However in the office the music is very drab which is just like the place where they work, slough, and it ties in with the office in which they work, which is also dull and uninteresting. The roundabout in which the cars are circling in the opening titles symbolises the roundabout way in which a boring office is run. The name slough also symbolises how dull the place is, no one who doesn’t live near there will have heard of it, this shows how uninteresting the place is and how that the office is very boring.
As I was watching the ER I focused my attention on Dr. Corday, she reminded me of a doctor I had met when I was in hospital with broken ribs. It made me think about how a character in a television program could seem so real. Maybe it was the way that she used medical jargon fluently, and bossed her medical students around, maybe it was because Dr. Corday was always in a rush, maybe it was the fact that the had a strong British accent, or it could have been because she had arguments with the nursing staff. It could have been one, many or all of these things, but it med Dr. Corday seem real to me. When I watched the office I thought that some of the characters were a lot like some people I knew from school. Not mentioning any names. The characters I thought resembled people in my class were, David Brent and Gareth. The things I recognised most about David were his cheesy jokes and out dated phrases, and not to mention his hugely inflated ego. I find that David has a distorted sense of reality and that when people put him down, he can see it as a complement. The person who he reminds me of is also like that, and among other traits they share, is that fact that they both attempt to undermine people but fail miserably, mainly when people find out what has happened and attempt to correct it. I can also relate to Gareth, in the sense that I have a classmate who is equally annoying and has a very similar sense of humour. A bad one. But as well as acting very similarly, peculiarly enough they look extremely similar. From the ‘chip grease’ hair to the dark rings around their eyes. It is quite scary actually, when I first watched the office I was shocked at how much it related to my experiences and acquaintances, I am quite certain that many people have noticed this and it could be what makes the office such a popular program.
While watching ER I noticed many different camera angles being used to represent many things. The first thing I noticed was the use of ‘steady cam’ this is a camera that is mounted on a pulley and pulled or pushed across the set, this makes the viewer think that they are following a specific character, it almost felt as if you yourself were there, following the doctors, spying on them if you wish. Another thing I notice was the amount of extras, this made me think of the ER as more real because it showed the viewer how crowded the ER can get, it also symbolised the rushed and busy lifestyle of a doctor or nurse. Also the props play a large part in the realism of the ER, without these it would seem to be less cluttered and a lot less busy, however with proper use of props a sense of realism was achieved by ER. Once again the ER finds another method of conveying a sensation of realism, this is in the lighting, they use very soft strip lighting, this is a cheap method of lighting a room and is used by hospitals and government buildings to save money, it makes the viewer think that it really is a hospital and not just a film set. The office also has many features in it that make it look real, one of these is the office décor, It is very minimalist, but not very modern, this is commonplace in the office cubicle style environment. The photocopiers and paper shredders that you can hear provide a very menial atmosphere and the dull droning sound that they emit is almost a symbol of the harsh reality that is the boringness of an office. The bright lighting in the office area provides no areas where the light is less bright than others; this makes the walls look very uniform, this could also be a slight symbol of the drab nature that is an office environment.
Overall I would have to say that I myself have found the ER to be the more realistic of the two, although that is not to say that the office is not very realistic, in fact it is also quite genuine in many ways, but not quite as many as the ER. I also think that this has effected the ratings, in the sense that the ER is a lot more popular and has had many more famous stars appearing in it. Another point is that the ER has had a much higher amount of series’ and that this was due to the realistic nature of the program.
