Dramatic Media Texts Part 3

 Media Text #5: Stand By Me

I chose to research this film #1 because it's sooo good and #2 I love how real it is. It doesn't feel other worldly or completely bizarre, it's the kind of story my dad would tell me about from when he was a kid (maybe minus the murder). The film highlights the power of friendship between 4 boys as they go on an adventure to see a dead body. 

However, as each of the boys struggle with their own personal struggles and traumas, they overcome these issues by being their for one another despite their own individual weaknesses. This film, unlike the last few media texts I've researched, isn't hyper stylized or uses elaborate costuming or coloring tricks to tell a story, the story just flows (no hate to what I've researched so far). That, is what I hope to achieve, although I could like to incorporate such technical aspects in to my short film, I don't want to be so reliant on these things to move the story along. 

Media Text #6: The Dead Poets Society 

This film has been critically acclaimed for years now for it's deep and profound understanding of boyhood and the importance of literature. Many reviews have stated that this is the kind of story that stays with you a life time. It captures the growth of characters during their most developmental and vulnerable years as well as seeing how their friendships and teacher, played by Robin Williams, play a pivotal role in this time in their lives. This type of reaction is what I want my short film to have, for the story to stick with audiences for years to come and gives them them something to think about. 

Citations: 

Steinberg, D. (n.d.). Stand by me (1986) and the Power of Friendship | Hollywood Suite. Hollywood Suite. https://hollywoodsuite.ca/stand-by-me-1986-and-the-power-of-friendship/ 

Hinesman, L. (2023, October 19). “Dead poet’s society” review. The Communicator. https://chscommunicator.com/87408/a-and-e/2023/10/dead-poets-society-review/#

Dramatic Media Texts Part 2

 Media text #3: Saltburn 

This specific drama piece is also uses lighting and coloring techniques to move the story along but also uses costumes. As we know from our media studies, costumes are supposed to be a representation each character, it can tell certain stories that can't necessarily be told in the form of dialogue. For example, Jacob Elordi's character, Felix, is often seen wearing outfits that are pretty worn down and as the clothes were just thrown on without any real thought. However, he is seen wearing brands like Ralph Lauren which illustrates the idea that although he was born into money, he doesn't really care much for it, or isn't cognizant of his extreme wealth compared most other people especially considering he surrounds himself with people who are also very wealthy. 

This style contrasts that of his costar Barry Keoghan, who plays Oliver. Oliver's styling is an extreme contrast to Felix in that it is very purposeful and exact despite his financial situation. Furthermore, the characters purposeful costume choice reflect his plan to be in Felix's world. As the story progresses we see Oliver's style converge to be more like Felix's, the only difference is that Oliver's style is extremely performative. 

 

 

Media Text #4: The Black Swan 

The Black Swan is psychological drama that has been acclaimed for it's extremely stylized approach of the ballet 'Swan Lake'. The film highlights the juxtaposition between control and letting go regarding the lead characters struggle to play both parts. Not only do the ballet costumes themselves hold symbolism such as the white swan representing innocence and vulnerability while the black swan represents the fierce, dark, presence, but costumes outside the ballet represent Natalie Portman's character, Nina's, psychological descend. For example, her makeup and costumes slowly become darker as the film progresses. Her natural makeup is replaced with bolder and darker colors and her style of clothing becomes more and more edgy as the film goes on, hinting at her transformation into her own 'black swan' 

Citations: 

Mcqunt, A. (2023, December 16). Saltburn costume analysis. Saltburn Costume Analysis. https://alexandermcqunt.substack.com/p/saltburn-costume-analysis

Malik, N. (2024, August 16). Shattered reflections: Artistic expression and symbolism in “Black swan”. Another Level Higher. https://anotherlevelhigher.wordpress.com/2024/08/16/shattered-reflections-artistic-expression-and-symbolism-in-black-swan/

Dramatic Media Texts Part 1

    While researching for my short film I became extremely interested in the lighting aspects on many dramatic pieces. Previously, I briefly mentioned the hit TV shows 'Breaking Bad' and 'Euphoria'. I specifically mentioned these two shows are they both heavily rely on technical aspect, such as lighting and color to develop a tone as well as overall mood and environment. 

    For example, the famous yellow coloring of breaking bad is typically used in scenes that are set in Mexico and are typically flashbacks. This, is a way of providing context as well as separating the different locations by associating one with a different color hue. 

    Similarly, colors in this show are often associated with different characters as well as there relationship towards one another, kind of like a color wheel. For example, the chart below shows many of the leads characters basic color palettes and how they developed throughout the seasons. As you can see, as their color palettes develop through throughout the seasons, they typically do not mix into each other. 

 

    Euphoria on the other hand, often used lighting to convey emotion especially that when the lead character Rue, was under the influence (which she is a lot of the time). This is often represented by purple and blueish hues throughout the show although the entirety of the show has a yellow-blue contrast, an artistic approach by the director. The director, Sam Levinson, has said he uses color to physically show how the characters feel. The mixes primary colors and provides multiple light sources to highlight the intense moments/emotions characters go through. For example, the image below illustrates a character as she is about to go meat an older man she met online, this later becomes a larger plot point and is symbolic of her traumas that later explained in the show. 

This shot uses 3 different light sources including a backlight, and overhead light and warm lights seen in the upper left and right quarters of the shot to create an intense and almost scary tone. 

