SEPTEMBER 2009: DRAMA MM M M MediaMagazine edia agazine Menglish and media centre issue 29 | septemberM 2009 Reading Red Riding Bond and beyond Learning to Tweet Representations in TV drama Drama in the news english and media centre andmedia english The webisode story 2009 |september 29 ssue | i MM MM MediaMagazine is published by the English and Media Centre, a non-profit making organisation. editorial The Centre publishes a wide range of classroom materials and runs For those of you just starting out, welcome to the wonderful courses for teachers. If you’re world of Film and Media Studies; for those of you returning for studying English at A Level, look out an A2 year, welcome back, hopefully with the results you wanted; for emagazine, also published by and for everyone, welcome to the first of this year’s editions of the Centre. MediaMagazine. The English and Media Centre This issue explores the theme of Drama from a wide range of 18 Compton Terrace perspectives. Starting with the basics, Mark Ramey considers the London N1 2UN differences between the experiences of theatre and cinema, and asks what makes a Telephone: 020 7359 8080 drama cinematic, while Nick Lacey explores some of the essential differences – and Fax: 020 7354 0133 similarities – between the big and small screen with a study of State of Play from Email for subscription enquiries: TV drama to Hollywood blockbuster. Stephen Hill takes a historical approach to the [email protected] development of TV drama in its social and historical context, and demonstrates its Managing Editor: Michael Simons changing technologies and representations through analysis of Mike Leigh’s iconic 70s comedy of manners Abigail’s Party. Editor: Jenny Grahame From an industry perspective, screenwriter Ian Pike describes the traumas of Editorial assistant/admin: developing a new prime-time spin-off drama series for BBC 1, while our interview Rebecca Scambler with Daisy Monahan takes you inside the world of BBC Drama research, script- Design: Sam Sullivan and Jack editing, and production. Chris Budd examines the frequently undervalued role of Freeman (edition.co.uk) music in TV drama, and Jerome Monahan introduces webisodes, the newest short- Printed by S&G Group form approaches to online drama, along with the economic and marketing issues ISSN: 1478-8616 they raise in their quest for audiences. Vampires, both real and metaphorical, seem to be the dramatic flavour of the Cover image: Lina Leandersson in Lat Den Rätte Komma In, Dir: Alfredson, Thomas (2008) month, with case studies of Being Human, Twilight, and Let the Right One In (and Credit: Fido Film Ab/The Kobal Collection check out MoreMediaMag online to read some student reviews of the latter). And whatever else, don’t miss Roy Stafford’s brilliant analysis and contextualisation of Red Riding, hailed as one of the most important series of the decade. How to subscribe Elsewhere, you can brush up your knowledge of Twitter, explore the impact of media platforms and changing technologies, and unpick the lesser-known work of Four issues a year, published a true hero of British screen drama: Sean Connery. And please visit our Front Page September, December, late February News feature, and make a bid for your very own double-page spread. and late April. Not bad for the first issue of the year. And there’s more – Reality in December Centre print-only subscription: (copy deadline 14th September), Fantasy in February (9th November), and Humour in April (8th February); and new MediaMagClips online in September, also available £29.95 as downloadable podcasts. As always we want to hear from you, and to publish your 2 year option: £49.90 writing and production work – so mail [email protected] with your Centre website package: £79.95 proposals. includes print magazine, full website Meanwhile: have a good term! access and an online PDF version of the current issue. 2 year option: £139.90 Additional subscriptions for students, teachers or the library can be added to either the print-only subscription or the website package for £10 a year. MediaMagazine website MediaMagArchive on the MediaMagazine This magazine is not photocopiable. Why not subscribe website (www.mediamagazine.org.uk) gives to our web package which includes a downloadable and you access to all past articles published in MediaMagazine. There are two ways of getting printable pdf of the current issue or encourage your access to the MediaMagazine website: students to take out their own £10 subscription? 