Ashes to Ashes is a Series which has continued from Life On Mars, which involves the character Alex Drake, DI in phsycology, who has been shot. Because of this, she has woken up in the year 1981, but she is actually in a comative state. She tries to find her way back home with the help of her DCI in this world who was in the last Life On Mars Series, Gene Hunt. Gene Hunt is the mysogonist 1980's homophobic and racialist copper of those times, and misunderstands Alex in her ways of the 20th century. Alex thinks her only way to getr out of her coma, and effectively out of 1981 is to save her parents in this time, who were killed in a car explosion.
The explosion scene starts with Alex as the 1981 child of her time, and it follows the exact scene that happens in the explosion. There is a close up of her sitting in the car that is about to explode. As the young Alex looks up the camera pans to see the small balloon she is staring up at, this suggests to the reader the childish view of the situation as she is pining over the balloon. The music is tense and atmospheric because the audiance know of the explosion that is about to happen, but the characters playing don't. This makes the viewer feel more involved but it also makes them engage with what they are seeing by trying to make the characters understand the situation the viewer knows they are in.
It follows to a close up of the key in the car followed by dramatic music as he turns it. This makes the audiance tense at the suspension of knowing that the car will blow up. But it is followed on to the music of David Bowie 'Ashes to Ashes' on the car radio. This relieves the viewer as the music built up false tension and it didn't deliver the ending people wanted. The song is effective as the tension starts to regrow after the audiance have made the connection that the entire Series was called Ashes to Ashes because of the particular song playing in the car. This diagetic music is played throughout the car at a wide shot of all three relatives in the car, mother, father and daughter, young Alex.
As the camera focuses its attention back to young Alex it then reinterprets as the childish figure of looking out the window at the balloon, which is followed using a tracking shot. This helps the target audiance, who are aged 18 or higher, to understand the feeling of youth again.
Whilst the music keeps playing the camera tracks the image of a man walking alongside, and the connotation to the viewer is that he looks angry, miserable and poor. Sound effects are used as the music makes a loud pitched dramatic noise that keeps the viewer in suspense about what is going to happen.
The camera zooms in on the windmirror that the viewer can identify from the area it has been placed that it is from young Alex's point of view, and it zooms in on the smile in her fathers eyes. This signals to the viewer that he is relaxed and calm in the situation we know he is gathered in.
The music stops suddenly to dramatically move us on to the Alex of the 20th century with the other character Gene Hunt driving in the car. This sudden change alerts the viewer that something is about to happen that could change the course of this. The car is driving and we can tell this by the synchronous sound of the engine that is used in the background. It has been used in a wide shot view to establish to the reader that they are in the car. Diegetic voice is used by the Older Alex to aknowledge the other character in the scene. When the car has to suddenly stop the sound of the horn is used in a asynchronous way to establish that he is pressing it down in anger.
The shot of the van pulling back was a still shot and the image on the truck shocks the older Alex into understanding the situation, her parents are about to be killed. This excites the reader that something else is about to happen.
You then get the image of the younger Alex running out of the car and towards the balloon, this shows the childish youth as she is focused on an mundane object. This is done in a wide shot to see the image of the man who is smoking far away. the camera focuses on this man. The audiance feel connected as they know what danger is about to happen which is also signalled in the mood music. The parents are also shouting from the car oblivious to the incident that is about to happen.
The camera quickly jumps from one scene to another to show the blind hurry of the situation that is happening, this keeps the viewer interested in the situation that is happening.
There is an image of a man running quickly along which alerts the reader of one person who knows the danger. He is shouting 'TIM!' repeatedly, signalling one of the characters that cannot be seen on screen. This suggests to the viewer again of the blind alertness of the situation but also that something is about to happen.
The slow motion of the girl as she gets her balloon, this gives the viewer an insight to the childness view of the young Alex. This also makes the older viewers understand the lack of attention this young girl is paying.
The next image is of the father close up in the car. He is now put close up on the camera so you can see the full image of what he really is. The happiness that was shown firstly in the past two minutes shows the image of what Alex was seeing as a young child, failing to apprehend the terror his face actually shows in the car.
The father is graphicallly changed to see the image of a clown, this image is shown to the plot of the storyline for this epidose and the costumes represents the clown that has been following her in images ever since she was in a coma. the Mise-en-Scene of this costume and make-up reveals to the viewer that he is the man who blew up the car.
This ends with a wide shot of the car being blown up in slow motion. The effect of this is that it is shown as a tragic event, and the graphics work well with the scene to make this car blowing up look realistic. The audiance is hooked as they know that young Alex's mum and dad have been killed, and the audiance is shocked into silence for what is going to happen next....
I particularly like this Series as it reflects the 80's with its Mise-en-scene, the way the hair is permed and the costumes are that of the 1980's. This adds effect to when the viewer is watching and makes it believable that we are in fact in that particular time period. Compared with my House analysis, this again uses music to represent how the audiance should be feeling, which creates tension. I think this type of thing is what I might consider doing, using Mise-en-Scene to my advantage and make the viewer of my opening two minutes believe they are somewhere else or in another time period.
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