Conventions of drama films

1. Drama Films

2. • Depicts the life of characters as realistic as possible but can be slightly
dramatised.
• Storyline is usually aimed to move audiences emotionally and allow
them to connect to a story.
• Most of the ‘drama’ comes from conflict within the characters or plot.
• Plot can sometimes be non-fiction/fantasy.
• Some storylines include cliffhangers and dramatic scenes to keep the
audience engaged.
Conventions

3. Typical Audience
• When creating and planning our short film, my group and I need to consider our
audience so we can target our plot towards people of a certain age.
• Considering our initial ideas, our target audience could be of most ages. However,
if I had to target a specific demographic I would choose people aged 20-30.
• I would say that our short film could be watched by many, because the storyline
will attract a mass audience. For example there could be young characters which
will allow young people to relate to the short film, but also a plot that will allow
adults to relate as well.

4. Classics

5. Remakes
The Great Gatsby Karate Kid

6. Most Successful vs Least Successful
• The film ‘Titanic’ is the highest grossing drama film of all time.
• It was so successful because at the time, it was unlike any film before and
the use of social effects was becoming more popular.
• It was also based on a real event in history which attracted a mass
audience, as did the two main characters and their relationship.
•The film ‘Blackwoods’ which was released in 2001, is one of the lowest
grossing drama films of all time.
•The budget was $3 million but only made $1,500 in the Box Office.

7. Mise-en-Scene
The way that a drama film is presented can vary. For example:
• Lighting - Can be natural or artificial. The brightness is sometimes altered
to create a specific tone or atmosphere in the scene.
• Location - Depending on the plot, the setting can vary. For instance, the
short film ‘Lovefield’ is set in an isolated wheat field whereas the short film
‘Blood and Chips’ is set in a café.
• Costume - This also varied depending on how the characters are portrayed.
E.g. a ‘gangster’ would stereotypically be shown wearing a tracksuit.
Moreover, the costume can sometimes be dependant on the setting. For
example, in a period drama film the costumes will be relevant to that time
in history.

8. Rick Altman’s Theory
Rick Altman had a theory and a
semantic/syntactic approach to film.
This studied how the ‘film’ genre
worked.

9. Semantic
• Semantic refers to the way media is presented, the music used and
the location it is in.
• For example:
oCostume/Makeup
oDialogue
oMusic
oLanguage
oAttitude

10. Syntactic
• The syntactic approach refers to the narrative structure and the way
the characters react.
• For example, in a romantic film the typical plot would be a boy and a
girl fall in love but start by not liking each other.
• Then throughout the film a series of events would occur which bring
these two characters together.

11. From this initial research of the ‘drama’ genre I have found that the
aspects of mise-en-scène are dependant on the plot.
My group and I need to decide the storyline for our short film and then
we can base our location, costumes, lighting etc on the themes and
ideas we have.
I think this genre allows for a lot of creativity with ideas and plots and
we need to refine our initial thoughts so we can do more research into
this style of short film.