Today we watch the opening 7 minutes of our tv drama text on Clickview and relate what we learned last lesson about:
- audience pleasures (why audiences enjoyed watching it). What is their relationship like?
- how Emma Peel is presented (including why her representation reflects the 1960s when it was made). Listen to what she reveals about herself.
- how John Steed is presented (including why his representation reflects the 1960s when it was made). How does he come across?
After the introduction to the characters and producers of The Avengers, there is a black screen, that briefly increases in opacity towards the main shot, which is a shot at the beach slowly panning over to the sea. In the sea there is a black mysterious object we can see drifting toward the shore of the sea. This creates a sense of mystery and interest as the audience wants to see what/who the floating object is. After this, the camera has a slow zoom towards the object, and fairly quickly something pops up from the object, leading us as an audience to realise that it is some sort is rusty bag. This further creates a scene of interest and focus as the audience are curious to see what it is. As the bag gets closer to shore, there is a shot that zooms in on a man's feet walking towards the shore. The shot quickly pans up towards the person in the bin bag's head. As the bag is ripped open, we can see a formally dressed, posh young man pop out of it, acting as if what he did was completely normal as he whips out an umbrella. This creates a scene of humour and confusion as the audience find it silly that a handsome young man is dressed in a bin bag and thinking nothing happened, but also makes the audience think, why was he doing that. This makes us as an audience want to keep watching as the mystery side of this initial shot has drawn us in. A short while after this scene we are shown a doorbell in which Steed uses his umbrella to ring with. We get a quick shot to a giant eye opening up and Emma's voice immediately speaking after it. This represents Emma very well, because by the way she dresses with her leather suit and her modern furniture she wants technology to be as futuristic as possible in her flat, as she is a very up to date person. This also creates a very good form of entertainment for the audience back then, as they may be confused or amazed with the future of their technology.
After the door is opened, Steed is greeted by Emma practising fencing with her face mask on with her slick suit. Steed starts trying to create sexual tension by giving her instructions on what to do, and claims it is 'friendly advice.' This creates a good tension with the audience as they like the relationship they have together and their strong bond. Shortly after, Emma tells Steed that his coffee is 'over there' which shows us as an audience she does not want to be put down like that just because she is a woman, which was the stereotype back in the 60s. This makes us feel as an audience she is a very powerful women. Once they start fencing, Emma says she wrote an article for 'the science weekly'. This shows her income and that she is very intelligent, which will further make us feel the connection with her as an audience.
