TV Drama Analysis: Inside No.9

 TV Drama Analysis: Inside No.9

Continuing my research in to TV dramas taht would make a good inspiration for my project, I looked in to the fasinatingly unique "Inside No.9"

Inside No.9

Inside No.9 is a british drama series that firts aired in 2013 and is currently on it's 3rd season. Each episode revolves around a different set of characters in a different situation but two things remain the same throughout the season. Firstly the cast is the same in each episode, and secondly there are no location changes at all. Once the location is established no matter how small, the scene does not move.

But this is where the show comes in to it's own, since the location doesn't chage throughout the episdoe the director is faced with a challange and has to ensure that they are using blockin, camera angles sound design etc. as effectively as possible.  

Although the show is currently on it's third season I will be primarilly looking at the first season since it was the only one to have a consstant director (David Kerr) but I will make referneces to other seasons. 

A great place to start is the very first episode titled "sardines". The vast majority of this episode is set in a confined space (a wardrobe). This makes it a directing challange but also a great oppertunity to push foward with this unique style. Lighting and sound are key hear, the director (David Kerr) makes sure that the source of the light is never shown on screen but we can assume that there is a window or a light in the room we see the characters and wardrobe ar in (primarilly seen in establishing shots or the ocasional wide shot). 

The colour and saturation had to be carfully considered to create a realistic atmosphere and it is likley that some colouration or filters were applied in post so that the director could send accross the right message. The editing of theese epsodes had to be carefully considered, having watched an interveiw with the director/writers i found out that when filming this episode and an episode set in a train car, they removed one wall of the set at a time. Meaning the director story boarded each scene out of linier order and made sure to get as much coverage from each amera angel as possible since it would be a big hassle to reconstruct the set. 

This also means that durign the edit processe shots have to be chosen very carfully, in one interveiw with the director he explained how he worked with the editor very carefully since they filmed each episode in a non linier order they want to ensure their specific trends and trademarks are present.

Their are a few main directing trademarks that I picked up on throughout the series. Shot chocie is one of tehm. Most directors like to keep consistant close ups once a conversation has been established, however David Kerr likes to break in to wide shots half way through a scene of dialouge, this is partly to include the relativly large cast. But also to re establsih the location. Although the scenes are often quite a confined space the director likes to show off just a little, and subtly likes to slip in a few POV shots in moments of high tension. This is so the audience can become emmersed as if they were in the room themselves. 

The director also brings their own nique style when it comes to how they shoot the scene. We've seen before that they liek to use a range of shots and mostly use steady or static shots as apposed to hand held so that the audiences perspective isn't removed from the comfined space and expectations are raised. The director likes to create as much mystery as possible which is why in one particular episode ("Cold Comfort") the entire episode was filmed using static shots in a CCTV style. We get a restricted veiw of whats going on meaning we don't know what interactions are happening off screen. This is a very uniqe directing choice and ensured the audience had no idea what was going to happenn next or who would walk on screen, however they didn't loose interest since they had multiple screens/shots to look at, at any given time, giving them the power of choice (but the director would gently encourage them to watch his prefered perspective by only playing the audio of one shot at a time). It is important to note that the use of musi (if used) is kept very much in the background since the director wants full atention on the dialouge and on screen events. Which is a technique i can definatly see myself using in the first part of my own scene.

However it's not just technical choices that makes the directing so effective. Being in one location means that the blocking of a scene has to be as effective as possible. The episode ("A Quiet Night In") is a great episode to look at in terms of blocking. The episode revolves around two burglars atempting to steel a valubal painting from an open plan house while avaiding detection from it's ocupents.

This episode is quite comical as it uses the physicality of characters very well. The director chooses to seperate the two characters quite early on so that the camera has more freesom to move and is not restricted by a 180 degree arc. We tend to have quite a few tracking shots as the characters move throughout the scene on multiple levles. At one point they may be running down a hall, the next they may be ducking/ crouching behind a piece of ferniture as another character conviniently walks in front of said furniture so the two never see each other. When the couple that own the house begin a small fight they make a lot of movement while staying seated and end up rolling over on to their side, allowing the burglers to stand up and dash past. At other points one character will walk in to a room and close the door just as another opens the room oposite meaning the director keeps the movement of the scene constanlty moving foward but never has two things happening on screen at the same time, partly due to shot choice and the way it is edited together. Never the less I definatly picked up some useful directing tips when it comes to blocking my scene and intend to have my characters opperate on multiple levles and use some tracking shots to ensure that the pace of the scene is consistant.

Overall although my poroject is quite diferent from Inside No.9 there are a number of directing techniques I can take from this. 

 

Firstly I intend to use naturalistic lighting in my scenes and have lighting palced very close to characters to create a certain tone that highlights the location. Secondly I intend to mix static shots and tracking shots so that the audience see only what I want them to. I would also like to frequently re establish my location so that we can get a good veiw of the space within the scene that I will have my chatracters make the most use of. Also I will place a strong focus on the scenes dialouge keeping constant sound design backgrounded, used only for atmosphere and not to distract. I also can pick up on the blocking in this series making the most use of my space no matter how small. I will have one character move at a time so that the scene constantly moves foward but no more than one event occurs on screen at the same time so that the audience see exactly what I want them to see.