Genre - A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.
Types of Genre:
•Action - include high energy, big-budget physical stunts and chases, possibly with rescues, battles, fights, escapes, destructive crises, non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and adventurous, often two-dimensional 'good-guy' heroes (or recently, heroines) battling 'bad guys' - all designed for pure audience escapism.
•Adventure - usually exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales, very similar to or often paired with the action film genre.
•Comedy - light-hearted plots consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter (with one-liners, jokes, etc.) by exaggerating the situation, the language, action, relationships and characters.
•Crime & Gangster - films are developed around the sinister actions of criminals or mobsters, particularly bank robbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life.
•Drama - serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction.
•Historical - include costume dramas, historical dramas, war films, medieval romps, or 'period pictures' that often cover a large expanse of time set against a vast, panoramic backdrop.
•Horror - designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience.
•Musical/Dance - cinematic forms that emphasize full-scale scores or song and dance routines in a significant way (usually with a musical or dance performance integrated as part of the film narrative), or they are films that are centred on combinations of music, dance, song or choreography.
•Science Fiction - often quasi-scientific, visionary and imaginative - complete with heroes, aliens, distant planets, impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and shadowy villains, futuristic technology, unknown and unknowable forces, and extraordinary monsters ('things or creatures from space'), either created by mad scientists or by nuclear havoc.
•War - acknowledge the horror and heartbreak of war, letting the actual combat fighting (against nations or humankind) on land, sea, or in the air provide the primary plot or background for the action of the film.
•Western - the major defining genre of the American film industry - a eulogy to the early days of the expansive American frontier.
•Thriller – A novel, play, or movie with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage. A Thriller is a non – linear film as flashback occurs throughout the film. It has action, enigma and problem solving aspects.
Theorists
•Steve Neale – Suggests that ‘genre is instances of repetition’ and difference and that the ‘difference is essential to the economy of genre.’ The mere use of repetition would not attract audiences. He argued that pleasure is derived from repetition and difference; there would be no pleasure without difference. He believed that we may derive pleasure from observing how the conventions of the genre are manipulated.
•Tom Ryall – He believed genre provides a framework of structuring rules in the shape of patterns/forms/styles/structures, which acts as a form of supervision over the work of production of filmmakers and the work of reading by the audience. He believes that genre becomes a cognitive respository of images, sounds, stories, characters and expectations.
•Gill Branston - http://www.mediastudentsbook.com/
•Roy Stafford -
•David Bordwell – ‘any theme may appear in any genre’. ‘One could argue that no set of necessary and sufficient conditions can mark off genres from other sorts of groupings in ways that all experts or ordinary film goers would find acceptable’.
•Robert Stam –
•David Buckingham – ‘Genre is not simply given by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change’.
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Analysis of my product using narrative theories
‘Constant creation of conflict/opposition propels narrative’. Claude Levi-Strauss states that the narrative can only end on a resolution of conflict. For example, in our film the opposition is visual when Damien sees the youth getting beaten up and the lighting is dark which shows the tension and panic. The soundtrack to our song conforms with the urban genre of our film and also would attract our target audience more.
'A text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs to be unravelled'. Roland Barthes enigma code links at the end of the film opening as we see our main character go back into the alley where someone’s getting beaten up. This would be a positive representation of teenagers and also would subvert to stereotypes as our main character is going to help the youth getting beaten up. Throughout our film many parts would be enigmatic to create tension and to keep the audience engaged.
Propp's theory somewhat intertwines with our opening as we have our victim getting beaten up and our hero going back to help the victim.
Throughout the film, Propp's functions would definitely come up as we based our film and genre on many examples such as 'Kidulthood', 'Adulthood', 'Fish Tank'.
In our film there would be more than one villain, Propp’s 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th functions in his theory will occur during our film as the villain’s would be a group of violent, aggressive, unlawful gang which victimise people and harm other’s, the victims would end up helping the villain. Then the hero and villain’s ends up in a direct combat which is propp’s 16th function. This would show a positive representation of our hero youth and also would subvert to the stereotypes.
Todorov's theory links in with our opening scene as the equilibrium was when out main character was walking and then the disequilibrium occurred towards the end when the main character went back to help the victim in the alley way. The resolution would have occurred when the victim is saved. In every film there is always an equilibrium, disequilibrium and resolution, as that is how the plot would go and also that makes the film interesting and would keep the audience engaged.
At the equilibrium the film would subvert and conform to the stereotypes of youths and then once it gets towards the disequilibrium the film would start to conform mainly to the stereotypes of youths, however, at the end towards the resolution the film would subvert to stereotypes of youths.
'A text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs to be unravelled'. Roland Barthes enigma code links at the end of the film opening as we see our main character go back into the alley where someone’s getting beaten up. This would be a positive representation of teenagers and also would subvert to stereotypes as our main character is going to help the youth getting beaten up. Throughout our film many parts would be enigmatic to create tension and to keep the audience engaged.
Propp's theory somewhat intertwines with our opening as we have our victim getting beaten up and our hero going back to help the victim.
Throughout the film, Propp's functions would definitely come up as we based our film and genre on many examples such as 'Kidulthood', 'Adulthood', 'Fish Tank'.
