Genre Research Blog Activity

 How is it Drama?

The Drama genre is considered the "backbone" of serious storytelling because it is the genre that communicates the emotional experiences of life. Dramas are intended to be generally realistic stories with comprehensible characters, life situations, and challenging human relationships. It would be best appreciated by audiences wanting more emotional depth and humanity in their stories.

Content: 

Realistic Settings and Situations: The settings and situations of the drama films are realistic, where attempts are made to show the daily life and issues of society.

EX: The movie "Marriage Story" (2019) unravels the raw and heart-wrenching process of divorce for the two. Through this film, one will see the complications involved in love, the hurt, and the emotional turmoil a separation creates, and automatically feels for the characters.

Character Development: Drama films deal with complex changes in the character and go deeper into emotional journeys, showing personal growth and eventual changes.

EX. "The Pursuit of Happyness" 2006 vividly shows the defeat and subsequent victory of the protagonist. The movie is a perfect example of how Chris Gardner, played by Will Smith, rises from being homeless into a stockbroker. It focuses on his persistence, willpower, and emotional turmoil.

Emotional Themes: Most of the common themes are love, conflict, loss, redemption, and moral dilemmas that touch audiences' feelings personally.

EX. "A Beautiful Mind" (2001) addresses main themes of mental disorder and genius. The film is a biography of John Nash, performed by Russell Crowe, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, showing how he fought with his disease while contributing to mathematics in order to make the audience feel both admiration and sympathy.

Conflict and Resolution: Dramas often revolve around internal and external conflicts, with characters striving to overcome obstacles, reconcile differences, or achieve personal goals. 

EX. "Good Will Hunting" (1997) is a case that shows Will Hunting's Matt Damon inner turmoil and his path to self-acceptance through his therapist played by Robin Williams.

Relatable Emotions: Drama is a genre involving any emotion a person would experience: joy, sadness, anger, love-an emotional process with the audience.

EX. "Forrest Gump" (1994) takes the audience through the emotional highs and lows of Forrest's (Tom Hanks) life, making them laugh, cry, and reflect on the value of kindness and perseverance.

Production Techniques: 

Drama film usually features soft, natural light with an almost deliberately selected color palette to give a realistic feeling to the film and extra emotion. Close-up shots and medium shots of the protagonist's expressions and response keeps the audience glued. Diegetic and non-diegetic sound makes all the difference, subtle music added to crucial emotional moments and transitions.

EX. In "The Godfather" (1972), the use of a haunting score by Nino Rota is employed to underscore Michael Corleone’s transformation, with the music often signaling pivotal moments in his rise to power.

Marketing:

Drama films generally attract a wide audience, from the teen years through middle-aged and more mature audiences who appreciate detailed storytelling and emotional involvement. This is dedicated to the audiences who believe in the substance of character and theme, reflective sometimes cathartic.

Most film posters for dramas have central ideas depicting how deep and focused a film is in terms of narration. Many of them contain close-ups of the main characters' faces to show raw and intimate expressions of emotion. These could also include symbolic imagery or scenes reflective of the central conflict or theme of the film, thus giving possible viewers a sneak peek into the emotional journey which they are going to be taken on.

Samples:

The movie The Shawshank Redemption, 1994, narrates the life of Andy Dufresne, a banker who was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of murdering his wife and her lover, even though he claims he's innocent. The movie traces Andy's friendship with another inmate, Red played by Morgan Freeman, and his subsequent escape from Shawshank State Penitentiary. The movie deals with issues such as hope, friendship, and redemption. It shows the transformation of Andy from a silent, resigned convict into a man with a plan. The story discovers the grim and gruesome level of prisoner's life and strong bond of affection shared between Andy and Red and can be called a powerful narrative in human bonding. The lighting in the prison is very naturalistic for the realism of many of the somber scenes. Close-up shots show many of the emotions of the characters, much for major dialogues. The score by Thomas Newman works together with key scenes to better convey emotion. When many people think about the movie poster for "The Shawshank Redemption", it is usually an image of Andy in the rain, arms outstretched, symbolizing his free release and emotional peak of the movie. It's these images that coupled with critical acclaim, create a mass appeal and are intended to inspire from the storyline.

