Genres

The genre of our film is going to be a melodrama.
Melodrama

" Melodramatic Films are a sub-type of drama films, characterized by a plot to appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodrama, a combination of drama and melos (music), literally means "play with music." The themes of dramas, the oldest literary and stage art form, were exaggerated within melodramas, and the liberal use of music often enhanced their emotional plots. Often, film studies criticism used the term 'melodrama' pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled, campy tale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character) that would directly appeal to feminine audiences. "

Found at: http://www.filmsite.org/melodramafilms.html

Genre Conventions of a Melodrama.

Found at: http://www.lundwood.u-net.com/dissy/melo.htm·

" Music – characters in a melodrama often have trouble expressing their feelings directly, so music is used to enhance their emotions for the benefit of the audience.· Social Pressures and the inability to act – Often, in a melodrama, the main character is under pressure within society – to behave in a certain way, to achieve certain things, etc. This is connected to the way in which the protagonist is unable to act on their situation and consequently escape it. Because of the limits of the conflicts within a melodrama, the catharsis, rather than a confrontation between several characters, becomes a sort of violence turned by the protagonist against herself as the result of an inner conflict, and the masochism is demonstrated by a dependency on alcohol and other forms of release.· Characterisations and stereotypes – Characters within the melodrama are generally very “two-dimensional” and can be categorised simply into “Good and Evil, Innocence and Villainy” (Elsaesser). However, these character types are represented in a way the audience can relate to, therefore building on the characters a little more, to create some humanity. Stereotypes and situations are juxtaposed in unusual ways to encourage clashes between characters and contexts.· The privileging of the victim – melodrama considers the powerless to be on the “good” side, and those in power and control to be more “evil”. The victim is female, and the villain male.· The quick swing between emotional extremes – emotions and tensions change very quickly in a melodrama. Characters expecting a “happily ever after” are flung into more misery, a rising sense of happiness suddenly sways to once again be upsetting. "

However we did consider other genres as well. Here is a description of a few of genres we could have chosen...

• Romance


• Drama


• Action/Adventure


• Comedy


• Horror/Thriller


• Supernatural


• Crime/Detective


• Animation


• Western


• Musicals


• Rom-Com


• Film Noir


• War


• 'Chick' flicks

Directors commentary...and don't they like to comment...

I have been listening to the Directors commentaries for several opening sequences of films...and from this I have learnt more about production of the films.
Here are some examples of comments from Directors about their films, which game me more insight into film making.

Mrs Henderson Presents
Director Stephen Frears talking. Quotes I collected from him about the opening...
"I went around for a year; asking if this was the kind of film which had an overture on it. When I was young films used to have overtures. After a year I realised the answer was yes. But of course if you have an overture, you have to have something on the screen, which I hadn’t allowed for in what I was shooting. So then we designed the sequence, and a wonderful Italian boy, a lot of young people made this sequence. Which always reminds me of March brothers films. Films made by Paramount in the 30’s."

"The reason why I was asking the question about the overture, was that you could either say from the beginning it was the kind of musical, or of course, you could have done it as a drama which then half way through the musical bit started as a surprise."

"Oh I like this shot, it’s like, the opening of ‘Unforgiven’ a Clint Eastwood film."

"The reason it says inspired by true events was, there was always an argument about, whether the fact it was a real story was important or not. I of course in choosing to have those credits wanted the film to take place in a sort of place where musicals take place, which of course is a complete contradiction to real life."

Our preliminary video is ready!!!!!!...wooooooo!!!!!!

We have now created our preliminary piece of film, here it is:


Strength and Weaknesses from the preliminary

Strengths:

• We used a variety of shots in the piece of flim. Different camera angles and shots were used. We discussed what shots we would use before filming, making it easier when it came to shooting and editing.
• We made the piece look authentic by using appropriate costumes for characters and filming it in a realistic location.
• We were able to create an interesting piece of film for the preliminary piece, which allowed us to practice skills we will need for the real piece.

Weaknesses:

• We didn't add music to the piece, this is something we can improve in our real opening sequence. Music would have helped to create a better atmosphere.
• We should have used less long shots and experimented with other types of shots.
• Using a tripod would have insured the shots weren't shaky, unfortunately at the time of filiming, the tripods weren't available.

Every member of a group had an input into the editing and we had to make a decision of what clips to use and any transactions between the clips.

Here are some screen caps from our video:



Long Shot










Long Shot











Long Shot

Low-angled close up













Close-up/Mid-shot










Close-up looking straight at the camera

A mid shot

180 degree rule!!

There is a rule about 'crossing the line' which is about shooting consequtive shots from alternate sides. Through watching some youtube videos such as:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNOT9iHDSXU and www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdyyuqmCW14

I was able to understand more about the rule...well considering I didn't know anything about it beforehand...that's not too hard, but that's beside the point...

In film making terms, the 180 degree rule is extremely important in providing continuity. When filming you must ensure the characters stay on the correct side and must have the same left/right.

Another aspect of the rule is that the nearer the 180 degree axis is to the camera, the closer the audience feel to a character and the POV for the audience is the same as the characters.