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Summary : There has been major progress in the world of communication, especially that of television, during the past few years. Television is this charm box which captures its audience’s imagination. It motivates them to be on an eternal quest for knowledge and to be always on the look for anything new. Moreover, it makes them do more thinking about his life, future, family, country and the entire world. Hence, television raises the cultural level of its audience through good shows. Such shows must be able to carry up with the quick pace with which the wheel of development in all fields runs nowadays. Television broadcasting through satellites has opened new horizons in the field of massmedia which have had such a great effect on the audience. Since it has started, all audience in various countries all over the world have found themselves face to face with a new technology, a technology which has cancelled all geographic boundaries. Possibilities became endless in front of communication through massmedia which had its positive effects depicted clearly in what is called “ the world wide communication village ” . All the above provided going on air with lustre no one can resist. It is the audience’s window over the whole world with its various cultures, visions and ideas which surely differ from his social and cultural circumstances. Furthermore, it is the audience’s means of getting uptodate information about what is happening all over the world. This, in turn, caused the field of television massmedia to be such a competitive one trying to accomplish national, cultural and educational goals. In addition to this, it aims at providing its audience with fun, entertainment, culture and guidance. “Open Sky Policy” appeared as another result of going on air. This policy states that, “Any person or company with enough money can launch his/its own satellite”. This policy became very much in use all over the entire world nowadays causing private investments to be the major owner of live satellites. In addition to this, the transmitted material passes through no censorship or restrictions. This, in turn, has caused different reactions from people; some of them are for this kind of television openness because any trial of lessening or prohibiting live television can only end in failure. Others are afraid of that kind of massmedia invasion for several reasons. The most important of these reasons is that it will carry with it cultures and values different in look and content from those of the local community. This whole case about live television has been closed in Egypt and most of the Arab countries through saying that it all depends on our capability in dealing with this kind of transmission. At the end, we must try to make the best out of this technology by establishing our identity, culture and civilization both locally and internationally. This can all be done through making programs
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which stand face to face in front of the alien criteria other cultures and civilizations try to instil in our society. Such criteria are so muchapparent in the massmedia message presented to the audience through live television. If we do not pay much attention to this issue while the field of communication and massmedia continues developing, we risk losing our identity along with our ability for individual creation. Moreover, we shall not be able to communicate with the other. Thus we shall surrender our minds to him. On the other hand, Egypt along with the rest of the Arab World must keep up with such developments and not stop for the protection of our culture. Our culture is not that fragile and does not need all this amount of conservative protection, yet we must all adjust to our surrounding international massmedia and technological developments. Moreover, we must cooperate in order to provide a look and a content that matches what most of the audience wants and needs as well as what expresses his culture and civilization best. This is the ideal way of culture protection, a way which also makes it able to communicate with other cultures, affects and be affected with them. Since set design of television shows’ is one of the most important elements of the show as it is: · The location where the events of the show take place. · A reflection of the show’s theme and goal. · A reflection of the cultural and historical identity of the country which the television network or channel belongs to. So it means much more than just beautifying, embellishing or making the set filled with comforting and enchanting sceneries. It is rather a technique and a tool used for cultural, aesthetic and artistic influence through various designs presented in different shows. The humungous increase in the number of television channels, earth or satellite broadcasting , led to a same increase in the shows these channels produce. This has led to the appearance of many negatives in the elements of their production; one of them is the set. For example: · The interior design of some shows come out as completely far away from the content of the show itself. This is all due to interior designers who have no further experience than designing stages and cinemas. Thus they have nothing but observation and contemplation. Furthermore, the problems of directing are solved with the learning one’s mistake through experiment way. · The interior designer’s lack of knowledge with the paths the camera is supposed to take before drawing and designing his scenes.
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This is because of the little time in television work and the fact that most directors shoot without rehearsing enough and determining which lenses are they going to use. All of this makes it impossible in most cases, especially if it is a live show we are talking about. Hence, we find that the designer draws a scene that is much larger than what is actually needed so that the studio’s walls would not appear in the shooting. No question that this is a major waste of time and money. · The absence of local identity in the interior design of the set in Egyptian television shows which appear as mere clones of the sets in international shows suiting the social and cultural environment of its country. · The interior designer does not follow the general theoretical rules and bases of interior design when he comes to apply it in designing the sets of television shows. These rules and bases which have to do with form, colour, texture, style and artistic technique. Here, the importance of this study comes in defining the most important rules and bases which should never be forgotten or neglected in designing the set of a television show. Thus the show is able to perform its role and reach its goal.
