Critique for Papa shirandula

Jacob Nyongesa. 06-0036. Com 264
Program critique
Papa shirandula
The 26th January 2010 episode.
Introduction
Week 1 and 2
This is a weekly show that is aired from 7:40pm-8:30pm every Thursday on Citizen Television. The cast is composed of papa shirandula family, neighbors and workmates where he works as a security guard. He is married to three wives and of the two wives one stays with him town and the rest stay in the village.
Papa Shirandula or Papa Wycliffe Wilson Wilberforce Shirandula Dot Atitwa Inyungula is an old confused man who lives a double life. An office manager to his family, but a watchman to the rest of us! Uncomfortable with his status in life, he keeps his source of livelihood a closely guarded secret, only revealed to his workmates and his beloved cousin. Even his long-suffering, ever-loving, inquisitive wife Wilbrota, is none the wiser! Papa lives on a lot of debts and his miserable pay slip often reads zero, thanks to his frequent salary advances. A humorous, likeable burly fellow, Papa Shirandula will resonate with the ambitions, struggles and values that so many of us hold so dear in a most comical way
I would like to comment on the issues of pre-production, production, and post-production the show can be rated as average according the Kenyan standard which is still shaping up in terms of quality production.
Pre-production
The input in terms of adverts is encouraging. This means that a lot of resources have been used for a quality show; which means market research, getting the cast, knowing the location of producing the show and how it relates to the needs of the audience. The weekly show has been on air for the last four years running and has continued to enjoy a growing audience. A lot of pre-production planning in terms of looking for the location, knowing what kind of cameras to use, is the location outside or inside, who are the main characters, how large or small a production crew is, how long will the show take. All this was put into consideration.

Production
It is a well directed show that is flexible enough to accommodate the daily challenges that a common Kenyan citizen goes through. The choice of having the cast done in the office and at Papa’s home helps one to identify with the program.
The cast members have been able to win accolades locally both for themselves and the TV station. This is according to the station website, with Papa topping the list with two awards, his ‘wife’ Wilbroda one award and the director Mr. Mudegu Kibwana has been voted as the best TV director. Most of the production elements has been incorporated into the show i.e. camera movements, lighting, video recording and the switcher.
Post Production
During this process one can pull up, cut, paste, and join various shots to produce full motion video and audio sequences that is transferrable directly onto an edit master tape for on-air use. Here different camera angles are merged to create a continuous piece of work, and this is evident in the production because we can see shots taken at home and the papa working station. Special effects are also created and by the use of character generation, putting titles to the production is also done during this process. This show is not an exception and we can see this in the comedy show.

Week three
Master control
This is a stage where there is program input, storage and retrieval for use on broadcast. This works like a console in audio broadcasting that has a multiple of knobs used in amplifying, routing and mixing sound. The master control helps to ensure that before a production goes on air it has balanced sound, the different shots are incorporated, this is done by the help of a control room where a technician ensures that there is a co-ordination in the running of the program, he knows when an advert should be played, when to start the show and when to end it.
Papa shirandula producer has incorporated this aspect because as one watches you can feel there is a flow of events and the combination of audio, image ad lighting controls has been employed is professional.
In terms of quality production for an outside audience I would beg to differ because the target audience is limited and what may be considered comical may not be the same case in other audiences.
The producer has used different camera shots, i.e. close up of Papa shirandula to show mad he is with his friend Njoroge for asking him money for a drinking spree, a long shot of the of Mr. Juma Anderson’s car as it enters the gate and as papa struggles to open the gate for the vehicle.
Week four
Turn tables and CDs
Before the program starts the continuity announcer tells the audience about the next program on schedule, in the case of papa shirandula there is a promo for the show and it readies the audience and keeps them waiting.
What comes on air I believe is brought in to the Citizen studio for playback, just like a turn table the DVD is cued in for transmission and because of digitization the operator is helped aided by the computer to play the exact section and episode. Adverts are also programmed in such a way that if a scene is over it plays automatically.
During the post production, music is usually played back from various storage devices such as DAT and compact discs. During this week’s show there is music produced specifically for this show that plays in the background, this is done with the help of an audio console


Week five
Tape recording and playback units
The recording of the show is done on Digital Audio tape, then later downloaded into the computer, edited and then played back for the audience to view. There are several mistakes that the camera men did in today’s show. In one scene the character Wilbroda is out of the viewfinder and hence there is no sharp focus of her, the cameras used are not the pneumatic pedestal rather professional camcorders are used because of their portability and their self contained camera video recording units. Lighting is not really much needed because most of the recording is not inside the studio. The natural ambience can be felt because there is no acoustic treatment to sound.
Week six
Microphones
Camera with a good microphone pickup are used in the production of the show, it is likely some of the microphone used are shotgun which is suitable for outdoor and normally fitted with a wind jammer to prevent any sound alteration by wind or noise.
To get a clear and candid sound the producer has also used the long fish pole boom mike which can be held from different positions, i.e. from above the subjects, below the subjects and sideways.
In some instances I noticed that the use of the omnidirectional to especially when papa shirandula and his family visits Mr. Juma Anderson in their house. However I would suggest that the producer uses the lavaliere mike to reduce the costs of hiring people to carry around the boom microphones. Because the former are mounted on an individual and they can move freely without any restriction as long as they are within the frequency reach. But on the other hand the lavaliere mikes provide quality sound though is not common in outside studio operation.
I also noted that sometimes the microphone used were either too weak to pick sound or too high to cause sound distortion hence compromising the quality of the program.
Generally so far the production is good and a little bit of changes in the production team will ensure that the program receives an additional audience.