Conventions and Trends of the Drama Genre

Drama is a very broad genre with a great deal of sub-genres within it. Despite this, there are still certain conventions that are a running trend throughout a great deal of films that come under the Drama genre.

• The characters in the films tend to be more serious and believable, as opposed to large characters that are blown out of proportion for comical or other reasons.
• The protagonist is often after a object, person, or state of mind. There is generally always some kind of aim of the characters or problem they have to face.
• The music used is often sombre in tone, and classical as opposed to more popular pop songs. If songs with words are used, they tend to describe how one of the characters is feeling at that particular point in time. The music is key in drama films, it sets the tone for the scene and gives it a depth that the audience can connect with on another level.
• Many Drama films start at the ending of the film, showing us how the character is at the end of the story. The film then goes back to show the previous events that landed the character in their current situation.
• When films begin at the endings, they often show a character as being defeated and sad, then we go back to see what caused this.

I have found a good website which states the general conventions of a vast number of film genres, for Drama, it said: 'Dramas are serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction.'
Reference: http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html

Whilst looking up common conventions and trends of the Drama genre I also stumbled across another website with a good definition: "Conflict is the essence of drama, and the purpose of a dramatic storyline is to move or touch the audience in some emotional way. There is usually a struggle going on that is wrought with hardships, difficulty and pain… Dramas are generally serious stories depicting life situations in a realistic way with characters behaving at their worst and at their best.” Reference: http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/3080/Film-Genres.html

The History of the Drama Genre

The Drama genre covers a broad spectrum of films. It is usually a more serious representation or realistic characters facing conflict with themselves, others or some particular issue. Many sub-genres can sprout from the roots of a Drama, examples of these are romance, crime, comedy, tragedy and thrillers.

Dramas usually include current issues that are largely affecting groups of people, such as: Racism, Discrimination, Mental illness, Corruption or other important issues in the public eye. In the past, when censorship was more common, these kinds of films would largely blame the individual for their problems instead of society or any other causes. The development of Drama films throughout time reflect the realism of life and it's troubles, in the 1950's people began to enjoy more realistic portrayals of characters as this made stories more believable. Dramas also taught audiences about issues at the time and how it effected the different classes of people, an example of one of these issues is the Depression.

Dramatic, well-known actors also rose up during this period. Marilyn Monroe and Bette Davies, are probably amongst the most recognised. In the 1960's Dramas began to focus a lot more of the concept of war and sport.

During the 1970's, more modern directors made some of their first iconic films. An example of one of these is Francis Ford Coppola directing the Godfather in this period of time. During the 80's and 90's, Drama began to focus on much more emotional themes, however, common themes such as war continued to develop. Some of the films directed and released during this time are Das Boot (directed by Wolfgang Petersen), and E.T which was directed by Steven Spielberg. The 90's brought forward some more comical Dramas, a well-known example of this is Forrest Gump. Drama was also brought to a younger target audience as Disney went on to release the Lion King.

Research into Film Directors

Tim Burton:

Tim Burton is an American director. His films are traditionally dark and have an extremely quirky twist to them. This is almost a trademark which runs throughout his films as his vast imagination helps him to create surreal characters and worlds. This appeals to me because I feel that his films are original, and stand out from many other films made by different directors.

I have already seen ten of his films. Some of my favorite films that Tim Burton has directed are:

• Sweeney Todd

The film recieved four Golden Globe nominations, it also won the award for Best Motion Picture in the Musical/Comedy genre. Tim Burton was also nominated for Best Director.

The actors protrayed the roles so convincingly in the film and Tim Burton's quirky camera work shone through in many scenes. The composition of this film made it one of my favorite films that I have ever seen. The overall production is both powerful and moving at the same time. You get a real sense of the mood from watching the film and a representation of how unfair life could be in the Victorian era.

• The Nightmare before Christmas

Probably one of the most famous of Tim Burton's films. His quirky design shines through in this dark children's film. It is filmed using Stop Motion Animation, something which Tim Burton used in some of his other films such as The Corpse Bride and James and the Giant Peach.

The film was extremely successful, yet despite this success Tim Burton said that he did not want to make a sequal. He said that he had a strong belief in keeping the purity of the movie and by making another it would take away that kind of magic the original held.

A huge amount of merchandise was released for the film; clothes, action figures, playing cards, games, i-pod cases and huge amounts of other things across all different Medias.

• Alice in Wonderland

This film is unusually bright for Tim's dark style, yet the original and quirky design of Wonderland couldn't have been portrayed by a better director. I admire Burton's imagination and originality, and I feel that Lewis Caroll also shared this vast imagination. By combining both their talents to tell such a classic story with a twist was something which I think worked extremely well.

A vast array of well-known actors starred in the film, whether that was actually in person or by voicing certain characters. Some of these people were; Johnny Depp, Stephen Fry, Anne Hathaway, Timothy Spall, Alan Rickman and many others. This must have also helped contribute hugely to the film's success.

Michael Mann:

Michael Mann is an American Director, Producer and Screenwriter. He has won a BAFTA Award for Best Film, two Primetime Emmy Awards and an NBR for Best Director.

