The episode im going to review is a red nose day special episode aired on 13/3/2009 as part of the Comic Relief. making Sarah Janes Adventures the first of the six Dr Who spin offs to become success full enough to get a featured video onto the comedy relief which is a great achievement since it was the 3rd spin off.
Sarah Jane Adventures from Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love is a quick cut, fast passed multiple camera production. The episode begins with the Sarah Janes Adventures theme tittle and a very brief part of the theme tune. The first shot establishes the scene with a mid shot it also tracks round to follow Sarah Jane smith but keeps Luke Smith, Clyde Langer, Rani Chandra and Mr Smith in the background. they are all working away on a set which is very lit up and seems very hi-tech. The next shot is a close up of Sarah Jane’s face while the camera tracks round.
This episode's first line is "right Mr smith, that's everything checked" so everything is ready for there new energy reverse beam, so an episode has begun with a load of new viewers who don't know what is happening as they would not have watched Sarah Jane's Adventures before and this episode must be easy for them to understand, so they have had the characters talk about whats going on, for example Mr smith says, "alert an unknown force is locking onto this attic." So you know whats happening at all times, this is great as children will not be confused.
Then with some fast passed cuts between, mid shots close ups and a extreme close up, with 17 different camera angles in the first 25 seconds. It goes on to a conversation with high and low angle shots to show the power between the two parties the power shifts and the angles shift with the power.
Ronnie Corbett is featured in this episode as a ambassador named Rani his more infamous line was "what a whoot, 'The Two Ronnies' which is a old British sketch program staring Ronnie corbett. This is great as older viewers would think back and remember this funny program and for younger viewers they may think hes being silly to be funny. So all viewers get a quick giggle out of it.
Ronnie Corbett plays his character like his sketch show with a simple joke told over a long period of time and he would forget his line of thought. The program like many children's dramas it contains silly comedy as those bobbling balls on a spring attached to a head band and terrible farting jokes with the rhymes "he who smelt it, dealt it". the episode then continues to a serous part of the plot where Rani is sarcastic about his true identity, "its not as if i have a big zip in my head" and which at that point he unzips a point on his forehead and turns into a Slitheen that seems to be rather short.
Sarah Jane Smith - the oldest of the group, the expert in alien tech, a old companion of the doctor. the hero as it was her sonic lip stick that enabled the burst of energy reversal beam.
Luke Smith - The son/adopted son of Sarah Jane Smith, he plays a main roll but not so largely in this episode he played the roll of the as he was no help in the escape of the trap.
Clyde Langer - one of the kids who helps, he plays a main roll but is still played to add plot. he can be viewed as the hero as if it wasn't for his quick thinking they would not have managed to escape the trap.
Rani Chandra - the other kid she is cast to add plot too she was like a princess as she needed the help to be freed from the trap and she didn't really do anything to help the escape
Mr Smith - hi-tech computer that's able to think for its self, Mr smith doesn't have a roll as a character type but if i had to give him one id say he was a helper
K-9 Mark IV - a robotic dog very hi-tech, was once the companion of the Doctor so contains information of the future. K-9 try's to help the captured characters which would make him the hero but he it captured to making him a victim hero as its him the Slitheen wants.
Rani - he is a Slitheen but first comes across as a hero making him the false hero.
tittle sequences, the introduction tittle lasts two seconds as this is for a busy charity event all the non-essentials were cut, so you catch a quick glimpse of "The Sarah Jane Adventures" which is written in purple. the background is a red fluctuation of light and a data streaming. the sound is like a hover turning off. the end tittle is a little longer and holds more sound but the imagery is the same with catching 'a quick glimpse of "The Sarah Jane Adventures" which is written in purple. the background is a red fluctuation of light and a data streaming.' but at the end of this one some white circles fly to the front of the screen the sound is different its overly dramatic but is very sci-fi like.
the sound effects are very basic but are placed in layers which creates a continues play through. beeps and bloops are continuouse while they use the concol, a high pitch sound is used when one of the characters is beemed in, other sound affects are appropriatly used and K-9 makes a boing noise at the end which leaves the viewers with a smile and possibly a giggle.
