Genre Research... Part 2

Film Opening: Soo... even more drama

To develop a theatrical and realistic scene I wanted to dive more into what this genre entails regarding the importance of music elements and shot composition used to make the film feel like this could happen to anyone.

Drama Genre in my Film

As stated in  "Drama Films", an article by Supersummary, the drama genre is typically focused on a serious story that involves a realistic situation containing a conflict with the main character. In the case of my film opening, the conflict would be more defined as man versus self, however, it is a lot more than what can be defined in those three words. A conflict is regularly defined as "armed encounter, or battle" (“SuperSummary”). Drama films are all about subtle scripting and actions so to attach this to my characters. I want to be very meticulous in how I write the script to make this relatable and focused on the inner conflict of Gabby.

Setting in my film

Even though any setting works inside a drama piece due to the conflict of Gabby losing her mother an extremely significant set for this piece is the hospital room. The normal set for a drama piece also has a lot to do with representation and normal places. One of the main important factors of a drama film is the relation that the audience can have with the piece. For example, a piece like "It's Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini is about a teenager who checks himself into a mental health clinic. Although this topic is very recognized amongst the generation z, it is also important that they use sets like his apartment. This made him feel more relatable to the audience making us feel more connected to him as a character. This film is more realistic due to the warm and real feeling that sets such as apartments or homes bring to the movie. Audiences may connect further when they feel as though this is something that could happen in their lives and not only on movie screens.

Genre mash-up

As stated in "No Film School", dramas tend to have a lot of subgenres that are used with specific films. In the case of the film opening, the subgenres would be family, biopics, and dramedy.

Family - A family drama "follows a family as they deal with a crisis" (Hellerman). This will be perfect for my film as the opening will be tracking Gabby and her dad Henry through their coping nature of living life without Nicole, Gabby's mom.
Biopics - A biopic drama "deals with the dramas in one person's life story" (Hellerman). So for instance, as this movie will be following Gabby through her life this story will be dealing with her coping factor. Even though Henry will be a significant and extremely featured character in this the film is at the end of the day centered around Gabby and not him.
Dramedy - A dramedy drama is "the natural meddling of comedy and drama to tell a character-driven story" (Hellerman). Not that I plan to utilize this throughout the entire film but I do think that having slight dramedy throughout my piece will lighten the air to still make the film enjoyable to watch.

Editing a genre film 

I started to look into how to fully edit a drama piece since I'm typically used to editing more lighthearted and fast-paced pieces. So, I watched a YouTube video "Film Editing Techniques: Timing Your Cut to Enhance the Drama" and I learned a lot of good tips and tricks for when I start editing my project. 

The first thing they talked about was building the tension to a climax. So I think something I learned was to give the audience time to breathe and grasp what it is I'm trying to show them. So for example, in the first scene, the girl is getting ready for prom so the shots will be quick-paced and more lighthearted but after Gabby gets the phone call that her mom is passing on the shots will become slower to emphasize the scene's emotions. One way to give the audience time is also to cut to a shot to give the viewer time to think over what has just happened. The way I plan on utilizing this is by cutting to a black title screen after the flatline starts beeping and the girl is crying over her mother's bed. This 5-10-second cut to black will give the viewer time to process what has happened.

Overall Drama in my film 

Ok so wow I just said a lot about the genre in my film and how I'm gonna use this but like so what? Well, I think by having all this research in place and understanding the drama genre further I will be able to utilize the skills I have learned throughout this year and in the past to create a more realistic and emotional opening that will truly make the audience feel something. Being someone interested in media is such a powerful role because we truly hold the viewer's minds in our hands. Drama is such a make-or-break genre because without the proper shot sequencing and without the proper script writing it won't be effective in conveying a message to the audience. But I hope I'll be able to do this with added research and with help from others 

Until next time 

- Emma 

Websites that helped with this research
Some of the resources I used in this research included:
Explore the Drama Genre in Film and Television
Drama Films
History of Drama Movies
Drama Film Examples
Conflict