A Balance of Convention and Invention in Film Genres - Report Example

Genre Films Balance Convention and Invention Genre Films Balance Convention and Invention According to Vares (2002), a number of characteristic films are in the genre category. Tapper (2005) defines a genre as some sort of a work that suggests an exercise in classification. However, he goes ahead to put it that a number of studies have indicated that genres are also formulas that artists rely upon for artwork and convention production. Genres, as formulas, aim at enabling consumers of artwork to make a quick analysis of a new work by artists by comparing them with their knowledge of previous works in this same category. Genres are not necessarily rules and restrictions that artists must follow for the audience to consume and appreciate their works, but they exist to allow the artists to decipher the level by which the consumers of their products appreciate or despise their work (Vares, 2002). In his book of Film Genre (2005), Langford describes genres as a classification of films with well-planned roles, settings, plot, imagery, themes, props, and even characters. This genre categorization intends to come up with a realization market, boundary, and prospect of the given film. In genre classification of films, the most commonly encountered roles that characters play are the roles of hero, heroine, alien, monster, sidekick, criminal, cowboy, mentor, detective to mention but a few. Settings usually refer to the place where the action in the film takes place, for instance, the acting of science fiction films normally take place in futuristic worlds while spy-thriller films take place in an exotic, often urban international setting. The plot is the story line that gives a predictable narrative sequence of events ranging from the problem in the film, the character that solves it, how he/she solves it, to the end of the work. Imagery gives some prototypical, archetypal images that are associated with a particular setting or a part of the world depicted in the film or the artwork while themes in the film are assumptions that that lead to the continuation of the film or artwork (Jayamanne, 2005). Any film genre relate to certain conventions that communicate information about the genre. Typical film audience have a level of pre-occupation with the convention of any genre film and are in a position to criticize the competency of the film or artwork if it does relate to the way it should be produced/acted (Goodwin, 2002). The story line in any particular film genre should be unique with a convention that enables the audience to differentiate it from the rest in the same category. The audience is an important component of any genre film and the artists or the film producers should avoid any unnecessary alterations to the convention of a particular genre film to ensure enough audience for the work and a sustainable income from the same (Lawrence, 2008). Most works in visual arts and film production owe their origin to invention and convention in this particular field. Generally, audiences tend to appreciate works that are pure invention and such works draw a large number of fans and followers globally. However, if the invention is too much, there is a high probability that the audience will be bored and lost, as they will not be able to decipher the ideas that are portrayed in the artwork or film (Hsu et all, 2012). However, the prevalence of invention in both film and art work should be encouraged as this will enable young researchers in this field to come up with better ways of representing artworks and entertainment from films. The level of implementation and integration of new ideas in this field, however, needs a focused control in order to maintain the number of audience to these works. Additionally, an art or film work that combines both invention and convention in the particular genre may attract a given number of audiences but the work becomes sharply boring to the audience if it is pure convention. Thus, it warrants the input of enough effort by both the film producers and the artists to maintain a balance between invention and convention. Both the old and the new ideas in these works give certain level of comfort to the audience when applied controllably (Smith, 2010). Some audience also have a persistent wish and tendency to experience novel variations that stimulate their thinking. In such cases, the filmmaker or artist should produce work that will be able to fulfil such expectations, for the comfort of all the audience. Adherence to this formula is assure way by which these works will be beneficial to both the expectations of the fans/audience and the artists (Grant, 2011). It is also worth noting that overreliance on a formulaic approach to genre films may gradually lead to the losing of the audience to boredom and a decrease in previous popularity since the genre films then become stale with clichés. Genre Categories According to Stringer (2008), categorization of films can never be precise but the categories are broad enough and can practically cater for all the existing films. The isolation of certain elements of a genre film and its categorization allows for the evaluation of the film within its determined genre. The isolation and categorization also allows for a meaningful comparison and deduction of some great judgements on the film. Nelmes (2011) explains that the historians of films did not subject films to genre analysis until the emergence of the 1970s. As the time has shown, one particular film belongs to at least one major genre but, at times, several