Film Analysis, Comparison between a prime-time news and a news channel

Film Analysis, Comparison between a prime-time news and a news channel

Fox news link (news channel):

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1706741245001/us-officials-keeping-close-eye-on-egypt-after-election/?playlist_id=87485

The topic of this video is the US officials keeping close eye on Egypt after election, because of the Muslim brotherhood candidate that won Egypt's first free presidential elections. Two reporters speak about this, showing images of the president and the doubt of how much power will he have.

Shots and Framing

The report opens with a Medium Shot in which the reporter (his name is never mentioned) start talking about the elections in Egypt. Then, a Two Shot is used to introduce Jonathan Hunt and then another Medium Shot to show him speaking about the decision of how much power shall president Morsi have. Medium Shot is maintained after the pieces of videos and photos that they show about the topic, focusing of course, on the one who speaks.

Camera Angles

The only angle used is Eye Angle, in the whole report the two speakers are shown from a normal height. This the most common angle used because it's natural.

Camera Movements

The only movements in the news are on the pieces of videos that the channel uses to support the fact. Among this videos are movements such as Pan, Zoom and Dolly/Tracking. By not using movement in the studio, the channel implies that they want the audience to have full attention on the one who speaks; there's nothing else to see.

Lighting

The lighting is High Key, showing all the images flooded with light, creating a bright and open-looking scene. All is clear, so there's nothing the channel wants to distinguish. There's no focusing on anything special with the lights; they are showing this as they really are.

Editing Techniques

Shot-Reverse-Shot is the most common Technique in the video, when one speaker gives that role to the another one. The other technique that can be found is the Wipe, used to show the recordings of the president.

Sound

The sound is completely Diegetic, the speakers hear everything that's going on in the video, even when the recordings are shown, the audience can hear only the voices of Jonathan Hunt and the anonymous reporter. Being a common piece of news from a news channel, there's no need to use Non-Diegetic Sound because the NEWS are the only thing the audience need to hear.

Bias

Bias is very clear in this video, Fox News is even recognized for being one of the most Biased channels worldwide. Even the title indicates bias: "US officials keeping close eye on Egypt after election". The whole video and the title indicates and establishes the US as something superior, something that is present on everything. While they could make another thousand stories; Fox News chose to dedicate time to show the world that the US is watching Eyptians elections, because they don't want them to have more power than necessary. So this piece of news is actually with a huge amount of Bias, a "National" one that sees the United States as something taller and stronger than anything else.

CBS link (primetime news):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfmQkNKo_0A&list=UUlzCn8DxRSCuMFv_WfzkcrQ&index=1&feature=plcp

This video shows an interview with the cofounder and actual CEO, the topic is the rivalry between two of the biggest companies of the share market; one of them is new. The two companies are Facebook (the new one) and Google.  The discussion topic is that both companies will now be seen as "enemies" because of their magnitude and influence on Wall Street, using the fact that Facebook share price dropped 11%.

Shots and Framing

The video starts with an Establishing Shot, in which the studio and the people who will participate in the interview are shown. A medium shot follows it by showing Rebecca Jarvis, who is talking to Charlie Rose about the advertising necessary to keep the revenue. After that, a Close Up that shows the three people talking and focuses on Rebecca. The rest of the video, which is an interview with the Google CEO, Larry Page, is in Medium Shot showing Charlie and then Larry giving answers to him about the Facebook Share Drop.

Camera Angles

Eye level is kept during the entire interview, because as regular news there is no need to give anyone a "powerless" or "threatening" position; so normal height is always maintained.

Camera Movements

There's not many movement along the video; the only one used is Pan at the beginning to show the studio; and then to change the speaker. This technique is used to maintain organization on the interview, so the viewer can actually get the message.

Lighting

High Key is used in the studio; which should always be clear, "pure" because the channel wants to give a good image of them; so there's a bright and open-looking scene at the beginning. The interview uses Front Lighting in Larry Page, giving him the appearance of being an honest and good person; answering all the questions with the truth.

Editing Techniques

There are two editing techniques used in the video: Shot-Reverse-Shot is used constantly to change the speaker during the whole video; and there's a Wipe when they pass from the studio to the interview.

Sound

There's only Diegetic sound during the video, because there's no need to put any background sounds or music while an interview is taking place; full attention must be paid to the speakers.

Bias

Though there's not many information and characters that can be qualified as Biased because of the short runtime of the interview, there is one clear Bias in the video and it's the point of view of only one person in front of a problem. Facebook shares dropped; but the video only shows the Google CEO giving HIS perspective about it, there's no point of view of any Facebook authority; so the audience is losing certain amount of information that could be important to understand better the problem. The omission of information is a classic bias, and in this case the one used.

