. The atmosphere of the pub has changed and it is more warm and inviting, with laughter and friendly faces and general chit-chat. The juke-box is visible in the frame and the inside smoking hints towards the average 1970 pub. The digetic music of the juke box adds to this friendly and close atmosphere, with short snippets of the conversation caught in the audience's ear. Then a distinctive ringing is heard, from a red telephone that stands out visually and as sound. The ringing seems quite loud however Tyler seems to be the only one who can hear it. The red colour of the phone also stands out in the mise-en-scene as the other colours of the pub are dull or dubbed browns and grays. This shot moved over to the phone on the bar uses a good proportion of the rule of thirds. There is a long shot of Tyler's reaction to the phone, and the smoke seems to add to the tension in Tyler’s eyes as he walks over to the phone, and picks it up.
Our extract ends as Tyler picks up the phone, which is a cliff hanger point because it seems to be a link to him and maybe his present 2006 self.

TV Analysis - Skins (Cassie's Episode)

Skins is a TV series following the lives of a group of teen's and their outrageous lives. Each episode concentrates on one of the main characters, this particular one focusing on Cassie, an anorexic, drug addicted girl who likes to party, but is portrayed as an air head. This episode comes from series 1.
This extract starts with Cassie sitting on a bus, after a party, and finishes with her staring up at a baby mobile.
The first shot we are shown is a close up shot of Cassie, in her own little world with the rest of the mise-en scene taken up by the back seat row of a bus.
Throughout this bus journey, digetic sounds are heard such as the other children on the bus eating food, along with close-up's of the people's mouths. This is turned to irony as Cassie discovers a post-it note which is causing her discomfort, stuck to the back of her dress, reading "EAT!" in plain and simple writing. This sequence of events on the bus indicates the representation of Cassie's eating problem, and how these shots are focusing on the problem.
Through the first series of shots, on the bus, Cassie is portrayed as a sort of angel, in the way she presents herself, and how others act around her, and her general attitude to life whilst sitting there. She wears a white dress, and has long blonde hair draping down her back and over her shoulders.
On the bus, there is a subtle theme of children, as there are many close-up's and medium shot's of school children eating, and the small toddler extending a hand with a biscuit to Cassie, al exaggerating the theme of Cassie's anorexia. While Cassie is sitting on the bus, the camera is positioned in front of her face, so her features are clearly viewable. After Cassie finds the post-it note, reading "EAT!", she carefully sticks it to the bus window next to her, which attracts the attention to a toddler, who must be old enough to read, as he/she responds to the post-it by extending an arm, with a biscuit in the hand, towards Cassie, which is shot against the window of the bus. The window is made to look lighter, as if they are riding a bus through clouds or heaven, which also gives another hint of how angelic Cassie is in her setting.
The scene then changes to Cassie walking into her house, which is middle-class, however has a V.W camper van parked outside, a type of vehicle that middle-age hippies used to own, hinting a few things about her parents personalities.
When Cassie enters her house and goes into her kitchen, we immediately see her parents who are also wearing mainly/all white, and who are fondling each other passionately. At this point we see a zoomed in close-up of Cassie's facial expression, a gloomy gormless look, as if to say she was used to but but still felt surprised or uncomfortable. On the wall there is quite a large painting of Cassie's mother, who is naked and attached to a baby. This is shown over Cassie feeding her baby sister. As her parents try to make excuses to go upstairs to carry on their sexual playing, Cassie volunteered to feed and change her baby sibling. We gain a sense of Cassie's relationship with her parents being quite distant, and not as close as it should be regarding Cassie's situation, as when her father asks her about if she's eaten, he hear's her answer, which is an obvious lie about Michelle's breakfast, but immediately runs upstairs for sex.
Cassie's mother is not seen as stereotypical at all, and her dressed in white (aswell as the rest of the family, showing their angelic feeling and baby-like features of their personalities). It also displays another aspect of their "hippy" past, because their clothes are baggy and clean white. This contrasts with the mise-en-scene behind them, of a clean middle-class house, but fits in well with the camper van. The parents seem to be stuck between the two worlds.
Cassie's loose relationship with her family hints toward a reason of her anorexia, something that she can control and maintain in her life, as the rest seems quite unstable.
The whole series of events in the kitchen makes us sympathize Cassie and her home situation, along with her illness. This is enhanced when we see Cassie take on the role of her mother, feeding the baby, and then proceeding to change the baby.
The baby's bedroom's mise-en-scene is quite stereotypical, and nothing is out of the ordinary, it is a typical baby's room. The walls are covered in brightly coloured wallpaper, and the room has a fair few baby toy's in, on the floor and on the desks. There is a pleasant cot with a baby mobile hanging over it, with colourful shapes at the end of its strings.
There are a few close-up's of Cassie holding, cuddling & comforting the baby, but also showing how Cassie is childlike herself.
As Cassie is sitting by the baby's cot, fingering a pill, she receives a text message, that reads "EAT!", she raises herself slightly from her chair, looking worried, and stares out the window. This shows that she is quite worried about people's opinions of her eating disorder. However, it also shows that she covers this concern with her excessive drug use, as she swallows the pill as some non-digetic baby chime music comes in, partially masking the noise of her paren'ts having sex. The music could be seen as comforting to her, taking her to her childhood, but also a representation of how the drugs affect her. The final shot shows Cassie's veiw, staring at the baby mobile above, as if she's a baby in the cot herself. However by the end of the shot the mobile goes blurry, another representation of how the drugs are setting in, but also seeming as if she's about to go to sleep.