Research into the Action Genre

Research into the Action Genre

The action genre is one of the most popular kinds of genre and generally involve a male protagonist being put in a situation where they must overcome a physical feat in order to stay alive or save another main characters life. Action films tend to have many generic conventions associated with them such as gun fights, car chases and explosions. Most action films are made by mainstream company aimed at a mainstream audience. Action films tend to be aimed at males since they are designed in such a way that makes it exciting and fast paced. Action films tend to work with both the thriller and adventure genre.

Some people see the James Bond films as being a generic action film since it contains most (if not all) of the generic conventions found in a action movie. This includes car chases, gunfights, explosions and all the main aspects of a action film.

Advancements in CGI have made it easier for companies to make visual effects such as explosions and car chases. These are edited in post-production are critical in making an action movie. However sometimes these action films are seen in a poor light since they the CGI effects may not realistic but very recent advancements make it look very believable. CGI has most recently advanced so it looks almost real, for example in the film "Gravity".

Green screen is also used highly in action movies in order to have a particular location used in a movies. One of the main films that uses green screen is the "Hunger Games". This is done by letting the actors performed in front of a green sheet ands during post the location is added in from other previously filmed footage.

The Back to the Future Opening Re-Make

This is our re-make of the Back to the Future opening.

Why we are doing a re-make?

Why we are doing a re-make?

Our group is doing a re-make of the opening to “Back to the Future” to help us prepare for creating our own re-make. We are doing this since it will demonstrate how other openings are created and how titles as well as credit to actors and crew are presented. As well as this it will help us get practice with equipment and editing software so we know our limitations as well as what we are able to do with the assets available to us.

The Back to the Future opening is a perfect example of a good film opening since it contains most of the important aspects seen in a generic film opening such as…

·         Titles

·         Foley Sound

·         Camera Movement

·         Editing

·         Dialogue (During the news report and radio broadcast)

 

The skills we have learnt (listed above) from this will help us when making our proper re-make and our movie opening since we will be able to learn from the mistakes made when recording/editing this.

The difference between Mainstream and Independent Movie Openings

The difference between Mainstream and Independent Movie Openings

Mainstream movies tend to include high profile actors into their openings. As a result this will bring the fan base of that particular actor/actress and therefore attract audiences to watching their film. They also may have high quality animation openings. This is most evident in the James Bond series of film since they are famous for their unique high budget opening that a whole team are devoted to making. Mainstream films will normally have a high budget and therefore will be able to afford both high profile actors and a crew of producers who can design a good, strong opening that will grab the audience’s attention. Mainstream films also showcase their logos in the opening and mainstream ones always are very big and flashy with bright colours to show them off.

Independent film openings tend to contain fairly unknown actors and therefore this brings only a small fan base to watch their movie. This is due to a much lower budget than mainstream movies. Independent movies also normally have non-integrated titles that tend to be fairly plain since only a limited number of crew members can work on it since crew are needed elsewhere in production. Much like mainstream films independent openings will also showcase their logo at the beginning of the movie. Normally they are fairly plain and use dull colours.

Jelly Baby Activity

Jelly Baby Activity

During lesson we had the task of making a storyboard for a movie of our choice. We had to draw pictures and write titles on each sticky note. For the people in the movie instead of drawing then we were tasked to replace them with jelly babies instead. Our group decided to do “The Shining”.  

 

 

 

We did this activity to help us for when we would plan our own film opening. This activity was to help us see how other movies had timed titles and in what order it had been done.

 

During this activity I learnt that in order to keep the audience engaged film openings try and only give a sense of genre and storyline whilst not giving away too much away and leaving the audience asking many different questions.



Genres and Generic Conventions

Genres and Generic Conventions

Action:

Action films are one of the main genre of films and tend to include a protagonist that overcomes physical feats in order to stay alive or save someone. Action films tend to get to the conclusion of the film through a series of gun fights, chase scenes and explosions. The protagonist of these movies tend to be male since these films tend to be aimed towards males and are designed to be exciting to watch.

