Genre Essay

Ella Hooton

Genre Essay

Changeling 

The trailer I am analysing is Changeling which is a drama thriller film which was released in 2008. The film is set in 1928 in Los Angeles and directed by Clint Eastwood. Angelina Jolie stars in the film taking the main character role for this excellent drama. Dramatic themes are shown by the tone of voice the actors use to make the film more dramatic and scenes are full of drama for example the part in the text when Angelina throws the plate at the wall shows her frustration and also shows me as a audience member that this film is going to be full of drama and makes me want to watch more to find out what happens.

 This is a genre convention because the audience know the film is going to be full of drama because Angelina Jolie is well known for starring in dramatic films.  The setting is portrayed in the trailer showing the audience the clothes people wore back in 1928 compared to now and also the props such as the telephones and the cars to locate the setting which means where/when was the film set which as I have explained the film is set in 1928 Los Angeles. I feel as a audience member and watching this trailer I could tell the setting is early 1900's because of the way people speak, the props, the costumes and also the old cameras which show the difference between now and then. The conventions of this dramatic film is to exhibit real life situations with realistic characters, settings and stories that Portrays the journeys of the characters development and Intense social interaction. The purpose of a dramatic story line is to move the audience emotionally and the trailer stating the film is based on a true story will help in doing so. Throughout the trailer the music gets more and more dramatic showing the audience the films full of twists and turns. A Preferred reading for this text would be that the audience can relate to this because children are kidnapped in everyday life. Miss-en-scene is used throughout the text to show that everything has a meaning for example the name of the film 'Changelling' connotes change and the whole story is based around the police believing Christine collins' son has changed. The trailer also connotes how far a mother would go to try and find her son and also the audience that are mothers with children can relate to this text because they would do anything for their children. Dramatic films are a genre that relies on emotional and relational development of realistic characters and Angelina Jolie portrays this part so well as she connects with the audience by showing her deep distress over her son being kidnapped and I can see this in the text as visual imagery is used as closeups to show Angelina's pain and her emotions through facial expressions and the text also shows her heartache. Drama film's aim to tell an honest story of human struggles and the journey the hero or heroines goes on throughout the film.

I feel as this film is set in 1928 another genre is Historical and this is a sub-genre of Drama film that examines a specific time in history. Many Historical films aim to portray true events and this text is one of them as it is a true story. Throughout the trailer the setting is shown by the use of establishing shots to show the audience what houses were like back in 1928 and also what the cars looked like. Iconography is used to show drama throughout the text to grab the audiences attention and the audience wants to nurture Angelina as she screams 'I want my son back, I want my son back' which is a particularly strong moment in the trailer. At the start of the trailer a backing track is played to create tension and when Christine delivers the lines 'I just want my son home' the music slowly gets dramatically faster to create even more tension for the audience because they don't know what's going to happen next. The music also speeds the Narrative up and the montage is used in this trailer to speed it up.

Clint Eastwood is known for directing and acting in dramatic films since 1955. Eastwood has directed many dramatic films that are popular for example Million dollar baby and Unforgiven.  Robert De Niro, Denzil Washington, Al Pacino, Hilary Swank are a few examples of actors and actress that plays part in dramatic films regularly. I feel back in 1928 it was normal to leave a 8 year old child at home whilst you were at work but now if somebody done that they would be frowned upon and this shows the change in society and a change in our audience. The costumes throughout the text portray how people dressed back in 1928 which is mostly everybody wears a hat which also shows the audience the change in life. I feel that the film connotes the title Women vs World which means Angelina is the women and is against the world trying to win people over and turn them against the police because what they are doing is wrong. The music throughout the trailer symbolises the genre which is Dramatic.