Main Task ( Genre Research)

Media

Research into similar products

I will be conducting some research into different film genres which will help decide into what genre I intend on using.

Here is my research into different film genres

Horror

Horror is one of the most unique of the film genres because of rigid the guidelines followed throughout by the directors and even the screenwriters. The purpose of a horror film is to scare and terrify and to do that it has to conveyed intensely through visual and audio effects. Unlike other genres horror does not have to have a strong structure of explanation and logic in order for the film to achieve its criteria of genre, conveying this loose structure throughout can create an experience for the viewer to have a wide range of  negative effects which will create the tension and suspense which is expected in horror film.

  

The reasons as to why people seem to watch horror films and continuously go back to them is because of the simple reason that they want to be scared. Even though a horror film might terrify them they still have a desire to watch more and experience more terror and suspense. Reasons for this could be psychological as to why people want to experience viewing of horror which involve killings, blood, gore and anything that will cause irritation for the viewer while watching

Thriller

These are types of films that are known to promote intense excitement, suspense and a high level of anticipation as to what is going happen in particular scene of a film. Other typical feelings that you will experience watching a thriller could be anxiety, uncertainty and feeling of unnerving tension.

A typical thriller is a film that restlessly pursues a single minded goal, for the audience it provides a thrill throughout with suspense and cliff-hangers which keep viewers on the edge of their seats and then ends at a climax which keeps the suspense going.

The tension is normally built when the main character is put into strange situations where it promotes what the rest of the film is going to be about, for example they could be trapped in a dilemma of danger or be forced into trying to figure out a mystery. Generally in a thriller at some point characters lives will be threatened, maybe due to their situation or what is happening around them that they are completely unaware of. This will lead into the plots of the thrillers becoming all about the character with everything that involves them and everything that is happening around them whether they are aware of it or not. The characters in thrillers most likely come across other in their situation which in the end of most thrillers turn out to be something completely different to what the main character initially thought. This then creates the tension evolving around that character as they might be shown as sometime shadowy or mysterious whilst the main character being totally oblivious to it.

 

Teen Films

Also known as teen movies is a genre of film which is targeted at young adults (teenagers). Teenage films will generally be based around a plot that is in the interest of teenagers and be plotted to feature something that they can relate to, it could be the idea of getting older and becoming into an adult, realising your first love and rebellion against everyone which at this age it is more likely to do and could tie in with the idea of creating conflict between parents. These different types of matters are usually presented in a way where everything is stereotyped which is the idea of what high school life can be like and a lot of teen movies represent that fact. In classic codes and conventions of teen films in America they mainly base the convention around the stereotypes of types of teenagers and their social groups. The wide range of stereotypes that are commonly used in most American teen movies where the social groups matter could include:

Jocks/ Teenagers, mostly seen as the popular group

The Princess, also seen as the most popular one

Geeks/Nerds, seen as unpopular

Rebels

The outcasts

The average people

The new kids

The Loners

The band geeks, also seen as an unpopular group

Teen movies can be based around other genres like horror, sci-fi, comedy, drama and musicals

Teens watch these films because they feel that they can relate to them because of the issues that can be raise in a lot of teen movies in even though it is presented in different ways through using a particular genre to base that film around.

The genre I have decided to do is a teen film because I think that with the other genres I have research I could possibly combine one of them so I have a plot as to what the style of the teen movie will be about.

Teens watch these films because they feel that they can relate to them because of the issues that can be raise in a lot of teen movies in even though it is presented in different ways through using a particular genre to base that film around.

The genre I have decided to do is horror, and now I will be going through in more in-depth research of the conventions from horror.
Horror films actually go back as far as 100 years old. Watching horror films create a sense of having a need to be feared through watching horror films. It opens an opportunity to be scared without actually being in a situation where you in danger. Through watching horror films people can actually get a certain thrill out of being scared by visualizing disturbing things or seeing horrific images, so it then makes people want to go and experience the sense of fear that can be created by a horror film again and again. This need to be scared which can be created by watching horror films can be achieved if the film certain affects that can help create more fear as they watch it. Like special effects for example adding them into horror could help the film be made with a darker atmosphere if needed with visual effects or the props that they might use could create the particular horrify scenes look more realistic. But in some examples of horror films for them to be a success in that genre they don’t necessary need to display the horror in obvious ways in order to create the same affect, in some cases the best horrors that are created are quite subtle in horror that they are trying to create. In most horror films the characters involved will try to defeat whatever evil is there and often triumph which then brings them back into normality of their own lifestyles.
The earliest examples of horror films were in a gothic style, meaning that they usually were to be set in old castles or abandoned, anywhere that was seen to be deserted by everyone else. Characters that would be included in these gothic horrors would be unknown if set in abandoned areas or possibly humans, the supernatural or hideous creatures this could be from a range of characters from vampires to monsters, or examples of humans maybe mad scientists, the deceased in form of ghosts, werewolves humans that turn into wolves at every full moon or example of a Jekyll and Hyde, someone who has a dual personality of good against evil.                                  
Horror films first developed out of folktales that people would tell which would feature a range of characters of devils, examples of witchcraft, ghost stories. Novels by people such as Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, Bram Stoker and American writers Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Alan Poe, wrote novels which were adapted into early version films. The expressionistic German silent cinema led the world in films of horror and the supernatural, and established its cinematic vocabulary and style. Many of the early silent classics would be remade when the era of the talkies were introduced
Examples of the earliest horror films would include such characters as vampire’s monsters and other supernatural creatures. Vampires and things that are associated with vampires always intrigued and frightened people from all cultures around the world. Demonic or supernatural possession was often juxtaposed with blood drinking, sex and corpses. Many religions that would hear of myths, folktales and cults espoused the idea of  obtaining the life essence of blood. Vampires began to emerge in popular fiction of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, during that time Bram Stokers 1897 vampire novel which was called Dracula was written. Dracula then became the most popular and influential material for many other vampire films that were created.