He directed the Crime Drama film, Public Enemies. A film which matches in some aspects the moods I would like to try and use in my Foundation Portfolio. The film is quite dark in areas and focuses on crime in the 1930's. The portrayal of women in this era is also something which I would like to use in my filming.

Quite a lot of Public Enemies was filmed on location where the actual events took place. Michael Mann reasearched the traits of these real life characters which he was telling the story of in his film. The actors visited the families of the real people they were portraying and learned about their small quirks which they could incorperate into their act to make it more convincing. Despite all Mann's work, not everything in Public Enemies is historically correct.



Baz Luhrmann:

Baz Luhrmann is an Australian Director. He is most famous for his Red Curtain Trilogy and Australia. The Red Curtain Trilogy includes Strictly Ballroom, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and the Moulin Rouge.

I like the way that he represents women in his films, especially how Satine is represented in the Moulin Rouge and how Juliet is first shown in Romeo and Juliet. This style is something which I would like to try to use in my Foundation Portfolio, too.

The Moulin Rouge is one of my other favorite films. I love the opening sequence and how simple expressions and small movements were put into a slow motion. This makes the piece have a huge impact on the audience and is something which I found very original and effective. I also really like how the opening and a lot of the film is narrated by Christian in a voice over and how the voice over is telling the story by reading the story as he types it out. This is something which I think I will try to do in my Foundation Portfolio. The slow motion is also subtely used in Romeo and Juliet, I find it extremely effective in capturing the emotions of the characters being focused on in that moment in time.

Drama Genre Mood Board

Here is my finished mood board. Creating it really helped me to gather my ideas and come up with a more finalised idea of what I want to do in my Foundation Portfolio. I used pictures from the Moulin Rouge, Public Enemies, Secret Window, Sweeney Todd and Paranormal Activity. Some of the pictures I included were of possible locations in which I may choose to film parts of my project.

What I Have Learned From My Preliminary Task

 What I have learned from My Preliminary Task

I have learned a great deal from my preliminary task, from simple filming techniques to more complex rules that help make a piece what we see on the larger screen. One of the first basic skills that I learned was how to make a storyboard; it helps immensely whilst you are filming to ensure you remember every shot that you wanted and so that you know which shots people speak in or make certain movements in. Storyboarding not only helped me to stay organised with my filming and editing the clips in the right order, it also helped me to ensure continuity wasn’t an issue in my task.

     One of the next important things I learned whilst doing my preliminary task was how to film using a tripod, which involved learning to follow people through the shots as they moved and panning around the scene through large areas of movement. I also learned that you should operate the camera instead of using static shots to capture whole movements, for example, lowering the camera with a person as they sit down instead of keeping the camera still to capture the whole movement. By doing this you also avoid having empty space in the area above the character once they have sat down. That leads onto another point I learned through filming my preliminary task; not to leave great amounts of head room, empty space above the head is useless, so you need to have the camera lower, so that you can capture relevant parts of what you’re filming whilst not wasting space in the shots.

     In one of my shots in my preliminary task I had two people sitting opposite each other, it was difficult to use the space well and not have empty space in the shots, but afterwards I realised that if I had turned diagonally a little further in between the two people, then I would have been able to utilise the space more efficiently whilst sticking to my 180˚ rule. This links to probably the most important thing I learned whilst filming and editing my preliminary task; the camera rules, the first of which was the 180˚ rule which I mentioned earlier.

     The 180˚ rule allowed for me to keep my shots organised and helped me to maintain a firm structure whilst I was filming the scenario, I knew where I could and couldn’t stand to get my shots, therefore the rule allowed me to be able to match my shots later on without getting confused (which I certainly would have been if I had not followed the 180˚ rule).  Another rule which I learned through filming my preliminary task was match-on-action, through following this rule, I realised that certain shots e.g. somebody walking through a door would have to be filmed numerous times from different camera angles and places so that when the clips were edited and put together there were no continuity errors and it allowed for us to see a fluid movement from one place to another, or from one person speaking to another person’s response.

     The final main camera rule which I learned was shot/reverse shot, this was a little more challenging for me as I would have to make sure that the actors in the video whose shoulder I was filming over stayed still so that they did not block the face of the person who they were talking to and I was filming. I also realised whilst doing this that scenes would need to be re-enacted numerous times to get the conversations from different angles that I could cut into the final clip, as we had to film the same piece numerous times, I had to be aware of certain continuity errors such as the position the person was sitting in and certain differences in what they may have said.

     One of the more complex ideas that I learned from producing my preliminary task was having to match shots and angles. So when filming a close up of somebody or in shot/reverse shot, making sure that the angle you are filming from is as close as you can get to the angle the person you are filming next to is seeing the scene from. I also learned that it is good to try and match eye-lines in shots, which is difficult, but is something that can help make two shots flow and look more natural once edited together.

     Another invaluable thing I learned from editing my preliminary task and putting it together was how to use Final Cut. I managed to get my head around the basics of the program and learned how to do things such as cutting clips and removing audio.

     Overall I have learned a huge amount from my preliminary task; it will be invaluable to me once I start filming my next piece. I am now aware of many new skills and techniques that will help me with my future work with cameras and editing.

My Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task ......Art skills, sorted!