User:Alexf101/sandbox

What is Genre?

This is a french term that refers to the similatries in narratives that are constructed by the directors. most dircteors think that genre is a key communticating tool so taht the audience will watch their film. with genre we also get a list of common expectations (conventions). For example Horror- common fears. Action - guns, girls and grenades

What are the advantages of genre?


 * This helps a lot with trying to get audiences in to watch the film because the audience knows that this film will have things that they like. For example people who like having fun and partying would enjoy comedy films such as The Hangover


 * These films can offer comfort to some members of the audience because these people will find a sense of escapism in the given text. This is a common feature that all of the directors of any genre try to achieve. for example horror dircectors want to make the audience bieleve in certain things such as ghosts and Zombies etc.


 * Genre can be used to help work through myths and fears of the audience, for example horror can make the audience think that certain things that happen in movies can happen in real life (paranormal activity suggests that ghosts exist)


 * it is common that a lot of directors can only work best with a certain genre. (James Cameron is a great science fiction director and Wes Craven is a brilliant horror director.


 * Over the past 30 years certain genres have changed to suit the needs of the audience. for example horror has changed from slashers to ghosts.

What are the disadvantages of genre?


 * In some cases genre cannot be recognized by the target audience because of the changes that have taken place. this is an sign that the genre is changing too fats for the audience to keep up with it. for example Scream was a huge success beacuse it was different but was also took a step back and looked at what the could do to make this film different


 * Some critics of genre say that you can't use genre as a defining tool. this can also restrict the ideas that the writers, producers and directors can use. for example it is uncommon that a action film would have a masked killer. thsi is true in some cases such as the A Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. this series has 8 films a fwe are crossovers with oytjheer bit otjer than that all of these films are nearly the same. this is an example that genre is a restriction to the directors.


 * Everyone has different opinions on what they think a particular genre has. someone may prefer slashers to ghosts and monsters. however with the film Scary Movie, this film has all sorts of villains in it. they all come from different movies such as Scream, Signs, The Ring, The Matrix are just a few of them. all of these films come from different backgrounds for example The Matrix comes from A Science-fiction Series and The Ring comes form a Horror background.

The genre I have chosen for your film and its conventions:

I have chosen the historical genre for my film opening, some of the conventions in this genre are that there will be a lot of unarmed fighting and only in large armies that weapons would be used. another one of these convention is that there will be long and sometimes complicated story lines that the audience would enjoy working out. these conventions are also used in the films; 300, Troy, Gladiator and The Batman Trilogy.

another one of the conventions of the genre is that the main hero will be found and will be turned into a slave or the villain will be trying to kill them. this convention is used also in a lot of science fiction films such as the star wars films.

The origins/history of my chosen genre:

The historical genre is one that started in 1925 with the film Ben-Hur which is a american historical silent film directed by Fred Niblo. after this the genre went quiet with a few films being made every decade and then in the 50s and early 60s the films went up sharply. then the genre went quiet for a while then in the 00s the genre became very popular with films like Gladiator which made $457,640,427 in the box office.

Somy particular good examples (such as films/director/producers/actors) of my chosen genre and why I think they are good:

I think that the film Gladiator directed by Ridley Scott is a very good example of both modern and older  ways of filming this very tricky genre. because of the way that all of the locations are used in the film instead of a green screen. However the film 300 uses the green screen throughout the whole film, I'm unsure of why it is used all the time but I would imagine beacuse the film had $65 million budget so a green screen would have been very effective. both of these films have one thing in common, this is the way that the story plays out during the films. for example in both films they start with a battle or climax then a plot twist occurs and the characters are throwen off balance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6pkJBS2DKc thin is a scene from the film 300, in this scene we can see the effect of green screen in the film.

AnIn-depth discussion of one particular film from your genre that you think is a good example of your genre and why

I will use the film gladiator by ridley scott. in my opinon this film uses all of the common and well expected features of this kind of film. For example throughout the whole film threre is a revenge story which keeps the audience hooked and makes them want or keep watching

http://movieclips.com/XiQcR

This is one of the best confrontation scenes in the whole of the film because it shows the meeting of both the hero and the villain, unlike the more modern films the enemy is hard to figure out untill we can see an evil deed being commited by the villian.

Another example of why this film leads the way in historical films is because the way that the film has been set up both script wise and location wise. This is used all through the film by the use of locations (real settings and settings that fit the description.) For example when the main charcter has found his wife and son dead before, during and after this scene the settings have fitted excatly what the main character said. To me this shows that the director has spent all the time that he needs too, in order to get this very important scene right.

The way that the charcters act throughout the film is very important because a lot of the target audience will no doubt have a good knowledge of what happened and what the real romans were like. In gladiator we can see that the main character has shown all the features of a roman and all the features taht we would need to see as well, such as a wide range of emotions. A lot of writers of this genre tend to forget the major emotions that should be shown. Not only does the director have to get thanks for this but also the actors for sticking with it and making the film such a sucess.

This film also breaks through the bouderies of the film genre because not only does the film use a wide range of features that are rarely used in other films. This film also breaks a lot of rules that are considered to be essential to this genre such as: only focus on the main character, and also that we will only see the glory of rome and what it was. this film however shows the story of both the hero and the villain, this could be used to show how the events that happened and how the characters hae got to where they are now. This film alos shows the stuggles by both the hero and the villian. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqG6YhP7BUU This is a scene from the film gladiator this shows when the "Emperor" returns to rome. Throughtout this clip we can see that there is a lot of tension between the people and their leader. this is used very scarcly in other films of this genre. in the film 300 we can see that the leader is very freindly to his people, this is a huge comparsion to the clip because there is a sense of tension and possible hatred for the emperor.


 * Bibliography

Genre infomation: Dictornary.com

Various Critics: opinons and facts on Genre

Origin of Historical Genre: Wikipedia.com

Wolf Scene in 300: Youtube.com

Confrontation scene in gladiator: Movieclips.com

Emperor scene in Gladiator: Youtube.com

Cineworld: Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)


 * Filmography

Gladiator (Ridley Scott) (2000)

300 (Zack Synder) (2006)

Troy (Wolfgang Peterson) (2004)

The Batman Trilogy (Christopher Nolan) (2005-2012)

The Starwars Collection (George Lucas) (1977-2005)

Scream (Wes Craven) (1996)

The Scary Movie Collection (Keenen Ivory Wayans) (2000-2013)

The Matrix (Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski) (1999)

Signs (M. Night Shyamalan) (2002)

The ring (Gore Verbinski) (2002)

A Nightmare On Elm Street Collection (Wes Craven, Jack Sholder, Chuck Russell,Renny Harlin,Stephen Hopkins,Rachel Talalay,Ronny Yu) (1984-2003)

The Hangover (Todd Phillips) (2009)