Research into your chosen genre including images and embedded video

Overview

The type of film we have chosen to make is a Drama. This genre of film comes with many generic conventions and features which are seen frequently in the films in this genre. I will use the research in this post to help me when I am making my film opening to make sure it accurately fits into the genre of Drama.

Drama films are one of the most popular genres of film, Drama films tend to have many features which make the a Drama, but also helps to keep the audience engaged in the film and keep them interested and connected to the storyline and the characters.

The aim of a Drama film is normally to make the audience feel emotionally connected to the plot and characters, but also to make them put themselves into the life of the characters involved in the film, this can give the viewer many mixed emotions as they could empathies with some of the characters as they may have had similar experiences in their life to the character. Some people enjoy Drama's as they can be very cathartic; this is when the audience uses the film to relieve or express their own emotions and feelings, because they can relate to the character and their situation. 

A drama is structured in a very specific way so it has climaxes and anti-climaxes, this keeps the audience involved and keeps their attentions, it builds tension and anticipation for what is going to happen in the next part of the film.

Sub Genres of Drama Films

Drama films have many sub genres, these are more niche genres within the genre of drama, they are more focused on a certain type of plot or character, they are a lot more focused than a normal drama film.

Biopic - this is basically a biographical film, a film about someone, past, present or even sometimes future, the film basically follows them or a group of people and their lives, it is similar to a biography, which is a book about someone, but instead it is a film about someone. Although this sub-genre does cross over into other genres as it can be used in any other genre, it is still classed as a sub-genre of drama for that same reason.

Historical Drama - this sub genre often gets confused with a biopic, but instead of following a person or group of people it follows an event or group of events which have happened in the past, for example the World Wars or films like Troy (2004), which is based in 1200BC or Gladiator (2000), which is based in 180AD. These all document large battles or moments in history through film.

Period Drama - period dramas, sometimes known as costume dramas are dramas which are based usually from anywhere from the 1700's to the 1900's, they are similar to historical dramas, but instead of documenting an event they document the way of life during that time, they normally have underlying themes of adventure or romance, but overall they are dramas as they use props and costumes to capture the atmosphere and feelings of that time period. Example of this genre are films such as Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Jane Eyre (2006).

Dark Comedy/Drama - this genre normally deals with very taboo subjects such as murder, rape, illness, war and violence. Although the film uses comedy to initially bring up these subjects and introduce them, there is drama because these are subjects people dont always feel comfortable talking about, therefore the characters in the film normally shed light on them through the comedy used. An example of this is Pulp Fiction (1994).

Tradegy - This sub genre normally deals with a main character, group of people or family that have suffered or at some point in the film suffer from a big, life changing, normally bad event which impacted their life a great deal, the film normally follows them dealing with and overcoming this event. An example of this is Dear John (2010).