LOST

TV Drama ‘LOST’

In this essay I will be talking about how lost creates a sense of realism with sound techniques and how the narrative is structure. As well discussing how does lost fit the conventions of a TV drama and how it affects the audience.

When the title of the season appears it’s creepy and has an echo to it but mainly the volume increase as the title zooms in further to the camera. This effect is shown to the audience to show that this TV Drama isn’t the normal social gathering or comedic type, more of the genre of thriller and suspense. Suggesting that this is mainly suitable for adults or teenagers, the sound would be quiet thrilling for children to watch and maybe off putting towards them.

The narrative within the first episode of lost is that it is very intense, I know this because the first action that happened was that there was a thump of intensity within the first characters eyes (Jack: Doctor of the survivors). As they open, his pupil sharpened to show fear and shock. As the audience whiteness this it has an effect to their minds that something bad has happen. The sound is parallel with his eye opening as the beat hits; it’s an extreme close up because it is only showing the eyes and what is happening. This is the first act of the structure to show that he is the main character of the TV Drama.

As jack lies on the grassland he can hear tropical birds, this suggests that the location is somewhere within the tropical region, the music intensify as he gets up and starts to run. Already this has an impact to the audience that there is an problem ahead, the  audience would of seen an shoe hanging on an tree, this would appeal to the audience because it is an unusually object to be in an area with bamboos sticks 20ft in the air surrounding him everywhere. This is why it would attract the target audience, it makes them think. The camera zooms into the shoe to highlight that it is important with the sound still playing, this builds suspense’s and of course makes them think to what is happening.

Secondly as jack reaches to the beach the music stops for a few seconds so that you can hear him breathing heavily, as he does so the camera pans the area to analyse what is around him, nothing significant only sand and the sea, this helps with the mise-en-scene for the audience to figure out where he is at the moment. The music soon starts up again as you hear an female screaming her lungs out saying ‘HELP!’, this will also capture the audience’s attention because there is no image of the women yet. The sound helps enhance the distress call for the audience to hear whereas for Jack he cannot since the sound is non-diegetic to him; this is because the sound/music is added when editing the movie, because it is continuing to build a lot of tension and suspense.

The second act (the problem or conflict) jack moves further up towards the beach and sees that the plane he was on has crashed, there are bits of metal everywhere, one of the turbines still spinning creating an suction sound, still hearing the female screaming for help! Clearly it is shown that he was in an accident of a plane crash. This would appeal to the audience because it is indicating that he was on a plane and that he is a survivor.  There are many more characters now since he has moved into the main area of distress, this is where some of the other main characters are introduced for the TV Drama, and this is done so that the audience can figure out who are the main characters. The sounds within this act consists of diegetic and non- diegetic sounds, for example, the dialogue from the characters are diegetic, this is because others can hear it on the set whereas if it was the music it would be non-diegetic because it has been edited for the audience at home to hear and the characters on set to not. This is effective because it creates a stronger dramatic scene for the audience to see.

The problem increase as he sees more people in danger and him helping other people from the crash, so far there has been 3 incidents for him to help on, 1: he helped a man out from the landing wheel when the injured persons leg was crushed, 2^nd was a pregnant women having contractions and third was an elderly women not breathing, this gives an better character profile for the audience to see who he is and what he does roughly. 
The action still rises as Jack notices that the wing from the airplane is about to break off and then falling on the pregnant women and the large man (Claire and Hurley). This is the other problem so rushing towards them he manages to save them.
When the explosion happened from the impact of the wing the music stopped, and changed to a sad, distressing tune, this is done because it is changing the atmosphere of what has happened.

The problems hasn’t finished yet because the audience can see that Jack has an injury on his back, he acts calm and moves away from the others so that he can observe himself to what injuries he has.
He asks for help from a woman to if she can help.
Jack doesn’t act in any panic when he sees the wound he has, this shows that he is brave and calm to when there are bad situations.

The music changes as the scene is switching to capture other characters and what they’re doing.
With these captures happening it is indicating that they are some of the main characters that are in the series.

