Schedule content was fixed (reliant on analogue (radio wave technology as pre the internet)
Viewing experience was communal (families watched the same/similar content) as content was transmitted via Radio waves.
Dramas developed to encourage regular viewing
Program content with high audience numbers secured revenue via advertising.
Advertising revenue or PSB income (TV license) pays for drama for e.g. a typical Eastenders episode costs £141,000
Historical cultural and economic contexts.
HOC belongs to a genre called Long form television drama. (LFTVD)
LFTVD (Game of Thrones, HOC, etc.) are characterised by high production values.
Series one and 2 of the HOC costs an estimated $100 Million for the first two series (26 episodes) to produce.
By comparison Eastender’s costs £29.9 million a year for 212 episodes. (source: https://www.ok.co.uk/celebrity-feature/1207916/eastenders-bbc-one-time-cost-per-episode-year)
Referring to the revision notes page 146, the cost of production of this High end Drama (HOC) is linked to
Sourcing highly skilled actors - Kevin Spacey
Cinematic styling camera work - wide shots, dark muted colours, varied camera angles
Lighting and editing - dark muted colours, an aerial shot is used in intro
Complex narratives (multi-stranded) (Barthes) - Frank's revenge, Russo's blackmail,
Composed music - mission music
Long form TV is an American concept which effectively is a hybrid of a serialised drama with the high production standards of film.
Ideology:
“A set of beliefs values and assumptions shared by a social group and embedded in social, cultural, political and economic institutions.”
Usually thought to reflect the interests of powerful groups.
Consumerism, freedom, equality and individualism are often considered dominant ideologies in free market capitalists societies as they reflect the economic basis of these societies
The prime contexts influencing medium language in television dram may be ideologies such as:
Individualism: e.g. focusing a drama on an individual protagonist - Francis Underwood
Consumerism: e.g. judging characters on their possessions or desirability of their lifestyles - the clothes they are wearing at the ball
Patriarchal: power and the challenge to this by feminism e.g. using or refusing to use women’s bodies as objects, or narratives that present a male, female or gender neutral perspective - most characters are middle class white men
Racism and ethnocentrism and the challenge to those from multiculturalism and internationalism, e.g. narratives that present a mono-cultural, multicultural or minority perspective - only black man is working class
Racism and ethnocentrism and the challenge to those from multiculturalism and internationalism, e.g. narratives that present a mono-cultural, multicultural or minority perspective - only black man is working class
Stereotypes of men:
Frank is intellectually strong
The middle class white men have power
Power is seen as attractive
Frank brings more money than Claire
Stereotypes of women:
Zoe and Christina are seen as being attractive
Most women are skinny
Zoe wears a low cut top, which links to sexuality
Claire subverts the stereotype of women being emotional
Claire + Frank and Christina +Frank
Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages:
the equilibrium,
disequilibrium,
acknowledgement,
solving
and again equilibrium.
The theory has its limitations when applied to LFTVD as the restoration of equilibrium may not be realised due to the serialised nature of the drama
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