microdrama

English

Etymology

micro- +‎ drama

Noun

microdrama (countable and uncountable, plural microdramas)

1. (cinematography) A filming style characterized by close-up camera work focusing on the reactions of a single character.
   • 1997, James John Griffith, Adaptations as Imitations: Films from Novels, page 19:

     ...he also attempts to show how editing causes audience "identification" with the image and allows for the subtler "microdrama" of realism; and leaving editing aside, he sees the expressive possibilities in the "panorama" or long-take, shots — all of which goes well beyond the "make-it-strange" aesthetics of the Russians.

   • 2010, Béla Balázs, Erica Carter, Béla Balázs: Early Film Theory: Visible Man and The Spirit of Film, →ISBN:

     What becomes visible at close range is the rapid to-and-fro motion that occurs within a single situation, the microdrama of the moment. The closeup enables the action, the story to develop a deeper dimension.

   • 2014, Erik P. Bucy, R. Lance Holbert, Sourcebook for Political Communication Research, page 1317709349:

     Hypotheses H1: Audience viewing of the microdrama [up-close camera perspective] format will induce higher levels of identification with the candidate than the televised town meeting or political spot formats.

2. A very short film clip or acted scene.
   • 1980, Ray Broadus Browne, Rituals and Ceremonies in Popular Culture, →ISBN, page 333:

     But, by far the most important of these genres is ritual microdrama. Deftly interweaving plot, narration, and theme, microdramas create a special kind of fiction which often literally depicts the transformations which the other three only imply.

   • 2004, Arthur Asa Berger, Ads, fads, and consumer culture, page 151:

     In this microdrama, the blond heroine calls to mind several different heroic or mythic figures from our collective consciousness.

   • 2007, Francesca Billiani, Gigliola Sulis, The Italian Gothic and Fantastic, →ISBN, page 60:

     The central question, then, becomes what kind of relationship can arise between the actors in this microdrama, in this pièce for two characters, which is so typical of the genre under discussion?

3. A dramatic interaction or event of very short duration.
   • 2006, Louis Greenberg, The Beggars' Signwriters, page 120:

     Gay Charles spectated the microdrama with a sagacious and equivocal eye. He'd seen it all. Well, he hadn't seen Not Mrs Crackety's headscarf blow off, but he could quite well imagine what it might look like.

   • 2009, Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, →ISBN, page 112:

     This microdrama reveals the remarkable emotional sophistication that a toddler of just thirty months can bring to bear in trying to manage someone else's emotions.

   • 2015, Karen Piper, Left in the Dust: How Race and Politics Created a Human and Environmental Tragedy in L.A., →ISBN, page 54:

     Scholars have long portrayed the historical Owens Valley-Los Angeles conflict as a polarized regional microdrama that is isolated in the past, without looking at the colonial context or the continuation of the conflict today.