This is an evaluation of the soap, The Big Bang Theory.

On the first episode of a new series the introduction of the show is a brief look back at the following on story lines. This is so that the viewers will remember what happened and will understand the storyline in the new episode. The opening credits and the theme tune are fairly short but this s required as the episodes are only between 20.5 minutes and 22.5 minutes so the introduction is only 23 seconds long. The theme song is upbeat which is used because the show is a comedy and the upbeat music will make the viewer happy and ready for the show. In the theme song the lyrics are about science and this fits well because the show is about a group of nerdy scientists. The setting is pretty much the same in all episodes. They use the living room as the main setting for most of the episodes. They d occasionally use other settings but there regular every day to day settings like friend’s apartments, a car, bedrooms or workplaces. The cast is very small and started of with only 5 main characters but has grown to 7 main characters and several other commonly occurring characters. There is a variety of characters with different backgrounds and ethnicities, one Indian, a Jewish man (Howard) person, a Catholic woman (Bernadette) and several white atheists. One of the characters (penny) is a lower working class to the others who are highly regarded scientists, but one of them (Raj) is from a very rich family. Tis gives a good contrast in classes, a majority middle class with minority upper and lower class. The lighting is fairly neutral and not meant to be very cinematic, the use for the lighting is to draw attention to locations, characters and props in a scene. This makes it representative of real life. The main shot types used are wide shots for group conversation, medium shots for a closer viewing of someone and occasionally shot/reverse shot for conversations with characters sat opposite each other. These shots are used because the show isn’t meant to be cinematic or dramatic its just meant to show the characters play out the comedy which it does well. The editing mainly uses simple cuts but in a sad ending it sometimes fades to black and in a jump between locations a flip transition is used to make it clear the location has changed. The editing is used to build up comedic tension for example a characters face wont be revealed so its unclear who another character is speaking too but when they’re revealed its usually someone unexpected. The episodes towards the end of a season always end on a cliffhanger. This is so that viewers will watch the program the following week of even when the new season comes back the following year.

This is an analysis of the news program ‘news at 10’ by the BBC.

The program does not show what happened in the previous episode at the beginning of the program, instead a news reader and a short compilation of clips about the news that’s coming up later in the program. This is so viewers will stay watching the program to see the bit the wanted to. The opening credits use dramatic music which fits well because often the news read is dramatic and important. The video for the opening credits is clips of the BBC news office and cg abstract images of the earth and words of capital city names which are all interlinked by lines. This shows that they read news from all over the world. the setting is the same in every episode. Its the news reader(s) in the news room which is a bright modernist circular room with backlit red and white glass walls and floors and a desk in the centre. The cast is usually only 1,2 or sometimes 3 newsreaders and then other newsreaders who go to do interviews with people away from the studio. The newsreader are always smart and look there best, this shows formality and almost always upper middle and upper class. The lighting doesn’t change during the program, its well lit and not meant to be cinematic, its meant to look formal and uniform. The main shot types used in the program are long shots for establishing shots, these are usually of the studio or for interviewing several people and the other shot type is medium close up, this is the most used shot in the news, usually a newsreader sitting at a desk.