As the panic ease down everybody seems to be calmer since there are safer even though they know they were in the plane crash. This is the third act, the solution, most people are calm and seem to be coping to what has happened and has faith that someone will come for them.

These are the three narrative structures for the first part of lost. Even though there are other people still injured everybody still seems to be calm.

Another problem has occurred, something out of the ordinary is with them, trees falling down and strange noises, this has an effect on the audience and the characters that are there because it is unusual.

The scene changes to when they were on the flight especially to jacks scene. This is because he is the first character the audience has seen. This is very effective it is continuing to create a profile for Jack and what he was doing on the flight. Soon the plane starts to drop. This is where the crash begins.
The flash backs goes to jack.

Another problem has occurred where there is smoke coming from the distance, jack, Kate and Charlie set of to find what’s there, soon reaching their destination they find the front of the plane that broke off. Bodies and blood are everywhere indicating that there were more passengers on the plane and that they were the less fortunate. This helps with the micro elements because you can see the plane, the people within the crash, the camera getting a full shot of the front of the plane, this is done because they need to keep it to the storyline, wouldn’t make sense if it was a car instead of a plane. The characters are wearing the clothes that they were wearing when the crash happened; this is how a sense of realism is created. This is effective for the audience because it shows that they keep their storyline legit and when something changes there has to be something leading onto it.

They give the characters a sense of hope when they see that the pilot is still alive thinking that they have hope of getting and escaping from the island, this is effective because it is misleading for the audience when watch this scene because it makes you think of the possibilities.

 This 3 act structure of introduction, problem and resolution is very effective for the narrative because it helps the audience understand what is happening, who is the people and what is going to be done to resolve their problems.

 Sound in lost plays a very important role because it helps create a stronger tension and better dramatic scene, this is because when the audience is watching the episode they also use their hearing to figure out what is happening. For example in the beginning of the episode as jack opens his eyes a sudden speed like sound struck him as it was parallel when he opened his eye, this is very effective because it is showing that there is sudden shock to him and that there is some type of problem as the music starts to build up to an fast danger type sound track.
Especial with the dialogue it helps to create a horrific scene when in the plane crash, you can hear the cry for ‘HELP’ and the turbines from the plane. This has an effect on the audience because it’s showing how realistic the scene is and how it can relate to them if they were stranded on an island.

Without any type of sound or dialogue watching something on TV would be us less because you wouldn’t understand what happening UN less you has used to watching Charlie Chaplin.
The sound techniques being used are parallel, diegetic, non diegetic.
The first time I heard the parallel sound was in the beginning as he opened his eyes, the reason why it is parallel is because the sound matches to what he does (opening his eye).
 Diegetic sound was everything that natural within the scene for the characters to see and the audience. For example ‘tropical birds, plane turbine, dialogue’ all of these are diegetic for the characters to hear and for the audience.
Non diegetic the sounds that the audience can only hear not the characters, this is effective because it gives the audience the edge of figuring it out to what the problem is.

Lost fits the conventions of a TV drama because it has the structure of a TV drama and it shows the characteristic of them, for example most of the characters have back stories of who they are and what they do. They have the main characters and the sub characters (extras that play little roles), it has the mise-en-scene to portray it as a TV Drama for example, the clothes they wear, and the location they’re in, dialogue and more. Also the icons such as the wreckage from the plane, this is important because it is showing the main of what lost is about within the first episode of lost. The camera work helps with the scenes because it helps build dramatic effects. With different camera angels it helps the audience understand what is happening in the scenes, while including sound and dialogue it creates an even more dramatic scene.
In lost the camera angels are used often because there are a lot of scenes where there a lot of action and fast paced scenes because of running it bad situations, especially when there is some type of monster in the forest watching them, attacking them. This is where the location becomes much clearer because it pans the area to show what is happening in the forest and the trees falling down. This is why the camera work is perfect for the scene so that the audience can understand what is happening.
As the first episode finishes there is a little trailer or scene for the next episode, this is effective because it gives the audience of an insight to what will be happening in the next episode, this is excellent because it leads the audience to continue to watch the other episode and the see if they escape.