Introduction to TV Drama: Blog tasks

Introduction to TV Drama: Blog tasks


Use our Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) or on Google Drive here (you'll need your Greenford Google login) to find Media Factsheet #164 on Television Serial Drama

Read the whole of Factsheet and answer the following questions to show your comprehensive knowledge of the television drama genre:

1) What is serial television drama? Write your own definition.

It give you a narrative,then a plot also with a resolution through few episodes.

2) List five of the TV dramas discussed in the history of the genre on page 1 of the factsheet. How has the genre evolved over time?

  1. The Avengers (1961-1969) 
  2. and Danger Man (1962-1968)
  3. The Sweeney (1975-1978)
  4. Minder (1979 – 1994)
  5. The A-Team (1983-1987)
3) List the sub-genres of TV drama featured in the factsheet. Come up with your own example of an existing TV drama to fit each category.

Teen:vampire diaries
family:my wife and kids
police procedral:brooklyn 99

4) Why is setting so important for TV drama?

Settings influence the plot tremendously, are part of it, create an atmosphere and complete the picture. Putting a character into a room or place automatically creates tension. Settings connect, force together, divide or isolate characters; sometimes all in one.

5) How do TV dramas typically use character? What audience pleasures can be linked to character in TV drama? (Hint: Uses & Gratifications theory!)

Character is the way into any story for the audience. Your audience can relate to, aspire to be, love, dislike, or absolutely hate.The gratification theory suggest that people choose to consume certain kinds of media because they expect to obtain specific gratifications as a result of those selections.

6) What is a multi-strand narrative? Give an example of a TV drama that features a multi-strand narrative.

Multi-strand is telling a story from several main characters perspectives who all have their own small story lines within the narratives. modern family is an example as they all have their individual life and problems within the main story.

7) What is a cold opening?
A cold opining is a narrative technique used in television and films

8) How can Todorov's theory of equilibrium be applied to TV drama serials?

His theory is posited that all narratives contain equilibrium, disequilibrium, recognition, resolution, and new equilibrium. 

9) What is the typical form for TV dramas and how are the programmes typically distributed to an audience?

 Tv dramas are an hour-long television series episode, tv shows are distributed through Satellite Direct-to-Home. Terrestrial networks (e.g. Cable, IP and DTT distribution) OTT (Over-the-Top).

10) How have subscription channels (such as HBO) and streaming services (such as Netflix and Amazon Prime) changed the form and content of TV dramas? 

Subscrption canels have changes as they are  investing heavily in original content production. Netflix, in particular, has paved the way with globally known and well-acclaimed series such as Stranger Things.


11) Choose a TV drama and do your own analysis of it using the SETTING / CHARACTERS / NARRATIVE / FORM headings as featured on page 3 of the factsheet.



SETTINGS:
Set in the 1980s, the series centers around the residents of the fictional small town of Hawkins, Indiana, as they are plagued by a hostile alternate dimension known as the Upside Down, after a nearby human experimentation facility opens a gateway between Earth and the Upside Down.
CHARACTERS:Born Jane Ives, Eleven is the daughter of Teresa "Terry" Ives, and a participant in the Project MKUltra experiments conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
NARRATIVE:Stranger Things is about a group of friends that try to find their other friend, Will, but they find out that he is trapped in another world. They try to save him before it is too late. Although American Horror Story (AHS) and Stranger Things (ST)have different settings and characters they both have the same genres
FORM:the genres of Gothic and science fiction.



12) How might the TV drama genre evolve in future?

Some industries really do die out with the advent of technology. After paper became available, very few scribes preferred to carve into rocks ;shows come and go each season, or genres fall in and out of favor, or new gadgets arrive on the market, new technologies are invented, new business models and entire industries take over TV distribution, or even that viewers are transformed by their personal lives and world events.

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