14. Genre Conventions

GENRE CONVENTIONS FROM MY CHOSEN GENRE

My chosen genre is drama and the two films that I have chosen to analyse are "The Vow" and "The Fault in our Stars". Although they both are hybrid films of romantic and drama, they are very dramatic which drove me to use these two.

About my chosen genre:

Genre is the type of a product and in my case, it's drama. Sub genre is a genre within the genre and the sub genres of drama are tragedy, comedy and romantic. The romantic movies are usually dramatic due to the strong emotional and physical interaction between two people and the tragedy makes up the genre drama as it exaggerates the whole film. A hybrid genre is when there are two or more genres in one film. "The Vow" and "The Fault in our Stars" are hybrid as they are both made of drama and romance. Codes and conventions are the features of a genre. For example, drama may have features of tears and emotions. Genre tropes are signifiers that tell  us about the genre. For example, in drama, it could be family or a family home.

The main conventions of drama are emotional connection between the characters, realistic settings, tears, happiness, misunderstandings, regret, guilt, happy ending and very occasionally sad endings too.

"The Vow":-

In this title sequence, the macro elements show a couple coming out of the cinema. Here, the convention is the realistic setting. The couple went to the cinema for a date and that seems believable which would allow the audience to relate. Both the characters are wearing regular casual clothes which again makes the film realistic.

The title sequence is in the order of company name, production, the main characters and then the film title. The title appears over moving images and the characters actually do a bit of talking at the beginning. Then the names of the other characters appear as the lady character gets in the car and while the male character tries to clear the snow off the car window. As he does this, the lady character waves and smiles at him. This kind of connection between these two characters allow the audience to know that the genre is romance and they are the main characters who are in love with each other. The lady tells the man "It's good now" and he gets in the car and while so, the cast title appears and then the music supervisors as the couple cuddles up in the cold. When the car starts to drive, the music title appears, the costume designer, the editors. The production designer title comes up when the man starts humming to the car music. The eye connection between the two characters gives away the genre. When he sings, it hints that there is a bit of comedy involved. They both seem very happy which hints that it includes emotions.

These conventions allow the audience to establish the genre of the film. The eye contact, the physical interaction, the verbal interaction and the laughter gives away that it has drama and also romance.

"The Faults in our Stars":-

In this title sequence, it is all of animated moving backgrounds with moving titles, almost like a cartoon storybook. The stars in the background represents the title of the film. The lyrics of the music in the background talks about pain which could imply that the film involves tragedy and pain. The lyrics says stars which again represents the film title. At the end it shows the title on a school board which could imply that the characters are from that age group. The conventions of emotional music and cartoons could give the idea that the genre is a tragic drama.