Genre and Conventions

The genre of my imagined film is a family drama. This is a sub genre of 'drama'. This genre depends mostly on in depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. These include themes such as alcholism, drug addiction, crime, poverty and corruption. These themes make the characters in conflict with themselves and society. All film genres can include dramatic elements but films of the drama genre focus mainly on the drama and the main issues.

Some well known films of this genre include: Forrest Gump (1994) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9Xypuvv1lo, The Shawshank Redemption (1994) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hB3S9bIaco and Titanic (1999) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5gtS3pgA3Y. Films of this drama have been frequently nominated for Academy Awards especially best picture.

Early films such as 'The Grapes of Wrath' (1940) were the first films of the drama genre. This films showed the effects of depression. Films such as 'All About Eve' (1950) focused on relationships and developments of them. This film particularly focused on women and their relationship with men.

In Shawshank Redemption we see Andy become friends with the other in mates and especially with Red and how they develop into best friends. Another example is obviously in Titanic with the relationship between Rose and her mother, Rose and Jack and Rose in relation to her status and behaviour.

Family drama is a sub genre and focuses on family relationships. An example of this is in 'My Sisters Keeper' (2009) which focuses on the family of a girl dying of cancer and how it tears them apart in different ways.

The characters in these films are ordinary people and who look ordinary due to the era. For example Jack in Titanic was a normal man of lower class who looked very ordinary. In modern drama films the costume is modern and as are the props. If the film was set in the 1940's the costume, props and setting would all be authentic to the diegesis. As the genre of Drama portrays mainstream issues of society the setting relates to these. For example in 'My Sisters Keeper' the main setting is in a hospital as she is battling cancer. Another example is in 'Shawshank Redemption' the prison and the cell is the main setting as it is portraying the life of men in prison.

The props used in dramas are similar to real life. For example in 'Titanic' the props used by the upper class people are very authentic to what they could use in real life. This is because dramas follow mainstream stories and sometimes true events.