Genre research:

1. Genre research: Drama Laura Petersen 2522

2. Definition of the Drama Genre • A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, crime and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves. • This film genre can be contrasted with an action film, which relies on fast-paced action and physical conflict, but superficial character development. All film genres can include dramatic elements, but typically, films considered drama films focus mainly on the drama of the main issue.

3. Subgenres • Dramatic films include a very large spectrum of film genres. Because of the large number of drama films, these movies have been sub-categorized: • Crime drama and Legal drama - Character development based on themes involving criminals, law enforcement and the legal system. • Historical drama(epic) (including War drama) - Films that focus on dramatic events in history. • Docudrama the difference between a docudrama and a documentary is that in a documentary it uses real people to describe history or current events; in a docudrama it uses professionally trained actors to play the roles in the current event, that is "dramatized" a bit.

4. Comedy-drama: is in which there is an equal, or nearly equal balance of humor and serious content. • Melodrama: a sub-type of drama films that uses plots that appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodramatic plots often deal with "crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship." • Romance: a sub-type of dramatic film which dwells on the elements of romantic love. • Tragedy: a drama in which a character's downfall is caused by a flaw in their character or by a major error in judgment.

5. Timeline of DramaEarly film-1950s • From the silent era to the 1950s, Dramas were tools to teach the audience they show the effects of the depression. In the 1950s, began a rise in well-known dramatic actors. Glenn Ford, James Dean, Bette Davis, and Marilyn Monroe were notable dramatic actors. Dramatic Films focused on character relationships and development. All About Eve (1950) focused on women, and their relationship with men. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) displayed teenage angst. • Some of the most critically-acclaimed drama films in Asian cinema were produced during the 1950s, including YasujirōOzu'sTokyo Story (1953), Kenji Mizoguchi'sUgetsu (1954), Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy (1955-1959), Guru Dutt'sPyaasa (1957), and the Akira Kurosawa films Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952) and Seven Samurai (1954).

6. 1960s-1970s • The 1960s brought politically driven dramas focusing on war. • During the 1970s, modern dramatic directors made some of their first films. Francis Ford Coppola directed The Godfather (1972). Martin Scorsese directed Taxi Driver (1976), Mean Streets (1973), and musical drama New York, New York (1977). Sylvester Stallone created one of the most successful sports drama franchises Rock (1976) and also directed the sequel Rocky II (1979). In addition, in sports drama were films that focused on the struggle of athletes such as Brian's Song (1970), and The Longest Yard (1974). War films and specifically World War II films were produced, giving the most realistic adaptation of the war seen in films at that time.

7. 1980s-1990s • In the 1980s, dramatic film put emphasis on highly emotional themes., were full character studies of African American culture and history. War dramas again played a big part as Platoon (1986) showed the horrors of Vietnam.. Drama, with a science fiction edge was a theme when Steven Spielberg directed E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Ridley Scott directed Blade Runner (1982) , and also The Accused. • During the 1990s, Goodfellas (1990) took a gritty, hard-edged look at mob crime. The Shawshank Redemption (1994), which was set inside a prison, had strong themes of hope, as did the Holocaust-themed Schindler's List (1993). Comedy-drama was featured with films like Forrest Gump (1994), Jerry Maguire (1996) and As Good as It Gets (1997). Child-oriented dramas also became more popular with titles such as The Lion King (1994) and Toy Story (1995).

8. 2000s • In the 2000s, biopics such as Walk the Line (2005) and Milk (2008) have become popular among filmmakers. Gladiator (2000) is an epic dramatic film, along with The Last Samurai (2003). The Gulf War and similar skirmishes were an inspiration for dramatic films in war drama movies like Black Hawk Down (2001) and Jarhead (2005). Despite the drop on popularity of the romantic dramas, some of them have enjoyed big box office and critical success, as the controversial groundbreaking Brokeback Mountain (2005) for example, that won several awards and Slumdog Millionaire (2008) is a critically-acclaimed romantic drama film that has been nominated for ten Academy Awards, and went on to win eight of them, including Best Picture.

9. Target Audiences for Dramas • Films of the drama genre can be targeted at many different audiences as drama is such a broad term and there are many different hybrids within this genre. Drama Films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between. Each of the types of subject-matter themes have various kinds of dramatic plots. Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre because they include a broad spectrum of films. Also crime films, melodramas,epics (historical dramas), biopic (biographical), or romantic genres - just some of the other genres that have developed from the dramatic genre.

10. Television Drama which have inspired our ideas and use of hybrid genres incorporating social realism and drama together. As a group we have looked at skins and misfits and found that the genre of youth culture in television dramas appeal to us but this genre does not exist in film and therefore our piece will be a hybrid of social realism and drama. Using some of the themes which we have seen in the television series skins and misfits; relationships, alcohol, drugs violence ect and we feel a suitable target audience for this genre of film would be teenagers as it is about the things a teenager would have to deal with in society as well as the stereotypes the media have created for young people.