Exploring Film Genres

1. By Harry Andrew Clarke Exploring Film Genres

2. What is genre? • “A style or category of art, music, or literature.” • The purpose of a genre in relation to film is the idea that films are separated into categories that posses individual characteristics that are specific to a particular genre of film • This then allows directors/producers of a film to create a film that appeals to a specific audience who are fans of a specific genre. • A basic example of this would be the director Michael Bay, who has achieved staggering box office success with the Transformers series. A series that falls under the series of action/sci-fi

3. Examples of film genres:

4. My Chosen Film: Aliens (1986) • Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi/Action • Directed by: James Cameron/ Produced by: Gale Anne Hurd • Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn • Plot:57 years after the original attack, Ripley and a crew of marines return to the planet to kill the remaining aliens that have slaughtered the colonists on the planet. • Top 250 #64 | Won 2 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 21 nominations. • Budget:$18,500,000 (estimated) • Gross:$85,200,000 (USA)

5. Defining the genre of: Aliens • With a new director in James Cameron, many would argue that Aliens took a more action approach to the alien series than the original Alien title . However that is not to say that Cameron's adaptation strayed drastically away from the horror genre of the first film. Lets begin to analyse the ways in which Aliens stuck to its roots by being a primarily horror based film. • Setting: The film setting was incredibly important towards achieving the correct tone for the film as the characters were placed on a bleak, unpredictable, and treating planet and so the fear of the unknown was used to express horror towards the audience and characters. • Sound: Perhaps the most significant feature of achieving horror for this film was the use of sound effects, music, and in some cases lack of sound. During scenes of high suspense with the audience not actually being able to see any real threat, the composed music plays slowly and quietly in the background as the tempo and pitch increases with sudden movements that make the viewers jump in there seat without even seeing anything particularly freighting. In many circumstances, even the lack of sound is used perfectly when characters are in a position of knowing little of what they can do and at the same time the viewer has to perhaps imagine what may happen to the characters because the threat or sense of danger is not so easily established due to the lack of sound.

6. Defining the genre of: Aliens • Camera shots/angles: Like most horror films, Aliens decide to use a large variety of shorts that helped establish fear and suspense of the film. Examples including, darting camera shot to a moving figure that quickly moves out of the shot/ panning shot to establish a sense of location into the desolate world in which the characters are thrown into/ And over the shoulder shots where the protagonist is unaware of the threat behind them. • Special effects: Considering Aliens at its time of production had a considerably small budget, many were blown away with the detail that went into creating the world, costume, lighting and most importantly the Alien’s themselves in this film. Their on screen presence has gone down in history for being one of the most menacing horror threats in the industry and the precision and effort that went into making them look believable and terrifying was incredible.

7. Considered a hybrid genre? • The follow up film to the original Alien had slightly different pacing compared to the first film and so it is considered by some to in fact be an action film rather than a horror. • While the first film lead many viewers to fear the unknown, the sequel shows the main threat in many more open and situations with less direction towards suspense but rather all out fighting between the characters and numerous aliens rather than the single one. • This was achieved with less attention to detail with lighting so the threat is seen more often by the viewer as well as many of the characters using weaponry on a number of occasions during combat set pieces. • Although this may have made Aliens less frightening than the original Alien, it was still critically acclaimed and loved by fans, as it still is considered to be one of the greatest horror films of all time.

8. Thanks for watching!