Difference between revisions of "Melodrama Variations: TV Soap Opera (Discussion)"

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==Ratings==
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Total Viewers (Compared to Last Week/Compared to Last Year)
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#Y&R 5,103,000 (+17,000/-13,000)
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#B&B 3,188,000 (-71,000/-111,000)
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#DAYS 2,838,000 (-96,000/-148,000)
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#GH 2,532,000 (-19,000/-114,000)
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#AMC 2,481,000 (-79,000/-218,000)
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#OLTL 2,314,000 (-112,000/-350,000)
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#ATWT 2,308,000 (-160,000/-224,000) -- 9.7% drop from last year
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http://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/35133-march-15-19-2010/
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==Readings==
 
==Readings==
 
==="Television and Zero-Degree Style"===
 
==="Television and Zero-Degree Style"===

Revision as of 15:03, 7 April 2010

Ratings

Total Viewers (Compared to Last Week/Compared to Last Year)

  1. Y&R 5,103,000 (+17,000/-13,000)
  2. B&B 3,188,000 (-71,000/-111,000)
  3. DAYS 2,838,000 (-96,000/-148,000)
  4. GH 2,532,000 (-19,000/-114,000)
  5. AMC 2,481,000 (-79,000/-218,000)
  6. OLTL 2,314,000 (-112,000/-350,000)
  7. ATWT 2,308,000 (-160,000/-224,000) -- 9.7% drop from last year

http://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/topic/35133-march-15-19-2010/

Readings

"Television and Zero-Degree Style"

Katie and Brad in an As the World Turns screen shot, from :30:40 in the episode broadcast 1 Feb 2008.
  1. What are the main characteristics of soap opera's style of sound and image? And what significance do they have? In other words, what/how does style signify in terms of:
    • Group 1: Sets?
      • Student response: Most of the sets are interior sets rather than exterior sets. Each set signifies that a theme common to domestic melodramas will be explored in it, such as illness and death in hospitals, family and romantic love in homes, and conflict in courtrooms.
    • Group 1: Lighting?
    • Group 2: Multiple-camera production? In terms of how it looks on the screen, how does multiple-camera production differ from single-camera production?
      • Student response: As stated in the text, "...style is always the device by which meaning is constructed."(54). Later around page 60, the text distinguishes the meanings and effectiveness of single camera production versus a multi-camera setup. The text outlines, "The single, film camera shooting style of "Dallas" and "Dynasty" produces a much more controlled, precise articulation of zooming codes than does the multiple camera videotaping of "As the World Turns." The soap opera's lack of "precision" links it with news events and their illusion of uncontrolled, unmediated "reality".(59-60)
  2. Groups 1 & 2: Dialogue? Music? How are these characteristics present (or not) in the scene from ATWT episode we viewed in class? How would you compare/contrast the sound in ATWT with that of the radio soap, Backstage Wife?
  3. All Groups: How does the excerpt from Guiding Light we watched violate soap-opera style?


"'I'm Not a Doctor, But I Play One on TV'"

Screen shot of Frank Runyeon and Meg Ryan in As the World Turns (1984).
Screen shot of Frank Runyeon and Lindsay Frost in As the World Turns (1985).
  1. Group 3: How does Jean-Louis Comolli's notion of a "body too much" in historical film apply to the soap opera?
    • Student response: It applies to soap opera's in the sense of "recasting" popular characters. When an actor leave a role and another actor is called in to continue the character the "body too much" happens. The two actors image competes with the character. There are too many "bodies" for one role and they conflict with the viewers perception of the character.
  2. Group 4: What is the "commutation test"? How does it apply to soap-opera recasting?
    • Student response: Commutation is the process of substituting actors for a particularly character. For the most part it’s a “What if?” type of question when someone wonders how a different actor would have portrayed a character. Soap operas though provide for actual insight into this theory because over time numerous actors may portray the same roles. The commutation test takes the performance of one actor and compares their portrayal to another in the same role.
    • All Groups: How might the commutation test be used with Humphrey Bogart's Charlie Allnut character in African Queen?
  3. All Groups: How do Lindsey Frost's character/performance signs differ from Meg Ryan's? What meaning does that difference connote?
  4. Groups 3 & 4: What makes Meg Ryan an atypical soap star?
  5. Groups 3 & 4: How does the position of soap actors resemble that of early-film actors?


Bibliography

  1. Jeremy G. Butler, "Television and Zero-Degree Style" in Television Style (New York: Routledge, in press), 55-120.
  2. Jeremy G. Butler, "'I'm Not a Doctor, But I Play One on TV': Characters, Actors, and Acting in Television Soap Opera," Cinema Journal 30.4 (1991): 75-91.

External links

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