Textual research: Coronation Street

I watched a recent episode of Coronation Street as part of my textual analysis for ITV, as one of the genres which I have considered making was soap operas. Having seen it for the first time, I am now less inclined to make a soap opera for a few reasons.

The style of the programme is incredibly bland and looks more like a sit-com than a serious TV drama with flat, high-key lighting and bland multi-camera setups which are designed more to make the show quick to film and edit than for any artistic value. While this would not be too difficult to re-create, it would not allow me much creative flexibility and would not allow for very high production values. There are some soap operas which break this trope to some extent such as Casualty which I (admittedly) have watched (and enjoyed) in the past, which has a little more of a cinematic quality to it. However Casualty is on BBC One which tends to produce higher quality drama than ITV, so it would not be completely authentic to adopt this style. Additionally, I felt that the show would appeal more to older audiences than 18-35 year olds, so I would have to change the genre in some way to meet the exam specifications (e.g. making a soap opera about young adults/teens). There didn't seem to be a huge variety of social groups depicted in the show, as the show is set in a fairly lower-class area (although, again, this could be changed). There also wasn't any non-diegetic sound/music aside from in the opening and closing credits.

There would, however be advantages to a soap opera. For one, they cut around between various locations every couple of minutes, so it would be easy to stick to the exam brief and have two or more locations whilst maintaining authenticity. Also, the acting and dialogue in soaps tends not to be of the highest quality (presumably for time and budget restrictions) which, again, would make it easier to re-create. However, having said all this, the exam board seems to be more focused on micro-elements than authenticity. They specifically say that we should use a range of camera shots, angles and movement, however do not explicitly say to adopt genre tropes.

Medium-long shot

Medium-long shot

Medium shot

My next step will be to watch some ITV crime dramas, such as Broadchurch and Midsomer murders, which I imagine will be closer to my final show than Coronation street.