POST #14 - GENRES AND THEIR CONVENTIONS [COURSEWORK]

Genres are used in every piece of media. Let's talk about that.

Hello there! :)

So today, I'm going.

<leaves>

<comes back>

... to explain genres and their conventions (as in what they typically do, not like Comic Con convention).

There are many genres in media: sci-fi, comedy, romance, fantasy, teen romcom adventure science fiction post-apocalyptic survival... you get the gist.
But with so many genres, they need to have something to set them apart; their conventions, techniques, and, I hate to say it but, cliches.
And so, in this blog post, I will be analysing film openings to certain genres (without the 2-minute cap! :0), and seeing how they convey their genre.

Firstly, let's be more concise;

WHAT IS A GENRE?

genre

ˈʒɒ̃rə,ˈ(d)ʒɒnrə/noun

a style or category of art, music, or literature.

"the spy thriller is a very masculine genre"

Thanks, Wikipedia.

So, yeah, simply enough, a genre is a category of movie.

EXAMPLES OF GENRE OPENINGS AND HOW THEY SHOW CONVENTIONS

Movie opening time! :D

The genres I need to analyse are-

- Horror

- Sci-Fi

- Comedy

- Romance

- Teen

- Action

First, I'll look at the horror movie "Saw".

It opens with a man awakening in a bath, panicking as he scrambles out of it. We see a key go down the plughole, but it's not brought up again in the opening.
He calls out for help, and when the lights turn on, he sees another man in the room with him. They're both chained up, and see a dead man lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood; gun in one hand, tape recorder in the other.

This has a lot of horror conventions for one opening. First, there's the confusion. The audience is brought into the film with no clue as to what is happening or what has happened, and they're learning about what's going on along with the characters.

There is a shock factor, which is common in most horror films. The shock in this opening is the dead guy in the middle of the room, with a massive head wound. The trope of having a person dead and/or with a serious, life threatening wound is native to the horror genre.

This genre is mostly targeted to young adults, who want a bit of a "laugh" by putting on a horror movie at a party, or some similar gathering. Since this is the target audience, the characters are usually painted to be between the ages of 15-27, since it will be more attractive to the audience of that age range.

The horror movie marketing is fairly smart. A lot of it is incredibly practical, by creating trends and phenomena in the real world, to try and raise awareness for the film. For example, a horror film called "The Gallows" used a trend called the "Charlie Charlie Challenge", which was said to be haunted in itself, and had some kind of psychic abilities. They incorporated it into their found footage movie, and the challenge exploded in popularity after that, as did awareness for "The Gallows".

Next, the sci-fi movie, "Star Wars", also known as "Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope"

(i feel like i can go all out on my star wars knowledge here :D)

It opens with a Rebel Blockade Runner (also known as the CR90 Corvette) being pursued by a much larger Star Destroyer. We then see inside the CR90, and are introduced to C-3PO and R2D2; they're trying to escape conflict, as rebel soldiers run to their ship's entrance.
The entrance is blown open, and Stormtroopers mow down the rebel soldiers. Darth Vader, who needs no introduction, walks in, demanding information. We then see C-3PO and R2D2 escaping the ship, after Leia gives R2D2 some unknown item. The opening ends with Darth Vader killing a rebel.

There are many tropes of Sci-Fi in this particular opening; mainly because it's one of the trendsetters for all future sci-fi films.

There is the clear fight between good and evil, with Darth Vader, the Stormtroopers and the Empire representing evil, and Leia, the droids and the Rebel Alliance are the good.

The characters and their designs are also tropes of the sci-fi genre. All the robots, futuristic weapons and battle suits are all staples of science fiction, since they are the universal idea of what space would be with human technology; this includes the Rebel Blockade Runner and the Star Destroyer.

This genre aims to it's target audience by using these staples, plus by bringing some new concepts to the table, which all sci-fi films should do; for Star Wars, introducing the concepts of Lightsabers, The Force and Darth Vader was it's pull.

The marketing for Star Wars is infamous for how insanely successful it has been, but the marketing for the 1977 classic was a lot of promises at first; it was advertised as being like nothing ever seen before, and by being the movie event of the summer; and deliver on that promise it did.
The marketing was 90% aimed at children though, so a highly successful action figure line was also to blame for audiences flocking to the film.

Next, the comedy movie "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy"

Anchorman starts with some opening narration, and some helicopter shots of San Diego, California. The narrator tells us that this is the sometime between the 60s and the 80s, and tells us of how television ruled... and the ruler of TV was Ron Burgundy.
We then see the credits, as some scenes of Ron doing some mouth practices, by saying and screaming various funny and random things (e.g. "The Human Torch was denied a bank loan", "I love scotch, I love scotch, Scotchy scotch scotch, here it goes down, down into my belly...", and "The arsonist had oddly shaped feet".). It ends with the TV Station manager telling Ron they're about to go live.