This study is divided into four chapters: The first chapter gives a quick display of the appearance of the television and how it developed. It is a research study which shows the television’s relation with the massmedia equipments preceding it and how it stood out as a unique one. It also discusses the role of the television studio in producing shows and the importance of the set as part of television shows’ production. This is explained in the following points: · A historic hint about the appearance and the development of the television · The role of the set in producing television shows. The second chapter is a study of the contents of the studio as well as the units and the elements forming the set, its designing and building technique and the conditions affecting it so as it enables using uptodate techniques in order to present something creative in the shows. This is explained in the following points: · The contents and the steps of preparing the set of a television studio.
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· The design treatment of the set of a television studio. The third chapter explains the television image, how it is formed and the conditions affecting such formation. In addition to this, it presents the most important bases and rules used in forming the television image. The chapter also includes a study of the role of design bases in the process of television image formation, considering it as a twodimensional work of art. All of this is in order to reach a system that makes the set design part of the process of television image formation. This system, in turn, can be used in forming a television image which expresses the type, the topic and the content of the show. Moreover, it can also help in using the previously mentioned aesthetic values of the set design so that the image formed can catch the eye of the audience to see what is presented on the silver screen. The researcher in this chapter analyzes the set designs of three contest shows with audience at the studio. The aim is to see whether these designs followed design bases and television image formation rules or not. As a result, the role of such bases and rules is presenting to the audience a good television image which attracts the audience’s attention and makes him get the message intended to reach him. The researcher also uses the results of this analysis in a practical study in chapter four. He chooses “The Pyramid of Dreams” program to be the television show used for the practical study of this research. It is a contest show with audience at the studio which was produced in 2001 and the Egyptian television broadcasted it on its local Channel Two the same year. The researcher displays the show and analyzes its set design outlining its positives and its negatives along with its effect on the reaction of the audience with the show. And then he comes out with a new alternative set design for the show ,with keeping its same scenario and sequence of events. This is done in an attempt to apply the most important conclusions of this study. Moreover, this is done in order to see how these conclusions can really participate in enhancing the positives and correcting the negatives present in the set of the show. The researcher comes out with the following results: · The set design is considered one of the most important elements of the production of any show which influences its general atmosphere. The elements of the set design must all be connected to what the show is generally about, that is, its type and its content which are all determined according to its scenario. · It must be taken into consideration that the idea of the show must be developed after some time through adding new and exciting elements to it.
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· Television production is a massmedia production based on electronic technology. Thus we must all be uptodate with the technicalities of such sophisticated technology in order to reach the perfect bondage between the technical part and the artistic part through using it. · The process of image formation relies heavily on organising the elements of the image in a way that attracts the audience’s attention and makes him follow the events which the image depicts. Hence, it can influence the audience’s response to what he watches. · The twodimensional television screen isolates the displayed shot from the rest of the set, that is, the audience knows nothing about the events taking place on the rest of the set which he does not see on the screen and can be not related to the events of the show. · Image can be formed through changing in three main dimensions all related to the inner space which is being shot and considered the basic factor in forming the television image taking place in it. These dimensions are: § Image formation through designing the elements. § Image formation through organising the elements. § Image formation through choosing the suitable shot. · Set designing of a television show is affected with the subject and the aim of the show. Conversely, the set plays an important role in expressing the content of the show and delivering this content to the audience in a quick and easy way since it is the most domineering visual element in the television image. · The designer uses symbols and abstractions in the set design of television shows through combining like elements in addition to supporting the symbol with the suitable additives until the design reaches the suitable and required result of the show. · The general look in any work of design consists of several elements. As for the set design of television shows, since it is visual work of design, this makes its forming elements related to look, that is, it is seen and can be tasted through vision. These elements are like point, line, space, bloc, shadow, light, texture, and colour.
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