This document discusses the conventions of several genres that are relevant to the film "Being Arabella": drama, comedy, coming-of-age, and romance. For drama, it notes that character development drives the plot and audiences relate to the protagonist. Comedies typically involve high school settings and clumsy characters. Coming-of-age films deal with themes of relationships and growing up. Romance films follow a "boy meets girl" plot with disagreements leading to a happy ending. The film aims to incorporate conventions of multiple genres to avoid cliches.

2. Our production has a
hybrid genre of
comedy drama with
sub-genres of
coming-of-age and
romance.

3. What are the conventions of a
drama genre?
Within a film with a drama genre, you would expect the conventions to be
that the storyline is generally dramatic, which could move the audience
emotionally for example. A general drama based genre to a film uses
realistic events in order to do this. However usually, in dramas, character
development drives the plot rather than action.
Within a drama genre, you would expect close ups of the characters to
create suspense. Also, low and high angled shots are used to create the
different strengths of the characters.
Also, you would expect the audience to relate to the character (Arabella,
our female protagonist) which we can apply the Uses and Gratification
theory to as personal identity. This creates a sense of sympathy towards
the character when in a certain situation that an individual of the
audience that they can relate to.
Usually, using Tordorov’s Equilibrium narrative theory, the disequilibrium
would usually be an emotional rather than a physical thing, so relating to
our film, the disequilibrium is that she changes her image in order to
impress a boy, and loses all her friends in the process because of her
actions.

4. What are the conventions of a
comedy genre?
For our film ‘Being Arabella’, we thought that comedy would be good
hybrid genre, along with the drama genre shown previously. This is
because we want to avoid the typical clichés of a ‘chick-flick’, which
are usually just romance and comedy.
The conventions of a comedy genre are that typically, teen comedies
like our film are usually set in a high school, or involve high school
in some way. This links in with our film because Arabella does in
fact go to high school.
The typical character for a comedy film would be naturally clumsy,
accident prone people, which usually generates laughs.
Comedies are often shot with a high key lighting to preserve a lively
and light hearted atmosphere. By including props like brightly
coloured flowers help create a positive vibe.

5. Sub-genre: ‘Coming-of-age’
The original idea of a ‘coming-of-age’ genre would be a person
going through the transition from childhood to adulthood,
mostly common in teen films. The film would therefore be
targeted at a teenage audience.
Most themes used in a coming-of-age film would be storylines to
do with things like drugs, pregnancies, relationships and
friendships for example. This makes the film effective because
for the majority of the storylines, teens can relate to them.

6. Subgenre: ‘Romance’
This type of film is usually aimed at a female audience, and typically a ‘boy
meets girl’ scenario. There are usually hints during the film which may
suggest that they are a good ‘love match’, and the films would usually end in
a ‘happy ever after’.
As a disequilibrium, you could say that there is normally some sort of
disagreement/argument between the pair, however somehow they reunite,
leading to that ‘happy ever after’.
This relates to our film because to create a film following the type of genre’s
we are aiming towards, typically, we should involve the standard equilibrium
theory. This would mean that in a romance genre, the girl (being our female
protagonist), meets a boy, however something goes wrong (disequilibrium)
but they manage to sort it out and there is that sort of ‘happy ever after’
idea.
Sound is very important with a romance genre because using a certain
sound can determine the mood of the film automatically, possibly by using
an orchestral score. Long shots are often used in a romance film because it
lets the audience get to know the character straight away because they can
see what exactly they’re doing. Pans are also used when two people are
together because it shows attachment to them by following where they go.
Using quick cuts can be effective because it portrays the emotions and
atmosphere of the film dependant on the actions taking place.