4. Learning Objectives.
• To know how TV drama is classified
• To understand the conventions of different
TV drama genres
• To be able to identify and suggest key
characteristics for the many different
dramas seen on TV
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5. What is TV Drama?
• What is TV drama? A broad genre - at is simplest, it is
fictionalised action in a narrative form
• Hugely popular – wide ranging audience
• Very large genre – divided into sub-genres, such as
crime drama, medical drama, docu-drama.
• What does genre mean? ‘Type’ - repetition and 5
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variation.
7. Sub genres of TV drama
• Crime drama - The Bill, Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes
• Teen drama - Skins, Inbetweeners
• School drama
• Soap opera
• Family drama - My Family, Smallville
• Medical drama Casualty, Holby City
• Legal drama
• Espionage drama
• Period drama / costume drama
• Childrens drama
• Sci fi dramas – Dr Who, Heroes, Torchwood
• Historical adventures 7
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8. What’s the sub genre of TV drama
are these in?
• Holby City
• Eastenders
• Waterloo road
• Casualty
• Skins
• Coronation St
• Spooks
• Silent Witness
• Shameless
9. Task
• In pairs, each person must think of a well
known TV drama series.
• Think of several facts (conventions) about
the TV drama and give them one by one to
your partner as clues, starting with the most
difficult.
• Your partner has to try and guess the drama
with the least amount of clues.
• Think about camerawork, dialogue, setting
(dont make this too easy!), characters, plot,
10. Group task
• Setting is important in a TV drama as its
often the focal point for all the characters
and its important in establishing a sense
of a real place where a story can exists.
• Often TV dramas are set in a domestic
location or a workplace. Many regional
features may well appear – landmarks,
local accent, dress and customs.
• What settings are used in the TV dramas
you like?
11. Conventions of TV dramas
• Characters - in single dramas small number of main
characters supported by lesser characters based on
stereotypes
• Narrative - both overall structure and how it’s
constructed
• Sets and setting - locations against which the story
unfolds and which are significant eg hospital, police
station
• Camerawork and editing- particular camerawork is
used for particular sub genres eg crime dramas and
period dramas
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12. Conventions of TV dramas
• Dialogue, sound and music - sound and
music create effects and emotion.
Narrative is dialogue based in soaps.
Music drives emotional or dramatic
events.
• Themes and icons - tend to be associated
with particular sub genres eg. the soap
opera’s pub or square - recognisable
every day objects. In crime series - crime
icons.In the single drama varied but often
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13. • ANDY - I ONLY GOT THIS FAR IN
THURSDAY’S LESSON!!
• But did give out your sheet on the
Conventions Exercise
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14. The Serial
• Continuing narrative over a limited number
of linked programmes with an over arching
narrative.
• It the much the same cast, such as
Footballers’ Wives, and a cliffhanger at the
end of each episode.
• Closure is only achieved at the end of the
run. Typically made in 13 episodes – a
quarter of a year.
• Examples include State of Play and Rome.
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15. Soaps
• An ongoing, multi-stranded television serial
drama, typically set in an enclosed
domestic location.
• Such as Albert Square in Eastenders,
Coronation Street, or Emmerdale, with a
large cast of central characters and arching
story lines.
• The soap is an everlasting serial. 15
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16. The Series
• Linked programmes with the same lead
characters where each episode is a
complete story Spooks (BBC), House (C5)
or The Bill (ITV), Heartbeat (ITV) or
Midsummer Murders, Agatha Christie’s
Poirot (ITV) Casualty (BBC) and Dr Who
(BBC) or US series like Superman.
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17. Opening sequences
• Watch this opening sequence to a TV
drama.
• Think about the conventions in each
drama series.
• Waterloo Rd - Maxine Gets Shot
18. Model 1: Waterloo Rd
What is typical of each sub-genre?
What is typical of each sub-genre?
• What impressions do you get from the
sequence?
• What themes are in the storyline?
• What type of camera shots do you notice?
• Sound?
• Costume?
• What type of characters feature?
• What iconography is there?
19. Homework.
• With detailed reference to a drama of your
choice, discuss the degree to which it
adheres to generic convention.
• Analyse plot, characters, setting, dialogue
and music, icons
• 600 words
• Due in:
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