films have a crossbreed classification with more that three genres that identify them (Nelmes, 2011). There are a number of film genres but the main ones are action, adventure, comedy, crime and gangster, drama, epics/historical, horror, musicals/dance, science fiction, westerns, and war. This paper discusses the film genres under the category of horror and action and gives a description of two American films rated as horror and action films respectively. i) Horror films Humphries (2001) defines horror as a film genre that intends to educe a negative emotional reaction from the audience. The film genre achieves this by playing on the primal fears of the viewers. These film genres often feature scenes that frighten the audience and the dominant themes in these films are normally the supernatural and the macabre. This aspect of its theme makes horror films to overlap often with other genres such as thriller, supernatural and fantasy. The production of horror films are normally in such a way that they portray the everyday nightmares of the audience. The production unit normally analyse the main issues that are most frightening to the target population and come up with a product that will definitely depict and arouse the feelings, repulsions and emotions of the audience. Several viewers have ranging amounts of hidden fears, and the fear and terror of the unknown and this film genre sufficiently tap into these emotional variations of the audience to complete the purpose of their production, that is, horror (Hernandez, 2009). The plot of a horror film generally involves the intrusion of personage, activity, or an evil spirit of a supernatural origin into the everyday lives of the world. Horror films also have certain sub-categories that include vampires, werewolves, demons, aliens, ghosts, zombies, serial killers, monsters, evil witches, and cannibals to mention but a few. In their 2007 publication: Cinema and Technology: Cultures, theories, and practices, Bennett et al argues that horror films have a reputation for being the cheapest genre to write for an audience. However, they further explain that writing a good horror is, at times, difficult and the writer may need to have an understanding of this film genre. The plots of horrors normally revolve around the methods that the protagonist applies to survive from the supernatural being in the film. A good horror movie should be able to balance the formulaic convention depicted and the generic invention in the film (David, 2007). Horror films started as a minor genre with the production of low-budget films such as those produced by Hammer Studios (for instance, the Black Widow), assisting in establishing many of the conventions of horror films. Earliest horror films such as Dracula and Frankenstein are in the Gothic style in a setting of spooky old mansions, and dark, fog-shrouded streets dominated by Victorian ghosts and evil scientists. However, as the television began showing violent images from the Vietnam War, these conventions became outdated and the concept of realism initiated further creativity in this genre. During the 1980s and the 1990s, horror films grew into a big business leading to innovation conceding to convention. The result was an increases production of formulaic films (Grant, 2003). An example of current-day American horror film is Anacondas: the Hunt for the Blood Orchid, which was produced and directed by Dwight H. Little in 2004, as both a thriller and a horror film (Bennett et al, 2008). In the film, a group of researchers set off from Borneo to search for a flower, called the “Blood Orchid”, which they believe will a longer and healthier life for the humans, as well be able to cure diseases like cancer. The team reaches a waterfall and have to wade through the river but suddenly, an anaconda emerges and wholly swallows one of the characters (Nicholas Gonzalez). After escaping this attach, a number of the researchers consider the option of calling off the research in order to avoid the anaconda. However, Jonny Messner assures the team not to be afraid, as it will take time for the snake to grow hungry again. From this juncture, it is clear that the characters in this horror film, to certain extent, were not fully observing the convention that relate to horror films. The characters were supposed to be extremely scared after the anaconda had swallowed Nicholas Gonzalez, but a good number of them behave as if nothing had happened. The movie is full of invention from the creation of the giant anaconda to the development of the isolated setting for the act. This constant use of “unrealistic” behaviour in the movie lead to it gathering a number of negative reviews from critics with a low score of 26% positive reviews ( Draven, 2013). The team travels to Andy Anderson who was living near the river and borrows her boat. While in the boat, Nicholas confesses to KaDee Strickland that he received a bribe to take the unsafe route. As the voyage continues, an infestation of leeches develops on Eugene Byrd’s back, which they burn with their touches followed by a poisonous spider in Chestnut’s shoes. They capture the spider for further study but in the meanwhile, the anaconda swallows Andy and his boat wrecked. As a result, the team is disappointed for losing their only chance for escape as they remain with only a few essentials for their escape (Draven, 2013). As the journey continues, they come across the chewed up body of Andy, and they soon realize that it must have been a mating season for the anacondas. The team is reaches a small native village with thatched