Sofie's Media Blog: Drama Research

The Drama Behind the Drama Genre

Drama movies are always a household favorite. Originating from ancient Greece, drama is one of the most broad movie genres, and it includes several sub-categories such as period pieces, romantic dramas, melodramas, comedy dramas, historical dramas, and crime dramas. Because of this, it has a relatively large target audience, typically catering towards young mature audiences and older adults of all genders alike.

Dramas are usually characterized by serious or emotional stories with settings and situations that portray realistic characters in some sort of conflict, either with themselves, nature, or someone else. Their dramatic plots appeal to audience's emotions, and they show humans at both their worst and their best. Dramatic themes touch on societal issues or ills, injustices or prejudice, addiction, poverty, corruption on power, class division, inequality and mental illness-- to name a few.

Content:

The heart of any drama film is usually depicting some sort of conflict that happens to the main protagonist, whether it is a hardship or mental and physical pain. Like mentioned previously, they tend to highlight societal issues like prejudice or addiction, and show how the character is able to deal with these problems. They express powerful lessons through the story of a character. Because the overarching themes we see in these movies are ones evident in real life, dramas draw attention to these societal ills by taking advantage of society's interest on these topics.

Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List (1993) presents the issue of antisemitism and the Holocaust, with the protagonist struggling to save Jewish people from the hands of the Nazi regime.

Characters of dramas are inherently portrayed as realistic, allowing the audience to relate with their experiences. This is an important convention in dramas, because one of the main purposes of this genre is to touch the audience emotionally, which is done with the portrayal of someone who you can see yourself sympathizing more easily with.

Content of drama films tends to be high-stake with many conflicts. They follow a defined narrative plot structure with emotionally-driven characters. They rely more on the tone of the film to portray the seriousness of the genre rather than the setting. Content is extremely varied to due to the array of subcategories, but dramas can go from a courageous hero fighting his foes like in Black Panther, to living in poverty like in The Florida Project. Love stories are also quite common as they can provide several conflicts through the entire film.

Dialogue is heavily used in drama films because it presents the characters and their conflicts in a more natural manner. Their words and subtle actions are driving forces in making the content of dramas appealing. Also, the narrative structure of dramas is the main aspect of the film, as the plot follows a specific order of exposition, main conflict, and resolution.

Production Techniques:

Lighting is highly important in developing the overall mood of a film. Side lighting or chiaroscuro lighting is quite common in dramas. This strong contrast and low-key accentuates the contour of the subject, creating a dramatic mood that goes well with the overall tone. Low-key lighting is also seen frequently in dramas because it isolates the subject. This is usually paired with hard lighting to create high-tension or drama. The deep shadows of this lighting makes the subject stand out and creates tension, perfect for adding a sense of fear and edge to a scene.

Sound is equally important to drama films. Sometimes directors include complete silence, and this absence of sound can be extremely effective in creating a dramatic tone. Silence can sometimes be more powerful than words, like in A Quiet Place, and eventually hearing noises adds a more dramatic feel to the film since the audience was accustomed to the silence.

Post-production of drama movies is just as important as what precedes it. Editors aim to put the spotlight on the character and their struggles. For example, many drama movies begin with a close-up shot of a characters face, allowing us to see their mood and emotions right at the start of the movie. While giving emotional context to the event taking place, this also makes the situation more personal. Editors may cut from a close-up of the character, to a POV of what they are seeing, and back to the character-- showing their reaction to an event helps us know their motivations, as well as provide a more personal feel to the action taking place.

In Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future (1985), Marty and Doc's reactions to the car's disappearance develops a personal tone to the discovery just made.

Another common editing technique is temporal decompression, where editors add time between spoken phrases to make each word impactful, and to slow the progression of a usually fast-paced scene. This simple technique is used commonly to add tension to scenes, and is commonly used in dramas because of the amount of dialogue present, and how high-stake situations need to be slowed down so the audience can feel the pressure themselves.

How it is marketed:

Popular methods for advertising drama films include trailers, film posters, talk shows, promotional tours, etc. Trailers of drama movies usually focus on the plot rather than the aesthetics. Many dramas are developed from novels, allowing them to be advertised more easily because of cross promotions. Films with larger budgets have more money to promote their movie, and they tend to have movie stars that automatically bring in more publicity than the average actor or actress.

Posters are a seemingly old-fashioned method of advertising compared to social media; however, the conventions of drama posters come together and are more appealing to the eye, leading to more viewers of the film. The main character is usually the main subject of the poster, taking up most of the space. They are usually positioned face-on to the camera with strong eye contact, creating a dramatic effect. Dramatic productions use either bold colors or simple black and white design, both of which catch the eye of the viewer and predict an emotional storyline.

Samples:

The film Lady Bird (2017) features Christine (Saoirse Ronan) and her journey of finding herself in a small town in Sacramento, California. The movie zooms in on Christine's relationships, with her friend Marion (Laurie Metcalf), her family, and a boy named Kyle (Timothee Chalamet). The audience explores her hectic thought-process, and how she struggles with self-identity. She yearns to be different, applying and excelling in her Catholic school's drama program, yet she craves peer validation in everything she does. From this, her struggles are all too familiar to the usual coming-of-age teen movie. However, this film exemplifies the drama genre perfectly because it highlights teenage struggles with acceptance and relationships while simultaneously portraying economic hardships and parenting struggles. Christine is a hard-headed teenage girl whose mother is equally hard-headed, leading to several conflicts and disputes between the two over Christine's "odd" behaviors. The film highlights how struggling with money can hinder your goals in life. Christine wants nothing more but to leave Sacramento and go to college on the East Coast, but her family's lack of money does not help her dreams. The film is painfully realistic, common of a drama, and the heavy dialogue adds a personal effect to Christine's experiences. The many conflicts she experiences is characteristic of the narrative structure of dramas, and the use of warm and cool lighting to highlight her emotions helps to convey the dramatic aspect that is so evident throughout this film.

The film Parasite (2019) presents a symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Parks and the poverty-stricken Kim family. The Kim family of four: Ki-woo, Ki-jung, Ki-taek, and Chung-sook, struggle to make ends meet as they live in a semi-basement. They work odd jobs like folding pizza boxes, and feel constrained by their economic state. They meet the Park family: Mr. Park, Mrs. Park, Moon-gwang, Geun-sae, who live in complete wealth. The Kim family begin working for the Park family as either maids, tutors, or chauffeurs, and slowly but separately make their way into the wealthy family's lives. This film is a comedy drama with thrilling aspects. Its message is highly exemplary of a drama: it presents the societal issue of class discrimination, and broadens on how toxic greed can be, despite being a common human trait. The movie is characterized by high-tension scenes, like when the Kim family hid under the table in the large mansion while Mrs. Park returned for her forgotten item. In addition, we are able to empathize with every character, despite their privilege or lack of. The audience is kept in a constant state of fear and tension with bursts of silence to signal the rich family believing they are alone. The rich family's mansion was bathed in natural lighting and a constant warm-hue, while the poor family had bits of sunlight coming through a small window. The visual aesthetics of the film, the almost-symmetry of many shots, creates a dramatic, tension-filled movie, which is why it is a perfect representation of the drama genre.

Some more Drama Movies to consider: