7e. My Film's Genre Conventions

My film, will be a Drama film involving a romance. I looked up the conventions of the Drama Convention.

• Real life situations
• Character's relationships develop throughout the film
• Realistic struggles
• Happy ending or form of realisation
• Characters must be relatable 
• The audience should be able to relate to the characters emotions
• Music is used to evoke strong emotions

I feel my film with fit with many of these conventions, such as, real life situations and realistic struggles. As the film is set in a school, and the main issue is getting involved with the group group of friends via peer pressure, this is something that many of our target audience , which is young people ages 15-30, will have witnessed happen or had happen to them at some point within their life. Our film will also have a happy ending as at the end of the film, Josh will end up with Amy, instead of the gang of boys.

There are also conventions that we will be able to add into our film during the production process. For example, the use of close ups and point of view shots will make Josh, the protagonist, relatable and the audience will be able to relate to Josh's emotions. Also, during editing our film we can add music over the top of scenes, when choosing this music, to make sure it fits in with the conventions of a Drama film, we will have to choose strong music that heightens the emotions of the characters.

I went on the website www.freemusicarchive.com and found this song which is an example of what I could add in to my film whist editing. It is upbeat and could be used to show a character's happiness, perhaps at the end of the film.

7d. Moodboard of Genre

7c. Sub-genres and Hybrid Genres

Sub-genre

Sub-genres are identifiable sub-classes within a larger film genre with their own style, formulas and iconography. For example, a sub-genre of Action may be spy or martial arts films.

Most genres of films have sub-genres within them. Sub-genres, like conventions, make up what we expect to see from a film within that genre. Such as, a sub-genre of Action being a race against time.

Sub-gnres change throughout time, just as society changes. Events that happen within the world effect sub-genres and what an audience want to see within a film. For example, in the great depression, a popular film genre was science fiction. This is because many people sued to cinema as a place to go to escape reality and watching a film that was set in a completely different world, allowed the audiences to forget about all the issues that they had within their lives.

Hybrid Genres

Hybrid Genres are when two or more genres are put together and to conventions are mixed. Such as, Rom-Com's or Action Adventure films. 

7b. Textual Analysis of a Drama Film

In order to research further into the Drama genre and what conventions are used with Drama short films, I analysed a short Drama film called Margo Lily. I found this film but using www.shortoftheweek.com. I chose this film as it is a Drama film that involves the loss of a loved one, much like the film my group are going to make.





The first shot of the film is a close up of the woman. In this shot she is seen to be crying. This shows sadness and sets the tone of the film straight away. The shot then changes into a long shot of the man walking towards woman, this shows the background and introduces both the characters as well as the setting. Throughout the film, many close ups and extreme close ups are used, this helps us connect with the characters and see their emotions. The camera is hand-help, this means it us unstable. This adds realism and as is as if the camera is viewing what is happening form the perspective of a third person.

The editing that is used is quite slow paced. This connotes the idea of sadness and is as if the characters are numb and can no longer move. There is also the use of a focus pull that makes the audience focus on the moon and the stars in the sky, this is used in a point of view shot so we can see that the male character may be looking for inspiration or help.

Throughout the first half of the film, the only sound that is used is the dialogue of the characters. This sets the storyline and allows the audience to make a connection with the characters. However, midway through the film, non-diagetic music starts to be played over the top of the film. This music is slow places and sad which sets the tone of the film further.

the lighting used is natural lighting which shows that the film is set a nighttime. This means that the film is dark and connotes ideas of sadness and depression. The film is seen to be centred around planting a tree for a daughter that the couple have sadly lost, because of this the prop of a tree is used a lot within the film. The costumes that the characters are wearing are winter clothes including a coat and hat. This shows that the film is set in winter. This could be seen as a plot device as the ground being frozen is the cause of the argument within the film as they cannot dig a hole to plant the tree. The idea of the film being set in winter is re-inforced by the christmas lights that are hung around the garden.


I also made a timeline of the film, to show the beats.

INSERT TIMELINE - NEED TO SCAN IN

7a. What Is Genre?

This website gives examples of many different types of genres as well as a descripion of what conventions make up each particular genre. I used this website to help research for the information I used in my mind map. http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html
Genre

Film genres are identifiable types, categories, classification or groups of films that have similar techniques or conventions.

Things that make up each genre are :

• Narrative
• The actors that are used
• Setting
• Situation that appear within the film
• Props
• Subject Matter
• Stereotypical characters
• Themes
• Mood
• The period it is set in
• Plot
• Structure
• Narrative Events

Genre Definition:  http://www.mediaknowall.com/gcse/keyconceptsgcse/keycon.php?pageID=genre

Conventions

What you expect to see or hear in any given media product. These are what define what genre a film is. E.g. in action adventure films we expect to see Hero's Vs Villains and a big set piece.

