BLOG NO.1: Genre Research

Key conventions of genres:

Genre conventions are basically the small elements like plots, characters, and themes that separates one particular genre from another. I would say that each type of genres would have some typical elements or phenomenon that the audience would normally expect, so as a result, the director and the playwright will mainly focus on that.

The purpose of genre:

There are normally a ton of conventions for any particular genre, and if a film doesn't convey enough of these conventions, like if a science-fiction movie for instance does not have space explorations, time travel, and teleportation, there might be some problems for the audience to understand the existence of the genre.

Genre theory research:

Steve Neale's theory-repetition and difference trusts and believes that a genre like a science fiction movie or an action movie should contain similar factors so that the audience would know if it is actually a sci-fi move or an action movie. With these combined, it should also include different characteristics to keep the audience interested.

Some key elements:

-When genres are established, certain expectations are gained by the audience.

-Every genre has generic conventions.

-A quote by Neale: 'Genres are instances of repetition and difference' indicates that mere repetition would not really attract the audience.

Mindmap of genres and some examples (mostly I've watched before):

Examples of famous directors for a few genres:

Science fiction: Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg

Fantasy: Peter Jackson, David Yates, James Cameron

Action: Michael Bay, Russo brothers

A summary of Trailer

Recently, I've watched the trailer of 'The Matrix-Resurrections'. and the movie is a follow up to the original Matrix trilogy which I've watched in the national holiday. Comparing the trailer to the original series which was created around 20 years ago, the after-effects are a lot fancier, while the genre of the movie: Action/science fiction have been amplified by the more advanced film-making technology.

A small clip of the trailer:

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/66f79e_010c5ca2835444e088b7fc5e232c36b0/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

At the start of the clip, the dolly-in shot from extreme wide angle zooming into the building introduces the setting of the story. This fits into the genre of Action, where it tells the audience where the action/fighting scene is about to happen.

Next, several fast-cut, over the shoulder and wide-angle two shot provides context of the two characters to the audience. This applies to the characteristics of an Action movie (genre), where fast and slow cuts are often mixed to create continuous movement.

Later on, a fast paced black-out scene is used to create tension, and the slow-motion following this cut suggests how significant the character-Neo (long-haired protagonist) is equipped with power. This is an association between the genres of Action and Science fiction, where at the same time, an action takes place while the result of that action (shock wave) has been overly exaggerated to a fictional extent.

Link to full trailer (4K/Dolby vision): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1964y1h7aX

The genres that I've chosen for my film opening: Drama and Thriller

Reasons why: Drama and thriller often have similar conventions like a sudden change in plot or a strong contrast between scenes. This often carries the audience's mind and mood as the story progresses, which makes them feel a great sense of immersion and substitution. For my film opening, I'd really like some feelings of engagement from my audience, and as a result, Drama/thriller are my chosen genres.

Advantages of choosing Drama and Thriller:

Other genres like action and science fiction often involves a complicated range of conventions like fancy after-effects with a big variety of props and moving scenes. These are normally hard to achieve with the lack of pro-level assistances, whereas with Drama and Thriller, plots and settings can be more flexible, the requirement of skills needed for production is less harsh, and finally, the budget can be lower than the others as well.