The Missing
Studying Series 2, Episode 1
The show has 2 series and 16 episodes total, it began filming of season 1 in February 2014 and filming of season 2 in February 2016. Season 1 is set in France and the UK, following Tony Hughes, his wife Emily and their son Oliver.

“The Missing is the BBC’s response to the success of ITV’s Broadchurch which reintroduced the
English language extended serial format to UK drama schedules following the success of foreign
language series such as The Killing and the The Bridge. It is an example of co-operation between
the BBC, STARZ (USA) and the Belgian government’s Tax Shelter scheme”

Witnesses
Studying Series 1, Episode 1
The show has 2 series and 14 episodes total, it is a french TV series created by Marc Herpoux and Herve Hadmar that premiered on 22nd Nov 2014. The second series premiered in France on 15th March 2017

Witnesses (2014 – 2017) – Police investigate when bodies are taken from a cemetery and placed in houses for sale, along with a photo of retired police officer Paul Maisonneuve.

• product of French public service broadcaster – France 2 – associated
with quality, serious drama in continental Europe
• France 2 were able to develop the series in the context of new
opportunities for distribution and exhibition – e.g. the Walter Presents
platform in the UK which is a subsidiary of C4, exploiting broadcast
and digital opportunities. Series distributed in US, Australia, Europe
• style, content and characters of the series deliberately designed to
replicate international success of Nordic Noir in order to target
audiences beyond the national
• The Missing contains a mix of French regional, local identity with more
familiar genre conventions and characters
• the series was marketed using familiar (to national audiences) actors
but focused on the familiar iconography of the thriller and horror
aspects abroad
• the postmodern, hyperreal style is fashionable; internationally
recognizable and popular.

The Missing (2014 – 2016) – A young British woman stumbles through the streets of Eckhausen in Germany and collapses. Her name is Alice Webster – and she was abducted from the same town 11 years ago. Her return sends shockwaves through the tight-knit local community, as her family is thrown into turmoil. As the search for the abductor gathers pace, Alice also appears to hold vital clues to the whereabouts of a second missing girl, Sophie Giroux.

subject matter is both nationally specific and deals with global issues
• BBC Worldwide, as a powerful international institution, is able to
target a global audience unrelated to the national audience
• co-production between BBC and Starz as a means of addressing
audiences and extending appeal across nations
• the second series is promoted in the context of the existing popular
brand which includes the popular thriller genre and distinctive
storytelling based on time slip elements (product identity)
• the cast is balanced to be familiar and different to both national and
international audiences (familiar British and French TV and film stars)
• themes and setting are constructed to appeal to an international
audience: setting Europe and the Middle East. Themes span the
domestic and global – family melodrama, fictionalised reference to
recent wars and themes of immigration
• conscious exploitation of global social media landscape to create both
anticipation and ongoing interest (especially Twitter: 1000 tweets a
minute).

The series was co-produced by New Pictures, Company Pictures, Two Brothers Pictures and Playground Entertainment (Merging) (International)
Although the first story is set in France and the United Kingdom, most of the scenes were filmed in Huy, Halle, Charleroi and Brussels, Belgium,[9] taking advantage of the Belgian Tax Shelter for film funding.[7] Only a few scenes were shot in Paris and London.
(International)
By shooting in multiple different countries they’re able to make the show international
Production, exhibition and distribution, exhibition: 8.5/10 out of 28 ratings on rotten tomato

WITNESS

Marie Dompnier won a Golden FIPA award for the best actress in a television series at 2015’s Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming for her role as Sandra Winckler.^[3] In March 2016

Media Language
The series is visually interesting, constructing a stylised representation of ‘real’ places which
transmit meanings about characters, places and issues. A detailed analysis of different aspects of
mise-en-scene will provide students with a strong foundation to build on in terms of analysing
representations, ideological meanings and audience positioning.

Analysis should include:
• Mise-en-scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
• Postmodernism: Use of pastiche and bricolage
Narrative
• How does the use of the narrative conventions of the crime drama – use of enigmas, binary
oppositions, restricted and omniscient narration etc -– position the audience?
• A narrative approach to crime drama could include analysing the appeals of the structure as
reassuring and predictable – even when dealing with difficult subject matter.
• The narrative of Witnesses can be defined as postmodern in its self-reflexive style –
particularly in its narrative about the family.
• Narratology including Todorov
Genre
• Conventions of the TV series and the way in which this form is used to appeal to audiences;
how it is distinct from, but related to series and serials.
• Definition of the series as belonging to the drama and crime genres
• Analysing the current popularity of the crime genre – how might it work as metaphor for society
• Genre theory including Neale
Media Representations
Witnesses provides a range of representational areas to explore from the national and regional to
family structures and gender roles. All of the areas tend to overlap with representations of nation
signified through aspects of ethnicity, religion and class, while the reinforcement and subversion of
gender stereotypes allow students to consider how representations reflect social, cultural and
historical circumstances:
• Representation of national and regional identity (Northern France)
• Representation of gender: The woman as detective, the male boss, gender stereotypes etc.
• Feminist debates – Violence and the representation of gender. This could include the
controversy around using violent crime against women as popular entertainment
• Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world

Media Language
The series is visually interesting, constructing a stylised representation of ‘real’ places which
transmit meanings about characters, places and issues. A detailed analysis of different aspects of
mise-en-scene will provide students with a strong foundation to build on in terms of analysing
representations, ideological meanings and audience positioning.

Analysis should include:
• Mise-en-scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
• Postmodernism: Use of pastiche and bricolage

Media Representations
Witnesses provides a range of representational areas to explore from the national and regional to
family structures and gender roles. All of the areas tend to overlap with representations of nation
signified through aspects of ethnicity, religion and class, while the reinforcement and subversion of
gender stereotypes allow students to consider how representations reflect social, cultural and
historical circumstances:

Media Language
The Missing is a complex mainstream television product in which the codes and conventions of
the crime drama are recognisable but they are also challenged and sometimes subverted.
Detailed analysis of this media form including the process through which media language
develops as genre will provide students with an opportunity to understand and reflect on the
dynamic nature of genre.

Analysis should include:
• Mise-en-scene analysis
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings

Media Representations
The Missing provides a range of representational areas to explore; gender, the family, place,
issues, events, class

Witnesses (Series 1, episode 1) and The Missing (Series 2, episode 1)

Witnesses – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witnesses_(TV_series)

The Missing – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Missing_(British_TV_series)

CSP Booklet – https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/media23al/wp-content/uploads/sites/58/2021/09/2023-A-level-Media-Studies-Close-Study-Products-v1.4-small.pdf

EDWARD SAID

Orientalism – the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism

JACQUES LACAN

Jacques Lacan’s ‘The Other’ theory suggests that we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, but we use a reflection to understand who we are and who we are not.

Representations of the other are constructed through the lens of western colonial power