Research task 1 - Adam Barnard

Adam Barnard

Research Task 1

What is Genre?• Genre is the name given to a film

with a certain narrative or a film that has distinctive characteristics. There are many types of genres from comedy to action or thriller to film noir. An extension to genres are sub-genres, these are a mixture of two genres. An example of this would be an 'Action Thriller', this is where the fast paced action of an action film would be mixed with the tension of a thriller. An example of this would be the 2008 film Taken.

Taken 2008

History of Genre

• From 1880, when the first camera was invented, there has always been a genre to films. During the 1920s and 1930s, action-based films were often "swashbuckling" adventure films in which actors, such as Douglas Fairbanks, wielded swords in period pieces or Westerns. In 1896, the Vitascope Motion Picture Camera was released, and on its release date it was the first ever film to show case two people kissing, thus making the first ever romantic film. I personally believe that these genres are what all films are made from today and all other genres are merely sub-genres...

18961896 1920-1920-30's30's 1940's1940's 1950's1950's 1960's1960's 1970-1970-

80's80's1990- 1990-

PresentPresent

This is the year that the first production camera was invented and also the first film was invented. In this period genres were quickly developed but it took until the 1920's for the invention of Thriller films to come about.

In this decade on of the most influential film makers Alfred Hitchcock made his first film and really kick started the thriller genre. His first film was called "The Lodger".

This decade saw Hitchcock still doing suspense based thriller films. In the forties he won two oscars for his films 'Foreign Correspondent' and 'Rebecca'. This also saw the introduction of Psychological Thrillers such as George Cukor's 'Gaslight'.

Hitchcock's rein continued through the 50's and added films like 'Technicolor' to his collection. There were only a hand full of Thriller films released by other directors in the 50's.

1960 saw on of Hitchcock's most famous films called 'Psycho'. Also in the 60's saw many new directors dipping into the thriller genre such as J.Lee Thompson with 'Cape Fear' and Michael Powell's 'Peeping Tom'.

These decades saw the first 'R' rated film and this was down to another Hitchcock film called 'Frenzy' (1972). The 80's gave us films like 'Dressed To Kill' and the assassination thriller 'Blow Out'.

Today, Thrillers and the sub-genres attached to it are some of the biggest grossing films around. Films like 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Se7en' have many many millions of dollars.

Sub-Genres• Sub-genres are mixtures or types of other,

more strict, film genres. An example of a sub-genre would be a Psychological Thriller because it mixes the two genres. These are identifiable sub-classes of a larger category of a main film genre, with their own distinctive subject matter, style, formulas, and iconography. Some of them are prominent sub-genres, such as: biopics, 'chick' flicks, detective/mystery films, disaster films, fantasy films, film noir, 'guy' films, melodramas (or 'weepers'), road films, romances, superhero films, sports films, supernatural films. Some examples of Thriller sub-genres would be films like 'Black Swan', 'Se7en' or 'Silence of the Lambs'.

• Narrative conventions: Narrative conventions include points of view, characterization, descriptive language, conflict, climax, plot, time, form etc. Within most films there will be a narrative that is seen to be associated with that genre. For example an action film will have a narrative with some form of disruption to the equilibrium in which the hero will have to solve. Then again, in sub-genres you can have a mix of narratives of many different films.

• Character representation: In certain narratives you can expect there to be certain characters that are seen as the hero of the story. For example action films, there will normally be a character that will save the day via a lot of carnage and destruction or sometimes an anti-hero that succeeds in doing an illegal or immoral. In Thrillers you will get characters that will have the equilibrium of their life disrupted by something that they won't necessarily know about until a twist at the climax of the film.

Construction

• Camerawork: Camerawork is obviously everything to film. Back the late 1800's/early 1900's there was almost no such thing as camerawork or technique; the camera would simply just stand there. With the introduction of more complex comedy or action films, directors began to use the camera angles to make scenes feel more dramatic etc. In films like thrillers or suspense films the camera angles will be very mysterious only revealing one aspect of a character or object, for example a characters eye etc.

• Music: When sound was introduced to cinema the first thing that was put in was music. Music is one of the most effect tools of expressing the happenings in a scene. In a romantic film there will often be a large orchestra playing quite minimalist music to create a 'delicate' atmosphere throughout a scene.

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Low AngleExtreme Close Up

Establishing Shot

Bibliography• http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art17436.asp

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_genre

• http://www.filmsite.org/subgenres.html

• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_narrative_convention#page2

• http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/01/30/movies/30taken.xlarge1.jpg

• http://www.slideshare.net/LamarAndreJohnson/history-of-thriller-films