RESEARCH - GENRE AND SUB-GENRES

THRILLER SUB-GENRES

GENRE: A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

Genre and Sub Genre

Genre is the overall category that a media product goes into, for example in music there are different genres such as RnB, Hip hop, Rock. In the film industry however there are lots of different genres such as Comedy, Thrillers, Horror, Romance. The genre of film we are focussing on in out project is thriller.
A sub Genre is all of the different parts that the main genre is divided into so for a thriller the sub genres would be Romantic thriller, Action thriller, Crime Thriller, Political thriller and so on. The genre of thriller that inspires us the most is crime thriller as we think that it has many different aspects that we can look into to make our thriller opening successful.

The third man opening is an inspiring thriller for us because it is based on crime and it gives us some ideas that we can use in our project.

Types of Film Openings

There are 4 Different types of film openings:

1. A narrative opening

A narrative opening is usually the opening of the story/beginning of the film. It's usually a scene from the movie that is pivotal in the storyline. The scene could also be a flashback or a flash-forward. A narrative opening may also introduce a character or the main character which may give clues about the storyline. A narrative opening is usually engaging and gets the audience guessing what is happening or going to happen. Like all openings a narrative opening has non-diagetic sound playing throughout.

This is the opening of "City of God". The scene in the  opening is actually a flash-forward. However, it is probably one of the most important scenes in the film. Also, In this opening scene you get to see a few of the main characters in the movie.

2. A discrete title sequence

A discrete title sequence is about 2 minutes long and has nothing to do with the narrative. A discrete title sequence involves a lot of editing as there are many fast cuts between different shots. Although there is usually nothing to do with the narrative, discrete title sequence gives a lot of clues about what the film could be about. These clues also keep the audience engaged and guessing.

In the opening of "Enemy of the state" there are loads of different scenes from a car chase, a robbery, a foot chase, a major arrest, a helicopter chase and many more. In these scenes there is absolutely no evidence at all of what the narrative is and there are no characters in the film seen.

3. Stylised edit

A stylised opening is effects based. There's usually a lot of special effects such as slow motion, fast motion, explosions, 3-D animation, etc. There's also usually no clue about the storyline and no narrative view point. 

In the film "Quantum of solace" stylised editing is used extremely well. The main focus point of the stylised edit is the way the bullet has been edited and the background scene. When the bullet is shot out the gun powder is also shown but slightly exaggerated. This is down to the slow motion effect. also, when the bullet is shot out the bullet is followed by the camera.

The whole background scene is artificial as it has been animated. Even bond himself is animated and isn't real. This gives off a surreal feeling of the movie.

The music is also key in a stylised editing opening as the moving picture has to be almost in sync with the sound.

4. Titles over a blank screen

Titles over a blank screen is the most simple, basic opening. It's simply title credits appearing over a blank screen in order. This type of opening is usually boring and doesn't really keep the audience engaged. the only thing that is lively about this type of opening is the non-diegetic sounds.

In the opening of the film "buried" the titles appear one after the other. Like discrete openings and stylised opening there is no clue whatsoever about the narrative and storyline.

Intertexuality

Intertextuality: is a term used to describe the visual referencing between films. films literally "borrow" from each other whether it be a certain camera angle, an aspect of mise-en-scene, dialogue, or even snippets of sound.

one of the most famous use of intertexuality is the shower scene from the film "psycho". Many films have emulated this scene such as "what lies beneath" & "Fatal attraction".

In "What Lies Beneath" they have used the same shower curtain and shower head.
Also, the victim is a white blonde woman who has been killed by a man.

In "Fatal Attraction" the victim is a blonde white woman. The victim
is also sliding down the same white tiled wall and the knife used is the same.

RESEARCH - Film Audiences.

