sub genres

Technical Aspect

Age Gender Ethnicity Class and status

Physical ability/ disability

Regional identity

Camera

Editing

Sound

Mise-en-Scene

To identify the generic conventions of TV Drama

To identify and explore conventions within different TV Drama sub-genres

To understand how TV Drama conventions are

used to engage a target audience

Television drama is the most expensive form of television genre

A prime time American TV series such as House can cost up to $12 million per hour – that’s about £6 million.

The average cost for US drama is more like $2 – 5 million per hour.

British drama such as Dr Who (60 mins) costs about a £1 million per hour.

the Nadal/ Federer Wimbledon final 2008 attracted over 13 million viewers – but drama pulls them in regularly, and this is what channel bosses and advertisers like.

Bleak House averaged between 6- 7 million viewers which was the same as Life on Mars

This represents 25 – 30% of the audience share in an average week.

Which of the following are TV Dramas? Why? Skins True Blood Glee Casualty The Simpsons Waterloo Road Eastenders Luther Jeremy Kyle Smallville The Apprentice Big Brother Downton Abbey TOWIE

Single or one off drama A drama that begins and ends with one episode. Now seen as event TV. Examples: White Girl, Boy A, Ghosts

Two-Parter Extended drama which encourages the audience to watch across two episodes often by a narrative surprise or cliffhanger Examples: Britz, Trial and Retribution

Serial A continuing narrative set over a number of episodes using featuring some sort of conclusion at the end of a serial run. Examples: Footballers Wives, This Life, Waterloo Road

Series - linked programmes with the same lead characters

where each episode is a complete story. Examples: Spooks, Heartbeat, Casualty, Dr Who Soap Opera – an ongoing, multi-stranded television serial drama,

typically set in an enclosed location Examples: Eastenders, Coronation Street

Using I- Player/ 4od/ ITV Player/ The Radio Times to find examples of each these

Revision Cards – What, where, why,when and how????

Conventions of TV drama and sub genres

Discuss the TV dramas you watch How did you know they were TVD’s? As a group brainstorm what

you think are the essential ingredients for any TV Drama…

Characters – a crucial element, deeply embedded in narratives, consider the roles they play

Narrative – both its overall structure and how it is constructed

Sets and settings – locations against which the story unfolds and which frequently take on a symbolic significance

Camerawork – particular kinds of camerawork are often associated with particular sub-genres

Dialogue, sound and music – sound and music create effects and often underline emotional content

Iconic Signs – these tend to be associated with particular sub-genres

Sub genre Generic Hybrid

Particular sub-genres tend to have items which make them immediately identifiable. Icons that symbolise the sub-genre:

Police cars or ambulance Blue lights Operating theatres and scalpels,

triage/reception areas in hospitals.

Look at you list of TV Dramas

Try to sort the programmes into different types of TV dramas

Each have the same codes (camera,sound etc) but different conventions within that

Each of you will be given a different TV Drama sub-genre to plan independently

You will need to decide Title

Target Audience and appeal

Format

Potential Storyline

Themes

Characters

Mise-en-Scene

Iconography

Key Representational issue in your work

Teen drama – depend on target audience empathising with characters, situations and themes

Skins, Hollyoaks, Grange Hill The costume drama - typically an adaptation of a classic text Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, or a Dickens' novel such as Bleak House. Crime Drama – same as medical but crime instead of health The Bill, Life on Mars , Ashes to Ashes Medical/ Hospital Drama – Interplay between trauma and suffering of patients and staff

narratives that use soap conventions ER, Casualty, Holby City

Consider that this sub-genre concerns age specific situations and anxieties. Relies upon target audience empathising with a range of authentic characters e.g. Skins

Consider that they are often intertextually linked to classic novels or plays and offer a set of pleasures different to own time and space can be one off or a series e.g. Bleak House

Consider the similarities with soap-opera conventions, the interplay between victim and villain and the use of a set of staff (forensic scientists) for narratives e.g. CSI

Crime Drama Conventions

Consider the similarities with soap-opera conventions, the sense of the patients and the doctors, the use of open and closed narratives e.g Holby City

Medical Drama Conventions