Thriller
The second genre that I'm looking at is the Thriller genre. This entails high octane action and a plot that should get the audience's adrenaline rushing. Generally, there is a conflict between a protagonist and a main antagonist although sometimes there may be more than one of either. This usually leads to a standard introduction, conflict and resolution type plot line. The music in these types of films tend to start of slow and build up to a much faster beat around the climax of the action.
Unlike the Romance genre, there are a few more obvious stereotypes/clichés in the Thriller genre. ​For example, you could expect to see a stark difference in clothing and attitude of the protagonist and antagonist; the protagonist more likely to be seen in brighter colours with a more optimistic outlook on situations whereas the antagonist is more likely to be seen in darker colours with a far more harsh outlook and a desire to disrupt the equilibrium. Settings within this genre can vary massively. Just as with the Romance genre, there aren't particularly any off-limits areas. Anything from a forest to an abandoned warehouse and essentially everything in between can be worked with. With all of this said, however, a Thriller still aims to be plausible to the audience to a point of which they believe they could be in the situation the protagonist is in. Thus, the settings and characters have to seem realistic else the audience will either lose interest or cease to feel anything for the characters.
In terms of the camera shots within this genre, you can expect a lot of close-ups of the protagonist to reveal his emotions at different points of the film. Along with this, you can also expect to see this genre make the most of jump cuts to keep the attention of the audience whilst also adding to the suspense of the film. Appearances of the antagonist tend to be scarce with just a shadow or a portion of the character seen up until the climax of the film where the dramatic reveal is made to the audience. When translating this to a short film, you can expect to see much the same formula but with much of the build up cut out but without that hindering the suspense of the film.
Drama
The third and final genre I'm looking into is the Drama genre. I found this genre the one that requires the most realism within it. Everything from the setting to the characters to the plot has to feel authentic to the audience else the film loses all credibility. Drama films rely on the audience being emotionally moved following the end of the film and in order to achieve this, there must be empathy for characters and some form of character development. The main driving force behind a Drama is the conflict and how the characters approach (and eventually conquer) said conflict. Usually the ending is happy but there are some that don't quite conform to that stereotype such as Titanic and Kidulthood; both of which end rather tragically for the protagonist and, thus, leave the audience feeling very emotional. Generally the music in these films can vary, often there are slow or tranquil tracks to begin with that gradually heighten to a rapid beat once a conflict occurs.
The Drama genre doesn't necessarily have many specific stereotypes but there are certain things that you can expect to see. For example, there are usually certain character clichés like the relatable male/female lead that falls for another character or the villain that everyone hates that suddenly has a change of heart or goes on an emotional journey that ends up twisting the audience's perception of them. Occasionally, there are subversions to these character types but, for the most part, this is usually the case. With settings, there can be a mixture of urban and countryside backgrounds. More often than not, the stories are situated in tight areas and places that the audience can identify with and so it would be common place to see most of the film set in perhaps a flat or on a street. Keeping in line with the idea of verisimilitude, the costumes worn by any actor should be seen as "normal" so jeans/hoodies etc. The only difference between characters being perhaps the villain or troubled characters wearing darker colours but, besides that, clothing should be mostly that which you'd expect to see anywhere in the streets.
In terms of the camera shots within this genre, you can expect to see a fair few high-angle and low-angle shots to display the difference in moral positioning between characters. Frequently, the angled shots will show which characters are currently in control of the situation and which are feeling vulnerable. This was also be achieved via the use of close-ups and two shots to show the relationship between two characters. The lighting can vary according to what situation the characters are in. Typically the films will start brightly lit or at least utilise natural lighting up until the point at which the story turns for the worse or a situation turns dark. At this point the lighting will become much darker. Overall, the general idea behind Dramas is to achieve a deep emotional response from the audience through the use of verisimilitude in all aspects of camera shots/mise-en-scene and lighting/sound.
Upon reviewing the research done for each genre, myself and my group feel it best to go forward with the Drama genre. We can always incorporate another genre within this too, in fact we are considering going with an Action sub-genre.
Overall, this is because we feel it is the most realistically achievable film to create with our very small budget, not just that but we created a short Thriller for our AS Media Studies project and wish to diversify our ideas this year and try something new.