Behind the scenes:

This week marks the last week of exploding genre! So.. what is genre? this question was asked during the first week of the semester- my understanding of genre then was-  genre is used to categorise movies so that audience knows what to expect out of the movie.

After 11 weeks of intensive screenings, readings, discussions and working on 3 different genre sketch- we have covered, Western, Romantic Comedy, Science Fiction, Horror, Film Noir, Bottle Drama, Action, Musical and Hybrid Genres film. We’ve leant and identify different genre conventions and implying them into our genre sketch.  Genre are interchangeable and there are no fixed way of using genre conventions in story telling. As Rick Altman’s Film/Genre (1999) demonstrates, they are not objects that already exist in the world readymade but fluid and tenuous discursive constructions formed by the interaction of various claims made and practices undertaken by writers, producer, distributors, marketers, readers, fans, critics, and other discursive and material agents. It is up an individual filmmaker  to use this familiar troops/conventions to explore different narrative structure, character building and using different technical aspects to tell a story.

I have been focusing on film noir more then other genres, in fact both my PB3 and PB4 is on film noir. I’ve explored using noir as a visual style and noir elements to establish the state of mind of the protagonist.

Today, my understanding of genres is beyond categorising movies. It was fun exploding genre and I enjoyed every process of it ( yes! the essays too!).

This week, we learn about genre hybridity- how filmmakers plays with different genre troops with the synthetic approach. I find this lesson very helpful as most contemporary films has a mixture of different genre conventions. It is quite rare to find movies with a single genre. This lesson comes in handy with our project brief 4, as I will be exploring blending noir and western convention in my short film.

Cabin in the woods is a mixture of horror, slasher, thriller, comedy and maybe science fiction? The story line of Cabin in the woods is the main connection of the different genre troops. It brings to audience into two different world. When you are up in the woods, there is a sense of hopelessness- this is when the horror/slasher and thriller conventions comes into the picture. And when we are down at the “control room”, the tension and intensity of the film remains up in the wood. The entire movie feels like an emotional roller coaster ride.

After watching Cabin in the Woods, I realised the importance of narration in hybrid genre, with the story plot- horror and comedy actually made sense..

Action is not my favourite genre, I do enjoy some action films like the marvel movies. However, I find movies like James Bond, Bourne Identity, Mission Impossible a little overrated. There are too many sequels with the same narrative plot structure with a different story, the scenes are too predictable.

Ronin 

Like the characters in the movies, we do not know what will happen next. Most of the time, the characters are planning and plotting, there were a lot waiting as well. Most of the action scenes are car chasing scenes in the city, it is more like a thriller genre with action rather then action alone.

The readings also talk about action conventions- how car chasing scenes are shot and importance of sound and editing.Editing plays a huge role in action films-  Bordwell suggests that speed is a defining principle of contemporary editing, now that cutting has become inexpensive. – Today’s film are on average cut more rapidly that at any other time in US studio filming. Speed is a key element in action films, it keeps the narration moving. ‘The chase’ is an important sequence in action movies- the good chasing the bad vice versa.

Bottle dramas are usually established in TV series- it usually occurs when production ran out of money/budget but they still have to produce something. It is also used in minimalist theatres, improvisational theatre. With limited resources, script writer, cinematographers and editors have to be creative to keep the story moving. It is usually script heavy and dialogue driven- the dialogues is what keep the scene moving, revealing the characters. go through the experience together.

In our weekly readings John Belton mentioned how Rear Window is a blend of theatrical and cinematic space

Theatrical Space- Set deign and certain kind of camera movement to construct to establish a concrete unified space

Cinematic Space- Editing, framing and camera movement to construct a more abstract, psychological cinematic film space.

In Community- a simple question leads to principles and trust issues within a group of friends. Characters are forced to empty their bags, every bags leads to a new discovery between each character and to the audience.

I love the movie Coherence! Was quite bored at the beginning but James Ward Brykit did a great job by keeping the audience engaged with a limited space throughout the movie. It is very dialogue/story driven- my mind keeps thinking all the possibility to the mystery the characters were trying to solve.  I find bottle drama very relatable to film students- with limited budget and resources, filmmakers were forced to be creative in their storytelling.

The Killers(1946) is a classic noir film. The use of shadows, hush lightings, reflection and flashbacks Instead of following through flashback of the protagonist, we followed through a list of flashbacks from different perspective. I was lost halfway through the movie from all the different flashbacks but I can see the classic narrative noir structure in the movie.

Noir has many interpretations, some argued that noir is a genre, visual style, movement. Charles Higham quote that Film noir is a genre deeply rooted in the nineteenth century’s vein of grim. It may be considered as a genre between 1940s-1950s, in my opinion, noir has evolved from a genre to a visual style. In our readings, Rebecca mentioned “that Film noir is not a genre, it is not defined as are the western and gangster genre by conventions of settings the conflict, but rather by the more subtile qualities of tone and mood. ” In today’s neo-noir film, instead of following a set of noir conventions, directors use some noir conventions to interpret their film. Most of the Coen brothers’ films has very strong elements of noir but it may not necessary reflect it as a genre.

During the mid semester break, I did lots of reading and research about film noir. Watched movies such as, Double Indemity, Body Heat, Drive, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Big Lebowski as reference for my PB3. I argued that neo-noir is not a genre, it is a visual style. I tried to blend in noir visual style with comedy in my genre sketch but the outcome did not turn out as well as how I thought it should be. The comedy elements were not strong enough. I tried to proof how noir as a visual style introduces the world of the protagonist differently.

After our mid semester break, we watched some video clips of- Interview with Vampire, Bram Stoker, Underworld, Twlight and Only lovers left. We identify similar conventions used in these movies and we compared  how the rules in vampire movies changes to adapts to modernity. I can see noir elements in this week’s vampire screening, as long as the movie reviews darkness/underworld/guilt, noir elements fits best visually into the narration style.