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Christopher ONeill
Unit 21 Single Camera techniques

Single Camera formats part 2

Genres
A Genre is a way to categorise forms of art or entertainment into their
own groups within the art form, genres are common in art forms such as
music and literature, and there are several different types of genres within
film, films will be put into certain genres depending on their themes,
settings and stories. Below I will explain different types of genres.

Western: a western film s typically a cowboy film set during the 17 and
1800s with the American old west as their setting, western films will
usually have plot devices such as Indians, bandits, cattle ranching, gold
mining, sheriffs, and Mexican standoffs. The American Film Institute
defines western films as those set in the American west that embody the
spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier. Westerns will have
similar mythological heroes just like other genres such as the fantasy and
action genres. Western use to be an extremely popular genre in film
during the mid 1900s (Gunsmoke ranks as the longest running prime time
live action drama with 635 episodes) but due to the oversaturation of
westerns and the lack of originality caused the majority of audiences to
have lost interest, many consider the western to be a dead. Japanese
Samurai films have a lot of resemblance to westerns as both genres share
the same themes. There has been various depictions of the old west in
film, positive films about the west would include movies such as Rio Bravo
and the Magnificent Seven, while Moves such as Unforgiven are a lot less
black and white in their portrayal of heroism in the old west.

Crime: Crime Film and television shows focus on the lives of criminals and
enforcers. Gangster films and heist films would fall into a subgenre in
crime. A good example of good heist film in the crime genre would be
heat, while a good example of a gangster film would be Scarface.

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Christopher ONeill
Unit 21 Single Camera techniques

Good crime television shows would include The Sopranos and Miami Vice.

Science Fiction: These types of TV shows and movies deal with

imaginative concepts involving the future and the advancement of human
technology. Genres such as action and adventure can merge with science
fiction depending on the material, even the move cowboy and aliens was
a merging of the western and sci fi genre. There are many sub genres
when it comes to sci fi such as time travel films with back to the future,
Cyberpunk films such as The Matrix and apocalyptic movies such as
Terminator Salvation.

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Christopher ONeill
Unit 21 Single Camera techniques

Good examples of sci fi tv shows include star trek the original series and
battlestar galatica

Comedy: A comedy film min ambition is to make the audience laugh, this
type of genre can go in many genres depending on the story.
Ghostbusters for example, can be put in the science fiction, horror, and
fantasy genres, while there is so many romantic comedies such as Annie
hall that they can make up their own sub genre in both Romance and
comedy genres. Parody of other genres can also ft under comedy, with
movies such as airplane! Being a good example

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Unit 21 Single Camera techniques

Romance: Filmes in this gemnre usually centre around a romance between 2

people. A lot of movies have a romance theme even if it isnt the main focus, for
example, a movie like rocky cn be considered a romance film even though t
considered more of a sports drama film becase f the amound f time spent on the
romance aspect of the film. Romantc comedes such as punch drunk love would
be good examples of a more upbeat romantc flm whle movies such as Brockback
Mountn would focus more on the tragic aspects of love.

Many TV shows will have elements from the Romance Genre such as Friends and
The Vampire Diaries.

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Unit 21 Single Camera techniques

Action: These types of movies usually have a main protagonist who is thrown into
dangerous situation and has to fight his/her way out of it. Good example of an
Hollywood Action star would be Sylvester Stallone, some of the action films that
he has made include First Blood and Cliff-hanger.

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Fantasy: These types of films usually involve elements of magic and

mythical things such as elves and dragons. Fantasy and adventure go
together very well. Fantasy films and TV shows re great escapism for the
audience as they can be transported off to a world much more exciting
and adventurous than the world that they inhabit. 2 Perfect examples of
fantasy film would be the lord of the rings and the Wizard of Oz. Even star
wars could be considered science fantasy as t had themes of magic an
doesnt get technical with its story the same way a TV show like star trek
would.

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Christopher ONeill
Unit 21 Single Camera techniques

Examples of TV shows include Game of Thrones and Merlin.

Horror: The horror Genre has many different sub genres, from slasher
horror like Friday the 13th, to zombie horror with dawn of the dead, to
psychological horror with Rosemarys baby, horror movies can either be
really campy and can be designed to be more fun than scary such as dead
alive by Peter Jackson, and then there are films such as the ring that are
made to get under the audiences skin and really terrify them. Movies such
as the thing may are also attached to the sci fi genre.

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Unit 21 Single Camera techniques

Good Horror TV shows include The Walking Dead and The Twilight Zone

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Christopher ONeill
Unit 21 Single Camera techniques