a critique of the XYZ show on citizen television

DAYSTAR UNIVERSITY

AN ASSIGNMENT PRESENTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF THE COURSE: COM 264

TOPIC: A CRITIQUE ON XYZ SHOW

PRESENTED TO: MRS.ROSEMARY N. KOWOUR


PRESENTED BY: Steve Waguwa – 09- 0936
email: swaguwa@gmail.com






DATE DUE: 24TH NOVEMBER 2010






ATHI-RIVER CAMPUS




xyz

Introduction
Prime minister Raila Odinga is just about to dig into the fish and ugali set before him for supper however he decides to do a prayer, he thanks God for the food then asks God to take to Hague a son of his who is undisciplined in the party, surprisingly this is just a puppet being filmed in a cramped dining room of a Nairobi home for another episode of XYZ show. This a satirical puppet show that mimics political figures in the Kenyan society, shading light on how they steer the country plus the decisions they make.
The programme is meant to stimulate critical public debate on national issues. Xyz is a programme aired on Citizen television on Monday’s at 9.40pm.The man behind it is East Africa’s best known cartoonist Gado, who has been taking a pop at Kenya’s elite for years and encourages people to question events in Kenya. Gado is also the producer of the show.
The puppets are made from latex imported from France and the eyes from Britain. During filming two people are needed to operate a puppet-one manipulates the eyes using a special gadget connected to them and the other moves the body and the mouth. Shooting takes a whooping 24hours, and the crew manipulating the puppets must be quite strong to stand the strain, their choice of using puppets is perhaps a strong point because this kind of art is creative as it combines words, static and three dimensional aspects. The show appears quite simple because the puppets are super imposed on a screen, the background is not real and has been graphically generated, you can easily notice this because the image on the background is still while the puppet is the only thing that is moving, but don’t be cheated- each puppet cost around 2-3,000 dollars.
The show is currently on season two and going strong despite lapses here and there, we will look at a few episodes of xyz show while pointing out a few issues here and there.


Episode5
The main event in this show is when Raila was in hospital, as usual the presenter introduces the show but this time however the presenter says that they have a XYZ exclusive on the report. In the background there is a poster written Raila’s shower, they zoom in to the poster then cut to a wide shot of all of them: Raila, bishop Margaret Wanjiru, Ida Odinga.Raila is on the bed while Bishop Margaret Wanjiru is preaching beside the bed. Kalonzo appears from below in an unceremonious manner and then they both start to sing, in that set the coordination is quite wanting
Episode 6
A long shot of Raila and Kilonzo at the urinal with their backs facing the camera after which they give a side shot of both of them in that you can now see their faces. When they are talking the camera gives a close up of both their faces, all of a sudden Kalonzo is looking at Raila’s point of action. After they finish the shot jumps to the sink where they are struggling over who is going to wash his hand, they actually don’t show them walking to the sink this is because they do not show the lower part of the body most of the times, just the upper part. Now a close up of Raila saying Kalonzo shouldn’t be there, now an over the shoulder shot of Kalonzo insisting he is the third principle and deserves respect, then a close up of Kalonzo holding a mop looking angry in the face, then a close up of Raila’s face which is also angry, at this point the screen goes blank.


Episode 7
I found this episode really fascinating, it starts with a medium shot of honorable Prime Minister Raila Odinga on a table in front of him then he is praying. While he is praying the camera zooms in on the fried fish then zooms out and its back to the medium shot, here the background is real, they are actually in a dining room. In the prayer he thanks God about the ugali and fish from Migingo Island in front of him and asks God to take to Hague a son of his who is undisciplined in the party. The lighting is superb in this set, there are no dark shadows, everything is clear
Episode 8
This episode was mainly about the late Michael Jackson. As usual the presenter aka Jonah reads the news, while he is reading the news a small photo of Michael Jackson is shown inset. After he has finished reading the news the photo that was inset is zoomed in and on screen is Michael Jackson’s afterlife. He is in heaven in the middle of a sea of clouds that have been generated by graphics software amazingly they are moving a little. In this set Michael Jackson is being questioned by God, he’s among the clouds, a huge grumbling voice is heard, however that God is not visible, the strong commanding voice is used to depict that the person talking is actually God himself. This set is about how he faring on in the after life
Episode 9
This episode was about salary increment by members of parliament, the show starts with a shot of a presenter who resembles Churchill (Daniel Ndambuki)-Jonah, the set up is like a news room where he is the presenter. There is a medium shot of him, behind him there is a small screen that shows what he is about to tell. After he introduces the show he proceeds onto his first story which is about the salary increment for Members of Parliament. After that the screen changes and it’s the MPs’ in parliament, behind them there is a photo of parliament building showing the inside of parliament. Here we have Raila, Ruto, Kibaki and Kalonzo murmuring amongst each other, their heads shaking rhythmically in unison, the background has a brown shade to depict furniture in parliament while the MPs’ are dressed in suits for the occasion. All of a sudden a close up of the speaker is brought onto the screen and he is saying “if you feel sufficiently philanthropic you should march out”
Episode 11
In this episode, Jonah got some answers from the oval office; the results of designer genes’ were profiled while musical notes rang out loud from a trio of principals. This episode depicted the principals battling out on project fame; they took it to the next level on the xyz project fame 2 segment. This set was full of bright lights so as to create the mood for celebration, fun. There are many bright colors and the principals are dressed in fancy dressing so as to enhance the mood.
Episode 12
The theme of this episode was ‘the newspaper’ it started with Jonah as usual, he introduced the show. After Jonah introduced the show a close up of the newspaper was brought onto the screen, the newspaper had photos which were moving, and this tells us that the puppets had been fixed onto the newspaper using graphics editor software. Apparently Raila was the one reading the newspaper which was talking about the bad things happening in government. Another eye catching area in this episode was when Jonah interrogated the xyz principals to try and ascertain their comprehension of the issues, the results were rather interesting. First it was a wide shot of all the principles who had sat on a table with the top part of the body only visible, whenever a principle was talking the camera gave a close up then retreated to a wide shot so on and so forth.

Episode 13
This episode is the season finale for season 1; during this episode Jonah a member of xyz presented an extended special edition of the show where he took the audiences into the xyz studios to meet the amazing Kenyan artists behind the show. Gado says that one of the things they are truly proud about the show is that it’s being together by Kenyans. This episode came out as an appreciation to the audience.

Episode 15
This episode is rather dry. Kibaki is standing in front of a dais with a poster saying ‘funeral in progress, onyo,no hawking,no politics’ in the background. Kibaki is super imposed on the background. They give a medium shot of him saying “kazi yako ni kuproduce tu, na ukiendelea na hiyo tabia utakufa”. This episode looks very plain and lacks a punch to it; someone walking in during the program will find it hard to comprehend what’s going on.