Wrestling In Tv

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One of the fastest growing and most watched television shows on T.V. right now, is WWF wrestling! As the business grows the budget for production increases the and The techniques become far superior to what they where 10 to 20 years ago. More cameras are being used fire works and lighting and the set designs are being used and changed to bring wrestling into the modern day television and keep people interested and watching their program. In my essay I will illustrate some of their techniques of camera angles, lighting and visual effects used to make the WWF the popular show that it has become. I have chosen the Monday February 18th Monday Night Raw to anylsis Horizontal field of view deals with the close up shots of the actors, where are many different types there is close up (head and shoulders), medium close up (above the bust line), medium shot (waist and up), wide shot (whole body).

The Monday Night Raw is an example of the visual technique demonstrated potential. As the show kicked off the wrestler Stone Cold Steven Austin came out, as he came out the camera went in on a on a close up, then cut fast to the audience's reaction to the star. This is done to create excitement in the home viewing audience to see how all the live viewers are reacting to the star. After the live audience view the camera goes back to the wrestler and gives a close up view into a gradual wide shot, as he was walking down the ramp toward the ring. This method of camera shooting is used in wrestling to create a 3rd person angle, to make the viewer feel he is part of the show that you are moving with him. As Stone Cold Steve Austin entered the ring the camera did a whole body shot so the viewer can see everything that he is doing. This is the similar method that the WWF uses for all their wrestlers.

Camera proximity is another part is Theoretical Approach, this has to do with the location of the camera to where the actor is positioned. Lots of different techniques utilized in the show to create different effects that I will explain. In the actual wrestling matches the camera angles are switching super fast to make it seen like there is more action going on that actually is going on. An example of this is in the main event match up between Kurt Angle and HHH the camera would switch between three different cameras about every three seconds.

Performer space deals with the special effects climax that will draw the viewers eye. When a wrestler comes out to the ring to his music different effects will be used to catch the people's eye. In the episode being analyzed it was noticed the more established wrestlers had more of an introduction (fireworks, longer ring introduction, ect.). The producers of wrestling want to define their higher ranked wrestlers by giving them more stage time and more elaborate entrances, to draw the people's attention to these stars and get the audience hooked on their storylines so they will want to watch the next show to find out what is going to happen to these high ranked stars next. It was also noticed that all the WWF advertisements, websites and their sponsors logo's stood out very clearly when the camera was focused on the particular area in which they may be found.

Comparative analysis deals with the way the camera and the actor move on the X- axis, (if the move toward and back from the camera). The x-axis is pretty much non- existent in the ring action, because the wrestlers need to be able to move around the ring Freely. There are three different cameras around the ring capturing the action to make for more of a 3D look. It was apparent though when the camera's went to do the part of the show that was backstage the x-axis has a more important role. While backstage the wrestlers where usually facing each other during conflictions where moving from side to side when they moved from one area to another. The camera usually did these types of parts using a medium close up showing their bust line and above so the viewers could clearly see the wrestler's facial expressions. The x-axis applies during the backstage story lines of the show. When Kurt Angle and Stephanie Mcman where celebrating their victory against HHH the night before, they where talking face-to-face and moving back and forth; never toward and away from the camera. The camera was giving medium close-ups the whole time, during the segment of the show.

One of the most important parts of production is decided on where the main focus of the camera is going to be focus on/at. A well-demonstrated example of this on the show was the confrontation between the Rock and Hulk Hogan. The cameras kept going back and forth during the huge confrontation between these two stars. The head people in wrestling want to build this match up to be the biggest match of all time at their Wrestle Mania pay per view. You could tell they where trying to get the viewing really into the match by the way the camera and the actors where staged. The two wrestlers where bad mouthing each other a lot back and forth while the camera was doing really fast back and forth close up of the two stars. After they backed talked each other for about 10 minutes they had a toe to toe stare down with the camera had a extreme close up of the two and about every 30 seconds they would show the crowds reaction to their feelings toward what is happening in the ring to generate more excitement for the at home viewers. During wrestling matches the camera will be on the two wrestlers fighting and every so often the camera will do shots of the audience and the ring Announcers.

Lighting techniques are a significant part of generating realism for the home audience. The Monday Night Raw set uses medium lighting on the ring too allow the live audience to capture good pictures. The lighting on the crowd was dark, this is for when a star comes to the ring and poses for the crowd and all the live people take pictures of the wrestler all the flashes from the camera create a strobe like affect on the wrestler.

During some of the wrestler's introduction fireworks special lighting and strobe lights are used to promote some of the wrestler and also used as eye candy.

All of these productions techniques where not present in wrestling 10 years ago.

All of their camera angles lighting techniques serve their purpose in making wrestling the show that it has become, one of the most watched and most exciting shows on television today.