30 Rock: Sun Tea

The segment is a way to take the 7 act structure and separate the acts by commercial breaks as to give the audience a chance to breathe. In shorter shows, the structure is a 5 act one. In "segment" we have, essentially, mini stories within the larger episode. And each one must be entertaining enough to dissuade the audience from changing the channel during the commercial break. A drama like House would leave you hinging on a dramatic turn for the worse: a patient getting sicker, House becoming more of a jerk, etc. But for 30 Rock, they just need to leave you hanging on one good joke.

In the episode of Sun Tea, the few breaks we take are at perfect positions. We stop when Liz finds out she has to do something about her apartment; the joke being that her workout video tells her what to do. We come back and then stop again with Kenneth needing to find a way to make things greener around the office; the jokes about "what have little kids ever done?" "they make our wallets and shoes, sir." So this occurs every single time in order to implant something into the audience: a sense of "this will be funny; this will get funnier, therefore I should stick around and watch the rest." And it works everytime.

We also note some technical codes throughout 30 Rock. In this episode, we see the all too familiar "frantic cam" shot. Some call it the shaky cam shot, some like it and others just don't get what it's used for. In this episode, it was used when Liz Lemon was drinking bottle after bottle, in an attempt to force herself to have to urinate, and when she finally succeeds, just as her roomie is walking in, she grabs a flower vase in order to relieve herself in it. The entire time the camera was moving to and fro, causing a sense of unease in the viewer, you felt the frantic situation, it was like that of a set of eyes when desperately scouring for something, like trying to find your keys when you're late for work.

Another is "pushing". Paul Thomas Anderson is a huge fan of doing this with the camera. When a point is made, or a character "gets" a concept, the camera will push into his face. Bascially, we go from a medium close-up to an extreme close-up. This can be used with a dolly, steadicam or tracking shot, but the key is all in the speed; that is where we gain the most meaning. For instance, after the roommate walks in on Liz urinating in the vase, the camera pushes into his face as we see his extremely shocked expression. This is our "ohhh noooooo...!" moment. And we get it thanks to the brilliant camerawork.