1. Centre plus 10 or more student subs. (For full details, see www.mediamagazine.org.uk) 2. Centre website package: £79.95 2 MediaMagazine | September 2009 | english and media centre MM contents DRAMA SPECIAL Front Page News Spin off and take Being Human James Recent news, views, reviews off Screenwriter Ian Pike Rose investigates the new and previews. describes the bumpy process BBC 3 drama series that 13 39 features a vampire, a ghost 04 of adapting a exposé-style BEYOND DRAMA novel for a BBC 3 spin-off and a werewolf, and explores Reading Red Riding to the hugely popular Hotel its existential appeal to the youth audience. Roy Stafford provides Babylon series. the historical, social and Daisy does drama 06 production contexts for the three-part Yorkshire-based at the BBC An exclusive drama series already hailed 16 interview with Daisy as landmark television. Monahan, researcher, and script editor and producer of Drama for the BBC. Lost: conclusion, closure, enigma 20 or ending? David Bell Representations, debates whether the enigma genres and that is Lost will overdo or 42 wider contexts: outlast its final episode – and the vampire as Media platforms: how far resolution will satisfy metaphor Duncan the impact of its audiences. Yeates shows what reading the meanings of Let The Right technology Steph 10 One In and Twilight reveal Hendry considers the impact about representation for of changes in technology on AQA MEST3. audiences’ access to texts, and on the ways institutions Music in TV drama construct and promote their Often under-valued and products. neglected in textual analysis, 45 Chris Budd explains the role, Why I love ... S4C Neil functions, terminology and Paddison takes a closer look impact of music in TV drama. 56 at Channel 4 Wales. Dramatic or Bond and beyond cinematic? Film and Hollywood film There’s more to Sean 24 theatre – two sides of the techniques Connery than a gleaming same coin, or completely revealed The ‘7 Steps to 58 torso, an Aston Martin and separate disciplines? 49 Creating Drama’, from our a dry Martini, as Sean Kaye- resident cartoonist Goom. Smith demonstrates. State of Play – TV vs cinema: a fair Drama in the news 27 fight? Nick Lacey explores Sara Mills takes you through what we can learn about the some real-world dramas relationship between big 50 which made the front page and small screen through – and some which perhaps the study of State of Play. shouldn’t have ... Representations The webisode story in TV drama Stephen Jerome Monahan introduces 31 Hill explores how the the phenomenon of online Learning to Tweet roots of contemporary 53 mini-dramas, and why they Josie Scobling on the representations can be look set to become such big proliferation of twitteration. found in the context and business. 64 history of our long tradition Playing of British TV drama… school A day on the set of Waterloo Revisiting the 66 drawing-room Road. 36 comedy: Abigail’s Party … and shows how a 70s comedy of manners can reveal changes in television production, technology, social class and cultural values. english and media centre | September 2009 | MediaMagazine 3 front page news BIG SCREEN October 2nd: A modern SMALL SCREEN September 18th: We’re version of the classic film Dramatic horizons anticipating the arrival noir Beyond a Reasonable Given the focus of this of director Oliver Parker’s Doubt (http://www.imdb. edition, here are some TV Dorian Grey based on the com/title/tt1183251/). dramas you can anticipate Oscar Wilde novel in which We’ll be watching out for a this autumn, the majority of the protagonist manages new high-concept comedy which are BBC enterprises. to avoid the ageing process set in a world in which no If you are laid up at home, by channelling all his one knows how to lie, until then one guilty pleasure ugliness – physical and a writer happens upon the might be the day-time moral – into a portrait. The skill. The Invention of Lying series Land Girls – a five- film stars Colin Firth and stars a much-in-demand parter commissioned Rebecca Hall and should Jennifer Garner and has as a part of the 70th be a treat. In an interview Ricky Gervais and Patrick anniversary of the start cached on YouTube (http:// Stewart doing turns (http:// of the Second World War. www.youtube.com/ www.imdb.com/title/ It boasts a cast including seem a long way off just watch?v=d2gDp3a65Lo) tt1183251/). Nathaniel Parker, Sophie ADVERTISING now, but it might be of Parker talks of blowing the October 9th: A new Ward and Danny Webb Eat Colin – save the interest to know that one dust off the original novel Martin Scorsese film – (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ planet’s fish stocks day your expertise in social and it is clearly a feature which despite his patchy pressoffice/pressreleases/ It is rare to see such an networking will have real with all sorts of modern recent form is always stories/2009/06_june/04/ obvious attempt to alter commercial value. Witness resonances – not least our an occasion. Shutter’s landgirls.shtml). consumer taste, so do check a new MSc in Information, obsession with youth and Island does sound a bit Meanwhile the search out Sainsbury’s ongoing Communication and Society beauty.