TV Drama Analysis: Black Mirror

TV Drama Analysis

In this post I will be looking at two different TV drama's. I will be reveiwing the series breifly as a whole, but mainly analysing the directing of each and contextualising it to my project.

Black Mirror

Black Mirror is an Anthology satire drama series that first aired in 2011 and is currently on it's third season. 

The title "Black Mirror" is a subtle give away to the theme of the series as a whole, even though each episode is different they each have a common underlying theme based around some kind of screen, phone, social media or piece of technology which is what the term black mirror refers to (a black screen of a device that often reflets more of our personality than we like to admit). 

Each episode of the series is written by the same person (Charie Brooker) but is directed by a different person. Which is what makes it such a great show to analyse since every director has a different approach to the show but still sticks to some common stylistic techniques.

I will be primaerilly focussing on season 3.

As an anthology series each episode has a different theme with different charcters, depending on the mood of the episode a slightly different directing approach will be taken. For example the episode "San Junipero" has a romantic feel to it, as a result it uses rather intimate camera angles, we tend to get a lot of close up's and reaction shots. The director (Owen Harris) in this case) is very aware of this and likes to use a lot of reaction shots to help gaige the emotions of other charcters. This is a key thing I picked up on and intend to use in my film. When characters are talking to each Owen Harris likes them to stand oposite each other and tends to stick to the 180 degree rule. However his style shows through when a third character is introduced, he would use a wide shot to inform the audience of the new character and have actors make the most use of the space by moving to stand/sit next to each other meaning we get a two shot that either uses zooms or focus pulls to draw atention to whoevers talking and cutting away to the third character to symbolise to audiences that they are an outisder. While this is a useful technique and i certenly will atempt be encourperating the 180 degree rule and focus  pulls in my film, I must also stick to the style of hitchcock who tended to use more unconventional cuts etc.

When scenes of little dialouge are taking place the directors like to make the most use of space possible. This is a common occurence throughout all episodes, however different directors use different techniques. For example the episode "San Junipero" is heavily character based and as such the director (Owen Harris) prefers to use handheld shots to track the characters movement and has them move around the scene to establish the space and environment they are in, ocasionally cutting away to a new angel which the character soon walks in to meaning our atention is never diverted for two long. This is a very useful directing technique and one that emulates hitchcock very well, hand held camera shots and motion tracking are exellent directing choices that fit hitchcocks style of film making and will be useful to encourperate in my own project.

However in the episode "Hated In The Nation" director James Hawes takes a very different approach to use of space. This episode was much more of a crime drama than some others. As such different stylistic techniques were used in order for the director to setablish the world. Hawes used far more static shots and camera angel cut aways than Harris. Hawes was very foucussed on fine details within the scene (which is common in all episodes of Black mirror and part of what makes it so successful, however Hawes paid particularly close atention to this). Before the characters entered a scene (and even mid way through a scene) Hawes liked to use several cut aways to a camera that might be fixed at a high angel showing all details of a scene; or a static close up of a particuler detail that characters would then have some kind of interaction with, or became involved in the plot line. This is a technique i may atempt to encourperate in my project sonce hitchcock is known for unique close ups and camera angles. 

A particullarly interesting directing technique that I picked up on in this episide was how hawes shifted focus from one character to another. A director like Owen Harris or Joe Wright used more traditional cuts in their episodes. Where as Hawes prefered to use a focus pull to shift our atention, have a character walk in to the shot or break in to a two shot. This is seemingly used mostly to help carry over the line of thought from the last shot to the next, ensuring the mood of and pace of the scene doesn't change to quickly. 

So far I've discussed the differnt approaches each director takes in black morror, but now I am going to look at some of the similarities in directing style that are present in almost all episodes. 

Atention to detail is key, while the writing helps establish the setting it is ultimatly the directors reative decision as to how theese elements are implimented. For example Hawes preffered to use background audio such as news reports or social media outlets to convey certain messages or establish key plot points or settings. Where as Joe Wright who directed the episode "Nosedive" was far more visual with his story telling. As a director he wanted his characters to interact with their surroundings by way of looks/glances or staring at screens (which is common in the show anyway). Instead of using audial clues he places greater focus on props like a phone message or tedy bear as a metaphor for the characters emotions. Their changing interactions with their phone or the fact that they hug a teddy bear demonstrates how calm or distressed they are. In the episode "Nose Dive" audial clues are also used to convey a characters emotion rather than lighting or dialouge (early in the episode the characters phone makes high pitched postaive tones, but as things deterierate, they become harsher buzzes lower tones that have negative asociations).

All directors also block their scenes similarly by having characters either walk entirely in/out of shot before cutting to a new angle. Or when using tracking shots the directors are keen to use as many reverse shots as possible, to constanty re-establish the surroundings, they will show the audience a 180 degree flipped perspective so that we take in as musch information as possible, often changing from a wide shot to a close up or vise versa to maintain our interest. Theese are great techniques and ones I hope to use in my own project since they will make great story telling and give help build up a character profile. I beleive it's important to have an equal blend of visual detail and background information (in the way of sound or music) just as there is in different episodes of the show.

Although quite a dark series many of Black Mirrors episodes take place durign the day, and while each director has a slightly different approach they each choose to rely heavilly on natural or naturalistic lighting. While the set design of the show is heavilly focussed on and intrinsicly detailed the lighting is relativly minimalistic, it is rarley used to demonstrate emotion or mood instead that is done through other visual choices (such as use of props which I mentioned earlier). 

Like many of the directors in this show I want my characters to interact with props where possible to give away subtle hints to their current mood and forshadows future plot points. However I also plan to encourperate more than just naturalistic lighting since I beleive it helps draw more atention to my character foccussed film and hitchcock would aslo encourperate both dirrecting techniques that I just mentioned. 

Overall Black Mirror has a fantastic visual style and each direccotr has a slightly different approach to theor episode. There are a great deal of things to pick up on which i have mentioned, from intricate use of space and, mixing hand held and static shots, to specific sound design that sets the tone of each scene and a focus on props as a metaphor for mental state and used to reflect the dark side of our society. Great use of symbolism is present and I hope to be able to encourperate some of each directors style in to my own work, while staying true to Hitchcock.