FINAL CRITIQUE

MACHACHARI

Machachari is a children’s program aired on Saturdays at 7:35 on Citizen Television. It is a drama full of educative content affecting children between the age of five to thirteen years. The issues highlighted in the program range from social life, academics to financial growth. Apart from educating the children the programme is very entertaining.  Though termed as a children’s program adults find it very entertaining since we see the actors’ relationship with grown-ups and also their parents.

The program is divided between two locations and throughout the programme different activities happen in the two locations almost simultaneously. The programme showcases the kind of lifestyles lived by children from a well-to-do family that lives in a good city estate and others from a family in the slum. From the well-to-do family we have Almasi and Joy as the main actors. Almasi is about nine and Joy, his sister, is about 6 years. Sophia is their house help. Their parents occasionally appear on-set but they only play minor roles. Mzee Kobe is their gardener and he lives in the slum. We also have Fatso, about thirteen years, who also works for the family

The other location is of two families in the slum. The main actors are Baha and Govi who are siblings. They are about eight and seven years respectively. Another main actress is Stella, who also lives in the slum. Their parents, like the parents from the previous location play only a minor role. Still in the slum, we have Madvd, a DVD vendor who also runs a ‘commercial’ toilet. Other actors come in scene when need be.

Both locations seem to be neighboring each other. Sometimes we follow the children from the slum to the city estate. In most instances, the producer introduces the scenes differently but at one point in the program the activity will be taking place in the same place, either in the slum or in the city estate.  

I watched eleven episodes of Machachari. The programme critique assignment was an eye opener that what I learn in class can be applied or emphasized by watching other peoples work; analyzing and appreciating their work and at the same time be able to identify mistakes and short comings and think of the best ways to correct those mistakes.

The production team has done a great work on Machachari. What stands out is the montage, which is the programme identification. The montage comprises a Swahili song whose lyrics introduce the audience to the character of the actor/actress. It appears on a vertically split screen where on the left side we see video clips of the song. Each actor/actress sings out his/her part and as he/she appears on the left side of the screen, his/her name is generated on the right side of the screen in large legible font. 

The different scenes are introduced to the audience by an establishment shots. The house in the city estate is normally introduced by an establishment shot that is mainly a wide shot of the house which ends in a smooth zoom in. On other occasions, it is a wide shot of the house that ends in a panning left or right. The scene in the slum is mainly introduced by a wide shot of a crowd of people walking on a road in the slum. I notice the producer’s creativity as he changes the establishment shot in some episodes to the tracking shot of a moving train.

As the program is being aired, the audience has to get accustomed to the scenes changing from one location to the other. While some people find it annoying, I think it is a very good technique the producer employs to build the story separately to a beautiful climax. Having said that, I must add that the duration of time each scene lasts before being changed to the other one is too short. I though that the editor should have left more time for the story to build rather that taking us here and there in very short intervals.

The cameraman does an excellent job to tell the story.  Apart from the normal shots we are used to; wide shot, medium shot, bust shot, and close up, the camera man combines shots which bring a very beautiful effect. On one episode where Joy is looking for her piggy bag, the camera takes a medium shot of her lifting the bag to show that she has found it, then the camera man adjusts the camera lens to wide angle and zooms out slowly to let the audience see that her bag had been stuck in a hip of clothes.

The producer using mirrors to show shots was amazing. In one of my favourite episodes where the children had been stuck in a car wash in a quest to have their bicycle repaired, they find out that Almasi’s dad has come to the carwash and hide beside a car. The camera man takes their images from the side mirror of that car. The shot emphasizes that the children are hiding and there is a limited view of them. As they hide further, the camera man goes to the opposite side of the car and takes a shot of them at ground level. On another episode, Sophia, the house help is making Joys hair and she has a small hand mirror. As they talk the camera man goes behind Sophia and shows us what Joy is seeing in the mirror by taking the image of part of Joys head and Sophia’s face as it appears in the mirror. In yet another scene, we see Joy applying lipstick. The camera man takes shots of Joy’s image on the mirror. It creates reality since people apply make up in front of a mirror.

