Case study- Titanic.

Titanic (1997) is an epic romance and disaster film produced and co-directed by James Cameron. It had forteen Academy Award winning nominations, and eleven Oscar wins recieveing prizes for best picture and best director. Titanic is the highest grossing movie of all time both in the US and world-wide. it made over $600 million in the US and over $1.8 billion world-wide. It is the only mvie to ever make over $1 billion world-wide.

Successful elements:

•  The movie was a true story based on the RMS Titanic. Thus, the movie mimics the events that emotions that took place when the real Titanic sank.
• There was a very popular sound track made by Celine Dion.
• The cinematography and imaging of the film was out-standing, making the film seem more realistic.
• The two main characters were very poular and well known (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett) which made the film more appeling to watch.

Conventions:

•  Poignant music (Celin Dion- Heart Will Go On) complimented the tragedy of the death of Jack and the idea of letting go.
• It was non-chronological as there flashbacks in the film. 
• There was a typical antoganist - Rose's fiance who disliked Jack because of his class. Protagonist - Jack who saved Rose.

Against conventions:

•  When Jack is trapped at the bottom of the ship, the saviour is Rose. Typically, it is the woman who is in danger and the man is the saviour.
  
  

  Personally I think Titanic is a very successful drama film, this is because firstly, it was based on a true story and in general the audience admire film like that. Secondly, it was demonstrated a social hierarchy that did exist at the time it was set, and some may argue it still exists now, so a lot of people can relate to it for example, Jack being the working class underdog whilst Rose and her family were Middle class.  I also think it was successful because of the tragic love story between Rose and Jack, and the fact that Rose loses Jack and has to learn to move on whilst knowing their love was so short lived. The fact that James Cameron merged all four elements in a very captivating way made the film successful. From the elements of death and love in this film, we will take a few ideas and incorporate it into our short film.
  
  
  
  
  Sources - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic
                  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/





The conventions of a Drama film & narrative theories.

Suspense -
A state or condition of uncertainty or excitement, as in awaiting a decision or outcome usually accampanied but anticipation or fear.

Silence -
The absence of sound or speech.

Suprise -
An unexpected or sudden ancounter or decision.

Diegetic sound -
Any sound, voice, or piece of music that comes from within the world of the narrative.

Non diegetic sound -
Any sound that come from outside the world of the narrative.

Todorov's narrative theory -
Equilibrium     Disequilibrium      New equilibrium

Antagonist -
One who opposes the work or values of another

Protagonist -
One who opposes the antagonist (usually the good person)

Chronological -
Events arranged in terms of time occurrence

Non chronological -
Events that don't conform to the time occurrence (flashbacks)

Binary Opposition -
Where events or texts are organised around sets of opposite values (light and dark, good and evil)

Enigma code -
A question or event that is not immediately answered and thus, draws the audience into the text (A woman is murdered and the killer is unknown, the killer's identity is an enigma). 


I think these all these elements are essential to making a Drama film successful, however I don't think every drama film has to have all of the elements listed above. For example, a drama film does not have to be in a non chronological way to make it interesting, we can build up the past of a character's life through their personality, home settings etc. For example, in our short drama film for Media studies, we are not going to use flashbacks as we think it would disturb the sequence of the film. The history of the main character will be presented through family photographs and the speech of the character. In our film, we are going to have both suspense and silence as I think these are key in a drama film to bring them to life or make the audience feel the tension which exists. For example, suspense will be used when the main character detects rioters coming closer to his home and there will be a sudden rush of fear inside him. In our film, we definitely conform to the conventions of having a Antagonist - rioters and Protagonist - main character, I think this is important for a drama film because conflict between the two types of characters builds up the tension, suspense etc. However, all though most drama films have the theory of Todorov, we decided our film will challenge this. There is equilibrium during the start of the film but not full equilibrium as the main character knows what is going ona round him,, when the conflict appears there will be disequilibrium throughout the film.