Film genre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In film theory, genre (English pronunciation: /ˈʒɒnrə/ or /ˈdʒɒnrə/) refers to the method based on
similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed. Most theories of film
genre are borrowed from literary genre criticism. As with genre in a literary context, there is a
great deal of debate over how to define or categorize genres.[citation needed] Besides the basic
distinction in genre between fiction and documentary, film genres can be categorized in several
ways.

Fictional films are usually categorized according to their setting, theme topic, mood, or
format[citation needed] . The setting is the milieu or environment where the story and action takes
place. The theme or topic refers to the issues or concepts that the film revolves around. The
mood is the emotional tone of the film. Format refers to the way the film was shot (e.g.,
anamorphic widescreen) or the manner of presentation (e.g.: 35 mm, 16 mm or 8 mm). An
additional way of categorizing film genres is by the target audience. Some film theorists argue
that neither format nor target audience are film genres.[citation needed]

Film genres often branch out into subgenres, as in the case of the courtroom and trial-
focused subgenre of drama known as the legal drama. They can be combined to form
hybrid genres, such the meldinDefinition

John Hancock argues that Hollywood films are not pure genres, because most Hollywood movies
blend the love-oriented plot of the romance genre with other genres.[1] Staiger classifies Andrew
Tutor's ideas that the genre of film can be defined in four ways. The "idealist method" judges
films by predetermined standards. The "empirical method" identifies the genre of a film by
comparing it to a list of films already deemed to fall within a certain genre. The a priori method
uses common generic elements which are identified in advance. The "social conventions"
method of identifying the genre of a film is based on the accepted cultural consensus within
society.[1] Jim Colins claims that since the 1980s, Hollywood films have been influenced by the
trend towards "ironic hybridization", in which directors combine elements from different genres
as with the Western/Science fiction mix in Back to the Future Part III.[1]

Genre is always a vague term with no fixed boundaries. Many words also cross into multiple
genres. Recently, film theorist Robert Stam challenged whether genres really exist, or whether
they are merely made up by critics. Stam has questioned whether "genres [are] really 'out there'
in the world or are they really the construction of analysts?". As well, he has asked whether there
is a "... finite taxonomy of genres or are they in principle infinite?" and whether genres are
"...timeless essences ephemeral, time-bound entities? Are genres culture-bound or trans-
cultural?". Stam has also asked whether genre analysis should aim at being descriptive or
prescriptive. While some genres are based on story content (the war film), other are borrowed
from literature (comedy, melodrama) or from other media (the musical). Some are performer-
based (the Astaire-Rogers films) or budget-based (blockbusters), while others are based on
artistic status (the art film), racial identity (Black cinema), location (the Western), or sexual
orientation (Queer Cinema)[2]
Many genres have built-in audiences and corresponding publications that support them, such as
magazines and websites. Films that are difficult to categorize into a genre are often less
successful as such film genres are also useful in areas of, criticism and consumption hollywood
story consultant originality and surprise."[3] Some screenwriters use genre as a means of
determining what kind of plot or content to put into a screenplay. They may study films of
specific genres to find examples. This is a way that some screenwriters are able to copy elements
of successful movies and pass them off in a new screenplay. It is likely that such screenplays fall
short in originality. As Truby says, "Writers know enough to write a genre script but they
haven’t twisted the story beats of that genre in such a way that it gives an original face to it".[4]

Screenwriters often attempt to defy the elements found in past works, as originality and surprise
are seen as elements that make for good film stories.[citation needed] For example, European-filmed
spaghetti westerns changed the western film genre by eschewing many of the conventions of
earlier Westerns.[citation needed]

There are other methods of dividing films into groups besides genre. For example auteur critics
group films according to their directors. Some groupings may be casually described as genres
although the definition is questionable.[citation needed] For example, while independent films are
sometimes discussed as if they are a genre in-and-of themselves, independent productions can
belong to any genre. Similarly, art films are referred to as a genre, even though an art film can be
in a number of genres.

