Teaching TV Drama

  • Fictionalised action in narrative form produced for TV; Diverse sub genres but all TV drama.
  • The link is that the way all use characters to tell a story
  • Controversy is rooted in whether it is high or low culture – the high prestige of the single-authored drama versus supposedly lower prestige of soap operas etc – economic compromise!
  • But different audiences find different values in the dramas they watch!
  • TV drama is vital to attracting large audiences
  • ‘in a digitally converging environment where new platforms are providing new forms such as ‘mobisodes’ and interactive drama and new means of distribution such as downloadable drama, the impact of the genre is se to continue…it is thus important to find out how audiences relate to them and what kind of influence they may have.’
  • How do institutions shape media products? What are the different ways audiences respond?
  • How far does the media influence the way people think and feel?
  • The media deals not with a ‘window on the world’ but is a constructed representation of it.
  • Genre and conventions associated with the different ones. Also hybrid.
    • Repeated motifs.
    • How industry and audience needs are balanced e.g. if audience turns away then it is modified.
    • Flexible and open to change
    • Reinforcing of dominant ideological beliefs = conservative.
    • But can also challenge and raise social issues.
    • Audiences know what to expect and genres became formulas of predictable ingredients which audiences liked.
    • Central purpose of genre is reaching a mass market.
  • Narrative –
    • Fast-paced, elliptical, challenging, series form, flexi narrative approach.
    • Positioning audiences through character and narrative structure.
    • Conveying of ideologies
    • Reinforcing the idea of causal links e.g. crime leads to punishment.
  • Realism
  • Representation e.g. –
    • Gender
    • Ethnicity
    • Age
    • Sexuality
    • Region
  • Institution
  • Audience – readings of text: preferred / dominant / oppositional / negotiated see p 51.
  • Characters – see Vladimir Propp’s character theory – a set of stock characters with some variations
  • Narrative theory see Todorov :– equilibrium –- disruption -– disequilibrium – -resolution –-equilibrium
  • Representational issues – see Levi Strauss’ binary oppositions – the attraction lies in the mythical resolutions which are possible in narratives in the way that they were not in real life.
  • Gender appeal – some dramas appeal to women others to men.
  • Connotations of mise en scene – creating realism also underlines issues of narrative and representation [think of Desperate Housewives]
  • Intertextuality
  • Camera work – TV drama is most associated with establishing shots, shot reverse shot, medium close up and close up for emotional moments. These particular help to tell the story without getting in the way.
  • Sound – diegetic and non-diegetic which helps to punctuate the action and create effects such as suspense or tension and underline emotional moments.

 


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