What is the genre of MY short film??


At the moment, I am a bit confused as to what genre my short film falls into. On one level it is a drama as it tells one woman's story about her struggle to find love. Yet, on the other hand it is a documentary as the main character speaks to the camera, to us, the audience. However, there will be no interviewer, the voice overs will only be the voice of the character and there IS  narrative story being told, i.e, there is a beginning, a middle and an end.


Here is a list of the codes and conventions of a short film DOCUMENTARY:

• Title sequence
• Presenter/narrator/camera operator
• Setting
• Characters
• Language
• Voice overs
• Framing/shots
• Sound effects
• Realistic
• Questions and Answers
• Real emotions

The highlighted codes and conventions are the ones that I will be including in my short film.

It will have a main setting- the house of the character. There will be one character throughout the film. The voice overs will be of the character; they will explain her feelings, her thoughts and her views on love. And it will be realistic because it's a REAL story. But is it this realism with makes my short film fall into the category of a documentary?

Here are a few of the codes and conventions of short film DRAMA:

• No more than three/four characters
• Narrative- beginning, middle, end
• Voice overs usually take the place of dialogue
• Range of framing/camera angles
• Title sequence
• Setting

These highlighted codes and conventions are the ones that I will be including in my film (I will use a range of camera angles however I have not yet started filming so I am unable to highlight this yet). This shows that my film can also fall under a drama- the telling of one woman's journey to find love.

Here are the definitions of the genre's my film could possibly be:

1. Objective Documentary: In which the only 'commentary' comes from the people about whom it is the film is being made.
2. Personality Documentary: The presenter takes the viewer through a topic and links sections of te film together while being present on screen for a lot of the time.
3. Mockumentary: genre of film in which fictitious events are presented in a non-fiction or documentary format.
4. Drama: a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes

I am going to do some more research so that it will easier for me to categorise my film and define what genre it falls under.

Genre

Genre

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Defining the GENRE of my Short Film

At the start of the short film process, I wanted to use a real life event to make a documentary. However, having lived with the idea for some time, I decided that I wanted to construct much of the story I wanted to tell. In fact, I realised that most Dramas are inspired from real life events- and this is what I wanted to convey.
And so, I have come to the conclusion that my short film is a Drama inspired by true life events, however the narrative is constructed.
I will be making decisions throughout the process- i.e. choices about mise-en-scene, deciding on a variety of camera angles and edits and sound choices.

Practice fonts

Practise fonts

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What is Narrative?

'Humans have an intense need to understand the world around them, to make sense of things.'


-Ken Dancyger
"Writing the Short Film"- 2005


Google Books link: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TYUs0fvl9JMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=writing+the+short+film&hl=en&ei=ylGoTJb4BpTNjAei77zPDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false


KEY DEFINITIONS:

• Narrative: The way in which a plot or story is being told, by whom and in what order. Flashbacks/forwards, ellipsis are used as narrative devices.
• Plot: the storyline
• Catalyst: An inciting incident which sets off a chain of events
• Structure: The architecture of the film- beginning, middle and end (Three Act structure)
• Character Arc: A change in a character. Usually the protagonist undergoes a transformation during the course of the film.                                                                          Here is an example of a character arc:

• Resolution: The story resolves itself