Exploring Genre Conventions

When starting this project, I didn't really know all that much about film related genre conventions. With just my first search I was met with so much new information that I had never seen. My first genre search was horror, one of my personal favorites. I started my research by looking for websites regarding genre conventions of horror films and was very quickly greeted with hundreds of sites. The site I ended up choosing was https://media-studies.com/horror-genre/. This site had a lot of very useful information on horror films. Some of the things I learned were that when making a horror film you want to make sure to have a dark and ominous atmosphere, eerie lighting, scary background elements, horror inflicting music or just eerie/creepy music, lots of background audio depending on the film, and so much more. When making a horror film you want to try and inflict fear into your audience. This can be done by using all the elements I listed before and combining them into a wonderful and scary production. 

Drama: 

Finding Information about the genre conventions of a drama film was definitely much easier than for a horror one. I used the site https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/drama-genre-guide-78027/ when finding all my research on drama films. The average drama film includes many key elements including emotional depth, unfolding plot, good monologue, compelling well written characters, character development, some kind of character conflict, a meaningful resolution, and depending on the movie there can be many other key elements. Drama themed movies also tend to be more serious rather than humorous. While drama films can be perceived in many different ways, they all still share the same key elements. 

Romance:

When researching romance films I used https://nofilmschool.com/. Romance films follow similar conventions to Dramas. They also focus on character development, meaningful resolution, conflicts, and exploring different elements. While they do share some similar qualities to dramas, they are very different. Romance films also focus on the creation of tension, avoiding cliches, unique twists, love at first sight, opposites attract, second chance romance, forbidden love, misunderstandings, and both happy and sad endings. These key elements really bring the film together and give it that warm fuzzy romance feeling.

After researching these three genre conventions, I have decided that my choice of genre will be Drama. I found myself looking into drama much more than the other genres. It really drew me into the topic and made me want to learn more. When making drama films there is a variety of different films you make that follow different themes. This gives you a variety of different options and cool themes to pick from. When starting my research I was definitely at a crossroads with with genre I should pick, but after completing my research my option is quite clear. I am 100% choosing drama as the genre for my 2 minute film opening.