Genre

Genre
There are many different genres within film and they all have their own generic conventions; the things which define them and make a film fit into this genre. For example the horror genre has its own generic conventions compared to a romantic comedy, the setting for example, a lot of horror films are set in dark places that have a lot of stigma surrounding them, like a haunted house that had someone murdered in it. This setting would communicate to the audience that the film was a horror without them directly being told. As opposed to a romantic comedy which is more likely to be set in a big city like Chicago, brightly lit, open and busy, this is typical of films such as 'run fat boy run'.
There is many, many genres and sub genres within film and they all have their own generic conventions that make them different, a small list of some of the genres out there includes;

• Action  
• Horror
• Comedy
• Romance
• Thriller
• Fantasy
• Sci-fi
• Animations

And many more genres and sub genres, but rather than explore every genre of film there is, I am going to explore a few that are most relevant to the type of film opening I would like to do and maybe explore what kind of generic conventions the opposite genres employ and see if I could implement anything from those to blur the lines between what genre my film opening falls into or maybe this will make me decide to stick more firmly to the generic conventions already in place for one specific genre.



Action
Generally when someone thinks of the Action genre the first thing that comes to mind, is the typical action hero film with diluted, slightly generic, maybe overdone plot, with the masculine hero who saves the day against impossible odds. Films that may come to mind when thinking of this genre include such films as James bond, Die hard, Taken and Bad boys are common examples of action films that all conform to the recognised generic conventions of the action film genre.

James Bond is typical action film, most of the films involve lots of explosions, fast cars, pretty women and lots of fast paced action, for example; car chases, gun fights and fight scenes. In casino Royale, one of the more recent entries into the James bond saga, the film starts with a chase scene on foot with the main protagonist chasing what we suspect to be a villain, with lots of fast paced music in the background adding to the building suspense with an explosion added in to break the tension briefly and shock the audience to draw them into the scene more effectively. The scene continues with the chase leading high up in a construction site adding to the risk and building suspense, providing that edge of the seat effect for the audience, which this type of scene is aiming to provide.

Bad Boys is a more classic crime based action film with a comedic twist, while not intended to be a comedic action it could easily be argued that it may be labelled as such. Within this film there is a very good example of a car chase scene, with the two protagonists chasing down the villain in a high speed car chase between two very fast classic cars. This kind of scene is very common within the action genre and is commonly used due to the fast pace, exciting shots and they build tension and suspense extremely well. While a car chase is an extremely exciting scene and would make for an excellent opening, it is simply too difficult to shoot with the resources we have and would be far too impractical for our coursework.

Stand off is a film opening done by As media students that I found on Youtube, I watched it to help my understanding of the action genre and to see what other students had done to give me inspiration for my coursework as well as being able to observe  the techniques they used to help me gain ideas for what I could implement. The film contains a small chase scene and tense music in a run down area of a city and conforms to the generic conventions of the action genre very well and doesn't challenge any of them which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the audience. Below you can see the project that I watched. While some elements such as the acting are slightly lacking, one of the things an audience would most expect to see in a modern day action film is firearms which are used in this opening and the fast paced music used to dictate the pace of the scene is very fitting with the action genre. Although I think after seeing how poorly this project has been done and how fake the firearms look, we have elected to have a more calm suspense building opening to avoid it looking unprofessional.

Comedy
Comedy is a very broad genre with lots of other genres regularly being blended with it, a lot of comedies involve typical scenarios that are awkward in real life, for example American high schools are typically uncomfortable and awkward and offer many opportunities to laugh at other's misfortunes. However some comedies really blend the lines between action and comedy for example, Hot fuzz.
Hot fuzz employs a very comical fake violence and generic conventions of most action films such as chase scenes and fight scenes but in a much more comic violence way. For example any blood splatters are made with obviously fake blood because the intention is to not look realistic but to draw in the audience, hold their attention, make them concerned for the character and make it entertaining in any way possible.

A good example of the obviously fake blood/gore used in the film

 

While this is a very good example of a film challenging the generic conventions of the genre of comedy and blurring the lines between the two genres and I appreciate how well received this film was (as a very big fan of it myself) I think for my coursework I am going to stick to the more serious tone of most action films and maintain a darker air around the whole thing instead of the light-heartedness that surrounds this film.

Ace Ventura is a comedy about a pet detective and this film is straight up comedy, no real action elements just purely comedy and sticks to the generic conventions of the genre pretty rigidly. It employs different types of comedy throughout the films including slap-stick, farcical and some very juvenile themed comedy. The film is generally an upbeat tempo with bright lighting and no real suspense being built throughout. The film isn't really family friendly as the jokes can be fairly adult which is very common for comedy films not really focusing around the slapstick area of comedy. Although some of the more childish scenes involve Ace doing some pretty hilarious things that would have the whole family laughing like the scene pictured below where Ace is climbing out of a fake rhino in a rather undignified manner.



Unfortunately I could not find any openings done by students that were in the genre of comedy, I believe this is because the comedy genre is so hard to do well as it requires very good actors that have charisma and likeability as well as good technical skills to actually make the film as a result of this I have chosen to avoid the genre as a whole because of the complications added by the charisma required.



Thriller
Thrillers generally aim to build as much suspense as possible for the audience to then shock them or surprise them (but usually not scare them). These films will often have quiet, tense situations involving next to no noise but maybe exaggerated breathing and footstep sounds to put an audience on the edge of their seat, which is one of the main goals of a thriller. For example, in World War Z in the scene I have posted to the right, the protagonist is forced to make a decision he is unsure of which could end with him being killed. The scene shows how very little movement takes place and the whole 'Will he? Won't he?' decision making starts running through the audience's mind as to whether this will have worked and whether or not he will be killed by the infected person staring him straight in the face. The aim of this suspense building is to really draw the audience into the film and then shock them or surprise them rapidly after building enormous amounts of suspense which really helps to create memorable moments in the audience's minds.