Genre, Characters, and Research... All that good stuff

Helloo!

    This week has been one of the most stressful weeks of my life up to date. I've had a lot of personal problems going on but being able to work on this project has given me an outlet for all of that which in a way is really exciting for me. Anyways, in better news little by little with all the brainstorming I've been doing I have more and more options on how exactly I want to tell this story. In terms of Genre, I think this short film is leaning more towards being a Drama.
    Typical characteristics of drama films are the intense social interactions between characters, representation of realistic characters, settings, and stories, and most of all its purpose is to move and audience emotionally. Usually drama films have happy endings with a nice resolution despite the problems at hand. They also show some type of journey with emotional peaks and sometimes complex plots. Usually the protagonist within this genre is going through some kind of emotional journey and is seen as very vulnerable and unstable. The protagonist also tends to have things in common with the target audience making the character easy to relate to. Another typical trait of the drama genre, is the challenging of ignorant stereotypes, connecting on a complex and personal level, and having therapeutic qualities by showing how the protagonist has overcome these issues.
    In relation to the Drama genre, there are a few things I would like to embrace, but also many I want to challenge. I want to embrace the fact that I'm telling the story of a girl who is real, meaning that she just wants to find her place in her world, and that is something I feel like anyone can relate to. I'm also embracing one of the main points of the genre which is to move the audience emotionally. This will hopefully happen with the ending of the film because it doesn't end with this happy ending, but more of a broken one. I also would like the embrace the idea of having a complex plot. I want it to be something intriguing and different, and not something that has been told before.

Brad Pitt as Detective
 David Mills in Seven

    Although there are many things I want to embrace, there are some things I want to challenge. The main idea that I want to challenge in my short film is the idea of a happy ending. Although it does create the 'therapeutic quality' of the protagonist overcoming an obstacle, I feel it just isn't truthful to the story I want to tell. Even though, there are people who lose themselves in their lives and find a way back to being who they were, there are cases where that just doesn't happen. Where as much as someone would like to be who they were, they are just too far gone. A film that I found interesting that went along with this idea was Seven directed by David Fincher. The reason I was so intrigued by this film wasn't just because of the ending , but because of the way the story was told. The film revolves around Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, who play a detectives that are trying to solve a series of murders from a serial killer targeting people based on the seven deadly sins. I was so intrigued by the way this story was told because it was explaining these seven deadly sins and at the end it all comes together with the last deadly sin on the list left to complete: Wrath. I like the way the film embraces the lack of a happy ending and also shows someone completely losing themselves. Although really depressing, given the circumstances I felt it was truthful to the story.

Jennifer Connelly as Marion Silver
in Requiem for a Dream.

    Another good example of this to me is the film Requiem for a Dream directed by Darren Aronofsky.  In this film we are shown different story lines of different characters who have in different way lost who they were because of their desire to love and to be loved and in the end they are just too far gone to come back to reality. When looking back at the first time I watched Requiem for a Dream to now, I am amazed at the way it challenges that idea of a happy ending. The film delves into the reality of what the influence of drugs can do to someone and how lost a person can become because of their desires.
    Moving on to characters, I decided that to use my 5 minutes wisely, I would tell my story using only 2 characters: Eva and Aidan. I don't want there to be any type of distraction from them and how  the relationship they develop affects Eva mostly as an individual. Eva is a young girl who is innocent, kind, and full of life. Her greatest desire, as many peoples, is to find her place in the world and where she belongs. Eva being so innocent and kind, finds herself to be easily manipulated by others. The reason I chose the name 'Eva' is because the meaning of this name is 'life' or 'living one', and I wanted to emphasize the life she had before she met Aidan. Aidan is older than Eva by around 1 or 2 years. Aidan is beautiful beyond words, yet she is selfish and manipulative, using the way she reads cards to manipulate the easily manipulated. I chose the name 'Aidan' because the meaning of the name is 'like a fire.' I wanted to use their names as symbols to show how Aidan 'lights a fire' in Eva's life and brings something new and different, and at the end, burns her of that life.
    That's pretty much most of what I have for now. I promise I'm not as depressing as I seem it's just the story!!
     Until next time,
       Jess!















Citations:
“Requiem for a Dream.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Feb. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_for_a_Dream.

“Seven (1995 film).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Mar. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_(1995_film).

Upton-Dance, Hattie. “Drama as a Genre : Codes and Conventions.” Prezi.com, 4 Oct. 2012, prezi.com/rb5k_semwcvg/drama-as-a-genre-codes-and-conventions/?webgl=0.

Shazmindina Follow. “Conventions of drama & action.” LinkedIn SlideShare, 15 June 2014, www.slideshare.net/shazmindina/conventions-of-drama-action?next_slideshow=1.