Are Genre Conventions Possibilities or Constraints: A Study - Essay Example

Are Genre Conventions Possibilities or Constraints: A Study Genre conventions are great as guides for people who are new to the world of film-making and cinema literature. There is no doubt that Hollywood has seen excellent examples of commercially and critically successful genre movies all along its journey from being just American cinema to endorsing the German, French, Brazilian, and European movie making styles. The history of Hollywood makes an interesting study especially after the introduction of new Genres like Holocaust and many more. However, the traditional glamour of Hollywood is best seen in the evergreen classics that came up earlier in its history. One must not forget that our study of Hollywood movie making is incomplete unless we have searched, realized and challenged genre conventions that have been used successfully in the past. Such an approach is important to the development of newer conventions in film making and also paves the path for creating excellent and new movie making techniques that a budding director can employ. Some of the greatest hits in Hollywood have come around due to dedicated research in technology and genre styles, out in by the new director of the movie. It is also important to note that the role played by actors and actresses in helping the director realize his vision is very crucial to the success of the film under construction. However, the conviction of the director is what ultimately puts forth some of the newest ideas in a certain genre. Talking of dominant genre conventions, two popular genres that we cannot afford to miss out on are Musicals and War movies. These are welcomed every time they are released and more often than not, there is a repetition of motifs in the movies. In our opinion, established genre conventions tend to restrict the level of creativity that a particular idea behind a film can accommodate. Although, the existence of reliable conventions ensures that the standard of the movie is pre-set and there is no miss in meeting up to the expectations of the audience, their treatment often becomes the same, with the only difference being in the story on which the film is created. The two genres that we discuss here are musical and war movies (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010, p.7). As is well known, both these genres have existed in Hollywood from the beginning of the era of Technicolor, and have depicted real life scenarios using a style that though filmed and fictional, looks convincing to the audience’s eye. Creations in these genres have been more or less critically studied irrespective of whether they have met with commercial success or not. We discuss two such movies in our study of genre conventions. The Era of Musicals: And What They Showed Us With prominent creations coming down straight from the rawness of the black and white era, musicals have always been a favorite amongst Hollywood movie goers. The sheer pleasure of spending a part of the day at a Hollywood musical always attracts a good number of viewers even if the story or direction is weak. Therefore, many budding directors start out with the ease of making a musical, since all you have to do is add on colors and music, Broadway dances and fresh caste, and your dish is ready to be served. Musicals have a steady set of motifs present in all the avatars that we have come across till now. Here is a quick recap of these common motifs which more or less define the set conventions of this highly popular genre. Song and Music Sequences : While a lot of hard work goes into creating these sequences, the amount of pleasure and bliss they grant to the audience viewing the movie is what decides the success of all the creative toil. Therefore, it becomes important to bring in as many types of musical presentation as is possible in the movie. From instrumental gigs to sonorous vocals, the audience needs to see all types of music flowing (Cohan, 2002, p.41) from these movies .A great amount of relevant dialogues that talk of music literature and grammar is used to keep the audience hooked and hoping. Stage Recitals and Dances: Movement, motion, synchronization and dance, these form the core of action that you get to see in musicals. Through trained Broadway artists and cleverly choreographed sequences, the magic of the stage shows one gets to see in musicals has been retained through all versions of the genre. Bright colors and lighting: Mostly filmed on young and fresh casts, musicals are incomplete without bright and loud lighting, and vibrant colors n the sets. This is important to usher in the mood relevant to the musical scores that are fed into the story and comes up every now and then. And with music around, no lethargy or darkness can be tolerated. At least that is what the norms say. Musically featured protagonists: In all the movies, the main protagonists are singers, dancers, or musicians, who have to perform a minimum number of times (Say 3 or 5) on stage recitals present in the movie. This calls for more vibrancy and adaptability on part of the main protagonists. While this is an acting challenge, there is no need to be more active than what is needed during the stage shows. Study of A Musical Film: A musical that has won many hearts with its timeless classics is “The Young Ones” (1961). Cliff Richards who was already a singing sensation by then with a couple of popular musical videos in his kitty, came around as an actor with this movie. Arguably, a clever career decision, the artist was required to prune up on his acting skills while his singing was already accurate. However, through this act, Cliff Richards got one commercial movie to his credit but missed out in establishing himself as a good actor in Hollywood. He did get to do subsequent musicals after this one, but none of these worked as well as ‘The Young Ones’ did. We assess the set of conventions that the movie followed, and try and analyze where it caused a block in the path the Richards wanted to pave for himself. As anybody would notice, Richards was a great singer with an original talent that was well adapted