huts and the director introduces an anaconda with a pair of human legs hanging out of its abdomen. The team concludes to continue with their search for the blood orchid arguing that the snakes are extremely large because they have been feeding on the blood orchid. However, a part of the team argues that they is no guarantee that the blood orchid will produce the same effects on humans, thus makes an escape craft from the deadly anacondas. As expected, the characters that show fear and doubt in this movie to escape from the dangerous anacondas show some essence of horror in their acting. The convention of showing revulsion and fear of the unknown forms an essential parts of a horror film. Even though apart of the team shows fear, there is always, a protagonist who continues to press on as the scenes in the horror film gets more dangerous to endure. To arouse the audience’s primal fears, it is expected that the part of the characters who makes a decision to leave the scenes meet the unexpected, like being swallowed by the anacondas, in this case (Lawrence, 2008). As the film continues, Chestnut realizes that one of them (Matthew) had secretly obtained Andy’s radio and gun. As a result, he opted to call for help using the radio, but Matthew was on the idea that the expedition should continue and was ready to do anything for the same course. Realizing that Chestnut was serious about calling for help, he decides to use the spider to paralyze him. This act portrays an element of betrayal that is a common trait of horror films. Like with this Chestnut’s situation, some characters in horror films are normally forced to under pain that when the audience view, they will feel like it should have not been the case. However, directors of horror films are in constant invention of new ideas in their production that are intended to arouse more negative reactions from the audience and make their films more horrific (Nelmes, 2011). Strickland realizes the paralysed Chestnut and notices the spider bite on his arm. He goes ahead to interrogate Matthew about what he had done to him, but suddenly an anaconda appears and swallows the paralyzed Chestnut, as she leaves the building that prompt the team to set the building on fire with an attempt to kill the anaconda. However, the rogue team member, Matthew, takes an advantage of this situation and stills the team’s raft, with selfish intentions of obtaining the blood orchids all for him. The remaining part of the team is walks through the bush to find both the orchid and their raft, but they find themselves in a cave as they try to escape from an anaconda. In the cave, Eugene finds a skeleton and is scared, then run back to the team reaching the team seconds ahead of the snake. The snake attacks the team but Strickland beheads the snake using a machete while another anaconda captures Eugene (Draven, 2013). As the team follows the anaconda, they find Eugene constricted by the snake. Johnny then throws his knife at the snake killing it in the head and freeing Eugene. As soon as the team had found their raft, Matthew shoots Johnny in the arm and forces the team to accompany him to the orchids that were hanging perilously above a pit in which a ball of male anacondas were mating with the female. He forces Strickland to cross the pit through a thin log placed across the pit for her to fill for him a backpack with orchids. On her way back, the thin log begins to crumble and Matthews orders Strickland to throw her the backpack, but she threatens to throw the flowers in the pit if Matthew do not drop his gun. As the log breaks, she falls halfway the pit and the team struggles to get her out of the pit while Matthew tries to get the backpack. One of the spiders he was carrying unluckily bites him and he falls into the pit and is eaten as the rest of the team escapes (Draven, 2013). As the remaining escapes, it happens that the female anaconda notices them and tries to attack but Salli Richardson tricks it into biting their fuel container with an aim to explode it and the rest of the anacondas in the pit. Eugene then shoots the container with a flare that causes a massive explosion killing the anacondas with the blood orchids as well. Then the remaining team makes it back to the raft and leave. Discussion about this film From this horror film, it is evident that the use of snakes in the movie brings some form of emotional arousal on the senses of the viewers. A number of people fear snakes to the extent that seeing them make them scream helplessly. However, the characters in this horror film showed a very low percentage of fear from the snakes. The emotion that exposure to a snake should bring to an individual is that of death is one does not escape the snake. The movie portrays the characters encounter with the snakes to be a normal encounter, in which the characters show little amount of scare from the anacondas. However, an argument rises that it was the Director’s intention to surprise the audience with something unique in the movie (Langford, 2005). The movie portrays Matthew as the antagonist who wanted to gain all that the team was struggling to get. As a result, he is finally eliminated from the scenes by the anacondas and he losses everything as a result. There is a substantial balance of convention and invention in this horror film. The primary goal of the movie remains to scare people, a convention related to horror movies. This is achieved by acts like anacondas eating people, the bites of the poisonous spiders, and the large, isolated, and empty setting of the movie. Invention in the film involves the