Drama Film- Catherine Dalton

Drama Films
The conventions of drama films consist of real life situations and portray conflict within them. These conflicts are either between the characters themselves or other forces of nature. The films show humans at their best, worst and everything in between. So the idea of drama films to portray real motion, that happens in everyday life, this will help the audience as they will have something to relate to. The genre drama has a huge spectrum of sub-genres including: - social problem dramas, mental illness, youth and generation conflict and political dramas. This therefore means that the genre film has an the ability to take social views and current events and use them in films, as the conventions include real life situations.


I am going to analyse Chariots of Fire this film is a sports drama film. The narrative consists of two stories, these two stories involve English runners. One of these runners is a devout Protestant and the other is Jewish, it tells the story of their lives and the competing of the Paris Olympics in 1924. Firstly the sequence has a shot of a group of people, and has a voice over “wings on our heels” demonstrating that the speech previously consisted of athletics. After this quote, there is a medium close up shot of the athletes feet running, demonstrating a link between the two settings, this is also cross cutting. The credit sequence shows a group of athletes running along a beach; it focuses slowly on each one of them demonstrating that they may have some importance in the storyline/narrative. Futhermore after the original shot of the feet it moves up showing the rest of the athlete. The music is very rhythmical and peaceful, with the sound of breathing. These conations show that what they are doing is something they enjoy. Then there is a panning shot showing all the athletes and the importance of the main characters is established here, as they are more focused on. The title is portrayed in blue and red, showing the nationality of the athletes and also the red could be seen as passion for what they are doing and blue for the sea. Then there is a long shot of the athletes, with the sound of birds representing the setting. An old man and young boy are also pictured watching them run, showing that the athletes are respected and well known. The final shot is also a long shot of the athletes running towards a large run bricked building, after jumping over fencing to reach the house. These fences may represent barriers that the athletes have to overcome.