The Fault in Our Stars" is a romantic drama adapted from a bestseller by John Green. The story revolves around Hazel Grace Lancaster, a cancer-stricken teenager, and her only love-Augustus Waters-being the victim of the same lethal disease. First true love and the loss during one's brief life is a major theme the film has touched upon. It traces the emotional journey of Hazel and Augustus through their diseases and their love. The story truly reveals many deep, honest moments of the couple, something so typical for drama movies, with raw emotion. There is quite a bit of soft, natural light throughout the movie, mostly for tender moments of Hazel and Augustus. Close-ups and medium shots of their emotional expressions and interaction help the audience immerse themselves into their story. The soundtrack features songs from several artists and gives more depth to the portrayal of love and loss. For "The Fault in Our Stars," the pre-release campaign was emotional, with trailers and posters embracing Hazel and Augustus warmly and showing the romantic and heartfelt angles of the movie. This is a hook to both the loyal following of the book and to audiences craving a touching, sentimental film.

Some Drama Movies to consider:

A Star is Born (2018)

Oppenheimer (2023)

La La Land (2016)

Little Women (2019)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Titanic (1997)

Remember the Titans (2000)

Blog posting - Representation

    The TV show "Gilmore Girls" has received notable praise for its quirky characters and machine-gun-like speech. This blog post attempts to deconstruct the trends of representation that occur within this show, specifically focusing on the two main protagonists, Lorelai Gilmore and Rory Gilmore. We will also look at some other characters and events to help explain how the show handles issues like manipulation, creator bias, and representation of groups that are often marginalized. 

    Lorelai Gilmore is portrayed as a strong, independent mother running a single inn. While going against typical feminine norms of the time, the show often glorifies her independence into something more quirky than normal. This makes for the show's humor but in reality, furthers the double standard that women who are strong and independent are anomalies. Additionally, her interactions with male characters often expose a dependence which contradicts her otherwise powerful persona, indicating the creators' own subjective judgment, ownership, and creator bias in crafting her character.  

    Lorelai's daughter, Rory Gilmore, is portrayed as a young woman with immense academic capabilities and high moral standards. Her character nevertheless represents the rules of majority rule and selection in regard to representation. Her life is largely void of challenges related to race, body size, or disability, which can be used to comment on the othering related to such challenges. Many of the powerful groups and governing factions in the series, as echoed by the affluent population of Stars Hollow, often reinforce existing social hierarchies and racial stereotypes, allowing little room for LGBTQ individuals or people of color to participate in meaningful ways. This lack of diversity and tendency towards exoticizing certain characters sends a message regarding the owner and creator biases present in the show's construction. 

    The way "Gilmore Girls" represents underrepresented groups is limited. While women are prominently featured, their experiences mainly reflect those of white and middle-class individuals. LGBTQ characters rarely appear, and people of color are usually given minor roles. The show often highlights their differences instead of smoothly integrating them into the story. For example, Michel, a Black Frenchman, is often used for comedy, which doesn’t fully capture his identity. 

    In conclusion, "Gilmore Girls" has been celebrated for its quick-witted dialogue and unique characters, yet it exhibits notable shortcomings in representation. The show's construction and selection processes often reinforce existing social hierarchies, sidelining LGBTQ individuals and people of color, and exoticizing those who are different. While it portrays strong women like Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, their experiences largely reflect those of a white, middle-class demographic, revealing creator biases and manipulation in character development. This analysis underscores the importance of critically examining media representation to understand how it shapes societal perceptions and reinforces stereotypes. 

Lorelai Gilmore managing her inn with her characteristic blend of charm and quirkiness. This image showcases her independence and entrepreneurial spirit, which is central to her character yet also highlights the double standard and creator bias in portraying strong women as anomalies.

Rory Gilmore immersed in her studies, exemplifying her academic dedication and high moral standards. This visual represents Rory's privilege and lack of challenges related to race, body size, or disability, which is crucial to discussing the othering of such challenges.

Michel Gerard, the inn’s concierge, often used for comic relief. This image points out the exoticizing and limited portrayal of people of color, reinforcing stereotypes instead of providing a nuanced character.

