Film Opening Concept

The idea that me and my partner had for a film opening was a drama surrounding an adolescent teenager. It would open with said teenage boy and his friend playing video games, until he receives a phone call. He answers t he phone hesitantly, and hears about an emergency. He races out of his friends house and rushes on his bicycle to his home. As he is riding, he begins to cry, which then cuts to the title screen.

Representation in Drama

Regarding the genre of Drama, representation is usually recognizable, considering that the plot usually follows a minority character going through a certain life struggle. However, I still want to show a lot of diversity in the characters of our film from all angles, including: race, gender, sexuality, and personal quirks.

My Inspiration

What inspired me to create a Drama film for this project was that every well executed drama left me thinking about the movie well after it had ended. Comedies, romance, and horror, many times seem to all follow the same type of formula, and while may leave you satisfied, will most likely leave you without any lasting impression. I love how each drama is so unique in its own way and really engages the audience with true to life stories.

Examples

Rain Man

Rain Man is a film about a man, Charlie, who discovers he has an autistic brother who has acquired the wealth of his late father. Throughout the movie he tries taking advantage of his brother Raymond, for his fortune but grows to love him and accept him as a brother.

Lion

Lion follows a man, Saroo, in hunting down his birth family after being separated from them as a child, and using clues to find his way back.

Drama Genre Research

Drama

Drama films are realistic presentations and stories with veristic life situations that show true to life three dimensional characters facing problems with either themselves, other people, or forces of nature. They show human beings as realistically as possible, being neither good nor bad people, yet still having their peaks and their downfalls.

A drama films target audience is usually towards young adults and adults of both genders due to strong scripts they usually have.

Conventions of the Story Line

• They portray real life situations and have believable characters in realistic settings. The character should be relatable enough for the audience to sympathize or empathize with them. Fixed increase of tension with set climaxes and anticlimaxes to keep audience engaged.The main point of the Drama is some form of conflict; Struggles either mental, physical, or emotional. The goal of the picture is to move the watchers emotionally. Therefore, the ending is usually hard-hitting to leave a lasting impression on its audience.

Production Techniques

• Overcast and natural lighting used to create either a dark or realistic dramatic tone of the scenes.Most shots are eye level. Low and High angles to emphasize dominance or being small.Editing is done to seem smooth and natural. No wacky editing or sounds for comedic effect.

Institutional Conventions

• Trailers, movie posters, and talk shows

Examples

• Million Dollar Baby

Million Dollar Baby is the story of a woman who trains to be a boxer while in her 30s and becomes successful. The story is serious and a very realistic hypothetical of an extremely talented female boxer. The script pulls on emotions and leaves the viewers still thinking about the film. It meets all the criteria as a drama film.

• Blackklansman

Blackkklansman is the story of an African American police officer infiltrating the Klu Klux Klan to prevent attacks. The story is very true to life in highlighting the racism in the country during the 1970’s and portraying it in a realistic way, without sugar coating or using comedic relief. The ending is impactful and leaves an ongoing impression on the watcher.

More Examples

• The Pianist (2002)

• Room (2015)

• Titanic (1997)

Citations

• Drama Films, www.filmsite.org/dramafilms.html.
• Burton, Nikki. “Conventions of Drama Genre.” Conventions of Drama Genre, 1 Jan. 1970, bca2media2013group14.blogspot.com/2012/09/conventions-of-drama-genre.html.
• WonderHowTo. “How to Make a Dramatic Film.” WonderHowTo, WonderHowTo, 6 Apr. 2010, film-producing.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-dramatic-film-333238/.

Who I’m Working With

So for this project of directing a film opening, I will be working with my good friend, Kiana Kohut. We usually work together for other things so it just seemed natural. I’m very excited to see what we will create

You TV Analysis

The extract from the television show, “You” (Season 1, Episode 1) constructs meaning using camera shots, angles, movement, composition, editing, sound and mise en scene.

This show is about the main character, Joe Goldberg who takes interest in a girl, Guinevere Beck and begins to stalk her and go out of the way to get closer to her.

