Genre


Genre is a term that defines the characteristics and features of an art - categorising it based on these features. For example, romance is a genre in which it typically revolves around two people discovering each other and developing feelings for each other. Usually it ends with a happy ending, and leaves the viewer satisfied, however sometimes you find that there are other genres in the movie that paint the storyline and ending a different way. Take Romeo and Juliet for example, it is categorised as a tragedy as well as a romance, and so it ends with both protagonists dying. So sometimes a story will play out in a way that is not typical to its genre for and it does not have to follow a strict set of rules.

Some genres of film gain more popularity than others; Action, romance, horror and documentaries are very popular genres of film. Action movies usually have a big budget, and so the movies come out looking amazing and having great storylines, which makes it so popular, as well as It is also being suitable for most audiences. Romance gains it popularity from its gripping storyline, which has you follow the couple on their journey of love, and by the end of the movie you feel you know the characters on a personal level. Romances tend to have a much lower budget than most action movies, and so when one does take off, the popularity is incredible.

 Horror movies main intentions are to scare the viewer and have them on the edge of their seat. The whole time you are watching the film your heart is racing as you root for the protagonist to beat the villain, and so personally I think the reason it gains so much popularity is because of its ability to stick to the viewer even after they have finished watching it. For hours, days and maybe weeks after they still feel anxious, making sure to double lock their doors, and check under their beds. And finally, documentaries are non-fiction films which document real events, they are informative and so people enjoy watching them for educational purposes. They are popular because there is such a wide range of different things that people document about, and so there is something for everybody.

The genre of a film is defined by the features of it, for example horrors are full of jump scares, tense moments and sometimes gore. The makers of the film usually categorise it into a genre, however magazines and websites sometimes categorise them differently.

There are dozens of genres of film, from the silent films back in the late 1800s - which were black and white and had no audio, and so relied on expression and captions to tell the story – to modern genres such as action, which is fast pace and pump the viewer full of adrenaline. Here is a list and short description of a few of these genres:

Animation – An animated film that is usually fiction, however can sometimes be factual. They are typically aimed towards younger audiences, for example Frozen.

Comedy – A comedic film with the intention of making the viewer laugh, they are aimed at all audience types, for example Dumb and Dumber.

Thriller – A scary film that is light on the amount of gore and violence when compared to horror, with the intention to provide the viewer with thrills. For example, The sixth Sense.

Crime Fiction – A film that fictionalises a crime, it involves a crime, detectives and criminals. They are usually aimed towards adult audiences, for example The Godfather.

Comments

  1. Coulsdon A Level Film and Media2 October 2017 at 09:50

    Very well written Mya even if it is not 100% accurate, it shows that you have a very good understanding of the topic and only a few things are slightly described wrongly Documentaries although categorised on the likes of Netflix and Amazon are not strictly a Genre nor are they necessarily REAL. How ever you discuss the various genres competently and confidently and that is great to see. Very Well done!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Analysis of the opening scene of Casablanca

Analysis of the opening scene of Casablanca                                                       25/10/17 The opening scene of Casablanca is used to give context about where the play is set, and to introduce the characters. The first shot is a wide shot of the outside of Rick’s Café Americain which has been purposely used to show many people entering and leaving the bar, as opposed to a close-up which would give us detail but no context. There is a spotlight that follows people walking into the bar, which is used to suggest the that this Is where the film will be set and the importance of it. Next there is an establishing close-up of the bars neon sign, once again to give context, before it pans down to the entrance and continues to pan through the whole café. For the most part it continues to pan, going from right to left, which was very common...
Read more

Comparison between short films & Get off my land and Ralph

Ralph and Get off my land Comparison. Ralph is a short film that features a young man who has travelled to france in search of his love interest, and focuses on the idea of isolation. Whereas Get off my land is a short film about a couple taking a hike through a woodland area, in which they come across some private land that they cannot cross, the genre being dark comedy. There are several points throughout Ralph that show the theme of isolation, starting from when he steps off the train at the beginning. There is a wide shot with ralph, our protagonist, standing in the middle with nobody standing on the platform next to him to show that he is all alone in this foreign country. This foreshadows the rest of the film. Throughout the whole film everyone, with the exception of Ralph, is speaking french, which is another way that he feels isolated from everyone else. There are also no subtitles to translate and so by doing this, the viewer also feels isolated. At the beginning of G...
Read more

Comparison of Spike Lee Films

Image
Comparison of "Do the right thing", "Shes gotta have it" and "Clockers" One running theme throughout these films was the use of an African-American Protagonist, and in both Clockers and Do the right thing, they were struggling with racial issues,which is typically the theme of Spike Lees films. For example in Clockers we see a couple of white police officers patting down a group of black teenagers in search of drugs or other contraband, and they do it in a way that is aggressive and embarrassing for the teenagers, with no real intentions other than the stereotype that black teenagers are always carrying drugs. There is also a scene when a group of white police detectives are examining the dad body of a black man, and they do it in a way that is unprofessional and disrespectful. However, the theme is not always about racial issues, for example in Shes gotta have it we see the protagonist struggle with making her mind up about which of the three men th...
Read more