The Missing is an 8-episode British crime drama from 2015 that tells the story of a father's search for his son who goes missing on a family holiday in France. It uses a nonlinear narrative structure with flashbacks and flashforwards to show both the events of the initial kidnapping and Tony's continued search for Oliver 8 years later. The drama effectively switches between the past and present perspectives and makes skilled use of techniques like lighting, sound, camerawork and mise-en-scene to build tension and immerse viewers in both time periods of the story.

1. The Missing

2. The Missing
• Produce:2015
• Director: Tom Shankland
• Episodes: 8
• Format: Series
• Genre: Crime Drama

3. Narrative Structure
The Narrative structure of ‘The Missing’ is a
non-linear structure as it consistently uses
flashbacks to match two time periods. The use
of flashbacks is used to reflect the past of the
father of Oliver Tony, losing his son. The other
use of flash forwards is to reflect the present
where the father of Oliver is continuing looking
for his son, 8 years on.

4. Story Arc
Beginning/Exposition
Rising Action
Crisis
Climax
Falling Action
Resolution
Looking for a beverage, Oliver
releases his hand from his father
and all of a sudden Tony realizes
his son is then missing
Tony, Emily and Oliver are on a
holiday in France
Oliver asks to go swimming
There is a crowd watching the
football match in the bar stall.
The family’s car breaks down.
This could resemble something
bad is going to occur
Tony and Emily inform the
police their son is missing.
In the present the Tony returns to France to
meet his old friend who was a skilled
detective
Location after location, tony and his friend
go to a specific house and search inside.
Scarily, Tony finds an accurate drawing of
the same monkey his son drew 8 years ago
No Resolution is achieved

5. Technical Editing
At the beginning of the missing, the captions used us locations of where they
are which is very important as it shows which period they are in and the
locations. The captions used offer white Italic type captions, this could be
used effectively as it shows the drama is serious rather than un-realistic.
The drama continuously switches between the past and present, the past
being the events of the kidnapping of Oliver and the present of Tony 8 years
on, in search of his son. This is used effectively as the storyline hits to
prospective of the events during and after the kidnapping.
The use of shot reverse shots are used regularly in the drama. It is important
as the audience needs to see the characters expressions and punch of the
events.

6. Technical sound
The Drama uses both diegetic and non-diegetic
sound to add realism towards the narrative. The
drama uses non-diegetic sound to make the scenery
more intense and slow. The drama uses sounds
such as music and the crowd watching the football
because it was an intense type moment so it
contributes towards the realism of the drama.
The drama uses diegetic sound, primarily for
realism. The use of the rain and birds squawking
make the realism and intensity effect the scene and
also the characters expressions.

7. Technical Mise en scene
Lighting used in the drama has a crucial effect for the narrative and theme/
Genre of the drama. The use of low key lighting, symbolizes how the
characters are feeling. For example in the opening scene, the use of daylight
made each character feel joyful and overwhelmed whereas the dark scenes
show how depressed Tony is as the fact he has lost his son for 8 years.
Also, once it is 8 years after the events, sadly Emily’s point of view is always
high key lighting but Tony's is always low key. This could suggest that Emily is
currently moving on and trying to forget about her lost son, whereas Tony is
not as happy as he is trying to reunited and not give up on finding his son.

8. Technical Camera
In the opening of the drama, an establishment shot is shown to the audience to show
where the location is and could suggest where the events of losing his son happened.
Close up shots are very important in this drama because of how intense it is, the
parents are obviously devastated by what has happened so close up shots are
important so that we can see their facial expression clearly so we can understand how
they are feeling.
Once Oliver has went missing and Tony has gone out to look for him, it slowly zooms
out to where you can see the area at almost a birds eye view, this was important as
it makes the audience think and wonder where Oliver could have gone, also,
because of how big the town is, it makes the audience feel emotional and question,
will they ever find him because of how big the town is.
Hand held movements were used in the drama to contribute to the realism of the
drama