Paradigms

Paradigms are the patterns which are formed within a genre by the co0nventions which are used. Overtime, these formulas and pattens may acquire a typical or archetypal force, domination ways of seeing and representing the world around us.

Archetypal Definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetypal_literary_criticism

How are Paradigms grouped?

Paradigms may be grouped into those relating to:

• Iconography - the main signs and symbols that you see or hear.
• Structure - the way the text is put together and the shape it takes.
• Theme - the issues and idea the film/programme deals with.

Why is Genre important?

For audiences: Genre is important for audiences as it means they are able to gain a clear idea of what the film is about and means they only see films that they want to see.

For industry: Genre was created around the 1920's when all the major film studios were starting up.

Positives and negatives of genre  

How has the Western Genre change overtime?

Why do Genres change over time? 
Target audience of different genres change over time and the type of people viewing films at the cinema gets younger. This is called 'juvenilisation' and may be because young people now have a larger income than young people in the past. This means that the target audience will change and the studios will have to change the content to make sure the content is acceptable for the age the audience and also make sure they interest the target audience. 

Some people like to watch genres because they like having their expectations of the codes and conventions of the film met. This means that if genres just stayed the same forever then films would become predictable which is why another reason why genres need to change overtime.

Another reason that genres may change overtime is because society and the roles of different people in society change overtime. The changes roles of women, international conflicts, immigration and disease. The dominant ideologies of society changing overtime may have caused film genres to change overtime.

The censorship of codes and conventions may be another reason why genres change overtime. When genres were first created, nudity, violence and swearing was banned because society consider it unacceptable. Since then the views of society have now changed and these things are now considered more acceptable and are allowed to be shown in film. This means that genres have had to change overtime so that they are not old fashioned and are still able to interest audiences. For example, when Jaws was first shown, it was classified as an 18 film certificate. However, since then, violence in films has become more acceptable and the certificate has changed to be classified as a 12 certificate.

Some stars, authors and directors have effected the conventions of genre overtime. For example, Hitchcock is often described as the master of suspense and this continues to be seen in contemporary thrillers. For example, The Night Of The Living Dead was the first film to use a non-white actor as the protagonist and not as a villain.

Genre has also changed overtime because of the changes in technology. Since genres were first introduced to films when the industry just started the advanced in film technology has been dramatic. This has lead to the creation of the Steadicam which is important in horror films ans also editing ha changed as fast paced editing is now easier. CGI has also made special effects in films to be more realistic. I saw examples of the technology changing over time when i visited the Harry Potter Film Studios. This showed how the special effects of films were made and how this had changed in the time between the first and last film. Technical advances in animation has been used a lot in Harry Potter as it helps to create all the realism of the creates.

6. Group Work

Now that I have a greater understanding of how to write a script I am going to select, from, within my group, the best logline that has been written by a student and then develop this into my final film.

The logline we have decided upon is:

"A young boy struggles to come to terms with the death of his father".

We chose this logline as it is appropriate and we have access to all of the locations and and characters within the film. Most of the short film is set in a school location which will mean we can film easily within lessons. The character within the film are all teenagers which means that we can use friends and other pupils form within out school to be actors. The main character in the film, Josh, is also a character that the audience will easily be able to empaphise with and relate to some of the situations that he is going through as a teenager. This means that the film will be more enjoyable for our target audience. This storyline will also enable us to create good beats within our short film with the struggles that the character of Josh goes through, this will make an interesting plot.



The beats for the film are as follows:


Beat 1 -Introduce the setting
beat 2- introduction of josh sitting by his dad's grave
Beat 3- Josh at school misbehaving
Beat 4- Josh meets Amy
Beat 5- Josh gets into the wrong crowd of friends
Beat 6 - Josh almost has a fight with the boys
Beat 7 - Amy tries to help josh but he rejects her 
Beat 8 - Josh realises what he is doing and accepts help







After a group disscussion about ideas for our film, I made this mindmap to sum up our main ideas.

5. Formatting Scripts

Before I began to write my script I conducted some research on how a professional script should be formatted. I felt this was necessary as I do not have much experience in formatting scripts as I have only previously written two (for my GCSE coursework and AS Preliminary Task). By using the website Script Frenzy I was able to find out that the four main things that are involved in script formatting are sluglines, dialogue, character names and action. I then done some further research into the specific ways in which these four elements are formatted.

Sluglines

These are pieces of text that are written at the start of a new scene to say where the scene is set and whether it is interior or exterior.