Analysis

So long we have the filming and editing techniques in both videos, but why are they used for? News channel and movie directors among others use this styles to modify the real meaning in the message; so the audience can receive the information in the way the transmitter wants to send it. So the author can produce different reactions in the viewer using the style instead of the substance, and this case in particular is no exception. The ones behind camera can give the audience suspense, thrills or even make them change their ideology. The following lines will show how these techniques in both news videos may change the perspective of the author; based on the way they are shown. To understand in a better way this "twist" that the authors may do the concept of bias must be clear. The definition of bias is: An inclination to present or hold a partial perspective at the expense of (possibly equally valid) alternatives. Anything biased generally is one-sided, and therefore lacks a neutral point of view. Bias can come in many forms. So there is a direct relationship between filming, editing techniques and bias. Personalization, Dramatization and Authority disorder are the three kind of bias that are going to be analyzed, and also the techniques.

           First of all this analysis is going to mention the techniques of the first video (Presidential Elections). The medium shot is the most used type of shot, so it is no surprise that it is included in the video to show the ones who speaks. This shot is plain simple, to gain the attention of the viewer and have a common perspective. The camera angle implied is quite common too: it's the Eye Angle, a natural look at the news, nothing complex. In terms of camera movements, the news while being in the studio doesn't contain any movements, but when showing the videos of the Egyptian President and the militia, movements such as Pan and Zoom are used. This decision has two possible reasons: The videos may be external from the news channel, or the news channel included movements to give the recordings more drama and a sense of concerning. Following up, the amount of light in the video is the High Key technique, flooding the scenery with light; giving an impression of purity in the news: all the images are shown just like they are in reality, so there's no "good" and "bad" guy according to the news (Or at least, that's what they try to transmit). The editing and the sound techniques are nothing special; just the necessary amount to change the speaker and focus your attention on him (that's why there's diegetic sound). Perhaps the most important thing in this video is the bias, which is very clear. Fox News is recognized for being one of the most biased countries worldwide, even the title of the news implies bias: "US officials keeping close eye on Egypt after election." There is a clear case of Authority Disorder in this video: United States, according to the video, is something superior to Egypt; so superior that in this particular case that it has to watch it's presidential elections. We, as viewers, assume that Egypt is somehow a country that needs to be "controlled" in order to be right, but it really has to be? Probably, probably not; but why sustain that an action so patriotic and political such as the Presidential Elections that this country takes needs to be supervised?

  Second, the techniques of the primetime news video (Google CEO speaks about Facebook as a potential rival). Shots and framing in this one are just like in the first; Establishing shot to show the studio and almost constant medium shot to show the speaker in a common perspective. Eye level camera angle is used (Yes, just like the last video) to keep a normal profile of anyone on screen; nobody is the "powerful" and nobody is the "weak one". In terms of camera movement, Pan is the only movement aviable in the video implied for organization and order (So while the speaker switches there should be no disorder). The lighting that this video contains is High Key, so all the video is bright enough to see things right like they actually are,  besides Larry Page interview; which uses Front Lighting to give the public an image of a "honest" and "good" man who only says the true. The sound and editing techniques are another thing in common with the  news channel: Wipe and Shot-Reverse-Shot edition and diegetic sound, both very typical and used simply for attention. Bias is not as relevant or as remarkable as seen in the news channel, the reason: A short run-time and precise news. One thing that may qualify as bias here is the omission of information. Where is it present? By showing the perspective of only the Google CEO, while being a Facebook-related interview. Alright, Facebook shares dropped, but why show the Google CEO only? Why is no Facebook authority speaking? Seems biased. So only one perspective of the facts are shown, a perspective of the competitors of Facebook; so probably Mark Zuckerberg isn't happy at all after watching CBS at night, is he?

To conclude, until now we have the techniques of both a primetime and 24-hours news channels such as CBS and Fox News respectively. In this case (though occasionally it's the other way round) the news channel includes, although in a minor quantity, more editing and filming techniques than the primetime news. So the filming and runtime is more elaborated by Fox News in this particular case, and so is the bias, which is another important topic. Bias in Fox News is something a lot more noticeable that in the CBS video, because the authority disorder is a kind of bias specifically, while the omission of information is somehow a lower "grade" of bias because it doesn't modify the facts, only mention a part of them while the disorder generates a different and totally subjective vision of the events. So as a summary; news channels are generally more biased because they give "their" vision about the facts while transmitting news all day long, and at the same time primetime news offer a less biased and straightened vision (or at least in this case). Whatever the case is, at least now we know that ALL news around the world, and I repeat, ALL OF THEM have bias!