Genre can also be distinguished from film style, which concerns the choices made about
cinematography, editing, and sound.[citation needed] A particular style can be applied to any genre.
Whereas film genres identify the manifest content of film, film styles identify the manner by
which any given film's genre(s) is/are rendered for the screen. Style may be determined by plot
structure, scenic design, lighting, cinematography, acting, and other intentional artistic
components of the finished film product.[citation needed] Others argue that this distinction is too
simplistic, since some genres are primarily recognizable by their styles.[citation needed] Many film
historians and film critics debate whether film noir is a genre or a style of film-making often
emulated in the period's heyday.[citation needed] Indeed, film noir films from the 1940s and 1950s were
made in a range of genres, such as gangster films, police procedural dramas, and thrillers.[citation
needed]

[edit] Categorization

Film genres can be categorized according to the setting of the film.[citation needed] Nevertheless, films
with the same settings can be very different, due to the use of different themes or moods. For
example, while both The Battle of Midway and All Quiet on the Western Front are set in a
wartime context, the first examines the themes of honor, sacrifice, and valour, and the second is
an anti-war film which emphasizes the pain and horror of war. While there is an argument that
film noir movies could be deemed to be set in an urban setting, in cheap hotels and underworld
bars, many classic noirs take place mainly in small towns, suburbia, rural areas, or on the open
road.[citation needed]
The editors of filmsite.org argue that animation, children's films, and so on are non-genre-based
film categories.[5] The non-genre based categories they list include children's films, family films,
cult films, documentary films, pornographic films and silent films.

Linda Williams argues that horror, melodrama, and pornography all fall into the category of
"body genres", since they are each designed to elicit physical reactions on the part of viewers.
Horror is designed to elicit spine-chilling, white-knuckled, eye-bulging terror; melodramas are
designed to make viewers cry after seeing the misfortunes of the onscreen characters; and
pornography is designed to elicit sexual arousal

g of horror and comedy in the Evil Dead films

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

Horror film
Horror
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"Horror Movie" redirects here. For the Skyhooks song, see Horror Movie (Skyhooks song).

A famous scene from one of the first notable horror films, Nosferatu.

Horror films are unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror
from viewers. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and
the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres. Horrors
also frequently overlap with the thriller genre.[1]

Horror films deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden worst fears, revulsions and terror of the
unknown. Although a good deal of it is about the supernatural, if some films contain a plot about
morbidity, serial killers, a disease/virus outbreak and surrealism, they may be termed "horror."[2]

Plots written within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or
personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Themes or elements often
prevalent in typical horror films include ghosts, torture, gore, werewolves, ancient curses,
satanism, demons, vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, zombies and masked
serial killers. Conversely, stories of the supernatural are not necessarily always a horror movie as
well.[3]

What is considered to be a horror film has varied from decade to decade. These days, the term
"horror" is applied to films which display more explicit gore, jump scenes/scares or supernatural
content (Wes Craven's New Nightmare, A Tale of Two Sisters, Saw films, The Strangers, The
Ring, Session 9).[1]

Early horror movies are largely based on classic literature of the gothic/horror genre, such as
Dracula, Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. More recent
horror films continue to exploit the monsters of literature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film
Drama
Drama Films are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic
characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human
beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between. Each of the types of subject-matter themes
have various kinds of dramatic plots. Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre because they
include a broad spectrum of films. See also crime films, melodramas, epics (historical dramas), biopics
(biographical), or romantic genres - just some of the other genres that have developed from the dramatic
genre.