The show begins with two aerial shots and one long shot to establish the setting as a city in New York. The lighting is natural with a warm, sunny hue, which evokes a feeling of mellowness. Peaceful non diegetic music is heard and a bell chimes as a girl is shown walking into a bookstore. The bookstore is an important part of the scene because it is where Joe works and foreshadows where most major scenes will occur. The camera pans from her legs while tracking to follow her. The camera cuts to different parts of her body such as her eyes, her back, her blouse, and her bracelets. The entire time there is a voice over of Joe’s inner thoughts analyzing this girl, determining her personality type and such through her physical appearance. The camera shots and movements of Beck are of Joe’s Point of View, to show what he sees as he breaks down her personality and to highlight her importance. When he mentions her bracelets, they jingle, to imply that Beck enjoys some attention.

Beck soon approaches Joe, and the camera rack focuses from deep to shallow, perhaps to emphasize the significance of their first meeting. They converse with shot reverse shots of eye level close ups on their faces. This conveys a feeling of intimacy or closeness when the two talk, as if they are connecting right away. Then, Beck is seen at an over the shoulder shot, staring intently at a shelf of books while she solemnly comments on the lack of interest of reading nowadays. This shot signifies Beck’s love of books and reveals a major character trait of this girl that will carry out throughout the show. A two shot of Beck and Joe is then seen, where Beck is looking at another customer, but there is a shallow focus on Joe who is gazing at Beck with a lustful facial expression. The shallow focus is for the audience to fixate on Joe’s facial expression and realize he has caught hard feelings for Beck, and leaves the viewers interested in what he will do next.

Joe then begins to stalk Beck online, discovering unsettling details about herself and her life, like her address, and starts to follow her in real life. Joe watches Beck outside her house through the windows wearing dark clothes and a hat. This suggests that Joe knows how to stalk and he is not uncomfortable doing so. The camera pans with Joe as he is following Beck on the outsides of her place, to emphasize the eeriness of him shadowing her. The scene then cuts to the Title logo, “YOU” in white font, as the letters slowly become stained with red. The logo can foreshadow deaths and darkness throughout the show, since the white words become tainted with what moves and appears as blood.

In conclusion, the way this show was edited with the shots, lovable dialogue, and natural lighting gives of an atmosphere of a cutesy romantic comedy. At the same time, Joe’s voice over and vexation on Beck gives off an eerie and creepy vibe, causing viewers to feel conflicted but also grabs their attention when they realize there is more than an average man with Joe. This show gives of a startling message, that not everyone is who they appear to be. This is seen with Joe, who appears to be an average guy but is actually a borderline sociopath. “You” does an excellent job at catching the audience’s attention, by portraying the main character, as a three dimensional character who does extremely good, and extremely bad things, all while thinking his intentions are good.

Camera Angles and Shots- Still Shots

This week, my partner Kiana and I, were assigned to take still shots using all different types of shots and angles. Here are a few.


Dutch Angle

This was our interpretation of  Dutch/ canted/ tilted Angle, meaning to convey a sense of disorientation and/or confusion. This was probably the easiest to do since having your head on a desk already shows some confusion, but the angle emphasizes it.

Extreme Close Up

This was our extreme close up shot, where we emphasize the emotion in the eyes  by having the camera focus only on its expression. This was relatively easy to do, although it was definitely an obstacle to figure out how to deal with the nose being in the shot, since it makes the scene a bit awkward. We also did a few other shots with the eyes straight, with no emotion. Ultimately we decided the furrowed eyebrows and looking to the side was the best option with the most impact.


Aerial Shot

Our aerial shot was probably the most difficult to do. We attempted a 90 degree directly above shot. This one was hard since we wanted the lighting to be good, but the sun went into my eyes when I tried to look up. Also, it took a lot of shots before we could get one that didn't have my partner's (the photographers) feet in it since she was trying to get the full length of the body without any equipment. 

I thought this assignment was fun and interesting since we're always reading and seeing examples of these angles and shots, but now we actually got to create them :).