Citation: 

Binder, S. (2022, June 20). Euphoria Cinematography Breakdown — DP Marcell Rév on Lighting, Camera Movement, and Oners. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqvM4r4GDAM 

Kogge, M. (2022, August 27). Euphoria: Lights, camera, high school. The American Society of Cinematographers. https://theasc.com/articles/euphoria-rev 

Colors | breaking bad wiki | fandom. Fandom. (2025, December 3). https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Colors

Genre Research

 Having finally decided on our project of choice, a short film, I decided I need to look further into the specific genre of our short film. The plot isn't quite finished so I don't want to give too much away but the main premise is a guy dealing with the grieving process of losing his sister, the short film will be essentially narrated by him as he discussed his emotions during his first therapy session. 

With this in mind, I decided I need to research on the dramatic film genre.

Beginning my research I found that dramas are typically centered around character conflicts regarding one another, oneself, or nature and the majority of these films deal with real world problems, something viewers can often times relate to or see themselves in, hence why it is important that the representation of certain groups is depicted accurately. Moreover, dramas often take you deep into the minds of the characters, or at least the lead of the film. However, contrary to other genre's there is not always necessarily a hero or villain, instead the audience witnesses the highs and lows of the lead character and how this affects their environment as well as how their environment affects them. To put into clearer terms, the drama genre is centered around conflict. 

Furthermore, drama's are heavily reliant of dialogue in order build relationships and plot. With this in mind, I've realized that many drama's are also heavily reliant on other technical aspects to convey a certain mood or tone or illustrate an idea because, let's face it, watching people speak at each other for 2 hours in frankly, boring.  

The yellowish hue of 'Breaking Bad'

The purple hue often seen in the TV show 'Euphoria'

There are also many sub-genres to the drama genre given that it has such a vast definition. Subgenres include: 

• Dramedys
• Melodrama's 
• Biopics 
• Dramatic Mystery 

Citations: 

Hellerman, J. (March 2026). Explore the drama genre in film and television | no film school. no film school. https://nofilmschool.com/drama-genre 

Hay, L. V. (2023, July 5). What is drama? A working definition for your screenplay. Bang2write. https://bang2write.com/2018/02/drama-definition-for-your-screenplay.html 

Yellowbrick, Y. (2024, March 21). Through the lens: The Visual Dynamics of Euphoria. https://www.yellowbrick.co/blog/film/the-visual-dynamics-of-euphoria 

CNN. (2019, July 10). Memorable moments from “breaking bad.” https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/26/entertainment/gallery/breaking-bad-scenes-rebuild

Scheduling (scary)

One of my biggest concerns for this project this my team and I's schedules as we are both extremely busy especially these first few weeks as we out 3 weeks out from out school musical 'Mamma Mia' and we have to stay late at school pretty much every day leading up to the show. That being said, out main goal with this schedule is to keep ourselves as organized as possible without having to grapple with too much at once especially with our extracurriculars. 

 2/23-3/1:

• 2/23: Have project option and general idea DONE and set in stone
• 2/25: Work out more details for our genre, target audience, etc.

(Blog posts: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)

3/2-3/8:

• 3/2: Research social media + discuss the type of social media page we will create
• 3/3: Create a schedule a filming schedule, tentative dates and reach out to people to be featured in the film.
• 3/4: Outline our entire film component, firm concept that won't be changed after this week

(Blog posts: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday)

3/9-3/15

• 3/10: Solid script for project finalized + send to actors in film
• 3/11: Final planning details 
• 3/13: FINALIZE filming dates, possibly even begin filming

(Blog Posts: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday)

3/16-3/22: SPRING BREAK, Audrey and I have a field trip Wednesday-Saturday of that week

• 3/16: Work on print component
• 3/17: Film as much as possible, film while on the trip if we have to
• 3/20: Keep up to date with social media

(Blog Posts: GET THEM DONE WHEN I HAVE TIME)

3/23-3/29:

• 3/25: Finalize film, editing + revisions.
• 3/28: Finalize digital and print parts of project
• 3/29: Begin Critical reflection planning

3/30- 4/5:

• 3/30: Critical reflection planning
• 4/2: Begin writing the critical reflection

4/6-4/10:

• 4/7: Critical reflection finished, peer editing 
• 4/8: FINALIZE critical reflection

Whole project should be done at this point!! Have everything fully uploaded by 4/10!

A Level Portfolio Project- The Beginning

 Hi Cambridge!! I'm so excited, and so scared at the same time, to be starting on my portfolio project. I have so many ideas yet none at all at the same time. I feel like the thinking monkey meme. 

For this project I'm working with Audrey (yay!) I'm super excited to work with her as she is one of my closest friends and we are both very creative people and are very good at building off of each others ideas. 

Audrey (right) and I (left)

Moreover, she and I have many similar interest as we both do theatre and have a lot of the same friends so coming up with a story we both want to tell won't be too difficult for us. Currently we are deciding between doing a documentary or a short film for our portfolio project. 

Personally, I am more interested in creating a short film as I felt as thought last year, for my AS level portfolio project I spent a lot of my time wanting to build from the story my team and I had created for our excerpt. Additionally, Audrey and I have previously worked on a documentary project together and I would to get the chance to try something knew. A short film gives me an opportunity to do just that, to tell a story in its entirety and to get to go into the details of it all. 

I have had a few ideas for a short story but I wont share them just yet to not get my hopes up but if we choose to go in that direction I'll be sure to let you guys know.