Research - Drama

As defined by filmsite, Drama Films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between. Each of the types of subject-matter themes has various kinds of dramatic plots. Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre because they include a broad spectrum of films.

Drama relies heavily on emotions and the expressions of the actors, this genre really uses the symbolic codes and conventions to their full potential. This can be either be an extreme closeup of a tear falling from an eye or a black/white scene with emotional piano in the background.

Drama really grips the audience and is one the heavily consumed genres globally, from teen drama to mainstream drama. From 2017-2019, there were 268 Drama Movies from Hollywood, and their Box Office Performance added up to a total of $1,686,184,427 (click here for source).

Typical codes and conventions include: 

Close-Ups Angle to portray weakness, Low Angles to portray strength (of the subject being looked at).

Various Props

Environment having mundane realism, and ecological validity.

Subtle, but strong and emotional music.

Referencing drama shorts

For my A2 Coursework as well, I took a similar approach to research as I did for my AS Coursework. I watched a few short drama movies and highlighted their strong point, how props, conventions, and codes were used and would try to apply them in my media product.

This below movie shows how cutaway shots can be powerfully used as flashbacks. The quick distorted sound effect along with the cutaway shots create a dramatically eerie feeling, which was intended by the director because the nature of the movie is crime/thriller.

Since my movie includes the narrative of bullying, I searched up some bullying movies and looked for any help I could get or new information.

This movie below didn't really help me, besides me getting an idea of how to open the movie and the type of music to use. As the dance night happens, the music goes from Piano solo to a little Techno which indicates a happier vibe (the dance). the Bully is shown with the music, but when the camera switches back to the girl that's bullied, the piano comes back. This gave me an idea on how to use sad and happy music for my move.

This was pretty much everything I could learn from this video, I did feel that the statement "19,000 bullied students attempt to commit suicide every year", should have been at the end and I also felt that it broke the continuity of the movie.