Genre and Narrative Analysis

GENRE

Genre creates a set of rules so that the audience can understand what is going on in the film.Putting films in genres creates for the audience a sense of continuity.Genre is good because it uses a lot of repetition this is good because you have the reassurance that the film is going to be about a certain thing. Genre is used as a tool in the film industry because it helps split the different films from :action,fantasy,sci-fi.

In genre the visual conventions are key as they give away what genre the film is.In a film the visual conventions are such as props what they use or the way they act.You can tell what the video conventions are in an action film because they use guns and fast cars and there is usually fighting.Settings in genre are important because they establish what the film is about for example if you think of a western film it is set in the desert,so this helps establish what kind of film it is.The narrative of a romance film would have to link with love otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to the genre it has been linked with.The intentions of a horror film is to scare people i know this because in the film “paranormal activity”they use jump scares to scare people and so it fits the genre of horror.In a western film they would wear a lot of leather this is so the audience knows what genre it is.

You can tell that a film is a certain genre when there is similar things happening in each of the films for-exaple in skyfall at the start of film there is shooting there is car chases and a lot of action  this would show that the films genre is action.If you compare skyfall to another action film such as point break they both have similar things,such as in skyfall they have a car chase with the antagonist and in baby driver  they do the same this shows that they are definitely part of the action genre.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XMuUVw7TOM    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY15sNHsffM In both of these films they have the same codes and conventions as there is fast paced car chases and gun violence.The differences between the two movies are that the protagonist wears different things because in skyfall the protagonist James bond wears a black suit but in baby driver the boy wears a leather jacket this shows that he wears casual cloths when he is in action.The settings of both films are similar because they are both set in cities they do this in both films because people can relate to what is happening because they live in a city.In both films they use Ariel shots to tell the audience where they are and use it as a establishing shot so the audience know what kind of setting the film is in.They also use a lot of pans and tracks they do this to build up the Adrenalin as it looks like they are going really fast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The problem with categorising genres is that sometimes two genres are mixed with each other for-exaple horror comedy.This gets complicated as you need to create a new genre.An example for a hybrid genre would be horror comedy, a film that fits in to this category would be a haunted house this movie is supposed to be a scary movie but they add comedy in their to make fun of the monsters and to make it less scary.

Narrative

What is narrative-Narrative is a chain of events that tells a story and are usually set out in a chronological order.

Linear narrative-Linear narratives present stories in a logical manner by telling what happens from one point in time to the next without using flashbacks or flash-forwards and then returning to the present.http://education.seattlepi.com/linear-narrative-6001.html.Linear narrative can be also known as Classical narrative. Classical narrative was used in Hollywood between 1830-1860s. In classical narrative time and the surroundings are subordinate to narrative continuity.In linear narrative there is always a closed ending so it doesn’t end on a climax.An example of linear narrative would be the lion king  because it follows the guidance of the freytags pyramid. The lion king is also a linear film because it doesn’t have any flashbacks.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110357/ the lion king also has a closed ending as the main character simba finally regains his place as the leader.

Non linear-Non linear narrative presents a story in a non chronological order what means it can go back in time and then go back to present day.films that have flashbacks are the films that have non linear narrative because they don’t follow an order.In non linear narrative there is an open-ended ending this means it finishes on a climax or ends without a real ending so just ends and you a put i suspense as you dont know what is going to come next.the example of a non linear film would be the world’s end this is because it uses flashbacks to reflect on the past and how the men used to be great friends then it flashes back to the present showing how they have all changed.this film doesn’t really follow the chain as keeps referring back to when they were in high school and how good it used to be.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Go73Cyi3o this clip from the worlds end shows the main character reminiscing his childhood and how good it was compared to the present.he also narrating over the video because when it goes back to the present he is sharing this story to a group for people who are alcoholics.the film keeps doing flashbacks to when they were in school this shows it was made in a non chronological order.  

Restricted narrative-Restricted narrative is when we know what the main character knows,this is mainly used in murder mystery detective films.The film that i think uses restricted narrative is patriots day because in the film it’s about a man who is at the Boston marathon bombings and is assigned to find out who did the bombing.the reason why this film restricted is because we know all these details when the policeman finds them out so we don’t know any information that he doesn’t know.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX2V0kLigSs this clip shows the mans wife being questioned by the FBI , this shows that it is restricted because as the investigation is going on we find out more information that they have just found out. 

Unrestricted narrative unrestricted narrative is when we know certain bits that the main character doesn’t know such as clues that we can see but they cant.Doing this adds suspense as we know what is coming to get the main character but he has no idea.The film that i have picked for unrestricted narrative is spider man as we know who the villain is and what he is going to do but spider-man doesn’t have a clue who the villain  is and what he is going to do.