G321: Discussion of Genre

02/02/2011

Today we discussed which genre we would like to do for our opening. We first picked three possibilities which were: Romance, Horror and Thriller. We also considered a gangster theme, but decided there were limited story lines and it would involve too many characters. After this, we outlined the strengths and weaknesses of each genre.

Romance:

Strengths:

• Openings usually only introduce one or two characters (normally the two protagonists)
• You can use the start of the relationship/their first meeting to open the film
• There are range of settings that we could use

Weaknesses:

• The genre would be more related to people older than us so would therefore be hard for us to cast effectively
• The genre normally follows a conventional plot line with little room to move off of it

Horror:

Strengths:

• The settings would be easily viable for us to find and use

Weaknesses:

• Harder to not show the whole story and distinguishing the genre without over complicating the story line
• Can be difficult to look realistic

Thriller:

Strengths:

• The opening doesn't have to make complete sense as this genre tends to leave the audience questioning certain aspects of it
• The setting would be easy to find as it could be an everyday environment

Weaknesses:

• Difficult to make realistic and feel real
• Could fall into the trap of being mistaken as a horror instead or a thriller

After taking the time to consider each genre we favoured the romance genre best, but felt that it could fall flat and become uninteresting. To overcome this we decided to use the sub genre of romantic-comedy. In this way if would also appeal to a wider audience.

Cath, Charley, Joanna