Stars Hollow residents at a lively town meeting, reflecting the show's community spirit. This illustrates the show's depiction of an affluent, predominantly white community, and reinforces the social hierarchies present in the series.

In this video Rory Gilmore excels in her academic environment, reaffirming her high moral standards. This Emphasizes the representation of privilege and the lack of challenges she faces, related to othering themes in the essay.

The iconic theme song setting the tone for "Gilmore Girls." It symbolizes the show’s warm, inviting nature while also framing the idyllic yet homogeneous world of Stars Hollow.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks for exploring the representation patterns in "Gilmore Girls" with me!

Sound Project

Through the project, I learned how to effectively use sound effects and auditory techniques to tell a story. The project showed me how core sound is used to create an experience: different sounds can explain various mood changes, mood elevations, and action scenes. We went into further detail by discussing different soundscapes and sharing ideas on how these professional sound designers use Foley techniques to create original audio effects. 

For the sound project, we were assigned to brainstorm and develop a scene that was 1-2 minutes long, using only sound effects and little to no dialogue. We were tasked with creating an in-depth outline of what sounds would be used, recording the actual sounds, and editing them into a single audio file. We were also to produce a video documenting how at least four of the sound effects are achieved using everyday objects, also called "foley" techniques. The outcome included a carefully edited sound file, a video of the Foley stage process, and visuals of our editing timeline.

For the brainstorming of this project, I did a scene titled, "Morning to School." We planned to do a car radio, footsteps, birds chirping, and the ringing of school bells and using various sounds hence the sound editing project. However, my group decided to make things a little more interesting and worked a fight scene into our story. This complicates things a bit now because we need to think of how we can portray fighting without having any visuals and using only sound. Our goal was to make this an exciting, active audio for those who will listen to it.

This brainstorming outline helped organize our sounds. It contained just what would happen in our scene and helped us not miss any crucial sound effects. By breaking the scene down into specific actions and the specific sound effects associated with it, we could build a very realistic and smooth audio narrative. This also helped in keeping us on track with the recording and editing of the sounds without missing any important information.

For editing our sound project, we used Adobe Premiere. This allowed us to overlap and then merge the sounds so that they transitioned well from one to another. Advanced features within Adobe Premiere allowed us to balance the audio levels, adding in effects and making them perfectly align with what was happening in our scene. We also made use of online sound effects databases and objects around us to make our own sound effects to add an air of realism to our project.

What Was Done Well:

The sound effects were realistic and effectively conveyed the actions in the scene. By using a combination of recorded sounds and foley techniques, we were able to create a realistic audio experience that accurately represented the narrative. The foley techniques, such as using shoes on different surfaces to simulate walking and opening and closing doors to imitate opening doors added authenticity to the sounds. This attention to detail helped make the scene more believable and engaging for the listeners.

The editing was smooth, and the transitions between sounds were seamless. Using Adobe Premiere, we were able to layer and mix the sounds effectively, ensuring that each sound flowed naturally into the next. This created a simple audio narrative that was easy to follow and enjoyable to listen to. The incorporation of a fight scene added an exciting and unexpected element to our narrative, making it more interesting.

What Needs Improvement:

We could have explored more ways to create foley sounds to enhance the variety and richness of our audio. While we did use several Foley techniques, there is always room for improvement in terms of creativity and innovation. Experimenting with different objects and methods could have added more depth and complexity to our project, making it even more engaging.

The timing of some sounds could be adjusted to better match the actions. In a few instances, the sounds did not perfectly align with the corresponding actions. 

Experimenting with more complex sound effects and layering techniques could further improve the depth of our soundscape. While our current sound effects were effective, adding more layers and experimenting with different effects could create a richer experience. This would help to convey the emotions and actions more vividly, enhancing the overall impact of the scene.

This video showcases the Foley sounds I created for the project. These sounds added a realistic touch to the project!

Here’s a snapshot of Adobe Premiere, the editing software I used for this project. The multi-track editing and sound effects features were crucial in bringing the fight scene to life.

Explore my sound project where I transformed a typical school day into an exciting fight scene! 

Overall, me and my partner had a great time creating this sound project and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did!