BLOG POST 1-Genre Research Part 1

BLOG POST 1-Genre Research Part 1

1. Mind Map of Genre

2. The Purpose of Film Genre

Audience Preference and Selection:

-Genres offer audiences a structured framework by which they can recognise films that correspond to their inclinations and sentiments.

-The classification of films into genres also enables audiences to easily understand the content, themes, and experiences that are to be encountered with a given film.

Conventions and Narrative Structures:

-Genres provide filmmakers with a collection of narrative structures and conventions upon which to construct their stories. These established norms facilitate the construction of narratives that deeply connect with the audience by furnishing creators with recognisable components to explore and innovate upon.

Psychological and Emotional Involvement:

-Various genres produce different emotional reactions, including apprehension in horror, amusement in comedy, or anticipation in suspense thrillers. By appealing to viewers' emotions, films are capable of evoking a wide range of responses, from escapism to profound introspection.

Cultural and Social Insight:

-Historical, cultural, and social contexts are frequently mirrored in film genres. Using this framework, societal issues, values, and norms may be examined and evaluated. An illustration of this would be historical dramas examining past events, whereas science fiction might explore societal concerns of the future.

3. Genre Theory (Steve Neale)

Here are some exact quotes from Steve Neale's genre theory as presented in Chapter 4 of 'Media Theory for A-Level' by Mark Dixon.

'Genres are instances of repetition and difference'-- Steve Neale

4. Key Conventions

Codes of genre can be classified into 3 types: technical codes, symbolic codes and audio codes.

-Technical codes: Camera angle, movement, shot, editing and lighting.

-Symbolic codes: Setting, props, costumes, make-ups, body language, narrative and theme.

Audio codes: Background music, sound effects, narrative speech, dialogue, diegetic and non-diegetic music

5. Deep exploration in the every film genre

(Main genres)

Action: Known for fast-paced sequences, stunts, and typically involves some form of physical conflict. Key conventions include fight scenes, chases, rescues, battles, and a clear protagonist versus antagonist setup.

• Superhero: Features characters with superhuman abilities or powers, often in a battle between good and evil. Includes elements of fantasy or science fiction.

• Adventure: Focuses on exploration and adventure, often in exotic locations, involving quests or treasure hunts.

• Martial Arts: Centers around characters skilled in martial arts, with a strong emphasis on fight choreography and physical prowess.

• Spy: Revolves around espionage and intelligence-gathering, often featuring a protagonist who is a spy.

• War: Depicts warfare, battles, and military life, often set in historical contexts.

2. Drama: Focuses on the in-depth development of realistic characters and emotional themes. Drama films often deal with intense emotional situations and moral dilemmas. They emphasize narrative over physical action.

• Crime Drama: Focuses on crime, law enforcement, and the criminal justice system, often featuring detectives or criminals.

• Historical Drama: Set in a past time period, focusing on historical events or figures, with an emphasis on accuracy and period detail.

• Legal Drama: Centers around legal and judicial systems, often featuring lawyers, judges, and court cases.

• Political Drama: Involves political scenarios, including political corruption, campaigns, and life in political office.

• Romantic Drama: Combines drama with romance, focusing on complex relationships and emotional conflicts.

3. Comedy: Designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies often have light-hearted, amusing plots and emphasize humour through dialogue, characters, and situations.

• Romantic Comedy (Rom-Com): Blends humour with romantic situations, focusing on relationships, love, and romantic endeavours.

• Satire: Uses humour, irony, and exaggeration to criticize or mock real-life events, individuals, or societal norms.

• Parody/Spoof: Imitates or exaggerates the style of a particular genre, work, or author, often for comic effect.

• Slapstick: Characterized by physical humour, including clumsy actions, accidents, and pratfalls.

• Black Comedy (Dark Comedy): Deals with serious, taboo, or dark subjects in a humorous way.

3. Horror: Intended to frighten, scare, or disgust the audience. Key elements include suspense, fear, the unknown, and supernatural elements. Often involves an antagonist or entity that brings terror to the characters.

• Slasher: Characterized by a serial killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually with bladed tools. Features suspense, gore, and the final girl trope.

• Supernatural: Involves ghosts, demons, spirits, and other supernatural entities. Relies on building an eerie and frightening atmosphere.

• Psychological Horror: Focuses on the mental, emotional, and psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle the audience.