for the microphone than for the camera. However, his screen presence needed to be manipulated in a way that suited his personality. The challenges of making a musical work did not allow him to enjoy conservative lights and colors. The camera action had to be smooth and clear. While Richard’s deep voice worked wonders in bringing a distinct flavor to the movie, the brightness betrayed the depth of the mood he was portraying off screen. Most of the songs have gone on to become timeless classics, but the movie had elements which did not keep to the solemn mood of Richard’s voice. Here is a quick recall of the genre conventions which were used in the movie and how they helped or failed to help get the right flavor to the shots. The use of smooth camera flow and bright lighting was a unique feature of musicals and the addition of Technicolor amplified the beauty of this technique. However, by 1961, many commercially successful movies that dealt with romance using bright picturesque settings had been released and ‘The Young Ones’ came as no surprise. The only difference was the voice of a rising singing start, which was Cliff himself, and this is where the conflict happened. Musicals essentially portray the song being sung by the main protagonist, and while Cliff’s voice was in its best shape (Mundy, 1999, p.168), his screen personality and acting was not. So while we the audience, regaled in hearing him sing, watching him do the act took away a part of the song’s beauty. Most of the scenes were a cakewalk for the director as he had to only follow the set genres of movie making and this film made no exception (Marshall & Stilwell, 2000, p.17). The dance routines were there intact, and so were the comedy scenes. The nation’s heartthrob Richards was portrayed center stage in all the frames and this definitely increased the popularity of the film. But did all these help the movie from the critic’s point of view? The ideal answer to the question above would be both a yes and a no. Yes, because apparently the star cast was the most glamorous and convincing part of the movie, while the direction was meticulous to the “t”. Camera and lighting were standard and did not help much in accentuating the mood of the songs presented in the movie. The choreographer used was Herb Ross, a Broadway expert, and this added the synchronized charm of the musical. However, these strong points had a few shortcomings, which automatically flared up in subsequent movies by the same artists. These include the half-baked acting of Richards in the inconsistent narrative, which would not have survived unless the plot had been thickly entertaining as in this movie. The commercial success of the film set a standard for all Cliff Richard movies that were to come next, and as a result, the shortcomings like typical lighting and inconsistency in acting potential went unnoticed. Subsequent works of Richards were prone to be plagued with the same treatment of characters and scenes, and ended up being a complete failure. Thus following set genre conventions helped this movie set Richards as a Hollywood star, but helped him no more. War Movies And How Much More Is Always Desired The genre conventions typical to war movies are definitely needed by every director probing that space, but success does not always come by following them blindly. Although the definition of war movies has changed and varied over all these years, sticking to the fundamentals have led to failures which were only to be considered as glaring examples of mistaken principles, but were actually highlights of the impact of redundancy in movie making. Recent war movies have used treatment of motifs that were entirely different from what has been used in the past. The taking down of a terrorist would have been depicted in a much different manner than it has been done recently. As a result of using such novel treatments, war movies that have been launched recently have seen success. And the frequency with which they are succeeding is much different from what we saw in the days when war movies followed a strict set of genre conventions and dished out highly spiced up war visuals to the Hollywood audience (Matelski & Street, 2003, p.61). Here is a quick look at the main motifs that war movies use: Gunfire, ammunition and artillery talk: The reference to the tools of the trade is typical to any tradesman. The main protagonists of the movie are required to talk, walk and deliver war action. So the dialogues and scenes are solely focused on creating the war picture and there is loads of military and ammunition jargon used in the dialogues. While heavy equipment is portrayed in the scenes, the cinematographic treatment is raw and unsullied for all day time outdoor shots. Spy or Agent Narratives: Invariably, all the war movies are based on the narratives or exploits of a main protagonist who is either a spy or an agent in the armed forces. While the narrative is not always a first-hand personal viewpoint, the need to keep the protagonist involved in all the main frames of the movie is a compulsory convention of this genre. Rich Color Themes: The use of deep shades in the scenes is a set practice that has always been found in war movies. There are generalized shades of grey, black, green or dark blue as per the military uniform that the officers sport. However, many movies have gone with lesser used colors like Pink or Red and set up themes to bring in a color twist to the existing scenario, which is already serious in itself. Military Action and War Scenes: The need to keep in serious war scenes with depictions of fighting soldiers is what has kept lovers of war movies come back for more. Military action has always meant the portrayal of the bravado of armed forces and the intelligence that works behind them. However, the treatments of such scenes hardly get any different from each other, except for the use of camera angles, sets, costumes, and characterization. Cinematographic Elements: Gunshots and camera crashes are the most common elements of the cinematography used in editing war movies. The use of such motifs has however, become popular and common practice in only recent years. Movies