Some Examples of Target audiences

Romance 
the likely stereotype for a romance film would be females, as it is said that females tend to watch films that they can interact with and relate to. The main aim of romantic films is to dramatise reality through emotions and expressions. To create a romantic atmosphere through expressions and emotions, a slow music would tend to flow through the crucial parts of the film, as it helps to engage the audience. All the elements of a romantic film relates to the entertainment of females, which is why they are he main target audience.
An example of a romance film is 'An Education'.

Action/Adventure

This genre is targeted at a large male audience, opposite to the romance genre. Action/Adventure use more effects and exciting action scenes, which is paid more attention to than characters and the story lines. To keep the adrenaline, fast paced music is used as well as transitions to keep the flow of excitement throughout the film. The main character would always be upfront, bold and strong, even if the main character is a female. the characters do not determine the audience  as things such as violence and stunts is what engages the audience, relating to expectations of the male audience.




Family comedy
the target audience is mentioned in the name, having more impact than individual target audiences. a family comedy usually consists of more than one character, including families and kids. The story line is usually simple, using humour which appeals to all ages. Music and acting would be non-explicit. Music and theme songs tend to be commercial and soothing, creating homely atmospheres. Colours would stand out, whilst the sense of reality in the setting may be unseen.





Thrillers

The target audience is mainly a male dominated audience. however, considering that there are a wide range of thrillers, such as action thriller and romance thrillers, the target audiences can differ depending on what combination of genre. A romantic thriller would tend to have a largely female dominated audience, but is one of the fewer umbrella genres that contain this large female audience. whereas the rest of the genres tend to be male dominated due to attitudes and atmosphere.

RESEARCH - Genre and Sub-genre

GENRE

A genre is a category which is built up through the elements used. for example, in the film industry, a film directed at men that involves guns and violence could be elements that build up the action genre. genres are identified by different conventions used which also determine genre. 

SUB-GENRE

The difference between genre and sub-genre is that genre is elements that make one category, whereas sub-genre uses various elements to create multiple genres combined. A good example of this is the genre thriller. a thriller is a single category, but also is an 'umbrella'. The umbrella consists of many subs, which combine with thriller to make a sub-genre. For instance, Action Thriller, comedy thriller, Sci-Fi thriller etc.


What thriller genre inspires me the most?
The thriller that inspires me the most is Batman : The Dark Knight. Batman falls under the action thriller sub-genre.  It had a large success, due to the unique style of approaching the audience. The characters, such as the joker, not only entertained the audience with the follow through of the classical joker comic books, but through the twists and turns throughout the film. The cliff hanger left the audience intense, ending in an unusual way.
Although our project is to work on a thriller opening rather than a whole film, batman could help in ways which create ideas. For example, considering batman used to be comic books, we can use comical ideas to create the opening, such as unusual characters in the opening scene and unusual effects which can relate to both batman and our thriller opening. Using these unusual aspects, we can come to create a unique styled opening.

this is the opening scene from the dark knight rises, which was released after the dark knight. this is very effectful as it continues the cliff hanger from the Dark Knight, engaging the audience and continuing a global film.

Genre & Subgenre

Genre & Subgenre 

A genre is a type of category a media product falls into. a genre is usually defined by shared characteristics. Within the film industry there are many different genres; comedy, horror, drama, crime, action adventure, thriller, westerns, romance, animation and many more.

A subgenre is a category within a particular genre and are usually combined with two different genres. for example the film "what happens in vegas" is a 'rom-com'. This is a subgenre of the comedy genre and romance genre. Another example of a subgenre is "Law Abiding Citizen". This is a subgenre of crime films & thrillers.

My favourite thriller subgenre would probably be crime thrillers because they are quite realistic as in the content in crime thrillers are much more likely to actually happen and are stuff you would expect to see or hear about in the real world through either the news or word of mouth unlike the content in techno thrillers or super natural thrillers.


Here are some of my favourite crime thriller's that inspire me the most:

These films can influence our opening scene by looking at how tension and suspense is built up through editing, camera work, sound and mise-en-scene. We could use some of these techniques in our opening very easily.