Genre in Our Film Opening

 This post is dedicated to how our project fits within the conventions of the genre we chose.

First, I should remind you of our genre(s). Mainly, our film is fits between romance and drama, romantic drama if you will. However, it could also be considered somewhat of a coming-of-age film. We made our film fit into these genres in many many ways.

To fit into the romantic portion of the film, we emphasized the relationships between the characters. There is romance between Betty and James, even if it's more of a ghost of a romance after the breakup. Props are used to demonstrate this. Love letters and rose petals are shown in the bedroom scene, symbolizing love, but since they are wilted and ripped, it symbolizes the ending of love. This reinforces the idea of love being a central concern, thus relating the film back to the genre of romance. When Betty opens the door James holds roses for Betty. This is another symbol of love since it relates to James wanting to rekindle Betty's faded feelings for him. On top of props, dialogue is also used to fit our film into the conventions of romance. Betty references love in her voiceover, and James tells August directly that he still loves Betty. This helps fit our film into the romance genre even more.

Lady Bird (2017)

Let's move on to drama. Our film has drama written all over it. It's seen in the disappointed facial expressions of Betty and the pleading expressions of James, the mellow and mysterious lighting and hues, the dramatic piano background music, the mannerisms of the characters, and the dialogue that's full of conflict. After all, this is a love triangle. It would be weird to see happy characters considering Betty got cheated on. Betty, James, and August are all dealing with their individual struggles. The combination of all these elements create a tense-filled and dramatic atmosphere, and this is just what we wanted.

Lastly, there are the hints of coming-of-age in our film. With all three characters being teenagers, they are all in a period of their lives where there is much to learn. Nobody truly has life figured out at age 17. Everyone is still figuring out themselves. For example, James has to live with his decision to cheat on Betty, and he has to learn and figure out how to deal with this "mistake" and learn how to prevent this from happening again. Betty has to live with how much James hurt her, and she'll probably struggle with learning to love someone again. August is a teenager as well, and she probably has her own journey of maturation and grown to take on if the film were to be finished. These qualities are typical for the coming-of-age genre.