that depicted wartime crisis in earlier years of Hollywood did not use such technical manipulations. Every movie-goer looks for a new experience when he or she walks into the theater for a show. This fact stays true for most genres and war movies, though standard in its use of treatments, has realized this requirement of late. It is therefore, only recently that we see the use of novel techniques and treatments that have caused the growing number of successful war films to hit the Hollywood panorama these days. We maintain that experimenting with the set norms and conventions will help war movie makers dish out more success stories, unlike what was witnessed in the 1949 movie, ‘The Red Menace’. It is an anti-Soviet movie that uses an anti-Communist tone to create a compelling story of betrayal and suspense, all set in a war background with loads of war time crisis to visualize. Some of the scenes used in the movie have been based on real life experiences of people who witnessed the failure of America in stopping the Soviet from testing its first atom bomb in 1944. This is a simple ode to the growing power of forces outside America, although that was not the exact motive of the film maker. The failure of the movie was a direct outcome of traditional treatment and use of known war genre conventions, most of which created a conflict of ideas instead of boosting the storyline that the movie was based on. The Plot And Its Failures To understand the failures of the movie, we need to understand the complexity of the story that was used in this suspense war movie. The story involves an ex-GI called Bill Jones who joins the Communist Party in USA and falls in love with one of the instructors while training. Their ideals meet with conflict within the party when the non-tolerant nature of the leaders slowly reveals to them. Their run for freedom and the dangerous pursuit by their deadly enemies ends in America’s war prone areas. The story uses the following genre conventions and still fails to capture the attention of the audience. The story is that of a spy who enters into the realms of Communism and realizes that he was not made for it. The crucial scenes of suspense and crime are shot in a typical crime fiction manner and offer nothing new in terms of camera or lighting. What is worse is that the narrative is unduly delayed with the budding romance of the main protagonists of the movie, and while the fight of good over evil is all set to begin, further distractions like in the form of war crimes and chases ensue (Kelly, 1997, p.58). Thus, the movie misses the chance of making any one point clear to the audience, which story should they follow? There are anti-Communism scenes alternated with anti-Soviet scenes and somehow the both do not fall in the same place and prove the director’s point. The Red Menace failed to be as menacing as its makers wanted it to be because of other slogs in war movie cinematography like use of repeated motifs, sudden gunfire, and treatment of indoor action. As a result, the entire movie was critically and commercially considered a massive failure. Although, every student of film literature finds the movie shot to meticulous perfection when comparing with the literature available in war movie making. Still, this movie fails to deliver a consistently gripping story, which it could have easily done had it taken a different course. The director’s treatment of scenes and narration would have done much better had it not been customized to meet genre conventions. With a bit more scope for creativity, that we see in the war movies of today, ‘The Red Menace” could have easily succeeded in becoming a path finder for all politically conscious war movies. Conclusion: Movie making gets its final golden touch by emulating the works of established and successful directors from the past (Altman, 1999, p.23). Their work defines the literature that we come across today, and sets a standard to the genre conventions we follow to any particular Hollywood movie making style. However, these set conventions are based on the rate of success in terms of commercial popularity and audience impact that a movie made in the past, and do not always address the audience expectations of today. Also, the conventions do not allow newer tools of creativity to be incorporated and need to be broken and remade to bring in new styles of movie-making. Creativity knows no genre or niche. As Langford rightly puts it, addressing the basics first is the right approach to taking any form of creativity to its tertiary levels (Langford, 2005, p.6). When it comes to understanding the creativity required to make a pioneering musical, every basic step involved in developing the different motifs of the genre needs to be understood thoroughly before starting out on the job. For example, when poetry is needed in composing songs, a composer could go to any extent of literature and read up the different styles and plots that can be used to create a poem. However, this will not be sufficient in helping him get enough creativity and uniqueness to the nature and elements of the poem. He will still need that quite evening by the brook side to fill his thoughts and keep the right words flowing. Similarly, ruining the chances of creative exploration by beating down every new approach to an established genre through the use of strict conventions is detrimental to the growth of cinema and Hollywood. References: Bordwell, D. & Thompson, K. (2010). Film Art: an Introduction (London: McGraw-Hill) Langford, B. (2005). Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press) Matelski, M.J. & Street, N.L. (2003) War and Film in America: Historical and Critical Essays (New York: MacFarland) Mundy, J. (1999) Popular Music On Screen: From Hollywood Musical to Music Video (Manchester: Manchester University Press) Marshall, B. & Stilwell, R. (ed.) (2000) Musicals: Hollywood and Beyond (Exeter: Intellect) Kelly, A. (1997) Cinema and the Great War (London: Routledge) Cohan, S. (ed.) (2002) Hollywood Musicals: The Film Reader (London: Routledge) Altman, R. (1999) Film/Genre (London: BFI) Filmography: The Red Menace (1949) The Young Ones (1961) Read More