Sluglines are made of of these three elements:

• INT/EXT
• Location
• Time

Sluglines are always written in all capitals, there is a specific way in which the slugline should be set out. There has to be two spaces between INT/EXT and the location, then also there should be two spaces, hyphen and then another space between the location and time. 

Action

The action comes below the slugline and describes the action that happens in the scene.

Character Name

The characters name always appears central above their dialogue. The character name should always been in capital letters.

Dialogue

The dialouge of each character must appear under that characters name and follow the standard rules of capitalization. The dialogue does not appear in speech marks.

4. Beats

In class we learnt that "Beating" is a term used in Hollywood film making for beating out n idea - a beat is when something happens. In a 5 minute short film, there are usually around 8-12 beats.

Here is an example of how to break a short film don't into beats

Beat 1 – Introduce the world the film will be in

Beat 2 – Introduce the character

Beat 3 – Introduce the problem

Beat 4 – How the character chooses to solve the problem

Beat 5 – The character experiences a major set back

Beat 6 – The character is almost defeated

Beat 7 – The character rejects a solution

Beat 8 – The character discovers a solution

Here is a short film I watched and analyzed the beats.

Beat 1- Introduces the man and woman driving in their cars, shows that they are average people.

Beat 2- Introduction to the female character, find out that she has a lot of her possessions in her car, connotes that she does not have much money.

Beat 3- The woman goes on a date with a man.

Beat 4- They get on really well and have a good date.

Beat 5- Neither of them want to go back to their apartments because they are small and messy.

Beat 6- They both try and convince each other to go to each others apartments

Beat 7- The woman refuses to go to her apartment and the man refuses to go to his.

Beat 8 - They spend the night sitting on benches in various places and talking to each other.

Here are the beats my film:

Beat 1: Ava’s first day at school
Beat 2: Ava is alone at school
Beat 3: She meets Josie
Beat 4: Josie starts peer pressuring Ava
Beat 5: Ava starts to avoid Josie as she feels bullied
Beat 6: Josie tries to fight Ava but the teachers catch her
Beat 7: Josie isn’t allowed back to school
Beat 8: Ava make new friends and starts to settle into her new school



3. Characterisation

Protagonist - The protagonist is the main character in a film. They are the character who the audience often relate to and identify with and end up being the hero within the plot.

Antagonist- The antagonist the the character within a film who contends with the protagonist. They are often the people who cause the conflict that the character needs to overcome and try and stop them overcoming it through out the film until they are defeated.

"A girl joins a new school and falls into the wrong crowd"

Protagonist – Ava joins a new school and struggles to fit in, until Josie, a girl in the year above her at school, invites her to be in her group of friends, however Ava is soon a victim of peer pressure from Josie and her friends.

 Antagonist - Josie is a girl at Ava’s new school, she is in the year above Ava. At first she is friendly to Ava and they get along well but then she starts to peer pressure Ava into doing think she doesn’t want to do such as smoking and taking drugs. Ava soon realizes that Josie isn’t the type of person she wants to be friends with and this causes Josie to get angry.

Questions

Here are some questions that I would ask my character Ava. I have added her example answers so that we can get a greater understanding of her personality.

What do you work like under pressure?

I don’t deal well with pressure; I get scared and usually try and avoid the situation.

What was your childhood like?

I grew up in a small countryside village where I went to a small school and had the same group of friend since I was a baby. When I turned 16 my dad got a job in a big city so we had to move. It was completely different to what my old life was like and I found it hard to fit in.

What is an average day like for you?

I go to school to have lesson and see my friends, then when I come home I do my homework and spend time with my family. I also have a pet dog called Joe, who I take for walks.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

In my spare time I like going to exercise classes with my mum. I also go shopping a lot to spend the money I earn in my part time job as a waitress.

2b. Ideas and Loglines

Describe what a logline is and then provide examples from films you like from a variety of genres. Add a link to IMDb to their loglines of various films. Explain what makes a good log line - you've missed out information on this.

A logline is one sentatance that is used to desicbe a film, it has to have the power to summarise and intrigue the aduaince into wanting to watch the film.  A log line should leave some questions unanswered the make the audience want to watch the film.


Examples of loglines from different film genres:

The Hunger Games - Drama

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392170/

"Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to compete."












The Holiday - Romantic Comedy


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457939/

Two women troubled with guy-problems swap homes in each other's countries, where they each meet a local guy and fall in love.












The amazing Spiderman - Action Adventure


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0948470/

Peter Parker finds a clue that might help him understand why his parents disappeared when he was young. His path puts him on a collision course with Dr. Curt Connors, his father's former partner.