The children’s TV series I chose to analyse is Bernard’s watch, the 2004 re-imagining. The episode I watch is called “learn to earn”, an episode in which Bernard and the other students of Pentup primary are learning the benefits of working hard to earn cash, by cleaning the school. During this mad clean up session, the villain of the series, a small precocious girl by the name of Nicolette, takes a percentage of everyone’s earnings and Bernard by the end of the episode acts as a young time manipulating Robin Hood.
Although the episode was still enjoyable for children I expected more watch using, he only used it twice in the whole episode, and I think that’s the main thing kids like to see is the magic and fun you can do when you stop time. Most of the time Bernard uses his watch for good, to fix things or help his peers out of trouble but a lot of the time at a beginning of an episode he will use it for fun, for example in “learn to earn” during the opening scene him and his friend Nathan are playing on a skate board, when Nathan has a go at flipping it, Bernard thinks it’s a good idea to take the wheels off during the time freeze so when Nathan lands he falls off, but when he lands the skateboard it bends a bolt and Bernard cant put the wheels back on, this then ties in to the learn to earn scheme at school where Bernard will be working hard to save up for a new bolt.
I imagine the audience would expect to see a hint of comedy in it as its for children, see it set in a middle class school and magic involved somehow. All three of these things are involved. It is set in a school with a middle class theme, all the children speak properly and their parents clearly have money. Bernard's friend Nathan acts as the comedy relief for the series with misfortune yet hilarious things happening to him, within the first two minuets of the show, Bernard's freezes time and does something to make him fall over (as i said earlier) this makes it light hearted and funny from the very beginning. And obviously magic is involved, its about a boy who can stop time, but i expected him to use the watch a lot more than he does, i think in the episode i watched he only uses the watch twice, which i thought wasn't enough.
Bernard's watch definitly hits the children's drama tag, he normally has to overcome obstacles with Nathan and helps out other class mates, there is comedy involved so its not all serious. Each character is quite different from the other, they all cover school stereotypes, but in a unconventional manner, for instance the school bully is mean, arrogant, has a small group of followers but is a girl by the name of Nicolette. A minor character of comedy called Robbie is, what seems to be one of the "cooler" kids in the show, but very consious of his looks, "bad hair day Robbie?" Nicolette taunts him, as he goes to the toilet to check his hair she locks him in there, wich starts the basic plot for one of the episodes "own goal". Nathan, who is Bernards best friend in the show, also a clumsy comedy character who gets in trouble but equally helps Bernard out of his a lot. Bernard, being the hero of the show, is a pretty straight laced kid, he helps people out of trouble and doesnt really do anything that bad. Sure he messes about with time and pulls pranks on people but its nothing terrible. Its a kids show afterall.
The conventions of a childrens drama say what your allowed and not allowed to put into the show, for example you wouldnt ask Tarantino to write an episode of a childrens drama because he's notorious for having ultra violance and drug use in his films. Bad idea. You could however have small fight scenes in it if it was a show that you would expect fighting in, say you were writing a show about a group of teen ninjas or spys, they would be expected to beat up bad guys, but not to the point where theyre bloody pulp in a corner. Where some places you can have things like this in I cant imagine any circumstances where there would be drugs, swearing and sex involved. As we were meant to be writing this for the bbc, anything we decided to put in and they dissagreed, they will always have the final say, if i put in a fight scene they thought was too violent they could cut it out straight away. For copyright issues, the writers would have had to come up with a completly original story for each episode, same with writing an original score of music for the series and creating characters. Other wise they would be in a lot of trouble, and the show could potentially be shut down. Luckily its for kids, so the characters dont have to be very deep and can be thought up quite easily. Health and safety around the set, should be pretty obvious to most, like taping down wires, not running on set, easily accesible fire extinguishers.
The majority of camera shots used in Bernards watch are close ups, mid shots and a few over shoulder shots for conversations. Close ups are used a lot to show emotion in the characters face or emphasise the importance of an object. Most of the episodes are shot in midshots and in every episode there is always a close up of the watch in some way, either when bernard drops it or when he uses it. Dramatic irony is used quite frequently aswell, theres a part in an episode "camping out" where Bernard and Nathan are setting up a tent, and as Bernard crawls out of the tent he drops the watch without realising. Just after this happens Bernard is talking to Nicollete and and a splitscreen shot is used to show the audience Bernard and Nicollete arguing and a small girl desacrating their tent, She then also finds the watch without Bernard knowing.
