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Chapter 7 - Approaches to genre development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Craig Collie
Craig Collie
Affiliation:
Queensland University of Technology
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Summary

Chapter 6 outlined the main components in a general process of program development. It didn't go into variations of this process for different genres, but in practice each genre has distinctive characteristics within the general approach to development. In the same way that the basic proposal document has different emphases for broadcasters and investors, the generic approach to program development is varied to meet the particular needs of the program.

Within the variations of approach that are commonly used, there are typical conventions for each television genre. Television drama and sitcom development, for instance, revolve around defining the characters and their circumstances, and then developing scripts. On the other hand, documentary development is about research. As an actuality genre, it has its characters and their circumstances already defined, along with a lot of peripheral and irrelevant material. Here the task is to unearth this information through research and sift through it to find underlying themes that can ground the program. Game shows and reality television are about the rules of the game and the complexity of the production machinery. Sketch comedy is about assembling teams of writers and performers and devising a production schedule that can sustain the necessary relentless output of sketches. And so on.

Drama characters and setting

The log line

Like all television programs, a drama series (or a telemovie or sitcom) starts from a log line, a one-sentence description that captures the essence of the program.

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Chapter
Information
The Business of TV Production , pp. 116 - 133
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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References

Bignell, Jonathan 2005, Big Brother: Reality TV in the Twenty-First Century, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creeber, Glen 2004, Serial Television: Big Drama on the Small Screen, British Film Institute, London.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Madeline 1990, How to Write for Television, Prentice Hall, New York.Google Scholar
Drouyn, Coral 1994, Big Screen, Small Screen, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.Google Scholar
Johnson-Woods, Toni 2002, Big Brother, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Kelson, Gerald 1990, Writing for Television, 2nd edn, A&C Black, London.Google Scholar
Seger, Linda 1987, Making a Good Script Great, Dodd, Mead & Co, New York.Google Scholar
Keane, Christopher ‘Hollywood's best kept secret: the expanded scene breakdown’, available online at <http://www.writersstore.com/article.php?articles_id=525>, viewed 15 December 2006.
Bignell, Jonathan 2005, Big Brother: Reality TV in the Twenty-First Century, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creeber, Glen 2004, Serial Television: Big Drama on the Small Screen, British Film Institute, London.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Madeline 1990, How to Write for Television, Prentice Hall, New York.Google Scholar
Drouyn, Coral 1994, Big Screen, Small Screen, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.Google Scholar
Johnson-Woods, Toni 2002, Big Brother, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Kelson, Gerald 1990, Writing for Television, 2nd edn, A&C Black, London.Google Scholar
Seger, Linda 1987, Making a Good Script Great, Dodd, Mead & Co, New York.Google Scholar
Keane, Christopher ‘Hollywood's best kept secret: the expanded scene breakdown’, available online at <http://www.writersstore.com/article.php?articles_id=525>, viewed 15 December 2006.

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