House Of Cards
Definitions -
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 locus 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 connotational
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 code -
Roland
Barthes
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 Proairetic Code
(ACTION
CODE)
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
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 (t 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
Rosso
- drink driver,, solicitation, use of
controlled substances.
- Doug – Frank’s sidekick.
- Walker – The President elect.
SUMMARY -
- Set in Washington D.C
- Political drama
- Dog in pain and Frank (protagonist) kills it, sets dark tones of series
- Frank says he is willing to do the unpleasant but necessary thing to kill the dog
- Foreshadows that he is willing to go to new lengths for his job
- dark tense music for dramatic scenes
- Frank helped president win election and feels he should be rewarded
- Frank was meant to be secretary of state, but was betrayed by president
- Frank and his wife Claire both annoyed about the news so he plots his revenge
- Claire was annoyed as she now didn't get to have more money for her charity
- Claire then tells her employee they need to let half their firm go
- Scheming happens at night with dark atmosphere, genre convention - dark scene
- Zoe Barnes is a journalist who wants to get more recognition from the boss
- Wants to work with Frank and guesses the new bill is about education
- Frank now out for revenge working with Zoe Barnes, journalist
- Zoe tried to use seduction to get frank to work with her, determined
- Peter Russo is a congressmen who is in a relationship with his secretary Christina
- He was arrested for drink driving, drug abuse and soliciting, cheated on Christina
-Assures Christina that he was not with anyone
- Frank has a meeting with Donald Blythe and takes the bill to shred
- Instead gives it to Zoe to right up on the paper
Genre conventions of thriller -
- uses suspense, tension and excitement as 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
Genre conventions of a political thriller -
- 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
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 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.
