Research Texts

In class we have managed to watch Series 9: Episode 3+4 of Silent Witness which is named 'Choices' and was in two parts. In the episode, there were 3 different plot lines which were, at points, merged together. The first and main plot line is part of the opening scene which was the drive-by shooting next to the nightclub. When the two detectives go to inspect the found car from the attackers later in an abandoned industrial unit, this links to them finding a corpse in the next building. This then links to Nikki, one of the forensic pathologists, trying to find out the true meaning behind the death. The 3rd story links to a second shoot-out, and along with the other two cases, the team try and find the gunsmith before anything worse builds up. This also follows the story of a young boy named Harry, who is part of this story. 

The opening scene, as mentioned, was the drive-by shooting next to the nightclub. The first shot we see is the character Ainsley Modest and his fiance, Helen, in the car driving up to the nightclub itself. These are the first characters we see and this is overall leading up to the main story. When they arrive at the nightclub, Helen crosses to the other side of the road and as Modest is crossing, a car drives by, open the window and starts shooting- which results in the death of Helen. We were unable to see any important details as the audience, and we become more aware of what actually happens as the episode progresses. We tend to find out more information as the detectives do, and this helps us feel more involved with the investigation. 

Overall, there are many elements from Silent Witness which help us recognise it as a single camera production. This includes the:

Genre
The genre of the show is crime drama. We can tell this because of the content, mise-en-scene and also the lighting. The lighting is quite dark throughout the episode, and this helps the audience possibly feel more suspicious as darkness have the connotation of mystery. The mystery here is trying to find out the true meaning behind the crime and the actual criminal. 

Format
The format of the show is a series, and we can tell this as the narrative is running over a length of episodes and it will eventually end. 

Camera & Editing
Many scenes shot more than once and then edited together, unlike they would do in multicamera productions. Ways that we can tell that this is a single camera production is because of:
-The locations during the show can be small and compact. This mainly links to the houses/flats as we can see that they are not sets and are generally the real place. We could tell this in this episode as in the back room of Chris's house, it was very tight and actually gave off a sense of awkwardness as it was so cramped. 

Lighting
As mentioned in genre, the lighting is set up to be very dramatic and this helps the whole show have a sense of mystery and crime. Since it is a single camera production the director has more control over the lighting during each shot/scene and this is why the lighting is very effective. 

Sound
Because the scenes are shot more than once as it's single camera, the sound just from the main shots are most likely used and the show is edited together this way. The microphone is most likely a boom mic, however because of the small locations I wonder if smaller sound recording equipment is used.