Prison break

 

Level 2 Media Unit 1C: Narrative and Genre Key Terms

Non Linear Narratives

Victim: Lincoln 

Hero: Michael (Lincoln’s brother)

 

Helper: Fernando Sucre was the one of helping Michael Scofield to get his older brother out of prison and also helping him to start a new life knowing it would be a hard process. Michael knows where to escape and where all the exits are in the prison but in order to escape, he needs all the help that he possibly can get from all the others.

 

Parallel narrative is a story structure when the director incorporate two or more separate narratives that it is linked by the main frequent character.

 

Flashbacks: The Flashback is when Michael’s brother Lincoln was being sentenced to death and had to talk to his brother who were in prison. This tells us that his brother was sentenced for something he didn’t do and now he will be killed because his brother Lincoln was blamed for it and charged for the crime.

 

The Flash-forward is how they are planning to break out through the prison to go to their family and for Lincoln, to get back to how his life was before he got in. This scene is speed up to see what is going to happen after. There is another flash-forward using the same tactic but this time they release what the tattoo on his body is which represents a map of all the tunnels of the prison to get out but in a secret method so no-one can interpret it or understand what his plans are.

 

Time & Space:  One of the Set takes place in a tattoo store in the first scene.  This Set is beginning in the dark then changes to a hostage in a bank in the daylight. It then ends up in the jail cell on the same day. Michael didn’t plan to steal money from the bank, he just wanted to pretend robbing the bank only to be arrested hoping to be reunited with his brother in jail.  The main story is set in the prison because the episodes of the story line are based on him getting his brother out and conduct a ‘prison break’.

 

Cliff-hanger: The cliff-hanger by making the end happening unexpectedly is to trigger a powerful scene and creates uncertainty. The scene is when Michael received a secret about his tattoo which isn’t shown to the camera but we know this because they use non-diegetic sound and we can see that he’s in a tattoo place. Also when the woman asked him to see it again, he doesn’t agree to it as he is worried that she could work out his plan. Throughout his time in prison, he dropped secretive swans made of paper within each of them have a drain hole and this could be a potential marking for the ‘prison break’.

 

Editing (continuity vs discontinuity): Matched cuts / jump cuts, the story continues but conflicts between each setup is used to create flashbacks to refer to the audience. However throughout the episode, the audience can see the editing is used through flashbacks. Matched cuts are being used to perform this shots and jump cuts are being used to jump from one scene to another. The producer  also uses transitions and close ups; there is one particular shot where they closed up on guy’s face being scared and then it overturned to the iris of his eye and then to a close up to the barrelled hole of a pistol.

 

Chronology starts from the beginning in the tattoo place but do not know where the tattoo place is. This when Michael Scofield is getting arrested for no reasons apart from trying to get lock in in the same prison as his brother to help to break through. It shows flashbacks and then the story still goes forward to where he lift us.

 

Subjective & Objective: The beginning is based on personal feelings because the two characters go to the prison for a positive purpose and you can see/read his sensations from his face through the close up shot when he gets into prison.

 

Mode of address & Tone: The tone is slow and very correct, the mode that they use is mainly between the two characters. The storyline is delivered through dialogue between each character and change of scene throughout the episode. Throughout this episode, there are multiple conversations which use slow tone and oppressing mode of address which creates emotions. They also use sad music in the background.

 

Type/Genre: The actions of the film is a cross genre due to the seasons when It has been filmed.

 

Role of audience: We observe the information and consume it has a hypodermic needle.

 

Role for producer: This informs the audience and determines how they’re getting out of the situation and how they leave this on a cliff- hanger.

 

Camerawork/Shots: During the course of the episode, the use of multiple shoulder shots which are normally used when somebody is having a conversation. They use multiple jump cuts to go to the next part of the season or scene. The flashbacks and flash-forwards shows us what it is going to happen in the next scene usually similar to the previous one.