Identifing genre

THE GENRE I HAVE SELECTED FOR MY SHORT FILM IS 'DRAMA'

As discussed earlier, drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. these themes basically involve child abuse,poverty, sexual abuse,moral dilemas,corruption, society and much more.

So basically drama films are usually based on real life examples and represents common man in one way or another.
Like many other genres, drama is also sub-categorized into genres like social drama, romantic-drama,psycho-drama,melo-drama,docu-drama etc. 

My movie would be based on social drama.This basically is a dramatic treatment of social issues that very powerfully connects audience emotions with real life situations.Such films are not only meant for entertainment but also use creative methods to reinforce and portray a message to the audience.

This genre includes films like 'The dead man walking','Black Friday' and 'This is England'

I have identified my genre as a Social Drama as it is takes a very social approach of how one fights against the status quo. How he challenges the authorities and what consequence he then has to face. This is one genre that i believe we all can relate to as it deals with the real issues and that was the main reason i went with this genre.

The main conventions of a social drama according to me is a dramatic narrative.All movies of this genre has representation of either a social group, a specific gender or  a specific system.

In my short film I would be using realistic characters,representing those who oppose dictatorship.  

Genre Study

(Research by: Riffah Munir and Zainab Zahid)
It is true that identifying genre's helps establishing your audience. Genre may be defined as category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style or subject matter. Genre usually classifies the different codes and conventions and the iconography associated with different themes that make up what we call 'GENRE'.

Though there are many different genres in Film making however the ones i really like include Romantic films, Comedy, Action,Horror and drama.

Romantic:

According to my understanding, Romance films are those that revolve around two main characters that share an emotional bond. This genre aims to provoke strong emotional feelings amongst the audience. These movies may not specifically be about love at first sight but also forbidden love,love triangles and sacrificial love. For example, Titanic, twilight,Vow are famous films that are counted under this category.

 

The first picture is a poster of the famous film 'Titanic',second is the poster of 'Twilight' and the third picture is also a poster of the film 'The Vow.

All the three films are considered to be of the romantic genre as the three follow the code and conventions that have already been recognized for romantic films.This would include innocent expressions,love chemistry between the two characters, helplessness,tragedy, happiness and some drama.

Following are some screen shots from the movie titanic that depict the above mentioned codes of a romantic film:

 This screen shot from titanic shows the chemistry and emotional bond that is shared by the main characters. This is an important element of the romantic films.

Similarly this screen shot shows the emotion of happiness.

This picture depicts the feeling of sadness.

Similarly when it comes to Iconography, the lead actresses wear flowy and colorful clothes. High key lighting is used to show happy moments in a scene whereas low key lighting maybe used to show sadness and gloominess in a scene.  

Similarly, flowers, wedding rings are common props used in this genre.

Comedy:

Comedy is a genre that uses humor,fun,laughter as a driving force.The basic aim is to provide entertainment to the audience in the form of lighthearted stories and funny characters. Comedy genre comes in two formats:Comedian led comedy or situational comedy and can further be sub categorized as romantic-comedy, thriller-comedy etc.
Famous films of this genre include Ted, thats my boy and a thousand words.

         

The three above mentioned films are all situational based.

Action:
After watching Inception, the dark knight rises i deduced that the typical conventions of an action based movie would include the following elements:
weapons,fights,missions & motives,hi-tech,massive destruction, femme fatale.
Action movies are not realistic.The cast would always include the main protagonist(main character) and several helpers.The locations used are also such that are very challenging and worsen the conditions for the hero.
Few action movies such as batman, superman have super heroic characters   

 

Horror:
Films like Insidious and Paranormal are part of this genre. Each film has some common element of violence and fear and some sort of super natural existence such as demons etc.

The pictures above show the existence of super naturals.
Cinematography plays a very important role in this genre. Very expressive camera angles are used and POV shots are very prominent to create the desired effect.both digetic and non digetic sounds are used.
such films are set in small communities or isolated places.

High usage of dark colours like black, red blue is prominent in all movies of this genre.

Drama:
According to Wikipedia  A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. 

Grammar filmfest

            Though not directly related to our course work, yet this film making competition held in LGS JT helped us alot. It not only taught us camera handling techniques but also gave us a first hand experience on video editing. It was a good learning experience and gave us a better understanding on how to use editing software's  the cinematography, managing time and most importantly team work.We participated in the music video category and managed to secure the first position.                                                                                                

our video was based on ones relationship with God. how he knows the different identities of the world and how negates each one of them.

the video:

(BULLAH KE JAANA)

                                                       the team receiving the trophy

trip to Paragon Academy of Performing Arts (PAPA)

Our school organised a trip to the sets of Syed Noor. A very popular Pakistani Director.

it was an amazing experience learning the techniques involved in making films. we got an idea of the things that we need to keep in mind when we are working on a project. its not only the stories and the shots but there are many other factors that we need to keep in mind. The costumes, the sets how you'r line producing your project, everything.

It was a good opportunity comparing our local film industry with Hollywood. with limited resources available, our film makers have actually produced great piece of work and that is very remarkable.

                                   At the sets of Syed Noor

Re-submission of our synopsis

the basic criticism that my partner and i received was on the formmation of our synopsis. our teacher felt that these were basically the ideas that we submitted. the synopsis should have been a bit more detailed. therefore we had to re-do our synopsis.

Mera lahore:
this short film will be based on lahore and its history.
Duration:
5 minutes
synopsis:
the film will start with a high shot where an old man is sitting on the ground with pictures and letters scatterd around him. these pictures would be of the old monuments of lahore like the Lahore fort, badshahi Masjid etc.
The next shot will show that the man is picking up the letters and pictures and pastes them opn the wall one by one. As he picks up these pictures and letters, he gets flash backs. in the next scene we will notice that the old man screams out loud 'i want my city back, i want my city back' and tears the pictures. the screen fades out and then there come two men in black attire. they grab him and inject him maing the old man dissy. it is later established(through voice over) that this man used to oppose zia ul haqs regim and therefore got arrested. he later goes insane and is in the mental assylum.
audience: 16 onwards
media institutions: Geo, Agg and social websites like Youtube and Dailymotion.



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