Nicole's Blog: Genre: Drama

How is it drama?

Drama carries a serious tone and deals with an in-depth emotional theme. This usually attracts individuals who are into over-exaggerated productions and love to witness intense conflicts between characters. This usually attracts individuals in the young to middle age range (17-50), specifically women. A prime example of this would be the movie “Little Women,” directed by Greta Gerwig, which tells the story of romance and sisterhood, which made $206 million in box office sales.

Drama Conventions: Content

Drama productions can be put into many sub-categories that inherit many set-in-stone characteristics. One of the most famous of these is the romance drama. This consists of a major conflict between two lovers who usually battle to either be together or discover their love. These characters are an unlikely pair, making the dramatics of their relationship that much more entertaining. This usually takes place in a realistic environment that allows the audience to relate to the characters or want to be them. This can be seen in the movie “The Kissing Booth” which became a huge success on Netflix in 2018. The story is about a teenage girl, named Shelly, and her best friend, Lee, who started a kissing booth for their school fundraiser that, to everyone’s surprise, ended in Shelly kissing Lee’s older brother, Noah. This caused conflict between Shelly and Lee’s friendship and sparked an unexpected romance between Shelly and Noah. However, there are some dramas that consist of a single lead that battles their own issues. Films such as “Forrest Gump” show the struggles of a man who gets involved in multiple major events in history and the impact he had on the people of those events. The characters find themselves learning from the leading character and helping them solve the hardships they were dealing with.

Drama Conventions: Production Technique

On the technical aspect, drama usually weighs heavily on strong writing, proper lighting, and intense music. In most dramas, there is an argument scene or a climax that thoroughly grabs the audience’s attention. The writing in these arguments usually consists of a monologue from a frustrated character or a character that has a lot of built-up emotions that were created since the beginning of the film. This is done to let this character finally speak their mind/ stand up for themselves and allows them to express how they feel at their breaking point. The lighting in most drama pieces is usually a lot dimmer to symbolize tension or sadness. Additionally, intense music, usually made through an orchestra or the use of violin, creates a gloomy and tension-filled vibe to a scene. During the scene where Darth Vader confesses to Luke Skywalker that he is his father in “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back,” there was dark scenery, in addition to Darth Vader’s dark costume, and intense orchestral music playing in the background. This music escalates at the moment that Luke comes to the realization that what Darth Vader is saying is true and adds more stress to the intensity of that statement and the scene.

Institutional Conventions: Marketing

The largest source of marketing for all films is the trailer to help publicity for their production. Most drama’s like to compose their trailers of all of the most climactic moments of the film to help the audience feel overwhelmed by the number of dramatic aspects that the movie will hold. In the 2021 film “Dear Evan Hansen,” the trailer consisted of the moments of the leading man, Evan, crying, singing intensely, hugging his mother, and more to illustrate the heart-wrenching core of the story. In addition to trailers, many romance dramas use a photo of the lovers in the midst of looking in love to persuade viewers to want to see more. The “Me Before You” movie poster shows the two lovers gazing into each other's eyes, except the woman is looking down towards the man, which is not a typical stance. Not only does it persuade the viewers to want to know more about their love connection, but also as to why the woman seems to hold more dominance over him.

Film Samples:

The 1997 film “Titanic” tells the story of two unexpected lovers breaking social class stereotypes on the most famous ship in history. The leading last, Rose, is a member of the first class that gets to experience the luxuries of the voyage. On the other hand, the leading man, Jack, received his ticket through a gamble and traveled in the lowest aspect of the ship: third class. They find each other unexpectedly after Jack finds Rose on the bow of the ship, ready to jump off. Their spark clicks when he convinces her to get down and back onto the boat. Their love continues throughout the rest of the voyage but comes in conflict with other men that find interest in Rose and hope to marry her. The bumping of heads Jack has with all the members of the upper class, especially those associated with Rose, creates the dramatic tension of the story that raises questions if their love will triumph throughout the entire film. This embodies the genre of drama by creating different types of battles throughout the plot, mainly Jack against those of the first class, and the war that Jack and Rose go to stay together, even against death when the Titanic sinks.

In “Love, Simon,” the main character, Simon, battles with the fears of coming out as gay by anonymously messaging other closeted individuals from his school on the internet. The story builds on his fright of his parents finding out. Throughout the film, Simon communicates with the infamous online character “Blue” under the name “Jacques.” However, another student, Martin, discovers these emails and threatens Simon to out him to the whole school unless he helps him win over the heart of Abby. This mix of self-discovery, secret love, and constantly walking on eggshells with Simon’s greatest secret, the story captivates the struggles of homosexual teens afraid of society’s judgment. This encompasses the genre of drama by having a mix of subplots to add to the essential problem, Simon being outed, and tying additional conflicts of other characters to create more tension throughout the piece.