Dramatic themes often include current issues, societal ills, and problems, concerns or injustices, such as
racial prejudice, religious intolerance (such as anti-Semitism), drug addiction, poverty, political unrest, the
corruption of power, alcoholism, class divisions, sexual inequality, mental illness, corrupt societal
institutions, violence toward women or other explosive issues of the times. These films have successfully
drawn attention to the issues by taking advantage of the topical interest of the subject. Although dramatic
films have often dealt frankly and realistically with social problems, the tendency has been for Hollywood,
especially during earlier times of censorship, to exonerate society and institutions and to blame problems
on an individual, who more often than not, would be punished for his/her transgressions.

http://www.filmsite.org/dramafilms.html

Live action
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"Live Action" redirects here. For other uses, see Live Action (disambiguation).
For live action in role-playing games, see live action role-playing game.

In film, video, and other media, the term live-action refers to cinematography not produced using
animation.[1] As it is the norm, the term is usually superfluous, but it makes an important
distinction in situations in which one might normally expect animation, as in a Pixar film, a
video game or when the work is adapted from an animated cartoon, such as The Flintstones or
Josie and the Pussycats films, or The Tick television program. Use of puppets in films such as
The Dark Crystal is also considered to be live-action, provided that stop-motion is not used to
animate them.

The term is also used within the animation world to refer to non-animated characters: in a live-
action/animated film such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit or Mary Poppins, in which humans and
cartoons co-exist, "live-action" characters are the "real" actors, such as Bob Hoskins and Julie
Andrews, as opposed to the animated "actors", such as Roger Rabbit himself.

Live-action can also mean that a film or a show is adapted from comics. Adaptations from
comics include live-action film versions of Marvel Comics' Spider-Man and X-Men, DC Comics'
Superman and Batman, or manga such as Death Note and Great Teacher Onizuka.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_action

Animated cartoon
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An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn (or made with computers to look similar to
something hand-drawn) film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind
of story or plot (even if it is a very short one). This is distinct from the terms "animation" and
"animated film," as not all follow the definition.

Although cartoons can use many different types of animation, they all fall under the traditional
animation category.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animated_cartoon

Thriller From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An iconic scene from one of the most famous thriller films, Psycho (1960).Thriller is a genre of
literature, film, video gaming and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the
main elements.[1] The primary subgenre is psychological thrillers. After the assassination of
President Kennedy, political thriller and paranoid thriller films became very popular. The
brightest examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock.[2]The cover-up of important
information from the viewer and fight/chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller
subgenres, although each subgenre has its own characteristics and methods.[3] Common methods
in crime thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings. More common in
mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique. Common elements in
psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/deathtraps,
horror-of-personality, and obsession. Elements such as conspiracy theories, false accusations,
paranoia, and sometimes action are common in paranoid thrillers.[4] some argue, though, that the
thriller genre is simply a pseudonym for the horror genre, both using suspense and atmosphere to
cause feelings of dread in their audiences.

"Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as an early
prototype of the thriller." [5] A thriller is villain-driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles that
the hero must overcome.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)

Romance film
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While most films have some aspect of romance between characters (at least as a subplot) a
romance film can be loosely defined as any film in which the central plot (the premise of the
story) revolves around the romantic involvement of the story's protagonists. Common themes
include the characters making decisions based on a newly-found romantic attraction. The
questions, "What am I living for?" or "Why am I with my current partner?" often arise.

The appeal of these films is in the dramatic reality of the emotions expressed by the characters.
The following is a list of recent romantic films. The most successful romantic film is the 1997
blockbuster, Titanic which grossed over $600 million in America and $1.8 billion, worldwide.[1]
[2]

Another prerequisite is that the film has a happy ending (or at least bittersweet) and many would
argue that no film with a sad ending may be correctly defined as "romance;" however, this
second prerequisite is admittedly disputable and many screenwriters and directors will push the
boundaries of the genre in this aspect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_film

fantasy films
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of fantasy films is a chronological listing of films in the fantasy genre. Fantasy television
programs, including made for TV movies and miniseries, should be listed at List of fantasy
television programs.

Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events,
incredible creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science
fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap.

Films in other languages should be listed under their English titles exclusively.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fantasy_films

These are some of the Film genres, there are many more that you can find out about, the best place to
go is http://www.wikipedia.org/

(It should look like this.)