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Contextual research: TV Dramas

SUITS


Obviously I chose this show because I'm rederecting one of the episodes for this project. The show is about a guy named Mike Ross who has a photographic memory and remembers every bit of information he has ever read. Mike's parents have died in a car accident when he was little and since then he was brought up by his grandma. When Mike is in need of money, his best friend Trevor suggests that he should memorise and sell some tests, which he does and gets in trouble for and no matter how much he wanted to become a lawer the doors that led to that path were shut. Afterwards when he was, once again, in need of money, Trevor talked him into doing a drug deal for him which was a set up. Mike being as smart as he is he figured it out and managed to run away from the police and that's how he met Harvey Specter who was impressed by Mike and decided to hire him despite the fact that Mike didn't even had a legal right to practise law. Later in the show we meet Mike's love interest Rachel (played by Meghan Markle), we are more introduced to Harvey's secretary Donna (who's personally my favorite character) and other secondary characters. One of the main reasons why I love this show so much is the fact that it has strong female representation (both Rachel and Donna are very smart, independant and hard working and even the firm owner is a black woman). 
From the directorial side it seems that every episode has a pattern, mostly the scene starts with an establishing/wide shot, then it goes to shot reverse shot, a few CUs, if there's an important person walking in/out there will be a following shot. Also there's a lot of music which usually has classic rock vibe to it.

GLOW

I chose GLOW or Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling because I really liked this show. Most of this shows creators and cast are female and the show itself is based on a true story. It is set in 80's and is about an aspiring actress who loves acting but can't get the part because she's too real. She also want to play good roles and is sick of women playing the week roles and ends up reads male characters lines. The show perfectly shows and in the way makes fun of sexism that existed, and sadly still exists, in the industry. Even though some characters are oversexualised the show still has strong women and deals with things like miscarriage, unwanted pregnancy, cheating, coming out as gay, having a personality dissorder. 
From directorial side it's a bit more complexed than in Suits, there are more shots from diferent angles to show the "wrestling" moves. There are some typical shot reverse shot scenes, establishing/wide shots(that are pretty common in the series to show what's going on in the ring). Also there are good amount of hanheld camera shots (which I did in the first part of my extract).




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