The camera movements employed are the panning right and left; to reveal detail right and left of the subject, tilt up and down, to reveal the whole part of a person or a thing. In one interesting scene, the camera uses a tilt up to satisfy suspense he had created earlier. In that scene, there was a tournament; the children had not been successful in getting their desired guest of honour. He introduces a new guest of honour with suspense. He first takes a close-up of his feet as he alights from a car. A slow tilt up introduces the rest of the body to the face. That is cut and we see the full shot of him. The camera man also uses zoom in and zoom outs to narrow and widen the angle respectively. He uses dolly in and dolly out when he wants to bring the audience closer to the subject. A dolly in works better than a zoom-in when one wants to move the audience closer to the subject/object. A zoom in brings the object closer to the audience.

The camera man also used the different lens angles to enhance the story. In a situation where the producer wants us to see the surrounding of a particular subject, he used a wide angle. An example is when he is showing where Madvd’s ‘commercial’ toilet is situated. We see houses on one side, a path, and Mama Govi’s grocery kiosk. He uses normal angle when the producer wanted to create a normal perspective. In cases where he used a telephoto angle, the objects in the background looked enlarged. One specific angle that I liked was in a scene where the children were climbing a hill. The camera man, on ground level at the top of the hill takes very good shots. First we see the heads, then we see more detail as the children climb to ground level.

In different times, the producer has scenes where most of the camera angles, shots and movements were combined. Other aspects like sound and lighting come out very clearly.  One particular scene brings this out very well. The scene is in the slum. Through the dim lighting and the presence of a lantern on the table, we can tell it is at night. We see a close up of a tin; drops of water are dropping in the tin. That leaves us wondering what that is about. The camera lens is then adjusted to wide angle and a zoom out to normal angle reveals that it is on the floor beside where Govi is sleeping. A further zoom out to a wide shot reveals that all the children have slept on the floor and each has a tin to capture the drops of water. We see a close-up of Govi looking up and a tilt up shows us that it is actually the roof that leaking. We get good sound technique as we can hear the sound of rain drops as they hit the tin. That creates the mood of desperation that the children are in. 

The editor uses a number of editing techniques, mostly he uses direct cuts. Sometimes they work well but in other times, they seem so abrupt for reality. On one particular scene where the producer wants to show the audience that Almasi-who has slept on the table-is dreaming, he uses video editing techniques. We first see a medium shot of Almasi on the table; it is then zoomed in to a close-up. That dissolves to shot of him in black and white which move is a slow motion. They fade in to the previous close-up and then a medium shot of Almasi waking up from the dream. I thought that that was brilliant and also very dramatic; it added variety to the other shots.

The sound was properly done, sounds like snoring of people sleeping whilst two of the cast members talk in hushed voices was well brought out. In other times, the producer employs songs with a fast tempo to create a hurried mood. An example is the scene where Madvd, Govi and Baha are walking towards Babu-who has stolen their bike. The music created a feeling of urgency. The music of the montage also is of good audio quality.

One thing that left me dissatisfied is the way the program ends. Save for the last programme that was aired on November 20, 2010 which is to be continued on November 27, 2010, the other programmes leave the audience hanging. Given that it is a childrens’ programme, I think that the target audience-who are the children-may not be able to think over the remaining part of the story. I have watched some episodes with my daughter and nephews and they always exclaim “aaaahhh!” when the program ends. Critics of Naomi Kamau, who is the script writer, say that she writes scripts per episode and that informs the hanging ending of most of the programmes whose scripts she has written. The producer also rolls the credits too fast that one cannot gather even two names of the production crew.

Conclusion

Watching a programme critically in order to analyze and appreciate its production values requires a good understanding of all the major production elements. I realize that a producer may decide to use a style of production that best brings out the story he/she intends to tell. Looked at critically at another angle, the production style may be found wanting. It is therefore in the interest of producers to tell their story and at the same time observe professionalism in sound, camera; shots, movements and angles, and use of visual and audio editing techniques.