Monday, March 4, 2013

GENRES & SUB-GENRES






Stories can have 1 or 2, even 3 different genres, but if you use too many genres, the audience will be confused and not like the film.  These genres are generalized, flexible, and cross over into other genres. Remember, there are no RULES in filmmaking or art…..

DRAMA:  real life, tragedy, murder/violence/rape, biography, period (history), costume, docudrama.

MELODRAMA:  very emotional, larger than life, soap opera.

ROMANCE:  classic, adult, teen, love, romantic-comedy.

COMEDY:  slapstick, physical, language (jokes/puns), satire, broad, dry, manic, teen gross-out.

ACTION:  war, violence, police, gangster, robbery, chase, martial arts, special effects, comic book, animé.

ADVENTURE:  travel, road movie, exotic, romantic-adventure, comedy-adventure, action-adventure.

FANTASY:  romantic fantasy, sci-fi fantasy, fantasy-adventure. (Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam.)

SCIENCE FICTION (SCI-FI):  hi-tech, lo-tech, apocalyptic, disaster, disease, alien, monster, time machine.

HORROR:  classic, ghost, vampire, werewolf, mummy, zombie, psycho, body parts, buckets of blood.

MYSTERY:  detective, mystery-suspense, courtroom, supernatural, film noir.

SUSPENSE/THRILLER:  political, murder, spy. (More tense than scary, many twists and surprises.)

MUSICAL:  singing, dancing, classical (MGM), rock, jazz, big bands, swimming (Esther Williams).

WESTERN/SAMURAI:  classic, revisionist (modern), end of the Wild West, end of the Samurai.

SPECIALIZED

RELIGIOUS:  classic Jesus, born-again/fundamentalist, New Age, mystical, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist.

GAY/LESBIAN:  coming-of-age, coming out, old/young, senior, flamboyant, leather, politics, AIDS, prejudice.

WOMEN:  society, inequality, repression, prejudice, abuse, rape, revenge, abortion, sexuality, ageism.

SEX:  soft-core (Playboy), hard-core (XXX), S&M, D&B, kinky, erotic, sensual, passion, art.

FORMS OF FILMS

COMMERCIAL ENTERTAINMENT:  studio films, teen films, big budget, epic, special effects, movie stars.

ART FILMS:  festivals, educated/sophisticated audiences, commercial art films, avant garde, experimental.

THEATRICAL:  meant to show in movie theaters first (cinematography, lighting, sound for large screens).

TELEVISION:  network TV, basic TV, cable/satellite TV, movie channels, pay-per-view, video-on-demand.

STRAIGHT-TO-VIDEO:  made not play in theaters or bad, or uncommercial; for buying and rental only.

VIDEO FILMS:  shot digitally by cameras, phones, pads; YouTube, Facebook movies.

ANIMATION:  classic, stop-motion, rotoscope, ink, sand, hand-drawn 2-D, digital 2-D, 3-D, animé, mange.

DOCUMENTARY:  nature, travel, political, social, propaganda, “making of” films, recreated, ethnographic.

MUSIC VIDEOS:  concerts, feature-length for theaters, DVDs, MTV, promotional, YouTube.

EDUCATIONAL:  schools, colleges/universities, libraries, events, public service, instructional.

INDUSTRIAL:  public relations, publicity, conventions, external sales, internal.

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