Aitana + Drama = Tears

I have decided that the genre for my movie is going to be drama. At first I was playing around with the idea of a dramedy, but I think drama is more fitting. I love speaking out on issues that matter to me, so i'm going to make a movie about a transgender man. My character is loosely based off of my best friend, Lau. I'll be outlining the plot of my movie in another post, but for now let's explore some drama conventions:

In regards to the drama genre, I have found one common characteristic is to make the characters relatable to viewers, so the next logical step was to research who that audience is. According to a slideshow I found, the target audience for a drama was young adults and mature audiences regardless of gender. The main appeal for a drama is how the script is written and how relatable the characters are.

I went on artofthetitle.com and viewed some drama film openings, in order to view first hand what would be expected of me were I to do this film. I viewed 3 film openings:

The Neon Demon (2016): This opening was simple, it had a medley of soothing tones paired with unnerving music to create a contrast that everything may appear perfect on the outside, it is far from perfect on the inside. The majority of the opening sequence were credits and the names of the actors and director. I must admit that this opening was devoid of many techniques that were taught to me throughout the year and is not something that an independent director should do.

American Hustle (2013): In this intro, there is much more variety. At first there are the credits as simple as any credits are, and then it is followed by a long shot of one of the protagonist putting on his toupee. After that, the audience gets a glimpse of a luxurious house and the two other characters come inside. The two male leads have an altercation that prompts one man to mess up the main character’s toupee, which he had worked so hard on in the previous scene. Overall, the shots and camera angles were not as structured as most movies. Instead, the opening focused more on establishing a relationship between the characters, and intriguing the audience to see who they are throughout the movie.

Children of Men (2006): I also saw this film opening in class and loved it because it did a fantastic job of setting the tone and atmosphere for the rest of the movie through the newscast of the death of the youngest man alive, and the mise-en-scene throughout the first two minutes. The director is able to capture the cruelty of a war torn dystopian society within the first few minutes of the film, which is ultimately what I am trying to achieve during this project. This introduction would kind of be the one I would mostly lean towards (not the explosion of course) because it seems like it is the easiest one to get done with the timing that I have.