Soap drama

A soap drama is an ongoing episodic work of dramatic diction presented in serial format. This is a genre that is favored by people who enjoy watching other peoples business. Commonly in dramas such as these, things go wrong, arguments break out and lives get ruined. The tensity between character cause the audience to want to carry on watching. The audience will enjoy make ups and break ups but especially when conflict occurs between characters.

In soap dramas in has a climax structure in the sense that the climax is waited upon throughout the episodes. If slight conflict occurs then the climax will occur many episodes down the line in order to keep the audience engaged and anxious to watch each episode that is released. 

The first serial considered to be a "soap opera" was Painted Dreams which debuted on October 20, 1930 on Chicago radio station .

The first nationally broadcast radio soap opera was Clara, Lu and Em which aired on the NBC blue network at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time on January 27, 1931.


A good example of a soap drama that is favored by most in this generation would be Eastenders.

This soap drama is very popular. It is about a fictional area in East London that includes the domestic and professional lives of people who live and work within the area. As the audience, we see conflict rise between characters and reputations start to fall.

The soap drama is so watchable and favored because its consistency of conflict, each episode contains convention that make the viewer want to watch the next.

Crime drama

A crime drama is films that focus on the lives and activities of criminals and the people who pursue them. Audiences enjoy watching films or TV programmes of this genre because of how realistic they are and it gives the an insight on a different side of life.

Crime dramas can be linked to real life criminal figures and to the far fetched evil doings of imaginary arch villains. An example of a crime drama that is realistic and contains all the conventions of crime such as prison, fights and careless/ wreck less behaviour would be the film "Chopper".

The film is about a man who abides against the law and spends most of his life in prison. When he is out of prison he struggles to abide by the law and finds himself in positions where he breaks the law in violent ways.

This is a good example of a crime drama because the film glorifies the criminal and the audience is interest in the criminal acts he commits. Most people who enjoy watching these types of genres are mainly inured to the nastiness of the crimes that the film focuses on.

Drama doc

What is a drama doc?

A drama doc, referring to "drama documentary" is a documentary style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historic events.

An example of this would be "The boy in the striped pajamas".

This is a film about two boys from either sides of world war 2 that become friends. This film is powerful of how realistic it feels. The audience watches and imagines what life was like back in world war 2.b



A drama doc may be filmed or written. In the core elements of its story it strives to show known historic events. Making the known historic events as accurate as possible, engages the audience in a way that them think that the drama is real or can visualize what life was like in the time that it was set.

Sometimes producers choose to reconstruct events in actual locations where it took place. If you were reconstructing events that took place in Egypt, it would be unrealistic for the audience to see a location in England.