Ellen Rouse-Barron

Single-camera productions use formats such as: Series – a television series broken up into seasons. Serial – a prewritten show with a predetermined amount of episodes. And Single – not breaking up into episodes or series but being the single film/ episode. For example, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ (comedy) is a series, ‘Game of Thrones’ (drama) is a serial and ‘Dirty War’ (drama/ thriller) is a single.

There is also a variety of narrative structure;                                                                                           

Linear – a storyline that progresses in the order of the events (Game of Thrones).                                                 

 

Non-linear – a story that takes place in different time frames, often flashing between different points of time to piece together a fragmented story (Pulp Fiction).                                                                                                     Realist – a realistic story and may even based off of a true story (Bones).                                                  

 

Anti-realist – basically anything can happen, a story that is completely unrealistic (Doctor Who).                                                 Closed ending – a story that leaves no loose ends, and will most likely not have any sequels (Bonnie and Clyde).                                                   

 

Open ending – a story that leaves pathways open for the next episode or possible sequel (Matrix).                                      

Flashback – an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current part in the story (How I Met Your Mother).

Single-camera productions usually have technical elements such as;                                                                                                camera: framing, angles and movements.                                                                                                          Lighting: a range of high-key, low-key, natural and ambient.                                                                                                            Sound: diegetic, non-diegetic, sound effects, ambient, dialogue, voice over,   synchronous, asynchronous, on screen and off screen.                                                                                               Editing: continuous, match-on-action, shot reverse shot, 180 rule, POV, cross-cutting, montage and split screen.                                                             Scripting.

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Single-camera productions also usually built a scene, and build a story. To build a scene you need to find an appropriate setting that’s appropriate to the story, you also need to film in a correct way. For example: if you were to shoot a scene for a period drama you would need a large Victorian building as a setting and would need appropriate costume to fit in with the period. Therefore the design of the set must be well planned before building it, as well as a well-researched place before going there to film.

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When building a story, for example a drama, you need to think about what the time setting is and the world in which it is set in. for example, Doctor Who’s universe is a sci-fi drama and you’ll find something appropriate to the target audience who enjoys aliens and parallel universe in the episodes. You also have to think about the age of the audience to see if the script would be appropriate to the younger audience.