Research Reading - Genre

I recently read a book titled 'How to make your own Hollywood Movie' by Ed Gaskett.

In the book, there is a lot of detailed writing on genre signifiers and how a director and a writer would look at them. For action, he explains how it is very easy for a writer as the film will be very visual driven but for a director, it is much more difficult as shooting these sequences requires a lot of forward planning and storyboarding is a necessity. He explains that for a successful action sequence, characters have to be even more connected to the audience and act the way many people would with instincts, such as trying to escape somewhere or survive something. They are never suicidal or apathetic unless given a good reason which the audience may understand. He also continues to say that with action films, the audience despises an unsatisfying ending and cheating. As if, the protagonist accidentally achieves his/her goal, it is considered unsatisfying. For creating suspense, he begins by saying that time is the real antagonist, either by being completely literal i.e. a time bomb or by being something less obvious such as a car not starting with someone chasing. It require the protagonist to act in a certain period of time. For horror, he explains that the odds are stacked unbelievably against the protagonist. It is based around basic instincts and natural fears. Horror movies only work if it is based around normal people and a normal world, his example is 'even a gory body horror movie won't be shocking with cardboard people in a cardboard world. With comedy, he explains there are a number of sub-genres such as slapstick (Happy Gilmore - Dennis Dugan, 1996), it is ludicrous with extreme visual gags. The next is taste-free (Anchorman - Adam McKay, 2004) which is when the comedy becomes totally politically incorrect with no restraint. Gentle comedy is the type of comedy found in rom-coms (50 first dates - Peter Segal, 2004). There often aren't many visual gags but it relies heavily on scripting to make it funny with likeable characters. Off-beat comedy is less obvious with characters being much less amusing straight away (Shaun of the Dead - Edgar Wright, 2004). It tends to defy typical genre stereotypes. It serves as more of a 'real-world' to audiences, in this way it is similar to gentle comedy but offers an opposite view. Black comedy goes ones step further, it is usually based around a particularly unpleasant storyline (In Bruges - Martin McDonnagh, 2008). It s very script central, this is about the audience seeing the 'taste-free' humour without gags but the humour comes from the vulgarity or brutality. The next genre he goes on to talk about is romance. He describes it as very simple 'boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl'. He says that audiences love to believe in the idea that we are all destined to love and be loved. He explains that this doesn't need to always have a happy ending, an unhappy romantic can be just as satisfying if the story requires it or if it is more realistic. This is true for other elements in the story such as the conflict. Conflict in romances is created usually by other characters the example Ed Gaskett gives is 'her Dad doesn't approve, he's getting married or there are class differences. Characters need to be believable too so they often have flaws and strengths i.e. shy but intelligent, bold but clumsy. In romance though, too much of the couple on screen together is a bit lethargic and can bore the audience he says 'conflict = drama' so they can have conflict between them which is the job of a good script. He mentions the conversations in Oceans Eleven (Steven Soderbergh, 2001) between Danny George Clooney) and Tess (Julia Roberts) 'Does he make you laugh?' 'He doesn't make me cry' or 'I'm not joking' 'I'm not laughing'. This conflict shows the emotion between the characters and with the way they deliver it, you know it must be love!

I found this entire book a very interesting read with lots of tips on how to create certain effects, write scripts, shoot and plan a film from start to finish.