House of cards

House of Cards

Language -  mise-en-scene, camera work, editing, sound

Industry

Audience

Representation - female, male, young, old, etc

Definitions

Drama:  What is TV drama? TV drama is a broad genre. At its simplest, it is fictionalised action in narrative form.

Long form TV drama: Long Form Drama is a term coined to describe the recent shift of interest towards television series of high quality that many consider to have replaced the cinema as a focus of serious adult entertainment. Unfolding over multiple episodes, hours, and even years, these TV shows are seen to provide a content, often dark and difficult, and an innovative style that strain against the conventions of cinema as well as network television.

Media convention:  A code is a system of signs which can be decoded to create meaning. In media texts, we look at a range of different signs that can be loosely grouped into the following: technical codes - all to do with the way a text is technically constructed - camera angles, framing, typography etc. verbal codes.

A code is a system of signs which can be decoded to create meaning.

In media texts, we look at a range of different signs that can be loosely grouped into the following:

•technical codes – all to do with the way a text is technically constructed – camera angles, framing, typography etc

•verbal codes – everything to do with language -either written or spoken

•symbolic codes – codes that can be decoded on a mainly connotation level verbal codes. 

Genre:

A genre is basically the category of any type of art or literature, for example categories of movie would be comedy, horror, thriller etc.

Genre Hybridity

Some media texts are hybrid genres, which means they share the conventions of more than one

genre. For example Dr. Who is a sci-fi action-adventure drama and Strictly Come Dancing is a talent,

reality and entertainment show.

verbal codes ...

Synopsis  -   A brief summary of the major points of a written work

Barthes’ Narrative Codes

Roland Barthes

Narratives like a ball of string

Roland Barthes was a semiologist.

If you imagine a text is like a ball of string, can it be unravelled in one way or in many ways?

Open or closed?

texts may be

• ' open ' (i.e. unravelled in a lot of different ways) or

• ' closed ' (there is only one obvious thread to pull on).

Barthes also decided that the threads that you pull on to try and unravel meaning are called narrative codes and that they could be categorised in the following five ways:

The Hermeneutic Code  --  ENIGMA CODE

• The Hermeneutic Code refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence becomes a mystery to the reader.

 • The purpose of the author in this is typically to keep the audience guessing, arresting the enigma, until the final scenes when all is revealed and all loose ends are tied off and closure is achieved.

The Proairetic Code

 (ACTION CODE)

• The Proairetic Code also builds tension, referring to any other action or event that indicates something else is going to happen, and which hence gets the reader guessing as to what will happen next.

Action code - applies to any action that implies a further narrative action. For example, a gunslinger draws his gun on an adversary and we wonder what the resolution of this action will be. 

• The Hermeneutic and Proairetic Codes work as a pair to develop the story's tensions and keep the reader interested. Barthes described them as:

• "...dependent on ... two sequential codes: the revelation of truth and the coordination of the actions represented….."

The Semantic Code

• This code refers to connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word.

The semantic code - any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation.

Eg

A rose can be a romantic symbol, as well as being the new labour symbol.

What genre is the media text

What sub genre is the media text

List the main characters.

–President elect Garrick Walker,

–Linda Vasquez The President’s Chief of staff, woman, Latino! ”tuff as a 2 dollar cheque”

–Frank Underwood, narrator (to the camera) protagonist/anti-hero House majority whip – “keep the sludge moving.”

–Claire Underwood  (Owner of Charity Clearwater Initiative) – dependant on Franks electoral success (Sandcorp) 

–Zoe Barnes Journalist at Washington Herald

–Michael Kern – Recently elected  secretary of state  (frank’s rival)

–Peter Russo -    drink driver,, solicitation, use of controlled substances.

–Doug – Frank’s sidekick.

Editing

Sound

Camera work

Mise-en-scene

Summary-

• Set in Washington D.C.
• Political drama.
• First shot - dog dies, sets the tone.
• Makes character look cold - Frank Underwood is the protagonist
• Shows how politics is ruthless
• Frank meant to be secretary of state but is betrayed- story of revenge against Garrett Walker
• Russo is having an affair with his secretary. Russo is an alcohol and drug addict, soliciting, cheater, and drink driver who constantly finds himself in trouble with the law- Frank has taken him on as an "errand boy" in blackmail.
• Zoe is a up and coming journalist, struggling in the workplace, and his looking for "eyes and ears" in the White House. Frank being photographed looking at Zoe's assets, she uses this to her advantage to use Frank as her source.
• Claire Underwood is the manager in a charity who is struggling with funding the wages of workers, while she is trying to widen the scope of the reach of her charity.
• Juxtaposition - church scene vs sex scene.
• Doug fishes out education bill from from bin to give to Zoe.

