Genre, audiences and institutions

Why is Genre a relevant concept for audiences?

Genre is a relevant concept for audiences because it is important for films to be categorized so that audiences can know what they are going to see and what genres they like. .e.g. Young girls like the chick flick genre there fore those are the kind of films they will tend to watch.

How does genre effect and why is it useful for film Production companies?

The effect of genre is that it gains publicity and it is useful because it targets specific audiences.

Sub Genres

 Sub Genre: A genre within a genre


Within the Thriller genre there is a lot of variety, because of this, sub genres help categorize certain films more specifically to create a high degree of similarity.

Awake

 Here are two film posters from the same thriller sub genre (Medical Thriller)



 Here are the similarities between both posters in term of Mise en Scene, Themes and Characters
 Themes: You can see on both posters that each characters focal point is directed towards the trigger of emotion in this case looking intrigued. This is gripping for the audience as it shows that they are interested in something and makes us want to know what that is.

Characters: Even though there is a boy and a girl on 'Awake's poster and two boys on 'Extreme measures poster' there are still two faces on each and this replicates more then one main character in both. It also shows a mainly even distribution between male and female roles.

Mise En Scene: In both posters there are props, costumes, lighting  that represent a medical theme .e.g. An operating table, A drip filled with blood , Nurse costumes and masks. Most importantly the lighting represents  the medical theme the best because both backgrounds are black but the faces are blurred around the edges with a  white shadowy effect,  this creates a dark an eery atmosphere that is perfect for a thriller. Both sets of title writing is in bright colours so that it catches the audiences eyes eg in Awake it is bright white (clinical) and in Extreme measures it is bright red (blood and danger)

Extreme Measures 

List Of Sub Genres and examples of Films

Conspiracy Thriller

JFK (1991)

Crime Thriller

   No Country for Old Men (2007)

Disaster Thriller

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Erotic Thriller

   Body Heat (1981)

Legal Thrillers

  A Time to Kill (1996)

Medical Thriller

Awake (2007)

Psychological Thrillers

Laura (1944)

Political Thriller

In the Line of Fire (1993)

Religious Thriller

  The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Spy Thriller

  The Bourne Identity (2002)

Supernatural Thrillers

   Carrie (1976)

The Thriller genre that appeals the most to me at the moment and for inspiring me for my own opening title sequence is Medical/Psychological  because  i think these types of genres aren't exposed that much in the real world so the tension is always held as you never know what will come next. For example psychiatric hospitals.

Genre Difference, Repetition and similarity

The Thriller genre is very different to many other genres as it varies hugely.

For example here are two films from the Thriller Genre: Gone Girl and Black Swan

Gone Girl

Black Swan

Black swan- Mise En Scene: Ballerina costumes, Ballet Shoes, Stage, Femininity

Vs
Gone girl- Mise en Scene: Town community, Shattered Bottles, Expensive houses, Diary

Black Swan -  Characters: Mainly Women
Vs
Gone Girl- Characters: Based evenly on men and women (two main characters boy and girl)

Black Swan- Narrative: About a ballerina that becomes psychological due to an obsession over a competition.
Vs
Gone Girl-   Narrative: A girl frames her husband for her murder and lays out clues in the end manipulating him to stay with her.

As you can see these two thrillers are very different in terms of Mise En scene, Characters and Narrative events even though they are of the same genre.However in terms of audience's response they both hold tension and keep you gripped all the way through. In terms of narrative structure and character throughout both films i empathize with certain characters as i want them to succeed for example in black swan you want her to over come her psychological problems and be a better ballerina then everyone else and in Gone girl you want him to find his wife and everything to unravel happily.

GROUP FAVOURITE ORIGINAL IDEAS

In my group is Lucas, Indie and perry. Here are my groups favorite original idea that they presented in class as a possibility for the idea of a thriller:

Indie:
From the cleaners point of view we see a dark corridor where there is family photos that have been smashed to lead in to the discovery of a murder in a bedroom as a girl is lying dead in blood rolled up in a white sheet. Flashbacks are used to reveal information but also hold suspense.

Lucas:
A boy who takes a physcological drug that causes the audience to be able to enter and see whats going on in his brain.

Perry:
A group of friends go in to a club where one girl is drugged and a man takes advantage of her. 

