Factual Television Analysis

Tyree

Task 3

3A.

Television, computer, phone.

3B.

Out of all the devices I use to watch television, my television and my computer have the best sound quality because 1) the television I own is an HD television so it features the best sound quality in the house, apart from our other HD TV in the living room. My computer has decent sound quality, but only when the earphones are placed in the speakers, when they are taken out the stereo speakers are loud, but the sound gets very distorted if the volume is too high. None of the devices at my home are fully capable for surround sound at the moment, but the TV in my room and the living room are the best devices that are compatible to be fixed with surround sound.

3C.

If I was watching an action film or a Western that I’ve been wanting to watch for a long time, I, personally would want to watch it with the best possible sound quality. I am a huge movie fan so if I view a film at home, then it needs to be in high definition sound so that I can fully enjoy the film and get a good home cinema experience. If the film I’m watching had good high def picture but had poor sound quality (for example, if there was no HD sound) I would deem it completely unwatchable, because to me, having the best cinema experience comes from the quality of the sound as we all expect the picture quality to be excellent. I cannot become immersed or fully enjoy the film as much as I would want to if the surround sound was really loud. The quality of the sound is most important if the film has a lot of dialogue scenes because the audience would need to follow important plot points, and if they couldn’t, they wouldn’t understand the film and enjoy it.

3D.

Studio audio recording

Programme name: Mock the Week

Channel: BBC One

Date: 10^th October 2013

The reason for using a live studio audio recording on something like Mock the Week is because it is a common convention used in comedy panel shows. If anything, it is a form of audience participation. The audience at home who are watching it on TV would expect to hear the TV audience laugh with the comedians’ witty jokes. I also think that it makes the programme a lot livelier for the panel, and more importantly, the audience.

Location audio recording

Programme name: BBC News at Six

Channel: BBC One

Date: 15^th October 2013

This component is used on all news programmes when somebody is reporting live on location to investigate more in- depth with the current story. This can be useful if the reporter wants to get quick interviews and reactions from passers by, to see what their views are on the matter. Even though this is a common convention, it is also very common for news programmes to have technical difficulties when recording on location.

Interview

Programme name: BBC News at Six

Channel: BBC One

Date: 15^th October 2013

This is also common in news programmes, for this component, the reporter interviews somebody linked to the story or who has an opinion on it, live in the studio or on location somewhere else. This is interesting because they can both give out completely different ambient sounds. If live in the studio, the ambience would be very quiet and the interviewer and interviewees voices would be heard superbly, but if they were on location, or outside somewhere, the sound would be, not bad, but not as good as it would sound in a studio. Also, as I mentioned above, there could be technical difficulties.

Voiceover

Programme name: Stephen Fry: Out There

Channel: BBC One

Date: 15^th October 2013

Voiceovers are sometimes common in UK panel shows, but more specifically in documentaries, like in Stephen Fry: Out There, this programme is both presents and narrates. Voiceovers as narrations are used for expositional purposes to give more information to the audience. Audiences would expect to hear this as documentaries are supposed to be informative for them.

A Moving Sound Source

Programme name: Top Gear

Channel: BBC One

Date: 20^th February 2011

Moving sound source is commonly found in TV programmes such as Top Gear, when the show does the ‘Star in a reasonably priced car’ portion of the programme, we have distorted, bad sound heard from inside the car because it is moving at an accelerated speed. The audience who watch at home should suspect this in every episode, but the sound isn’t all that bad.