Genre Research

 

        In this blog post, I will reflect upon my research on the genre for our portfolio project, which is the horror and crime genre.

        HORROR

        This genre has the intent of giving the viewer a thrilling and suspenseful viewing experience. Since many people love this intense feeling, this makes horror films one of the most popular movie genres ever. Horror films are more popular with younger audiences since they love the thrilling feeling of these movies. The age range is common from people in their teens to their early thirties but many older people enjoy watching horror movies. This genre predominantly has male viewers, but a lot of female viewers partake in the consumption of horror films. 

        

        One common technique used in the horror genre is dark lighting. The dark atmosphere creates a sense of mystery and tension because something sinister could be lurking just around the corner. Another technique is using eerie music, and when combined with dark lighting the viewer has a feeling of dread and feels uneasy. Close-up shots of characters are commonly used to express the emotions of the characters. This is mostly done when the protagonist has realized something or when the antagonist has something in mind. 

        Something we have in mind for our project is to not include too much if any dialogue. We want to captivate the viewer into the film itself, not the characters per se. A horror film that doesn't have much dialogue is "A Quiet Place." In this film, there are monsters that are very sensitive to noise and they turn aggressive when they hear anything. The characters in this film must live their lives without making any noise which is very challenging for them. We don't want to use dialogue in our intro because we want to make our film more compelling.

        CRIME

        This genre is new to all of our group members so it will be exciting to try different things out here. The crime genre itself almost always pairs itself with other genres like drama, mystery, and mafia films. Additionally, this genre routinely features the death of someone and the characters in the movie are trying to figure out who is responsible for the murder. 

        The crime genre varies across many different age ranges because these movies have been created since the thirties as western films. 

        

        Low-angle shots are typically used in these films to establish groups of people such as a mafia family. The low angle represents that they are powerful and important people. Handheld camera movement is used in this genre to create a spontaneous moment that takes the audience away. 

        In our film introduction, we will have to resort to the subgenre crime thriller. We don't want to make a typical horror or crime film, but instead, combine the two in order to make a unique film.