Typical Synopsis

As I have mentioned in my previous posts, the Drama film genre is very broad. It contains many sub-genres, some of which I am going to write about here. I am hoping that by summarising some of the sub-genres of Drama films, I will be able to decide which sub-genre of Drama I would like to use in my film opening.

A style of film which I have a passion for is Film Noir, I find that fact that it is in black and white is not just original but also helps give an overall mood to the film, I am quite fixed on trying to make the opening of my film in Black and white, too. I find that the darker tones will show connotations of the mood I am trying to reflect in my film, I am quite keen on a sombre tone. Film Noir is not really a genre of film, but it is a kind of film that has a very strong emotion and tone to it, something which I would like to try and create myself. The film often uses dark images and silhouettes, something which I find very effective in creating emotion and a tone in a film.

Melodramas

These are sub-genre of Drama films. These often incorporate unrealistic characters dealing with romance or domestic issues with characters that came under certain stereotypes. These kinds of films are made to appeal predominantly to female audiences. They are often described as 'tear-jerkers', 'woman's films' or even 'chick flicks'. An example of a Melodramatic film is 'A Time to Love and a Time to Die' which is about romance during the war time.

Biopics

Another sub-genre of Drama. Biopics focus on the life of a person or group of people, telling their story. Sometimes the people focused on in these films are famous people, and the film will tell their story. The word 'Biopics' is combinationg of 'Biography' and 'Pictures'. Biopics can fall under many film genres, not just Drama. An example of a Biopic is Ron Howard's film 'A Beautiful Mind' which focuses on the life of a schitzophrenic. This sub-genre appeals to me, as I feel that I would like to focus on just one person in my film opening. I want my film opening to be serious, and to draw the auidience in, something which I think a film under this sub-genre will achieve very effectively yet subtely.

Romantic Dramas

A very large sub-genre of Drama is Romance. These films generally focus on the struggles of two people in love to be together and their journey as a couple, facing certain issues together. The romantic films that fall under the Drama category can often end in tradgedy, the happier Romance films often come under the Comdey or Chick Flick genre.

Supernatural Films

Perhaps a less obvious idea of a sub-genre of Drama films. But horror films and other similar films use a great deal of suspense to build up an emotion of uncertainty or fear in the audience. By making the audience feel frightened, the film must be effective as to be afraid, you have to be able to connect with the film and it needs to be believable to some degree. To do this I believe it is a great skill, which does use some dramatic effect. Many of these films are filmed using handheld cameras, such as the Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield, all of which are quite sucessful or controversial. As I am also going to be filming my film opening with a handheld camera I feel that perhaps by looking at the techniques used in these films I will find an effective way of creating suspense in my own film. These films have proved that you do not need advanced equipment to make a successful film, it's about how you use what you have in an intelligent and new way that the audience is not used to. These films are extremely clever as they use no digetic sound or music over what the characters are hearing, this makes it hard to tell when something will happen as in more conventional horror films you will hear music building up to an event to scare us.

After looking at these sub-genres of Drama films I am keen on trying to make a Biopic film, following the life of somebody in a darker light, perhaps incorporating some of the techniques from other sub-genres that appeal to me. I will look at techniques used by supernatural films using handheld cameras to build suspense and to gather ideas that I like from them that I may like to try and use in my own film. I will also look closely at techniques used in Film Noir as this is my favourite style of film due to it's originality and tone.

Whilst browsing, I found the page on the same website that I posted previously which is very helpful when looking into sub-genres as it is easy to read. http://www.filmsite.org/subgenres.html