This has some of the key elements of a comedy opening, most notably, the jokes. Having jokes which involve Ron saying to an offscreen worker to not "wear a bra next time" and saying that if someone was a man, Ron would punch them, show that the jokes are sudden, unexpected in topic, and are inherently funny due to the audience's reaction of "oh, he can't say that!"

There's also the trope of only using comedian actors for a comedy film. The main 4 characters, Ron Burdgundy, Brian Fantana, Champ Kind and Brick Tamland are all played by comedy actors Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner and Steve Carell, respectively. They know the comedy industry inside and out, so they'll know how to give a funny performance in whatever comedy films their hired for; this was no exception.

The target audience is essentially anyone above the age to understand the majority of the jokes, since the term for a comedy film is so broad, there is not any particular age group; where Despicable Me is a comedy for children, other films like The Hangover are for those above 18.

The marketing for comedies aren't really all out, they're just put out as trailers, and the occasional poster on a bus stop, etc. They don't typically make any big budget deals, e.g. action figures, but occasionally will sponsor a TV show, similar to how CompareTheMarket.com has done so for Emmerdale for years now.

Moving on, is the romance movie "Romeo + Juliet" (the 1996, modern day adaptation).
Romeo + Juliet starts off with a TV News show (unfortunately NOT hosted by Ron Burgundy...), who tells us of what happens in the story. The anchorwoman tells us this exposition through the very same opening of the classic Shakespeare play this film was based on; the whole film doesn't derive from the original script's dialogue at all.
We then see the equivalent of the sword fight between the Capulet and Montague families, with the setting being changed to a petrol station, cars replace horses and guns replace swords. We see that the two families, like in the original classic, do not see eye to eye on anything. They start shooting at each other, each shot missing. It eventually ends when one of the family members creates a trail of petrol, and then sets it alight by... shooting it. The families part for their own safety.

This film opening doesn't have any of the conventions that romances usually use; there's no love... it's quite the opposite. There's no sign of the two "star struck lovers" we were promised, and the opening only gives off the feel of an action film, similar to The Godfather, if it had more action.

The target audience for romance films are usually for young couples, mostly in their late teens all the way through to late 20s/early 30s. It's mostly due to the fact that most romance films are about young couples blossoming, and people want to be able to relate to the characters they see in these films.

The marketing is done in a similar way to comedy films; by barely having anything at all.
There's not too many brand sponsorships outside of the movie, and there's not too much out in public apart from a few trailers and some posters dotted around.

Now, the teen movie "The Hunger Games".

The opening starts with some titles, which explain the lore of the film, and sets up what happens in the opening.
It then goes to Ashton Kutcher a man on a talk show, discussing the importance of the Hunger Games to this dystopian future. He's then asked a question that surprises him, and there's a long shot of the man trying to think of an answer.
It then cuts to a shot of a run down community, which is established as "District 12". We then see Jennifer Lawrence Mystique Katniss Everdeen comforting what we assume is her sister, who has just had a bad dream; presumably about the Hunger Games. After Katniss puts her to bed, she goes downstairs, gets hissed at by a cat, and then leaves.

There aren't too many of the tropes of teen movies in the opening, but The Hunger Games is the epitome of teen movie.

One of the tropes not seen in the opening is the sides/teams. While not the biggest example of team choosing for the audience, the teen genre was the first to do it. Before there was #TeamStark and #TeamCap, the teen genre had Team Edward and Team Jacob (Twilight), and Team Peeta and Team Gale. By having this, it gives the teens something more to talk about, which could also mean more awareness for the film, meaning more ticket sales.

Another trope is the plot... yes, the plot.
Most teen movie nowadays use the same, cookie cutter plot every single time.
Stop me if you've heard this one:

"A post apocalyptic world, where society is cut in factions. There is a cruel higherarchy, ruled by a dictator with a white theme. There's some kind of event where the teenagers must take part, and making the wrong move can result in death.
Then, our main character... let's call them Wickerbasket or something like that. They're a "normal" teenager, who's always so clumsy, except in all forms of combat. They're chosen to take part in the event, and have to survive while also dealing with relationship struggles :0
Eventually, Wickerbasket leads a resistance against the hierarchy, in which a close main character dies."

I just described the whole Hunger Games series, as well as the Divergent and Maze Runner series. They all use this template for their stories, and it's getting bland and repetitive.

The marketing for teen movies like this, on top of the team concept, is by making fake websites from the films and using social media to their advantage, since that's where teens mostly spend their time.

The age range for these films are 10-19, mainly the female audience. This is mainly due to the films primarily starring pretty women, and, alike other audiences, they want to be able to relate to the characters they see onscreen.

Well... I think that's it :D
This took a long time, but hey hey, it's done! :)

Anyways, see ya later!

~ Noah :)