creation of the deadly anacondas that portray the behaviour of real anacondas. This balance between convention and invention in this horror film has made it possible for the film to achieve its primary, creating fear in the audience though film critics have condemned its excessive use of unrealistic CGI (Langford, 2005). ii) Action films Action film is a genre involving a hero/heroine who is in a situation of unending challenges. These situations normally include physical feats, serial fight scenes, and violence. These films portray a resourceful character who tries to go against all incredible odds such as villains, pursuit, and life-threatening situations but the films normally conclude with a victory on the part of the hero. In the past, the action films convention involves dependence on the efforts of professional stunt crew to create action sequence and other visual effects in these genre films. However, with invention, there has been an advancement in CGI that make it easier and cheaper to create the action sequence, visual effects, and settings that make the films more enjoyable to view. However, it is necessary to balance the convention and invention in theses action films so that they adhere to the formulaic requirements of their production and the use of a controllable invention in there productions to remove boredom from the audience (Hernandez, 2009). Action films that depend largely on computer animations to create unrealistic, and extremely unbelievable settings and events are often criticised by movie reviewers. This is because; they tend to go off the conventions in this field and create no balance between convention and invention. These types of movies no serious themes but portrays the producer/director’s ability to produce highly sophisticated movies that end up gathering a low population of audience. Action films started developing in the 1970s with the increase of special effects and stunts in the film industry, though action had occurring in a number of films. Invention in these films has seen the split of action films into other sub-genres such as action comedy, action horror, disaster films, martial arts, science-fiction action, spy films, superhero film, and action thriller (Banata, 2001). The convention in the action films owes its route to the first action films of the 1920s and the 1930s. In this films, the use of swords in action films were born, but then, the directors had to monitor the use of these swords to ensure they are not under used or over- exaggerated with the aim of maintaining the audience to these films. The formulaic production of theses movies advanced to the production of war and cowboy movies in the 1940s, but the action still were in relation to the conventions of these genre films. The modern-day action films have an inspiration from the long-running success of the James Bond films that dominated the action films of the 1960’s. As is viewed in the today’s action films, the Bond films depicted actions combined with car chasses, fistfights, fast cuttings, elaborate action sequence, and use of a number of gadgets and weapons. Today, a number of action films productions have seen the invention of sophisticated gargets and machines that with the aim of assisting the characters accomplish their task. However, the films still balance between invention and convention by including action sequence and fistfights in the films to avoid bringing the audience to boredom. Reliance on both invention and convention in these films helps the viewers to be able to compare the particular movie and others existing in this category (Grindon, 2000). An example of current-day action film is 300: Rise of an Empire, which is a 2014 American fantasy war film and directed by Noam Murro. The film begins with Queen Gorgo of Sparta (Lena Heady) telling her men about the Battle of Marathon in which the General of Athens kills King Darius I of Persia in the presence of the King’s son. The killing was made using an arrow that was thrown targeting the King in his ship. The movie is set in changing areas but the real action takes place in the sea from ship to ship. The use of arrows points to the formulaic adherence to the convention of action movies, that is, it is intended to make the movie quite customary to the time of production and create an attraction on the side of the audience. The king’s son is then goes to a cave and bathes in a non-worldly liquid, returns to a Persia as a “God-King” and declares war on Greece. This is an aspect of fantasy involving invention in this action film. Bathing in some liquid and latter emerging, as a “God-King” is something extra-ordinarily that serves to create more suspense in the movie for the audience. Therefore, there is appropriate balance between invention and convention in this action film (Draven, 2013). After a series of warring events from these two sides, the victory of the fight was lying mainly on the hands of the Greece. Impressed by the Greece’s General skills, Darius’ naval commander (Eva Green), brings him onto her ship and tries to seduce him through sex to join the Persians as her second-in-command. He refuses making her to push him aside with a declaration of seeking revenge. This clearly show how hero in action fills are normally focused individuals who face several temptations that try to distract them from achieving their primary goal in the film, but make important decisions that lead to the continuation of theses films (Hsu et al, 2012). As part of her revenge, Green spills tar into the sea and her suicide bombers swim and climb the Greek ships with