In our film there would be more than one villain, Propp’s 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th functions in his theory will occur during our film as the villain’s would be a group of violent, aggressive, unlawful gang which victimise people and harm other’s, the victims would end up helping the villain. Then the hero and villain’s ends up in a direct combat which is propp’s 16th function. This would show a positive representation of our hero youth and also would subvert to the stereotypes.
Todorov's theory links in with our opening scene as the equilibrium was when out main character was walking and then the disequilibrium occurred towards the end when the main character went back to help the victim in the alley way. The resolution would have occurred when the victim is saved. In every film there is always an equilibrium, disequilibrium and resolution, as that is how the plot would go and also that makes the film interesting and would keep the audience engaged.
At the equilibrium the film would subvert and conform to the stereotypes of youths and then once it gets towards the disequilibrium the film would start to conform mainly to the stereotypes of youths, however, at the end towards the resolution the film would subvert to stereotypes of youths.
Analysis of my product using representation theories
For my AS production me and my group created a film opening with an urban genre. The synopsis of the film opening is about a teenager coming out of his estate and walking down, he approaches an alley way, where he sees two youths robbing/beating up another teenager, however, the main character walks off at first and then turns back into the alley.
Our main character named Damien, who is tall and muscular with broad shoulders, would be the stereotypical hero, as he struggles to find his path between what’s right and wrong. Damien, gets into a lot of gang activities and struggles to find his identity as his not sure on what he wants in life, therefore, he somewhat subverts to the stereotypical hero, as he struggles to find his collective identity and subculture.
Damien is represented as a ‘Ghetto youth’ or ‘thug’ through the way he is dressed with the dark hoody, blacked out hat, tracksuit bottoms and trainers, we made him the stereotypical urban character. We used character examples from films such as Kidulthood and 4.3.2.1 to make our main character Damien. However, near the end of the film Damien would transform into a young smart man, which represents Damien in a smart and sophisticated youth, which therefore, would represent youth positively.
The mise-en-scene is a stereotypical representation of a lower class area in London with the council estates, the dark alley ways, and congested roads. The dark lighting around the area makes it more enigmatic and creates tension when Damien walks past the alley way. The cold, gloomy and dusking weather creates enigma and keeps the target audience interested and engaged.
The target audience for our film was to be teenagers, as the type of genre would appeal to them more as it can reflect more to their lifestyles and stereotypes that they have. The representation of youth in our film would be part positive and part negative as we would have scenes where teenagers conform to their stereotypes by being 'thugs' and stealing etc... However, we would also have parts of the film where teenagers subvert from their stereotypes as they would be well educated and law abiding and helping other people.
Our main character conforms to the genre of the film; he would be a positive representation towards youth as he chooses the right path at the end of the film, therefore, he subverts to the youth stereotypes, as Damien is a well-educated youth that lives in a rough area in South London and has many influences around him which can lead him going into the wrong path into drugs, violence, gangs etc...It shows Damien’s struggle to keep out of gangs and crime, this would conform to the stereotypical urban films where the main character struggles and tries to prevent from the influences of their environment. For example, in Kidulthood the main character Trevor struggles to find his identity and does many things through the influences of others and though the fear of rejection. Also with Rebel without a Cause, James Dean’s character struggles to find his identity and at the end takes the right path which shows a positive representation towards youth as it shows that they just need guidance.
Our main character named Damien, who is tall and muscular with broad shoulders, would be the stereotypical hero, as he struggles to find his path between what’s right and wrong. Damien, gets into a lot of gang activities and struggles to find his identity as his not sure on what he wants in life, therefore, he somewhat subverts to the stereotypical hero, as he struggles to find his collective identity and subculture.
Damien is represented as a ‘Ghetto youth’ or ‘thug’ through the way he is dressed with the dark hoody, blacked out hat, tracksuit bottoms and trainers, we made him the stereotypical urban character. We used character examples from films such as Kidulthood and 4.3.2.1 to make our main character Damien. However, near the end of the film Damien would transform into a young smart man, which represents Damien in a smart and sophisticated youth, which therefore, would represent youth positively.
The mise-en-scene is a stereotypical representation of a lower class area in London with the council estates, the dark alley ways, and congested roads. The dark lighting around the area makes it more enigmatic and creates tension when Damien walks past the alley way. The cold, gloomy and dusking weather creates enigma and keeps the target audience interested and engaged.
The target audience for our film was to be teenagers, as the type of genre would appeal to them more as it can reflect more to their lifestyles and stereotypes that they have. The representation of youth in our film would be part positive and part negative as we would have scenes where teenagers conform to their stereotypes by being 'thugs' and stealing etc... However, we would also have parts of the film where teenagers subvert from their stereotypes as they would be well educated and law abiding and helping other people.
Our main character conforms to the genre of the film; he would be a positive representation towards youth as he chooses the right path at the end of the film, therefore, he subverts to the youth stereotypes, as Damien is a well-educated youth that lives in a rough area in South London and has many influences around him which can lead him going into the wrong path into drugs, violence, gangs etc...It shows Damien’s struggle to keep out of gangs and crime, this would conform to the stereotypical urban films where the main character struggles and tries to prevent from the influences of their environment. For example, in Kidulthood the main character Trevor struggles to find his identity and does many things through the influences of others and though the fear of rejection. Also with Rebel without a Cause, James Dean’s character struggles to find his identity and at the end takes the right path which shows a positive representation towards youth as it shows that they just need guidance.
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