Watch series 1 episode 1 of the 2013 House of cards

Identify the main character(s)

Identify the sub-genre(s) of the drama

Discuss the genre conventions of this type of drama

House of cards is a political drama centred around the character of Frank Underwood, with several sub-characters with their own stories that link to Frank. Frank is a congressman and democratic party whip, who was promised the job of Secretary of State after backing the presidential candidate, Garrett Walker, upon his success in the elections. Frank has been betrayed by Garrett and his team and have betrayed Frank in doing so, and therefore he plans to get his revenge against Garrett and his team. Frank's wife, Claire Underwood is the owner of a charity, and is looking to expand the scope of its reach, meanwhile at the cost to her staff, as she does not have enough funding to keep her employees with her, and is therefore attempting to get politician backing to help expand her charity. Frank is also connected at the end of the episode to the character of Peter Russo, who is is political representative, is a cheater, as well as an addict and repeat offender of the law. He is blackmailed by Frank Underwood after being arrested for drink driving and soliciting, and Frank makes him his "errand boy" in his scheme for revenge. Zoe Barnes is an up and coming journalist who is struggling to become a seriously published journalist. She comes into contact with Frank at a symphony event, when Frank is photographed staring at her assets. She uses this to her advantage and asks that Frank become her 'eyes and ears' in the the White House, and that she is able to use him as her source. Frank manages to take a education bill and hands it to Zoe to publish. This getting out in the press is of huge inconvenience to many important political figures linked to Garrett Walker, and this is the beginning of Frank's plot against the newly inaugurated president.

Other genre hybridities include Family dramas-

A popular and well-worn genre, the family drama centres on conflicts at the heart of family life and family relationships. Not to be confused with family-oriented drama, family dramas can touch on such adult topics as incest and political violence.

Thriller conventions

Family drama-

A popular and well-worn genre, the family drama centers on conflicts at the heart of family life and family relationships. Not to be confused with family-oriented drama, family dramas can touch on such adult topics as incest and political violence. Though some American directors such as William Wyler, Orson Welles and John Ford have produced some defining works in this genre, the family drama carries a particular potency in Asia where the conflict between duties to family and individual desires are more charged. Other Hollywood examples of this are in films such as the Godfather and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Steve Neale’s theory of Repetition and Difference.

•Steve Neale states that genres all contain instances of repetition and difference, difference is essential to the economy of the genre.

•Neale states that the film and it’s genre is defined by two things:

–How much is conforms to its genre’s individual conventions and stereotypes. A film must match the genre’s conventions to be identified as part of that genre.

–How much a film subverts the genre’s conventions and stereotypes. The film must subvert convention enough to be considered unique and not just a clone of an existing film.

In House of cards, there is no hero, they all have their own objectives and ambitions. There is no clear hero as of yet which is a break from the normal conventions of the genre in order to make it more unique and interesting to the audience. There is the family drama elements within the relationship of Frank and Claire. 

Thriller conventions

What is a Thriller?

 ► Uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements

 ► Includes many sub genres: Mystery, Crime, Psychological, Political and Paranoid.

 ► Atmosphere of menace, violence, crime and murder.

► Society is seen as dark corrupt and dangerous

► Literary devices like plot twist, red herrings, and cliff hangers 

Political thriller conventions

•POLITICAL THRILLERS 

A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle. They usually involve legal plots, designed to give political power to enemy, while protagonist has to try to stop the enemy. They can involve national or international political scenarios. The common themes are: political corruption, terrorism, and warfare. Political thrillers can be based on true facts such as the assassination of John F Kennedy. In political thrillers there is usually a strong overlap with the conspiracy thriller. For example in the 2012 film Argo, the protagonist has to rescue the American hostages from Iran. 

IDEOLOGY CONSUMERISM

Codes and conventions 

A code is a system of signs which can be decoded to create meaning.

In media texts, we look at a range of different signs that can be loosely grouped into the following:

technical codes – all to do with the way a text is technically constructed – camera angles, framing, typography etc

verbal codes – everything to do with language -either written or spoken

symbolic codes – codes that can be decoded on a mainly connotational level – all the things which draw upon our experience and understanding of other media texts, our cultural frame of reference.

codes can create feelings to the audience through effects and techniques, for example rain in a film and a woman looking upset can make the audience feel bad for the woman and be emotional.

Conventions are what you would expect to see in a certain genre, for example: in a fantasy genred film you would expect to see maybe unicorns, demons, hero’s/villians, strange settings, basically things that are fictional and unreal in our world.

The codes and conventions in media can be separated into 3 groups

Technical (e.g camera angles, movements & shots),

 Symbolic (e.g clothing, colours)

 Written and audio (music etc).

These three distinct groups give the text meaning and determine the response of the viewer.