1. Conventions
Cause & Effect Planning

2. What is a Convention?
•
By abiding by the genre specific Conventions we
are ‘conforming to the usual practices of
accepted standards of conduct or taste’.

3. Drama Conventions
•
Explores real life situations with relatable characters, story
lines and settings.
•
Allows the audience to see character development.
•
Often moves the audience emotionally.
•
At the heart of a Drama is conflict. These conflicts are
often realistic struggles that the characters battle through.
The conflicts are often relatable; the audience can then
feel sympathy or at least empathy for the characters
therefore caring about what happens to them.

4. Conventional Drama
Structure
•
The story arc often climaxes and anti-climaxes in
order to keep the audience emotionally invested
in the characters life. This also keeps the tension
heightened.

5. Breaking the Conventions
•
Many films of the Drama genre do break these
conventions and these often have a bigger impact
on the audience as it gives them something
completely new and out of the ordinary. For
example, Titanic breaks conventions as it includes
the dramatic irony of the audience knowing
exactly what happens to the ship, also the ending
is unconventional as the protagonists’ story lines
do not abide by Todorov’s theory in that their
individual story lines do not resolve.

6. My Film
•
From researching this genre I have decided to go against the
conventions of the genre as I feel it will be easier to keep the
audience hooked on the story and will also offer them something
unique and un-conforming.
•
I have also decided to give my characters little personality;
giving a Brechtian feel to my film with the audience empathising
with the situation and not sympathising with the characters.
•
I would prefer to focus more on the storyline and make the
audience think about how it could relate to their lives rather than
focusing on the death of the various characters; instead
focussing on the cause of the death of the characters.

7. My Film
•
From researching this genre I have decided to go against the
conventions of the genre as I feel it will be easier to keep the
audience hooked on the story and will also offer them something
unique and un-conforming.
•
I have also decided to give my characters little personality;
giving a Brechtian feel to my film with the audience empathising
with the situation and not sympathising with the characters.
•
I would prefer to focus more on the storyline and make the
audience think about how it could relate to their lives rather than
focusing on the death of the various characters; instead
focussing on the cause of the death of the characters.