What Type of Comedy is Our Film?
Our film falls under two types of comedy. The first is a improvisational comedy, which can also be shortened to imrov comedy, relates to not planning out the routines. Prime examples of this kind of comic can be seen on television shows ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm,’ ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ and ‘Thank God You’re Here.’ As our film will heavily rely on the reactions of others upon our main character, in some scenes the actor playing the gnome will have to simply react to those around him. Therefore, his improv ability will be extremely important, as these will be some of the most comedic parts of the film.
The second category our film falls under is prop comedy. This type of comedy relies on ridiculous props, casual jackets or everyday objects used in humorous ways. We feel that the costume and props alone should be able to create a lot of humour on their own. We feel this was a successful part of our film project last year, and this time we believe we can take it much further than that.
Thriller Deconstruction
A thriller is often part of a hybrid genre, for example action-thrillers, crime-thrillers, film-noir thrillers, and a small amount of rom-com thrillers. However, the most common genre which is partnered to thriller is horror. These two genres complement each other perfectly, creating brilliant suspense and horror moments. When I think of thrillers speed seems to spring to mind, when a horror contains elements of thriller it seems to be much faster than normal. This can relate to chasing scenes, or action scenes within the film, but the thriller element is meant to raise the heart rate of the audience to create intense suspense and anticipation.
Thrillers also have a strong connection to crime. The dark and mysterious tone of crime films works well with the fast exciting traits of a thriller. ‘Hostage’ is a good example of a crime film which involves a lot of elements from a thriller. It contains many nervous and intense moments, which takes the audience on an emotional journey, which is exactly what a thriller should do.
In a thriller there is usually an antagonist and a protagonist, these two characters then play off each other to create suspense and tension with their relationship. In generalising the thriller genre it can be seen that they are very antagonist heavy. It terms of Propp and Todorov an antagonist can be seen to dirupt the equilibrium of the narrative.
Thriller films tend to contain outbursts of violence when necessary, which adds to the horror element that works so well. This element is an attempt to show the dark and dangerous side to society, imprinting fear into the audience’s mind and leading them to question those around them.
The way in which thriller films are most commonly ended changes around the worlds. Hollywood thrillers, for example, often end positively where the antagonist is punished and equilibrium is restored.
Drama Deconstruction
Dramas are commonly very plot driven, and include very serious characters, whose stories relate to real life issues. There is often a large amount of character development, which changes the issues throughout the film, and there is a lot of character interaction about these issues. These films don’t often contain many special effects, as this is not what the audience want to see. They want to see interesting content and issues raised, and then how these issues are either resolved or not resolved.
Drama is a very important genre, as it is the most likely genre to leak into another. Many other genres like thrillers, action adventures, and even some comedies contain elements of drama. There are also different types of drama for example melodramas, romantic dramas, and period dramas. This shows the diversity of the genre, and the different subjects it is capable of tackling and showing emotion on. Dramas are often related to adult audiences because of the content it usually contains, and because of this usually contains adult actors.
Drama plots often contain large amounts of emotion, and most likely sad emotion. Dramas are not light-hearted, therefore swing the other way and contain very emotional issues. The storyline must be very detailed as this is the one thing which is attracting the audience, they do not have explosions or special effects to distract the audience for moments during the film.
Casting for a drama film is extremely important, as they need the ability to take the audience on an emotional ride. They must portray exactly what is expected of them, allowing the audience to react to them correctly to keep the story going. They need excellent ability to portray all types of emotion to carry the storyline, and have an effect on the audience’s emotions.
