Coronation St. changes in style (soaps).

Coronation Street Changes In Style (Soaps)

Coronation Street has changed majorly over the years, from things such as editing effects, camera shots or even introductions. In 1961 there were no transitions of any kind, whereas in 1979 they started adding in fades and dissolves.

The 1961 did not have as much silence, the key code adding tension to a scene compared to the 1979 version where the was a lot of tension created by silence. This effect could be key to linking the actors emotions with the viewers.

Another key element to soaps are Camera shots. The shots in 1961 version were called ensemble shots, which had 2-3 people in them, these often showed a social hierarchy if the person talking had other actors standing behind each other, sometimes it didn't if they were standing separately. The camera shots were also really bumpy due to the low budget the show that it had at the time, although in the 1979 version the shots distinguished the hierarchy in a clear way and the movement of the camera was a lot smoother. There was also a crane shot featured in the 1979 version, this shows that shows budgets were raised since 1961 as the crane is quite expensive to hire.

Colour was also a key ingredient to making Coronation street a successful soap, the first episode in colour being on the 3rd of November 1969. This was better but it didn't show vibrant colours, they were dull and murky. This wasn't a big of a problem in the 1979 version as they brightened up a little.






By 2012 Coronation Street has changed a lot since 1961, for example the production budget has been raised substantially. This one factor changes everything, the camera shots were a lot better in smoothness and the places they could get to shoot the shots was also really great. Coronation Street has greater knowledge of the codes they need to be using to create the emotional links between the actor and the viewer. Coronation street has gone from black and white to shooting in high definition.