Drama Queen

"What is drama but life with dull bits cut out."

                            - Alfred Hitchcock

Before this course I never really knew what the drama genre entailed. I always assumed it was used to describe productions like Spanish soap operas or theater plays; little did I know that many of my favorite films where actually underneath this genre.

According to The Script Lab, drama “relies on the emotional and relational development of realistic characters.” The themes chosen play a large role in the plot and often derive from real life issues while aiming to tell an honest story of human struggles. Sub-genres include biography, historical, political, romance, and tragedy.

I'm leaning more towards the romance sub-genre seeing as I would love to do a historical piece but it would be really really hard to portray well with no budget. The Script Lab describes romantic dramas as a "genre that explores the complex side of love...the plot usually centers on an obstacle that is preventing love between two people." 

Still of Mario Casas as H in Three Steps Above Heaven(2010)
Distributed by Warner Bros.

I think there are a lot of ways I could go with the opening for a romantic drama. One that I really like is this one from the Spanish 2010 film Tres Metros Sobre El Cielo (Three Meters Above the Sky) directed by Fernando Gonzáles Molina. The opening (which you can watch here) introduces the two main characters switching between clips of H (above), the main male lead, riding his motorcycle in his leather jacket establishing him as typical bad boy and Babi, the main female lead, getting ready for school establishing her as the typical obedient school girl. This is a fairly easy concept to film that establishes the characters and their personalities instantly through mis-cen-scene, especially through costume design. 

Two of my favorite movies are Moulin Rouge!(MR) and Across The Universe(ATU) which happen to be musical dramas. I'm not considering a musical drama since I would have to compose my own music and unfortunately I have absolutely no idea how to do it myself and I don't want to rely too much on other people but I do quite enjoy the opening of both films (watch: ATU, MR). ATU begins with Jim Strugress' character, named Jude, singing looking straight into the camera. This choice by director Julie Taymor is very unique and not commonly seen in films of the genre. It instantly makes the viewer understand this is Jude's story and perspective, especially when paired with the words "is there anybody going to listen to my story..." MR also makes it clear within the opening that you are following the perspective of the male lead Christian (Ewan McGregor) but in this case through a narrative and the film begins a shot of a strange man singing a haunting lullaby in the corner of the screen in black in white. These films both begin in a really different way to other films but this works because both skew reality a little bit in their own way by having elements of fantasy and taking a more abstract route.

If I do choose to do drama I have to decide wether I want to go the more formalist route like Tres Metros Sobre el Cielo or more abstract like Across the Universe or Moulin Rouge!

Sources:

"Drama." The Script Lab. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016. <http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/drama#>.

 IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016. <http://www.imdb.com/>.