After conducting recent research on Whiplash and Black Swan, I’ve come to the realization that my film opening aligns more closely with the drama genre rather than coming-of-age. In the early stages of developing my story, I wanted to focus on a main character who is completely consumed by her studies, someone whose dedication to academic success begins to take control of every part of her life, affecting her confidence and relationships as well as her overall mindset.
Both Whiplash and Black Swan explore characters who let their craft consume them entirely. Their art becomes their entire identity, something they must perfect at all costs. This obsessive mindset is exactly what my character embodies, except her “craft” is her schoolwork. She is constantly studying, thinking about assignments, and measuring her worth through academic success. Her whole life revolves around achieving a single goal, a scholarship, and she quickly loses herself in the process.
me trying to figure this whole thing out
At first, I thought my idea fit the coming-of-age genre because it followed a young girl dealing with pressure and trying to find her place but when I really looked at what coming-of-age usually shows, a character learning, growing, or at least gaining some kind of healthier perspective, I realized my story doesn’t go in that direction at all. My character never breaks out of her mindset. She throws herself into her schoolwork so deeply that it becomes her entire world. Every thought she has revolves around studying, grades, and trying to perfect. It affects how she sees herself, how she treats the people she cares about, and even her overall happiness. She never stops to question whether what she’s doing is healthy, she just keeps going, letting the pressure take over completely. In that way, she acts a lot like Nina and Andrew from Whiplash and Black Swan, who let their passion consume them until there’s nothing left but the goal they’re chasing. That’s why the story feels like a drama. It’s not about her realizing what she’s lost or suddenly understanding her worth. It’s about that emotional weight of everything she puts herself through and the damage that happens along the way. Drama focuses on the struggle itself, not the lesson afterward, and that’s what my character experiences.
By the end, when she finally gets the college letter she’s been waiting for, the audience is left wondering, “ But at what cost?” Very much like the endings of both Whiplash and Black Swan. She achieves what she wanted, but she loses pieces of herself in the process. There’s no big moment where she steps back and realizes how unhealthy her behavior was. Instead, the story shows what happens when someone pushes themselves too hard for too long, because of that, the film naturally falls into the drama genre. It carries the same emotional tension and psychological intensity that Whiplash and Black Swan have, stories where ambition becomes something painful, and the character never truly escapes it.
The sudden genre change has set me back with the amount of useful research I’ve conducted analyzing films and it has definitely caused extra stress to this whole process. After a very useful conversation with my amazing media studies teacher I was able to pull all my thoughts together and was able to properly explain my situation in this blog and the sudden change, however there’s still so much work before the finish line. Now to further research the drama genre since I’ve only analyzed La La Land and the main character from Whiplash and Black Swan, my next few blogs will be me trying to gather as much information about drama as possible. Thankfully another character and movie that I know of that will help me a lot to research is I, Tonya. I, Tonya explores the perfectionist mind just as well as Black Swan and Whiplash. Despite me having a few more movies that I know will help me in this journey I can’t but feel nervous because of how behind I now feel with my blogs despite having a somewhat good idea of what I would like my finale product to look like.
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