Shameless exam practice.

Shameless exam question

This clip is taken from the comedy drama series, Shameless. The show begins with a monologue from the main character Frank Gallagher, who is introducing the other characters in the show. His speech enables us to learn about the characters personality and the role that each one of them plays with in the family and the community. This is accompanied with shots of all the characters, which build upon what Frank has already told us. There are both close up’s and mid shots of the characters. The close ups allow us to learn about the children’s temperaments and attitudes as they reveal their facial expressions and for most of the children, with the exception of the oldest daughter, most of them seem to be angry, violent or hyperactive. The mid shots reveal more about their personalities because they reveal more about their role in the family. These shots also help establish that all the children are individuals who have their own personality. The opening shots and monologue, which is diegetic sound, allows us to learn that Frank and his children have a relationship where the roles are reversed as it is the children who have to look after Frank as he is often drunk and not the other way round. A bird eye view shot of Frank lying on the kitchen floor shows this and it also shows that his children are scarred of him as they run away when hw wakes up. In the same shot we see a loaf of bread fall to the floor, which adds an element of comedy to the scene. These opening scenes and monologue also indicate lot about Frank’s situation as we learn that he is a single parent as his wife has left him, who likes to party and we learn that no matter how good of a father we judge Frank to be he loves his children. The monologue is played alongside a piece of diegetic music which continues until the first scene.

The mies-en-scene of the Arial shot when the children are running from the house, suggests that not only are there young children living in the house because of the children’s bikes, which are in the right hand corner of the scene but the campervan at the top of the screen again suggests that they are working class as it is battered, possibly because they cannot afford to fix the van and it also suggests that they do not have money because it is possible that the van is used for holidays. The fact they have a yard also suggests that they live on a urban estate because they there is no grass for the children to play, only concrete and because it is only a small area.

The opening shot is an Arial shot of the Chatsworth estate, the housing estate where all the drama is set. This helps establish the setting and hints at some of the issues that may be addressed in the TV show as we know it is set on a council estate and will therefore deal with issues that effect working class people. The Ariel shots are followed by a number of shots which zoom in on things on the estate such as the children’s play areas and windows on the block of flats. These also mean we learn about the social setting that our characters find themselves in.

When the brother discovers that his brother is gay his shock is evident through the quick editing of the shots of the photographs that he discovers. These shots create a sense of urgency and panic, which the brother is feeling as he discovers he’s brother is gay. The brothers surprise can represent the idea that young working class men are not and do not come out as being gay.

At Karen’s house, Lip has to remove his shoes before he enters. This shows that Karen’s mum has OCD and does not leave the house and doesn’t like outside dirt entering the house. The plastic bag that her mother hands him and the mies-en-scene of the house is clean and is in contrast to the Gallagher’s house, which is unorganised and messy, mainly because of the amount of people living there.