Film Genre research

In the lesson today we have started to look at genre in more detail;
-What is genre?
-Why is there genre?
-We looked at the theorist Steve Neale

Genre is a type of film summed up by a number of different elements described as a repertouire of Elements by Steve Neal, these elements included;

A film can draw on a repertoire of generic elements: 

-  Iconography and style

-  Setting

-Narrative

 - Characters

  -Themes

There are a number of different genres which each need to be able to follow certain conventions to be able to identify themselves with that genre.

Comedy
Comedies have the intentions of wanting to make their audience laugh, this is a challenge in film because what the film writer considers funny may not be funny to a lot of other people, so they need to be a skilled comic and film writer in order to create a succesful comedy. Comedies follow the conventions of being less serious because they are created to be able to make the audience laugh-they can communicate this less serious attitude using dialogue; through sarcasm, jokes, stereotypes etc these are the main dialogue choices I have picked up on whilst studying comedy genres. Comedies tend to be more based in bright places and locations that would exist in everyday life, although there are some exceptions-for example spoof comedies which may make a mockery of something like a superhero film like in 'The Superhero Movie' Or 'Kickass'

Superhero movie.

Kickass.
                           

These films are unusual because they follow the conventions of a thriller or action film in their settings and storylines, but are there to ridicule superhero films in a way as a form of irony to communicate comedy.
The sound is an important factor, there will normally be diegetic sounds of everyday life, plus the dialogue will need to be loud and clear so that the audience of the film can actually hear what they are supposed to laugh at clearly. Non diegetic use of music will tend to be comical or a well known pop song, there is rarely something like synthesized keyboard chords to communicate tension because it is not a serious genre.

The characters will normally follow stereotypes for example, there is often an 'Idiotic' one, a 'Geeky' one and a 'Normal' one, or a group of the same type. A good example of using stereotypes to communicate comedy in characters is The Inbetweeners movie, they are a typical group of boys with different personalities, they usually exaggerate the stereotypes to make it clear what type of character they are trying to stereotypes, this allows the audience to empaphise with the character's personalities which makes the characters funny.
Comedy films normally follow a plot which has ups and downs, but still isn't necessarily serious and always have a happy ending.

Thriller
Thriller films are somewhere in between horror and action, they have the intention of literally thrilling the audience, to do this the film maker needs to have a good idea of conflict between an antagonist and a protagonist,  there is usually a chain of bad events which lead to a climaxing finish-normally ending well for the key protagonist. The audience is made to empathise and sympathise with the key protagonist, which creates 'edge of seat' tension in areas of uncertainty for example, if the key protagonist were to be hanging from a bulding at risk of death. So normally the audience will be rooting for the 'Good guy' who is usually the key protagonist, who wants to restore justice and peace to help others, whereas the antagonist/villian in the film wants to destroy this and have the glory.




           
In this scene, the audience is likely to be feeling a sense of tension as the key protagonist, Batman is in danger and they have been made to want him to have the success which thrills the audience because there is uncertainty as to whether he will be succesful in the fight or not.
The conventions of thriller include; Low key lighting, Quick cuts, fast pace/tension music, high/low angles to assert dominance of protagonist/antagonist.
The protagonist tends to be male and is stereotypically brave, assertive, wise, muscular and often arrogant, they are expected to live a life of thrills and drama so they are constantly on edge or planning something.

Here's a moodboard for the Thriller genre.

Camera work and Editing is likely to be fast pace and shaky in areas of action to exaggerate the drama on screen, there will also be a number of close-ups and extreme close-ups to be able to show the character's emotions.
Music will be used to enhance tension and drama and will be essential for conveying this in significant parts of the film.
They usually have a dark setting to establish the theme meaning that lighting will be low key and even the characters will often be wearing dark costume.
Thriller is a genre that has multiple sub-genres such as action-thriller, so there is a lot of flexibility in how you can convey this genre.

Horror
Horror films intend to communicate a 'worse case scenario' theme to the audience, they are based around things in life that could happen to anyone which creates the sense of fear within the audience. The main aims of a Horror film are to scare, thrill and entertain the audience. Horror films allow the film maker to be very flexible in their script writing because, it is easier to be able to write a script that is scary and fear provoking for a number of people, using jump cuts, tension music and creating a fearful antagonist. Horror films often don't have a happy ending and it is the Antagonist who has victory. The audience is made to empathise with the victims to extent that they are made to wonder what they would do/feel in a position of imminent death. There is also flexibility within the genre to demonstrate sub genres;

 -Gothic, for example, The Woman In black-it is less fear inflicting than the other sub genres and often entertains elements of romance and discovery.

-Slasher, for example, Friday the 13th, this sub genre is possibly the most brutal out of the two because they normally involve a psycopathic serial killer who will kill numerous people with goring objects like a wood axe resulting in large amounts of blood.

 

Here is a mood board on horror

 Camera work is an essential part of communicating the genre, there is often a lot of hand held and canted angle camera shots used to create a sense of chaos in areas of significance and also high angle/low angle shots to communicate dominance/fear between protagonist and antagonist. Extreme close ups and close ups are used to comminicate the fear/anger in the character's facial expressions so the audience can see the emotions of the characters involved, so that there is emphasis on the level of empathy the audience should be feeling for the victims.
The editing will tend to be very fast pace in areas of significance to encourage the audience to recognise the level of energy and drama in the scene.
The sound is vital in horror films, what I've noticed quite frequently is that the sound goes from very quiet to very loud in a short space of time to create a jump scare, for example an 'explosion' of brass instruments in a scene of significance. Diegetic sound will often include, screams, heavy breathing and often there will be a juxed-opposed sound for example birds singing. Non diegetic sounds include tension music and jump scare music for example synthesized keyboard chords, screaching violins, very low pitch bass noise and loud drum pounds-these sounds create tension and fear which is two of the main objectives within horror films.
The setting will almost always be dark, murky and ghoulish, to emphasise the theme and genre.

Key learning points
This blog post has enabled me to look at and evaluate the generic conventions and themes of different film genres, which has been influential in choosing my genre because I have been able to see what generic conventions I would want to/be able to follow.