Welcome to the course blog for Towson University’s EMF 140 Introduction to Electronic Media and Film. We’ll be posting our critical review essays here.
Welcome to the course blog for Towson University’s EMF 140 Introduction to Electronic Media and Film. We’ll be posting our critical review essays here.
Introduction to Electronic Media and Film 
Parks and Recreation is an American comedy TV show that was created by Greg Daniels and aired from April 9, 2009 to February 2015. Parks and Recreation had 125 episodes over seven seasons. The show takes place in Pawnee, Indiana staring Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department in Indiana who tries to better her town by helping Ann Perkins, a local nurse that demands the construction pit next to her house be filled due to previous accidents. The two work together to turn the construction site into a park.
I focused on Season 2, Episode 2, “The Stakeout”. In this episode, Leslie sets up a stakeout to try and find out who is growing marijuana in the garden she has in the pit, during this she also finds the opportunity to scout out Ann and Mark’s first date. Throughout, the show is filmed very loosely, which I believe adds to the humor and disorganization of the events that happen throughout the show. This “loose” filming would be better described as quick zoom in and zoom outs, sloppy cuts and the camera itself seems to be handheld throughout the entire episode. The dialog is very short, with a lot of quick back and forth conversations which is the style of humor the show follows, short and dry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkJJd7If0Aw. Parks and Recreation is very similar to aesthetic qualities that The Office portrays, a documentary crew filming everyone. There is not too much change of scenery, it goes from the office to the park and not much more in between. Both The Office and Parks and Recreation have short interview narrations with the characters discussing what happened during the day, or just a short 20 second comment about something that just happened in that scene which stands out as a different quality.
In this episode, there is not much voice over, or music it is based mainly off dialog. The story is told by the interview narrations, every so often during each episode the characters will be filled sitting in a room alone looking at the camera and talking about what is happening in the episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3j64lbavsY. The characters give their opinion on what is going on and this gives the audience a good idea of each characters personality. This is a good and humorous way to keep the plot organized by having the characters discuss the conflicts and solutions going on in each scene. I would say that this episode in particular, shows values of leadership. Leslie is the head of the project and throughout the episode, the plot is following Leslie’s order and the characters all look at Leslie for direction. I also think that the value of accomplishment and accountability play a role in this episode. This episode focuses on trying to keep the project in order and keep their approval to make the park without getting in trouble with the county.
LikeLike