EDITING LESSON 1 AND 2 (PRELIM TASK )

Editing

 



For the editing process we used a software called adobe premier pro. Here is a screen shot of what the software looked like. 



In our first lesson learning about editing I learnt a lot. The main focus was to keep it simple yet consistent. 
The most important things I learnt were to keep saving the work I was doing and to label the shots to show weather we needed them or not for example 'Mid shot - good'  I also learned how to create Bins' and 'Rushes' these folders are for putting the shots that you do and do not need so you have a folder that you can go back to if you ever needed the originals.




In the second lesson I learnt how to crop and edit the shots.  When cutting and editing , we had to make sure they were cut to to the exact moment so they could run in to each other smoothly. We also learnt how to cut and organize the layers so the sound would not overlap what was happening in the scene or if there was any dialogue that was in the wrong place so when we played it back it all ran together smoothly. We experimented with adding different sound effects for example a gun shot and we also looked at cuting from shot to shot eg fade to black. We then played it through a few times to see if we could notice any mistakes and double check. 

PRELIM VIDEO

Original ideas/ ideas with class feedback

 Idea number 1

 Title: Hidden/ Followed

Plot:  The plot is about a young girl that lives her daily life (going out with friends,walking to schooletc..)but there is one change, she is being followed by a man. We cannot see him or hear him we can only feel his presence there. The plot eventually leads up to the girls murder. However it is filmed through the mans eyes so we do not see him until the end.
Opening sequence:
Shows girl getting of train use high angle to make her look vulnerable she then walks down the street. I would use cross cut too blurry black and white shots that has an essence of a cctv camera feel about it to suggest someone could be watching. It is from the mans eyes so we  would use a handheld camera to suggest the fact he is moving and makes it more realistic for the audience. Have a mans heavy breathing in the background to suggest his presence as he follows her. The credits are hand written to contrast with the hand held camera to make it more personal when the names are written scratching noises can be heard with snippets of a loud machine in the background. Photos of someone's hands quickly spelling out the credits. Fragmented cuts between methods of media.

Idea number 2

Title: ‘The Missing’ 

Plot: Thriller about a girl who goes missing and is never found. Suspension is held all the way through as you desperately want to know where she is. Family and friends look for her everywhere and clues are given all the way through about where she could be. Could it be the family? Are they guilty? Eventually they figure out that someone has abducted her and there is a poignant ending as her dead body is dumped by the river. 
 Opening sequence: Flashing images of the river in different effects (such as black and white and coloured ) sharp machine noises. Photos of someones hands putting together a puzzle  spelling out credits fast forwarded cross cut too river and to missing poster that is all cut up and fragmented.

 Idea number 3 
Plot: A ten year old orphan girl is welcomed in to a family where the dad sexually assaults her. The whole film is based around the girls traumatizing life and how she tries to escape from not only her new family but the memory’s she will never forget. 
Opening sequence: Flashing images and shadows of a man touching the little girl- shadow of his hands and scale factor changes from big too small. Abstract/schizophrenic/scratchy  (eerie music). Shows orphan running through trees in the dark panting with a whispery voice. 

Idea number 4 
Plot: A girls rape leaves a village traumatised. People try to find the suspects and it becomes a hunt as more and more clues are revealed until eventually she is murdered. Do they know how close he could be? It turns out he is closer then they thought and is in a family that is involved with the search. 
Opening sequence: black screen as credits are revealed. There is a  voice over of a girls muffled cries and screams. Cross cutting between shots of a young girl growing up and photos of her life at different stages.

In class I presented idea number 1 to the class as my favourite idea. The feed back from the class was generally very good. They liked the idea of cutting between the fragmented methods of media for example blurry black and white shots to the hands spelling out the credits. Putting lots of different types of effects and editing them will contrast well. They also liked the idea of the man behind the handheld camera.

Introduction to Genre

What is a Genre?  

A genre is a category that something can fit under .e.g. a film and that have similar conventions.
Dictionary definition of the word GENRE: 'A class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content,or technique. 
EXAMPLES OF FILM GENRES: Action, Adventure, comedy, Romance,crime 

 Different things that films within a particular genre might share in common:.E.G. Romance

1.  Actors = Hugh Grant 
2. Props = Flowers 
3. Sound = Love songs