Saturday Night Live Analysis

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With new technologies in broadcast media continue to develop year after year, television is one of the most rapidly changing fields of work in the world. As a result of such great progress over the past few decades, new methods have been developed and employed when producing different kinds of broadcast media. However, certain principles have stood the test of time and continue to be staples in modern day television. When comparing the Last Week Tonight, The Soup, and the first episode of Saturday Night Live, both differences and similarities can be seen in pacing, set design, camera movements, graphic layout and complexity, talent preparation, and lighting. I’ll begin by comparing the two shows separated by the most time, Last Week Tonight …show more content…
The two shows both utilize Chroma keys and Alpha keys to create more aesthetically pleasing backgrounds and entertaining OTS, feature flat lighting on the host, and use a lavalier mic on the host. All of these factors have and remain relatively standard in both satirical and legitimate news broadcasting. However, the differences come with both the visual and written content of the two shows. For starters, the way screen space is used up on both shows varies significantly. While The Soup has an OTS just like LWT, their OTS take up much more of the screen. This is done on purpose to maintain an appropriate shot composition. The size of the OTS allows The Soup to maintain the rule of thirds in their medium wide shot as well as keep the very empty set from looking as empty as it really is. Because LWT has its host sitting at a desk and a closer shot composition, their OTS doesn’t need to be quite as large to make the screen seem full. Additionally, LWT employs the vertical graphic on the left to essentially shrink the screen making everything on it look a bit bigger. A question that may arise is why do these two shows have such different shot compositions? The reason is the different content the two shows feature. Because LWT is based mainly on a single stationary talent delivering news, they don’t need to have a bigger shot prepared for additional people. The Soup on the other hand, features multiple skits that involve either movement or additional talent on the set. Because of this they need their shot to be wider to frame up the skits without the adjustment being to jarring for the audience. The last difference to point out between these two shows is the pacing of the segments in each. LWT is a much longer show and as a result can take more time with each segment. However, this doesn’t mean more time between changing graphics and cutting to media examples, it just