Genre Research.Drama.

As a group, we decided that the most appropriate genre for our production would be a psychologically-based drama film. We believed that this genre was most fitting as we are all familiar with independently made British drama films and all agree that some of the most interesting and memorable films in recent years have been British made drama films, such as ‘This is England’, ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’.

Also, the fact that many drama films are based on people our age of 16-17 and living in an urbanised area means we will be able to relate to the narrative and could put our own interpretations into our production. It also means our production will be considerably more practical to film, compared to if we were to do an action film. Furthermore, casting will be made easier if our narrative is based around someone our age.

Why Drama?

In terms of ideologies, a convention of a British independently made drama film is to to contradict stereotypical and traditional ideologies that would be promoted in a mass market, conglomerate produced film, due to the niche target audience they are made to attract. Some of the most commonly used ideologies that drama films contradict are the stereotype that people from a poor background are ill-mannered and have no positive contribution to society, and that people who grow up on a council estate are common and disrespectful.

Drama films tend to be very conventional regarding the mise-en-scene of the film. These conventions include low-key-lighting, to reinforce the pessimistic and dark nature of the narrative. Other conventions concerning the mise-en-scene include

• Urban setting

• Council estates

• Dull/grey weather

• Public transport

• Violence

• Drug use

Conventions of a Drama Film

Drugs and violence are also commonly used in drama films. They are often used to emphasize the desperation of the character.

Shot types such as close ups are also commonly used in drama movies. They are used to highlight the importance the character has over the narrative and the fact that the narrative is based around the character.

Camera movement such as tracking is also used to suggest the journey the character is experiencing.

Drama films also usually have a non-diegetic soundtrack throughout the film. This is used to highlight the narrative in which the character is going through.

Conventions of a Drama Film

As drama can cover a large range of different types of narratives, writers and directors often see it important to integrate the genre of drama with a different genre, as they may feel simply having drama as a genre is too vague.

Some of the most famous examples of drama hybrids are:

• Four Lions – Drama and Comedy

• Starred Up – Drama and Crime

• Kidulthood – Drama and Social Realism

• Billy Elliot – Drama and Musical

Hybrids of Drama

As a result of post-modern influences, it has become conventional for a drama movie to not have a new equilibrium at the end. This is demonstrated in many recently made British drama films, such as This Is England and Kidulthood, as it attracts the niche and sophisticated target audience. It also highlights the sense of realism in the genre.

In terms of characters, the main protagonist is usually disturbed and going through or trying to come out of some kind of mental trauma they have experienced. Furthermore, the character types are usually not as obvious in an independently made drama movie, as the active audience are made to contemplate and consider the character types.

Interestingly, even though the main theme of This Is England is the malicious nature of violence, Sean Meadows avoids a brutal display of violence throughout the film. This highlights the fact that drama films are targeted for a sophisticated audience, as they appreciate violence is not needed for it to be a dominant theme.

Highlighting the fact that British films, in particular, specialize in this genre.

We followed the convention of making the subject of our production the life of working class lives.

We challenged this convention of genre as we set our production in rural Midlands courtsides to increase the isolation of the protagonist.

This highlights the lack of restrictions put into social realism films, due to their targeting of niche audiences, rather than mass media groups.

We represented the social issues of depression, alcoholism and fatherless children. Our active audience maysee this as a result of the protagonists disturbed childhood, as a result of the scene when he is throwing photographs into the fire.

The 1980’s is when social realism films began to thrive in Britain, due to the controversy caused as a result of Margret Thatcher's rain as Prime Minister, such as unemployment, particularly in Midland and Northern areas of Britain, due to the dependency on manual labour in those areas.

This is due to the lack of constraints put in place by large, conglomerate and oligopoly companies in order to attract a mass market.

Applying the auteur theory, which we also applied in our production

This is precisely what we are doing, due to the stereotypes of industrial labour and working class citizens in these areas.

This emphasizes how social realism films challenge representations of class and regional identity , as the characters are shown as “fully rounded” to the eye of a sophisticated and active audience member. In our production, this is triggered by the fact that we direct the film to produce emotional pleasures, thus allowing the audience member to see the character as a real person, not simply a manual worker. This also allows them to judge without prejudice.

We highlight problems such as alcoholism, depression and fatherless children.The autuer theory could be applied here, as many directors base their films on personal experiences, expressing them in a unique and personal way.

This fits our protagonists representation, although he was underclass, reinforcing the emotional pleasures the audience will feel due to his unemployment. Also, the seeking of escape would have been the new equilibrium to the production.

‘Social protests’ are one of the reasons as to why they are targeted towards a niche market, as a mass market are not going to be appealed by a film that challenges the hegemonic system. Furthermore, this is why many of our niche target audience are politically active, as they are well informed of what is happening regarding politics.This is because they would have been less educated, as social realism films are targeted towards well educated, sophisticated and active audiences, due to the challenging of stereotypes they portray, as well as their sometimes challenging narrative.

Highlighting the fact that they are aimed towards educated audiences, able to understand the narrative and challenging of hegemonic ideologies, amongst other aspects of social media films.