A fan of HTGAWM

So … I told you I was starting this blog to find a place for anything I write / experience during my journey into the film industry. My last entry in this online diary was about an application I was composing which requested a 500 word essay about a drama series that I liked / disliked. As I’m sure you know, once you invest so much thought, time and work into merely an application, you suddenly feel much more passionately about getting the job. You imagine yourself in the role; you imagine what you could achieve and where the role could take you. In your own head, you have the job.. it’s five years down the line and you’ve conquered the world.

Of course, this didn’t happen. I submitted it yesterday.. and at present, it’s the Sunday. No one is in the office so, evidently.. they haven’t got back to me. BUT equally, I’m sure you are sitting on the edge of your seat, craving to know which drama series I chose to write about. WELL, AMBIGUOUSLY-AGED READER, I will satisfy your desires. I was recommended by a friend to write about the American series, How to Get Away with Murder, after I watched the first four seasons in under a month earlier this year. My passionate enthusiasm for the series meant that I exceeded the word limit by two hundred words (700 words wouldn’t even do Viola Davis justice). So I did as anyone did: I cut it to a hundred and fifty words over, left the title as “500 words on How to Get Away with Murder” and am relying completely on their negligence. Fingers crossed.

This is the essay. I wrote it quickly and with vigour. If you like it / disagree with it / have constructive criticism that might help me get the job next time, I encourage you to leave it in the comments.

I’ve decided to write this essay on the American series, How to Get Away with Murder, a legal drama series produced by the powerhouse, Shonda Rhimes and starring the equally incredible, Viola Davis. Even though this series was premiered on ABC in 2014, I started watching it when it arrived on Netflix; I watched the first four seasons quite succinctly through the major streaming service. 

Through the series, we follow Professor Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) and five students whom she picks from her law class at a Philadelphia University to assist her in her private practice. The axis of How to Get Away with Murder is the paradoxical link between the action and our main characters. The series displays a truly out-of-the-box concept which presents the idea that the defence of people accused of murder, equips the individual with precisely the knowledge to get away with it themselves.

Each season deals with a different murder(s).  There are sub-plots that take the form of small anecdotes for characters or different cases that the students undertake.  Equally, there are more overarching plot-lines that deal with a ‘secret’ or ‘personal mystery’ hinted at during episodes and can last for more than a season or two at a time. One of the most intriguing tactics used to create inter-episode interest and employ a constant dramatic irony is the use of prolepsis whereby the viewer sees a few moments in the characters’ future. These flash-forward moments are of the climax of the series (i.e. the night of a particularly problematic murder), they are always ambiguous and the scene which follows them is identified with a time mark allowing the viewer to chronologically piece together the countdown towards this event (i.e. “Three weeks earlier…”).  This device is extremely effective as not only does it pull us forward to what we know is an inevitability and allows us, through the course of each episode, to figure out why it is going to happen, but it also then uses that climax to create another problem which in turn propels the intrigue forward.

One of the aspects of this drama that I really enjoy is the diverse range of characters and, crucially, that none of them are entirely likeable. The driving force of this series however, is its main character, the matriarch, Annalise Keating.  She acts as the omniscient, fountain-of-knowledge type lawyer at first and gets more than one deus ex machina moment during the series.  But having an African-American woman as the lead character provides a platform to explore the experience of a black woman in America today. One of the most poignant scenes of the entire series for me was a shot of Viola Davis sitting in front of her mirror, looking at herself as she took off her jewellery, makeup and wig from the day. It is the first moment in the series, and the first moment that I have seen on television, where a black woman was completely and utterly bare and natural. Being entirely bare at that moment, Annalise Keating then turns to her husband and confronts him about there being a picture of his penis on a dead girl’s phone. It is a moment of complete force where a woman without makeup, her hair done or jewellery, who we automatically perceive as vulnerable because of this, confronts her white husband.

How to Get Away with Murder presents us with a compelling premise which straps us into the slingshot from the very start.  It was a drama series I couldn’t tear myself away from and one I will always recommend to a friend.

 

TV Dramalama

I have decided to apply for a development assistant job at a local TV Production company.  Part of the application is to submit a 500 word essay about a TV Drama series which you have watched; whether you liked / disliked it and why / what would you change.  Pretty standard, a lot of applications ask for something like this and you always end up with the same initial dilemma : which series do you write about it.  This tends to run into a spiral with me that goes a little like this:

• Do I write about a series I’ve already watched or do I watch a new one with an analytical hat on? Is that superficial and will they be able to tell in my 500 word essay?
• I liked the Bodyguard on the BBC but that was huge, would it be like writing about Killing Eve cause of course EVERYONE’S seen Killing Eve (although I haven’t.. I know) and everyone loves it.  Is it more interesting to write about a series lesser appreciated or known? Would that spark interest in the mind of the reader to then go and look at that series which they might not have previously heard about? Does that then reflect on me as a perceptive and curious TV watcher who will watch the programmes outside of the public eye ie to do the cool things before they become cool?
• Is it better to write about something which I didn’t like?! There’s more to say then, there’s more to argue if it comes up in an interview stage. But will that create a weird, superior, arrogant impression in which me, a 24 year old french graduate and actress with 0 qualifications in the department other than the fact that I watch TV, attempts to criticise a programme which has assumedly gone through layers upon layers of rigorous scrutiny and production just to get to the stage in which it is available on national television / netflix?!

I am truly a fence-sitter.  It leads to less problems for my mental well-being.  In my own mind I find myself frequently agreeing, “Let’s agree to disagree”. It is a lot easier, less confrontational and actually gives rise to more things to say, rather than less.

To conclude – I need to decide on a series to write about. I’m thinking of watching the first season of Top Boy. If you have any suggestions, about time, leave them in the comments.

Starting new

To whomever is out there,

I’ve started this blog anew to track my efforts and journey of working within the film production world in the UK.  After living in London for six years and working as an actress there for the two last years, I have moved to the capital of Wales, Cardiff. The storytelling scene in Wales has always had a fully integrated presence in the soul of Welsh culture, in my opinion.  It is not surprising, then, that in recent years, Wales has emerged out of a misty fog (that seems to define the landscape here, it’s the weather system), to tell it’s own stories, in it’s own way and in such a way that people have started to listen.

Apart from my acting background, and the fact that I grew up for the most part of my childhood in South Wales, I have very little knowledge or expertise in the film production industry.  I studied French at King’s College London, which thoroughly developed my analytical and communicative skills. However, as many of us who have done literature-based degrees will know, my time at University mostly taught me how to exude the impression of knowledge and thought, equipped with none such.  Despite the strong argument that I was likely over-charged for this skill, I have since used it to develop my conversational abilities, because much like knowledge, you can also blague interest.  Sometimes this feigning interest turns into a real curiosity, and sometimes it will just dangle like a yoyo attached to your chin as you nod along to whatever topic you’re hearing about.  What you might find about this approach to conversation, is that it rarely leads to conversation; the result of this tactic is more like a lecture with a one-member audience (yourself). This is really what I gained from my degree and one of the most invaluable skills that I have.

My approach to friendship building and ego-stroking aside, I am now in Cardiff and trying to break my way into film production. I am applying for masters and jobs which I am not qualified for (but if my acting taught me anything it is to apply first and train later). Many of these applications are asking me to write various essays on films / series / industries, and I thought I would put my workings out here, on this blog in an attempt to feel productive. So this blog will ultimately be full of reviews / ideas for adaptations / ideas for stories / updates on my life in this industry / whatever I bloody well feel like writing (but mostly film & theatre based).

Sit back, put your reading glasses on and be patient whilst I write some things.