Drama - Genre Conventions
The term drama itself is somewhat self-explanatory in the sense that the films in this genre present dramatic plots and circumstances on screen. To be more specific, dramas rely on true to life conflict that induce emotional tension and release from both the audience and the characters experiencing these events unfold. Drama is developed by the implementation of various narrative elements, such as difficult subject matter, heavy themes, and especially realism. Films within this genre are typically as realistic as possible in order to relate to the real world, depict realistic situations, bring attention to current problems, and exemplify sincere character types because of it. Dramas focus on the human experience and its highs and lows; they are honest in their storytelling. Conflicts are usually based on the relationships people have with others or the battles they are facing within themselves. Since these stories center attention onto people’s interactions, resolution is generally found through their development or completion of a character arc (a total transformation of perspective of personality).
The genre conventions of dramas are broad in nature, allowing for a wide array of various subgenres to exist under it. From what I have researched, these are the two that I am the most keen on:
Dramedy - A subgenre that incorporates a combination of the serious mood and themes of dramas and hilarious elements of comedies in order to provide comedic relief among the troubling situations unfolding. Personally, I love well executed comedy within cinema and find it to be entertaining, therefore combining both seems like a no-brainer. My only issue with the subgenre in regards to the film opening is that it would be challenging to establish an obvious tone with the limited amount of time we have when having to apply both sets of tropes.
Tragedy - A subgenre that revolves around the story of a protagonist with a major character flaw that results in their subsequent undoing. I think this would be a great option to choose for our opening for mainly two reasons. To begin with, by focusing on a singular character in our plot, we are able to work around (or at least reduce) the issue of finding actors. Secondly, the dramatic tone can be easily emphasized and the character flaw holding the protagonist back can help allude to an upcoming conflict. I will bring this idea up to the rest of my group as soon as possible, as I think this could totally work for our own opening.
Film Openings
For my research on film openings, I decided to take a look at opening scenes from different renown dramas and attempt to understand what makes them great:
Good Will Hunting (1997, dir. Gus Van Sant)
Good Will Hunting quickly establishes the protagonist and his main strengths/weakness that he must face through the use of this short opening scene. This scene begins with a college professor describing the presence of a “mystery math magician” among them who solves some of the toughest math problems he gives out to the class. The professor offers a reward in hopes of the student coming forward, yet is out of luck since no one reveals themselves and the rest of the lecture hall looks puzzled. This moment reveals two things about the protagonist, which I think is extremely clever since he is not in the lecture hall at all. The main take away from this part is that the protagonist is not a student at the school, yet they are extremely smart. The professor leaves a problem that took the school’s faculty more than two years to complete and prove, as a challenge to the mysterious figure. Later on, a janitor is seen scribbling on the board but storms off when caught by the same college professor. To the professor’s surprise, the same equation he gave out earlier was solved completely by the janitor, making him the genius. These two moments in the scene work together to illustrate the fundamental description of the protagonist: he is a gifted and very intelligent man, but is living a life of a low class and blue collar worker.
This scene is effective in developing the protagonist in a very straightforward and brilliant manner, making it an opening that I really enjoy. I specifically am attracted to how it does a lot more showing than it does telling with its information. For my film opening, I’m going to have to be as efficient as possible in communicating exposition as well, so I think I will refer back to this opening once I get a plot in mind.
Schindler's List (1993, dir. Steven Spielberg)
The opening scene from Schindler’s List is simple yet masterful in introducing the core themes of the story through symbolism. The film takes place in Poland during the Nazi’s reign, which was the cause for the persecution and genocide of the Jewish civilians in the nation. Due to the film’s core conflict deriving from the Holocaust, director Steven Spielberg decided to begin the film subtley with the use of prayer among a Jewish household. The group of Jews fade away (through use of a cross dissolve) and all that is left in the room are two lit candles. The camera begins to move closer towards the candles, and upon a tight close up of a singular candle, the flame from it runs out and all that is left is smoke. This sequence literally represents the Holocaust in how the Jewish were taken away, killed, and eventually burned up into smoke in the sky by the Nazis. The close up of the burnt out candle creates a graphic match to the smoke of a train arriving at a station, which was presumably used to take Jews away due to how families were depicted being registered. There was also a shift from color to black and white at this moment that puzzled me at first. Luckily, I was able to find this online resource on the impact of black and white in films, specifically refering to Schindler’s List as its primary example. The website states that the black and white illustrates the historical time period and an emphasis on “the duality of good and evil”.
For my own film opening, I would definitely be interested in creating a purely symbolic sequence in order to both set the tone and be able to have some opening credits appear as it did in Schindler’s List. I will also make sure to keep color symbolism in mind as my group and I begin planning our opening out.
Taxi Driver (1976, dir. Martin Scorsese)
Taxi Driver incorporates a night driving montage to set the tone for the rest of the film. Over-powering music opens the film as a shot of a taxi driving through the smoke filled New York City street reveal a title card. Throughout the montage, extreme close ups of the protagonist driving are used. The point of view shots in the sequence are slowed down and given an almost surreal glow to create a dreary and melancholy vibe, invoked through the smooth, lounge-esque jazz that begins to grow in the mix. I also interpret it as if the protagonist feels like he is stuck drifting through life and isolated, as if he was an outsider looking in. This montage as well is used to roll the opening credits and give little details into the protagonist’s state of mind, which to me screams "on edge".
All in all, I think this opening accomplishes what we want to do with our opening: setting a very strong sense of tone and implementing credits. It also illustrates how effective music can be on helping to make an atmosphere apparent. I will try to get the best music possible for my opening because of this. On the other hand, I would probably want to add a scene to ours instead of it being purely montage to add more variation.
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