their flame bombs. As she tries to fire flaming arrows to ignite the tar, the Greek General to kill one of her suicide bombers who fall into the sea and causing the ships from both sides to explode. Following a continuum of scenes and events, this action film reaches its climax when the Greece General tries to convince Green to surrender but she tries to kill him, thus he stabs her through the stomach. While dying she is astonished to see the Persian “God-King” turning his back on her by retreating from the war. Lena Heady joins with the Greece General, the two take a moment to silently recognize their alliance to one another, while the rest of Green’s army charges in front to attack them. The film concludes when the three charge at the opposing Persians with the added Spartans army behind them. The setting of this film is an ancient environment of the warring Persians and Greece. The movie portrays a brilliantly choreographed battle sequence and the use of stunning CGI. All these are intended to bring in a balance to the convention and invention in the action films genre. The film utilizes inventions in the film industry such as slow-motion ultra-violence, gushers of blood from the stabbed-characters, remarkable 3-D effects, the presence of homoerotic subtext, and a self-important plot. These serve to make the audience actively in-touch with their screens, as the scenes are made to be real with the indulgence of formulaic production in certain scenes. However, a few critics view the movie to be relying excessively on invention in its production. This has led them to compare it with a video game, arguing that it is so campy, and might work better when put as a musical. Conclusion The production of any film should put the interest of the targeted population as the major determinant to the type and quality of film made. There are distinct formulas that assist the filmmakers to produce movies depending on the genre of film production under question. When a filmmaker produces a film that do not conform to the general production standards in that film genre, the audience will be at a position to realize this. The result might be either a sharp reduction in the population viewing the film or serious critics from movie reviewers. This could have an effect on the sales of the film as well as degrade the view of the director of the film. Thus, a balance of convention and invention is fundamentally crucial in genre films. As demonstrated with the two genre films above (Horror and Action), genre films generally balance convention and invention in a bid to get a stable consumer base and to produce quality films that removes boredom. In creating their films, filmmakers should be able to go back and forth between convention and invention. This will enable the filmmakers to create a dialogue within the particular genre that they are dealing with. Integration of both old and new ideas in film making lead to some sort of realism in the movie and caters for the demand of the different viewers that may come across the movie (Langford, 2005). Filmmakers may decide to be alternating the films within a particular genre for a given period that covers familiar normal life stories/events, plot twists, and the application of unanticipated characterization. However, formulaic production is maintained with a controllable use of invention in the production. Below is the filmography of Dwight. H Little, the director of the Anacondas: the Hunt for the Blood Orchid Year Title Notes 1986 Getting Even KGB: The Secret War 1988 Bloodstone Freddy’s Nightmares TV series Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers 1989 The Phantom of the Opera 1990 Marked for Death 1992 Rapid Fire Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home 1993 Ground Zero: Texas Video game The X-files TV series 1996 Millennium TV series 1997 Murder at 1600 The Practice TV series 2000 Papa’s Angels 2001 Deep Blue 24 TV series Boss of Bosses 2004 Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid 2005 Prison Break TV series Just Legal TV series Bones TV series The Inside TV series Law & Order: Trial by Jury TV series 2006 Vanished TV series Day Break TV series 2008 Prison Break TV series Dollhouse TV series 2009 Tekken Castle TV series 2011 Nikita TV series Adapted from Nelmes (2011) References Banata, Q. (2001). Genre Studies. Film Quarterly, 34(4), 52-53. Bennett, B., Furstenau, M., & Mackenzie, A. (2008). 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Hybrids in Hollywood: a study of the production and performance of genre-spanning films. Industrial and Corporate Change, 21(6), 1427-1450. Humphries, R. (2001). Fritz Lang: genre and representation in his American films. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Jayamanne, L. (2005). Kiss me deadly: feminism & cinema for the moment. Sydney: Power Publications. Langford, B. (2005). Film genre. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Langford, B. (2005). Film genre: Hollywood and beyond. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Lawrence, N. (2008). Blaxploitation films of the 1970s Blackness and genre. New York: Routledge. Nelmes, J. (2011). Analyzing the screenplay. New York: Routledge. Smith, P. J. (2010). Students of Genre. Film Quarterly, 63(4), 12-13. Stringer, J. (2008). Genre Films and Festival Communities: Lessons from Nottingham, 1991–2000. Film International, 6(4), 53-60. Tapper, M. (2005). Explorations into New Genre Realms. Film International, 3(6), 60-61. Vares, T. (2002). Framing "Killer Women" Films: Audience Use of Genre. Feminist Media Studies, 2(2), 213-229. Read More