lesson 2 - defining tv drama

8/13/2019 Lesson 2 - Defining TV Drama

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DEFINING TV DRAMALO:Can I define TV drama and its sub-genres?


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What is TV Drama?

Write a list of the TV Dramas you know.

Put them into groups and label the categories.

How have you decided to group them? Why?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThHEcmDBXpghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g-BJr3vk2Uhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQwvR87BNE4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQwvR87BNE4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g-BJr3vk2Uhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThHEcmDBXpg


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Definitions?

Fictionalised action in narrative form, produced for TV.

A story that is presented in a dramatic way.

It is scripted and normally fictional.

Broad genre - includes everything from soap operas toclassic literary adaptations as well as different narrativeforms: single dramas, two-parts, mini-series, series andcontinuing dramas.


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The proliferation of sub-genres has its roots in the 1950swhen the BBC, and then later ITV, attempted to attractdifferent kinds of audiences. It was then that the firstchildrens serials, classic drama, crime dramas, medical

series and adventure series appeared. However, broadcasters still label the diverse range as TV

Drama.


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Sub-genres

A sub-genre is when genres are subdivided into even

more specific categories.

What sub-genres can you think of?


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Teen Dramas

Depends entirely on the target audience, empathising with

a range of authentic characters, age-specific situations

and anxieties.

E.g. Skins


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Soap Operas

Attempts to represent domestic real life which is

recognisable to the audience as everyday and at the

same time melodramatic and exciting.

E.g. Eastenders,

Coronation Street,

Emmerdale.


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Period/Costume Dramas

Often linked to classic novels or plays and offer a set of

pleasures that are very different to dramas set in our

times.

E.g. Downton Abbey


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Medical/Hospital Dramas

We witness trauma and suffering on the part of patients

and relatives with a set of staff narratives that deploy soap

opera conventions.

E.g. Holby City,

Casualty


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Police/Crime Dramas

These work in the same was as medical/hospital dramas

but we can substitute the health context for representation

of criminals, victims and the police.

E.g. Sherlock,

The Bill


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Audiences like choice and different audiences findappeals in different types of media texts (Uses andGratifications, Blumler and Katz)

What is in each TV programme has been constructed to

appeal to those audiences. Representation is constructedyour task is to

deconstruct how it has been created using technicallanguage.


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HW Due Tuesday 28thJanuary

Find and watch a clip from each sub-genre and identify its

target audience.

Identify some conventions across TV drama (at least 5)

How do you know this?

Back up your point with an example.

Upload the clip on your blog, and write your response

One paragraph for each sub-genre

lesson 2 - defining tv drama

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