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!