Some example of action movies include…

·         James Bond films (e.g. Casino Royale, Skyfall)

·         Die Hard series

·         The Bourne Films (e.g. The Bourne Identity)

Comedy:

Comedy films are designed to entertain the audience by having an emphasis on humour. Generally this is accomplished by having realistic characters or personality traits exaggerated to make it humorous. These films tend to have a happy ending, but it can also be bad if the film is listed as “Black Comedy”. This genre is one of the main ones and tends to be aimed at both males and females. Some comedy films are spoofs of other films, for example the “Johnny English” films are based off the James Bond film series, but Johnny English films are aimed at a younger audience and tend to include the protagonist making a fool of himself.

Some examples of comedy movies include…

·         Johnny English

·         Anchorman

·         Hot Fuzz

·         Jump Street series

Thriller:

Thrillers are also a big genre and tend to include moments that invoke suspense, tension and excitement. They also tend to be adrenaline-rushing and fast paced. Thrillers tend to be realistic and normally the audience is meant to connect with the main protagonist. Generally plots consist of a villain that drives the narrative forward by putting obstacles in the protagonist’s ways that he/she most overcome in order to complete a certain objective or just stay alive. Throughout the movie the protagonist generally runs into sudden plot twist and sometimes the movie will end in a cliffhanger to leave the audience in suspense and therefore letting the audience make up their own mind on how it should have ended. Thrillers tend to go well with action or horror as well as having common sub-genres such as psychological thrillers, crime thrillers and mystery thrillers.

Some examples of thriller movies include…

·         The Silence of the Lambs

·         Seven

·         Inception

·         The Dark Knight Rises

Horror:

Horror is also a main film and tends to scare audience by dealing with their fears or nightmares. Plots tend to involve an evil force, event or supernatural element being put into the everyday world. Normally the horror genre include ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons, gore, torture, vicious animals, evil witches, monsters, zombies, cannibals, and serial killers. These films always tend to have a scene that startle the viewer by having something jump out followed by a loud sound effect that makes the audience jump.

Some examples of horror movies include…

·         The Exorcist

·         Alien Series

·         Scream

Adventure:

Adventure films are a lesser known genre of film. Unlike action films, action scenes in adventure films showcase exotic new areas. These scenes tend to drive the narrative of adventure films forward. Generally adventure movie plots consist of quests for lost places, a jungle and/or mountain and/or desert. As well of this they normally portray a heroic character searching for the unknown.

Some examples of adventure movies include…

·         The Indiana Jones Series

·         Captain America: The Winter Soldier

·         The Lord of the Rings Series

·         The Hobbit Series

Drama:

Drama is one of the most well-known genres and is used regularly in both film and TV. Drama is the most realistic genre and shows how characters deal with emotions. Themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction and moral dilemmas are very common and show how the characters react and deal in the society the drama is set in. Dramas normally revolve around families. The Drama genre is broad and therefore is not aimed at males or females in particular.

Examples of drama movies includes…

·         The Shawshank Redemption

·         Forrest Gump

·         The Godfather

·         Schindler’s List

Romance:

Romance is a well-known genre and is aimed mainly at females. Plots for this usually revolve around two protagonists and generally shows love at first sight, but this genre shows issues with love as well such as forbidden love, love triangles and sacrificial love. The tone of these movies varies but a generic convention of romance films is that they have a happy ending.

Examples of romance movies includes…

·         Titanic

·         The Notebook

·         A Walk to Remember

Individual Research – Impact of Certification on Film Openings

Individual Research – Impact of Certification on Film Openings

Certification impacts film openings by limiting what they can show and who can view it. Certification gives each film an age rating and therefore limits the audience who can legally see it in the cinema.

Directors must carefully decide what audience to aim their movie at since each age rating has different requirements. This affects both content in the opening scene as well as the audience that can view it inside the cinema. For example if they aim their movies at 12 they should not include detailed/graphic violence in it. This would be an inappropriate audience, a better option for this film might be 15 or 18 since this is around the age where people may not be affected by the graphic content of the film.

Legally people under the age BBFC sets for a movie are not allowed to see it. Employees that don’t enforce these rules can be fired from their job since ID must be presented if the employee isn’t sure the customer is of the correct age.

These are the main two factors of film opening that are impacted by film openings…

·         Audience

·         Content