The backing music is very fitting to the clips they are placed with and works well to complement Ronnie Corbett's lines very well increasing his characters influence, the music turns from cheerful to a more scary music background as Ronnie is found out, the music does change to a more heroic sound when K-9 appears, but soon goes back to the creepy music as Ronnie, aka the slitheen begins to win and the mucic continouse to complement him.
my points of code of practise are
in child drama programs there is no nudity allowed, and this is met as all but one character is wearing trousers with long sleeved tops or jackets one character is wearing a short sleeved top. the one point i could argue about is that the slitheen wasn't wearing any clothes and could be viewed as nudity. As for sex appeal i do not see any skimpy clothing or any sexual related actions.
The matter of death is avoided with a simple trap that stops people from moving and this trap is reversed to save the day, so there isn't any violence. no drugs were taken or even visible on screen so there is no worry of promoting drug use, plus on a previous point since there was no violence there is no gore/horror scenes. there is no foul language or animal cruelty.
The one part i would argue though is the crime the Slitheen try's to commit is a bad one, theft so it sort of counter acts the no serious crimes part of children's drama's, but i guess its ok to bend the rules a little now and again as long as you keep a good moral to the story.
All of the above are unseen and unheard of in children's drama programs as the young mind is easily influenced and if there favourite TV show star is happy beating people up the kids will believe it is alright to do so as well as if they were drink alcohol children may think its cool and will copy it, as the young mind is far to easy to corrupt with simple messages from TV programs or even adverts. the influence can come from drug use, weapon violence or even foul language.
From all of the negative reviews from the parents of the children's, the show would first drop in viewers as parents wouldn't allow there kids to watch and then second be cancelled all together so its bad for producers as they loss money and the next generation of kids are raised badly because of the program but to avoid that rules were laid down so that doesn't happen.
COPY RIGHT AND SAFETY ISSUES
a violation in copyright is a criminal offence since 1988 with the 'Designs and Patents Act'
too lawfully use some Else's footage or images you must first ask their permission, the person who owns the copyright to the products in question. getting the copy right in writing is the safest way to do it, the way you also have a hard copy of your rights to the product. To be safe if you are using the product else where you will want to place a C inside a circle which is the copyright sign but the name of the original owner follows that sign.
according to my other source, copy right does not protect the idea themselves, Copyright law protects the expression of ideas. which i do not fully understand, i believed that Copyright was there to protect music, videos and scripts plus other related products.
Shots used
- Establishing shot – commonly, the first shot of a scene and it will be a long shot to establish the inter-relationship of the area and the characters.
- close up – commonly a shot of the face showing emotion but can be a close up of anything
- mid shot – commonly shows people from waist up for recognition
- Extreme close up – used to show detail or emotion as well as to make the viewers feel a little uncomfortable as you feel there is no need to be that close.
- Long shot – commonly for action or to follow someone’s activity.
- Tilting – the camera remains in a fixed position but moves up or down.
- crabbing – also known as a tracking shot when the camera moves sideways to follow the action or to change the scene’s location/travelling
- high-angle - looking down from above, shows lack of power, to show the losing side mostly used in conversations
- low-angle - looking up from below, shows power or dominance about a character used mostly in conversations
- panning – the camera stays in a fixed position and turns left or right
shots not used
1. Dutch-angle - with the normal vertical axis tilted diagonally
2. aerial shot – also known as bird’s eye view this is a shot looking down aka from a building or helicopter
3. arc shot – a shot in which a moving camera circles round the subject being photographed.
4. crane shot – footage filmed from a elevated position roughly 2nd floor of a house looking into the road.
5. POV (point of view shot) – to show someone’s point of view aka; what they are seeing
6. zoom – is to keep the camera in the same location but to focus more closely on one area.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Raxacoricofallapatorius_with_Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RBibUCmimA
http://www.sgfl.org.uk/E-safety/responsibilities/legalities/copyright
http://www.trademarkroom.com/classifications.php
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7081/is_3_26/ai_n28457434/?tag=content;col1
http://www.dur.ac.uk/m.p.thompson/filmterms.htm#V
