Drama (modern genre)
Drama (modern genre)
In film and television, drama is a genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone.[1] Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular subgenre, such as "police crime drama", "political drama", "legal drama", "historical period drama", "domestic drama", "teen drama", or "comedy-drama". These terms tend to indicate a particular setting or subject-matter, or else they qualify the otherwise serious tone of a drama with elements that encourage a broader range of moods.
All forms of cinema or television that involve fictional stories are forms of drama in the broader sense if their storytelling is achieved by means of actors who represent (mimesis) characters. In this broader sense, drama is a mode distinct from novels, short stories, and narrative poetry or songs.[2] In the modern era before the birth of cinema or television, "drama" within theatre was a type of play that was neither a comedy nor a tragedy. It is this narrower sense that the film and television industries, along with film studies, adopted. "Radio drama" has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in a live performance, it has also been used to describe the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio.[3]
Types of drama in film and television
- Crime drama,Police prodecural, andlegal dramacharacter development based on themes involving criminals, law enforcement and the legal system.Historical dramafilms that focus on dramatic events in history.Horror dramaa film that focuses on imperiled characters dealing with realistic emotional struggles, often involving dysfunctional family relations, in a horror setting. The film's horror elements often serve as a backdrop to an unraveling dramatic plot.Docudramathe difference between a docudrama and a documentary is that in a documentary it uses real people to describe history or current events; in a docudrama it uses professionally trained actors to play the roles in the current event, that is "dramatized" a bit. Not to be confused withdocufiction.Comedy-dramaa film in which there is an equal, or nearly equal, balance of humour and serious content.Melodramaa sub-type of drama films that uses plots that appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodramatic plots often deal with "crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship". Film critics sometimes use the term "pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled,camptale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character) that would directly appeal to feminine audiences".[4] Also called "women's movies", "weepies", tearjerkers, or "chick flicks". If they are targeted to a male audience, then they are called "guy cry" films. Often considered "soap-opera" drama.Military dramafocuses on the interpersonal and situational crises of characters in the militaryRomantic dramaa sub-type of dramatic film which dwells on the elements ofromantic love.Teen dramafocuses onteenagecharacters, especially where asecondary schoolsetting plays a role
See also
List of drama films
Bourgeois tragedy
Domestic tragedy
Dramatic structure
Tragicomedy