Revision 16th January Mock- What is Long Form TV Drama

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What is Long Form TV Drama

Long Form TV drama began to emerge with series such as True blood, Breaking Bad, Sopranos and The Wire on cable channels. So called Long Form because the series run for years.

The plots are complicated and develop slowly and the audience gets to know the characters well in fact the audience sees the characters develop over a number of years so there are similarities to the Soap opera format which can run for decades.

How did Long Form Drama come about;
TV channels are dependent on advertising and audience ratings (profile factor)

Which theory does this relate to?

Also with film the importance of profit margins is very important therefore the films and TV programmes have become less adventurous


Narrative- storytelling is more experimental using flash backs, non-linear narratives.

More unusual use of technical codes to develop character voice overs, narration, multi-narrative.

Representation:

Stranger Things-? More wide representation of characters different age grounds and gender etc

Eleven is not a stereotypical girl character.-disagrees with Van Zoonen theory

Wide ranger of representation

Is the story created through binary opposition?

Yes

Intersectionaliy- theory of representation that says that we shouldn't just be considering gender we should also consider are there people with disabilities being represented? intersectionality considers the place where representation meets Bell Hooks-

Why do the audience really enjoy long form drama?

There's the repetition
The originality and complexity of the stories
Long running
Time shifting- that means the audience can watch it when they want (active audience).

Narrative is complicated and the audience have to work hard- active audience - audience can decode
(Hall theorist active audience which an decode)

Effects Theory- audience can be negatively effected by the media- (Bandura).

Time shifting is great in terms of convenience but the fact we can constantly stream drama (hypodermic needle- he wrote about effects Bandura)- media can be over powering

Cliff hanger ending and time shifting means that we can keep watching long form drama for days

Marshall Mchulan- said the medium is the message. The TV tells you when to switch it on and off kind of controlling people.

Essay Practice:

How does Stranger Things reference retro films to make an inter-textual reference for the audience?

In this essay I will be explaining how Stranger Things uses inter-textual referencing to appeal to the audience. Stories are often told through linear narrative meaning that story is told with an equilibrium, with a disruption, problem solving and a new equilibrium. Stranger Things doesn't use this narrative conventions, as it is told with a non-linear narrative, for example the first episode of Stranger Things starts with a disruption/action when the lab person is taken by a monster. The mise-en-scene in Stranger Things reference other retro films such as ET. This is shown when the boys in Stranger Things and in ET ride an 80's style bikes. Inter-textual reference is also used through technical code of music, for example the trailer of Stranger Things has a background music of Michael Jackson Thriller. The use of inter textual reference is important because while audience watch the films they can link ideas and actually become,e more interested in that media text if they liked the previous one.
Overall, Stranger Things reference retro films through the use of 80's style as many sections are taken from those films, for example the boys main characters are dressed as ghost busters for halloween, which is a really famous 1984 film.