Hello!
Today I am conducting research for the first CCR question:
"How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?"
What's good about getting this question is that I actually formulated my idea on a specific issue initially, so I have a lot to say about it. As well as this, I still have my research from my initial blog posts on genre, so that will definitely help me. While taking notes in class, I jotted down that when answering this question I need to be sure that I-
- Discuss the genre and the changes to it that I made
- Discuss genre is shown VS how I showed it
- Discuss representation
First I want to discuss the genre, as it seems like a good basic introduction for my interview. Describing the genre and how it's typically shown firstly will contrast my take on it later.
The drama genre, despite being interpreted in many different forms, such as thriller, coming-of-age, and even romance, carries a similar theme of hardship throughout all of it's pieces. Many dramas tackle topics of moral struggle, mental health, and the complexities of life as a whole. Targeted mainly towards teenagers and young adults, drama films often touch on real-world issues and provide takeaways that leave you thinking at the end. It's common throughout these films to utilize low-key lighting and close ups, emphasizing both realism and emotion. What I love about drama films is that despite weaving around various subgenres, they typically avoid sugar coating issues and provide realistic performances for an abundance different situations.
I think this is good for the basic genre description. I don't want to add too much about dramas as a whole because I could go on forever. The most important part of this description is to contrast the standard depiction with my own version of it.
My take on this genre throughout my film opening was very similar, in the sense that I tackled a real world issue and depicted the complexity of adolescence and growing up too fast. Using dark lighting, close ups, and tracking shots throughout my piece, I emphasized my protagonist's emotions and depicted her navigating the world both physically and emotionally. Throughout my props, makeup, and costuming especially, I added many elements of realism that add to the overall storyline and represent my genre well.
I want to be sure to emphasize the point that this topic is not typically viewed as serious as it is due to the lack of age-accurate casting. In this way, I technically do challenge the usual reflection of adolescence that consumers are used to.
I challenged the idea of adulthood in my piece. In a typical drama, it's standard to cast an adult to play a mature role, but in mine I wanted to touch on the issue growing up too fast, and children feeling the need to replicate the adult things that they see. Casting myself for this role especially, I challenged the common casting in popular movies and TV shows of adults to play roles where they are in high school or college. By depicting a real kid doing these mature and unsafe things, I wanted to make it as real as possible. Normally if this issue is addressed, the person speaking on it is an adult themself. In being the messenger, I wanted to go to lengths to depict the troubled childhoods that you normally don't see in films and not sugar coat the topic at all.
This is a good moment for me to piggyback off of the topic of casting and now mention representation.
Because of this, I aimed for age accuracy for this piece on purpose. In representing my protagonist in this way, I reflect the seriousness of my topic and put into perspective how young some kids really are when they try to grow up too quickly. As well as this, I intended on this story to be about a young girl, because women specifically, from a young age feel pressure to conform to beauty standards and society's view of what a girl should be. There are many powerful stories like this, and growing up watching Mulan, Little Women, and Legally Blonde, I wanted to create a subtle commentary on womanhood as a whole, and how no matter where you are at in life, there are always unreachable expectations held over you. My protagonist in particular, is at the same time too young and too "old", representing the way that in adolescence or as a teenage girl specifically, it feels hard to find your place in the world. My film intro almosts acts as a PSA not to go down the wrong path, and shows the repercussions of biting off more than you can chew.
Wow. That's wordy. I will definitely workshop it so I have time for...you know...the other THREE questions...
But it's better to have a lot to say and to have worked with a purpose than not! In a seperate document I will condense each of my answers, but for now I think I have a lot of good stuff to work with. Catch ya later!
Sources:
MasterClass. (2021, September 3). Guide to movie subgenres: 21 popular film subgenres.
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