RESEARCH INTO GENRES OF FILM
For this project I aim to create a short film under the working name of ‘Transfer’ with the sole purpose to entertain an audience of the ages 15 and over. I aim to make the total running time between five to ten minutes and to edit the production with Premiere Pro CC. The concept of the video is that Scott is your traditional everyday human but has a secret power that only comes to life when he falls asleep. He says resolute in his opinion but his friend, Marshall, says otherwise when Scott gets dragged into over the top scenarios when he is in a dream state, putting him in more danger than before.
I chose the audience age of 15+ as that is the ages of my actors and fits well into the regime that I want to create this film under, not fitting under an 18 rating so the best decision being to make it for 15+. From my questionnaire I discovered that my target audience fits into the range, being the most active on the questionnaire and showing the interest of my audience. This allows me to alter my project to suit the audience and meet their needs and standards.
I looked at these two age ratings to compare them, on the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), as they are in the range of my target audience, allowing me to determine what I should include and which things I shouldn't. Although I plan to make mine PG there will be some violence included, this being good to research to understand the ratings. For a 15 they allow strong violence but not to dwell on the infliction, gore being unlikely whereas a 18 allows much more violent scenes to show the audience that the character enjoys hurting others. With this it allows me to understand that for my audience of 16 to 19 that I can show more violence but not to explicit for the younger ages, making it easy enough to carry out the violence and fight in my own production without having to worry about the age ratings.
With understanding what I want to produce and the audience rating that I have chosen, I am able to research into more detail about the genres that I want to include in my short film. To produce my film, the genre is an action-comedy, this allowing me to delve into the different genres and how I can implement them into my own short film.
COMEDY
Comedy films are made to make the audience laugh with well-timed gags, jokes or sketches. The comedy genre is often seen overlapping with other genres to create mutliple genre films such as action-comedy, romantic-comedy and comedy-thriller. There are many kinds of comedy genres with different forms of comedy and different conventions.
The different forms of comedy are:
Slapstick
Deadpan
Verbal Comedy
Screwball
Dark Comedy
Parody
Sarcastic Comedy
I wish to include verbal comedy in my own short film, this being the most effective through my script writing rather than the actions, allowing the audience to hear the lines rather than having to watch for them. This form of comedy also helps the audience understand the characters and what forms of comedy they have, allowing the audience to relate to the characters.
Verbal comedy includes the sarcastic comedy as a sub category, verbal comedy also being able to represent:
Puns
Mixed metaphors
Innuendos
Irony
Satire
Malapropism
Parody
Spoonerism
Absurdity
All forms of verbal comedy can be applied similarly, being applied with intent behind the comedy rather than random lines. With the comedy coming out as intended, it makes this more funny to the audience and will make them have better positive feedback with the planned comedy in film. Verbal comedy works well during conversations in film or even alongside visual comedy, being able to implement itself to the audience and effect their mood to make them laugh. Verbal comedy can also be used through music or rhymes, making the comedy unique and memorable to the audience.
The one I want to implement in my short film is sarcastic comedy, being implemented through the character's dialogue. They include witty remarks back to the other characters, being highly sarcastic towards their friends or enemies, making the humour unique compared to the other forms of comedy. Sarcastic comedy has become one of the most popular forms of comedy throughout the years, being most popular in British comedy such as Blackadder, Faulty Towers and the Office. This comedy became popular as there is a level of intelligence behind the comedy, being able to create a witty remark on the spot and responding to the other person. This form of comedy is popular with teenagers, fitting with the target audience of my short film, being a form of comedy that has become more popular over the years and can be understood by the audience.
One of the inspirations of my short film for comedy also uses this form of comedy, being British comedians who enjoy putting sarcastic humour into their work. Jack and Dean have a unique and interesting style, being memorable to the audience that watch their videos. Their comedy is well thought out and planned, making the comedy even more funny to the audience and more respected overall and uses a good amount of sarcastic humour. This is something I wish to take inspiration from as I want my comedy to be implemented correctly and to affect the audience in the correct way, making the audience provoke emotions and to find the situations comedic. I want to use the comedy in my own film to split up the more intense scenes, allowing the audience to relax before being put back into a more serious situation. I also want the comedy to be able to progress the characters, this comedy by Jack and Dean showing that you can develop a story and the characters involved in a very short time, being able to present them to the audience in an understandable way.
ACTION
Action films are one of, if not, the most popular genres of film that are blockbusters or award winning films. Some of the most popular action films are made by DC and Marvel, such as Batman: The Dark Knight and The Avengers, along with Die Hard, Taken, Kill Bill and The Matrix.
The most popular conventions of action films include:
Fights
Villain vs Hero
Explosions and crashes
Weapons
Big City
Motive behind actions
Chase
For my short film I will be including three of the conventions; fights, chase and weapons. All of the shots in a fight scene are quick paced and follow the action. Many use close ups to show emotion, or focus on key features such as a punch being thrown are used to create impact in the audience. This can be through showing emotions and the audience picking up on them or feeling the tension between the two characters fighting.
Other shots used in a fight scene are long shots to show allow the audience to understand the space available to the characters. Over the shoulder shots are used to show the audience the punches thrown to make them look as realistic as possible. The angle allows the punch to look realistic and to convey the best impact to the audience. Most fight scenes use the extreme close up of the eyes to convey emotion. This is one of the most impactful shots as the eyes show a lot of emotion; mostly anger or upset.
The camera normally also moves with the action, allowing the audience to follow the action fluently. The camera shots are edited quickly, meaning there are multiple shots to show one punch being thrown. My project will include a fight near the end which only lasts for a few seconds but is important to the story, being able to understand how fights work in film and how to implement it into my own project.
Chase scenes are also most used in action films, the game of 'cat and mouse' being implemented throughout the scene as the villain is chased by the hero or vice versa. They are used to cause tension in the audience but also creates an adrenaline rush, making the scene more exciting to the audience. Weapons are also used in action films, showing a wide variety of different weapons and the character's talents with them but the most commonly used is knives and guns. This gives the audience a sense of tension as the weapons used are powerful and able to kill, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats as they watch the fight occur, this being something I want to implement into my own production.
Although my short film includes a villain they aren't the main issue of the film or what the character is fighting against, only being visible as a villain in the dream World but still has implements of affecting the character. This can be seen as using the convention of Villain vs hero in a unique and different way in comparison to how they are popularly used in action films.
With the better understanding and knowledge of the conventions of different genres of films, I can alter my project and use some of the codes and conventions to make my short film fit to them better and to gain a wider audience.
References
Dirk T. (2018). Comedy Films. [online] Available at: http://www.filmsite.org/comedyfilms.html [Accessed 24 Apr. 2018].
Dobson, R. (2018). Joking aside, British really do have unique sense of humour. [online] The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/joking-aside-british-really-do-have-unique-sense-of-humour-793491.html [Accessed 24 Apr. 2018].
simsimma (2018). Conventions of action films. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/simsimma/conventions-of-action-films [Accessed 24 Apr. 2018].
Write-out-loud.com. (2018). Types of verbal humor. [online] Available at: https://www.write-out-loud.com/types-of-verbal-humor.html [Accessed 24 Apr. 2018].
BBC Comedy Greats (2018) All three are dead!- Blackadder 11- BBC Comedy Greats. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mx7Ne6inas [Accessed 24 Apr. 2018].
YouTube. (2017). Living Room Shootout - JACK AND DEAN (feat. Hazel Hayes & Bertie Gilbert). [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/BssEnWI5a3g [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].
YouTube. (2018). Fast And Furious 2009 Foot Chase Scene. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHw-fOjgAXk [Accessed 24 Apr. 2018].
