MelodramasBy Steph, Sam and Lily

Examples of Melodramas

HollyoaksDownton Abbey

EmmerdaleCoronation Street

Eastenders

Hollyoaks Melodrama• Stereotyped Characters• Hero/Villains/Side kicks/Damsel in Distress

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/hollyoaks/4od

• Term originated from the 19th century French word (Melodrame)

• The word Melo means music in Greek• Drame is French for drama• Melodrama is a combination of spoken pieces

and short pieces of music• In ancient Greek times, they used to mime.

Origins of Melodrama

Camera work

• Free hand camera work to make the scene more realistic.• Coronation street uses a range of different camera

techniques from zooming out to panning across the tops of houses, to a slight birds eye view.

• All these shots are done slowly and blend together. • Where as Hollyoaks use of camera angles and shots are

very short and quick, creating a fast feel which matches the music.

• Hollyoaks uses lots of close ups of the characters faces, in contrast to Coronation street, which doesn't use any close ups.

Mise en scene

• The mise-en-scene in each opening are very different. • Coronation street is filmed in an urban setting, in an old

part of town, somewhere up North. There are no characters shown, it is about about the location which reflects a slow pace of life, which matches to music.

• They use the day light to film in. It is all very naturalistic. • Nearly all the characters seem to be young, all under

the age of 40, which contrasts with the old, slow pace of the coronation street theme.

• Plots based on human crises and emotions• Everything is over-exaggerated

Sound

• Dramatic music to cause suspense.• Non-Diegetic and Diegetic sound depending

on scene or soap.• Non-Diegetic sound in scenes where it’s

needed to cause tension. • Diegetic sounds in bar/club/shop/restaurant

scenes.

Editing

• Hollyoaks is edited together, to reflect a fast, lively feel with lots of crazy effects to give a young and fun feel.

• Coronation street has slow and smooth transitions, where the shots blend nicely into each other. No effects are added.

Lighting

• The lighting is all from the studio and no natural light is used in Coronation street.

• Hollyoaks uses nearly all natural light within their shooting, apart from help from reflectors or flash.

Scenes

• Coronation street is half an hour normally, with a break generally leaving on a cliff hanger.

• Hollyoaks is the same with more breaks. • In each episode there is normally three or four different

storylines.• Each storyline begins with a establishing shot and

before cutting off to another story there is a cliff hanger. • Because each episode contains a variety of stories the

audience feel they have to watch every episode to understand, if they miss one they wont.