• Found Footage: Utilizes a first-person perspective, often through a camera or recording device, to create realism and immediacy.

• Body Horror: Emphasizes the graphic destruction or degeneration of the body, often through disease, mutation, or parasitism.

4. Sci-Fi (Science Fiction): Often speculative, focusing on imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.

• Cyberpunk: Merges high tech and low life, focusing on advanced technology like AI and cybernetics in a dystopian future.

• Space Opera: Emphasizes melodramatic, romantic, and often heroic themes, set mainly or entirely in outer space.

• Time Travel: Revolves around the concept of moving between different points in time, often with a complex narrative structure.

• Post-Apocalyptic: Centers on a world after a catastrophic event has wiped out much of humanity and altered the world significantly.

• Alien Invasion: Focuses on extraterrestrial beings invading Earth, often to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.

6. Fantasy: Features magical or supernatural elements that are not grounded in reality. This genre often involves quests, mythical creatures, and a distinct world-building element.

• High Fantasy: Set in an alternative, fictional world, characterized by magic, mythical creatures, and epic quests.

• Sword and Sorcery: Focuses on sword-wielding heroes and magical sorcerers, often with a focus on personal battles rather than world-endangering plots.

• Dark Fantasy: Combines elements of fantasy with dark or horrific tones, themes, and situations.

• Urban Fantasy: Introduces magical characters, elements, or settings into a real-world urban setting.

• Mythic: Involves ancient myths and legends, often reinterpreting or expanding upon traditional mythological stories and characters.

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7. Romance: Centralizes around love stories and romantic relationships between characters. Key conventions include emotional, passionate narratives, focusing on the romantic bonds and journeys of the characters.

• Romantic Comedy (Rom-Com): Blends romance and comedy. Focuses on the development of a romantic relationship amidst comical situations.

• Romantic Drama: Combines romance with dramatic elements, focusing on the complex emotional and moral issues surrounding relationships.

• Historical Romance: Set in a historical period, blending romantic narrative with real historical settings and events.

• Paranormal Romance: Involves romantic relationships between humans and supernatural beings like vampires, werewolves, or ghosts.
  

8. Thriller: Known for keeping audiences on the edge of their seats with suspense, tension, excitement, and a high level of anticipation. Often involves crime, spying, or other dangerous situations where the stakes are high.

• Psychological Thriller: Focuses on the psychological relationships between characters, often in a suspenseful environment.

• Crime Thriller: Revolves around a crime, usually a murder, with an emphasis on the perpetrator or the investigator's perspective.

• Spy Thriller: Centers around espionage, featuring spies and secret agents in a high-stakes, international setting.

• Legal Thriller: Involves a legal setting, with lawyers, judges, and legal battles, often emphasizing a mystery or moral dilemma.

• Techno-Thriller: Combines the thriller genre with technical and scientific details, often focusing on technology and its potential consequences.

9. Documentary: Aimed at documenting reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record. Documentaries often present factual information about a particular subject, person, or event, typically in a sober and straightforward manner.

• Expository: Aims to inform or persuade, often with a strong voice or argument, and typically features a narrator.

• Observational: Observes the world around it without any intervention, offering a fly-on-the-wall view of events.

• Interactive: Involves direct engagement between the filmmaker and the subject or environment they are documenting.

• Reflexive: Explores and often confronts the filmmaking process or the act of making a documentary itself.

• Poetic: Eschews linear narrative and continuity in favour of mood, tone, or an abstract idea.

(Known actors and directors)

Action

- Film: "Die Hard"

- Actor: Bruce Willis

- Director: John McTiernan

Drama

- Film: "The Shawshank Redemption"

- Actor: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

- Director: Frank Darabont

 Comedy

- Film: "Ghostbusters"

- Actor: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd

- Director: Ivan Reitman

Horror

- Film: "The Shining"

- Actor: Jack Nicholson

- Director: Stanley Kubrick

 Sci-Fi

- Film: "Blade Runner"

- Actor: Harrison Ford

- Director: Ridley Scott

Fantasy

- Film: "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"

- Actor: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen

- Director: Peter Jackson

Romance

- Film: "Titanic"

- Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet

- Director: James Cameron

Thriller

- Film: "Seven" (also known as "Se7en")

- Actor: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman

- Director: David Fincher

Documentary

- Film: "An Inconvenient Truth"

- Director: Davis Guggenheim

- (Documentaries typically feature real people rather than actors)