Movies rely heavily on electrical and computer ...



When considering the film-watching habits of most people, distinctive patterns emerge. People tend to watch a certain type of film over and over. Which type they watch can depend on the marketing of the film, the reviews they may have read, or the recommendation of friends and family. Whatever the motivation a person has to see a particular film, the type, or genre, informs the desire to see the film and expectations regarding it. . The genre of a film points to its narrative elements. These can be broken down into a number of categories, including typical plotlines, typical details in the story, typical characters, bits of dialogue, typical settings, and the way the filmmaker makes use of the camera and lighting. A combination of typical factors from any or all of these categories creates a pattern within the context of a film, and this results in a genre that can be used to determine the audience’s movie-going choices. Most films can be divided into categories based on genres. These genres are groupings of films based on their identifiable settings, props, themes, structuring, situations, and characters. Genre classification gives viewers an enhanced understanding of the filmmaker’s intentions by creating expectations about factors within a film such as character motivations, appropriate emotional reactions to the film, and how the film will end. Each film genre has a unique set of story arcs and conventions that are repeated across the films within that genre. All these factors set up a circumstance in which viewers are able to make sense of occurrences within a film based on their knowledge of previous works in the same genre. The use of genre conventions, thus, is a shorthand method that can efficiently communicate a film’s message so that it can be readily understood by a wide range of viewers. In fact, even the most casual filmgoer has an understanding of dozens of the stylistic techniques and narrative devices that are associated with the most popular film genres. Genres supply ready-made formulas that writers, actors, directors, and production people can draw upon to inform their work. In essence, filmmakers control the audience’s responses by meeting or thwarting their expectations. On one hand, the liberal use of genre conventions creates images and meanings that filmgoers can understand and discuss. Audiences become more knowledgeable about these genre conventions through increasing their viewing experiences. This enables the viewers to identify and understand symbolic meanings and to predict story outcomes. On the other hand, inventive manipulation of the components of a genre film can bring new perceptions that expand on the audience’s film knowledge and how they apply it. Throughout their development and history, genre films combine these two aspects of storytelling, and they maintain a balance between repetitions of tried and true patterns and adding new twists to the story. Undoubtedly, much of the enjoyment that comes from watching a movie comes from knowing what to expect. Audiences readily assume that a given film will follow certain rules and have certain elements based on the genre of the film. In his book, Film Genre 2000: New Critical Essays, Wheeler Dixon complains that, “What audiences today desire more than ever before is “more of the same,” and studios, scared to death by rising production and distribution costs, are equally loathe to strike out in new generic directions. Keep audiences satisfied, strive to maintain narrative closure at all costs, and keep within the bounds of heterotopic romance, no matter what genre one is ostensibly working in.” Even though this is the case, audiences also share the human proclivity for wanting something new and different. While they appreciate the comfort of having their expectations fulfilled, audiences also want to knowledge novel variations that stimulate their thinking. Genre films can become stale with clichés. Overreliance on a formulaic approach often leads to losing the audience to boredom and a decline in the popularity of the genre. New and creative approaches need to be applied to genre films to prevent them from becoming moribund. In addition, satires and revisionist films can be used to examine worn out conventions in new and interesting ways. If filmmakers are too inventive, though, their work may not be completely understood or appreciated. Financial investors may be wary of producing films that do not fit into existing models for remunerative projects. Thus, the output of genre films necessarily alternates between emphasizing invention and convention.The concept of establishing genre categories, arose out of the interaction between needs of the audience and the financial aspects of commercial filmmaking. Studio bigwigs and film producers want their movies to be successful and make enough money to repay expenses and end up with a tidy profit. These demands of the box-office led to a push to make films that were like whatever films had already gained commercial success. Filmmakers were, thus, encouraged to repeat plots, shots, dialogue, and characters with only minor variations. These elements eventually became codified into traditions of generic conventions with common pools of visual, narrative and thematic traits. Genre films can be said to be an exploration and celebration of socio-cultural beliefs and practices. They directly relate directly to the audience’s life experience and their shared cultural values.Film genres are not static. They evolve over time. For example, the lone Western hero with a strict moral code who became the popular staple of 1940s and 1950s was in an entirely different world than the morally ambivalent outlaws in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969. Because filmmaking is a cultural phenomenon, it relies on knowledge and reactions based on the current culture.?Changes in the social climate will, therefore, make a definite impact on filmmaking conventions. When filmmakers cater to contemporary mores and constructs, their actions get translated into making more sophisticated presentations that incorporate new cultural ideas and expectations. Novel variations in a genre challenge audiences’ presuppositions and invite them to apply their genre knowledge to interpret and appreciate something new. In addition, a genre’s popularity with certain audience segments is often affected by psychosocial factors such as age or gender. In that respect, it becomes clear why teenagers and young adults, who tend to be psychologically motivated to seek out intense experiences and excitement, also tend to be the biggest audience for the horror film genre. That also provides an explanation for why that attraction faded with age. Middle aged adults are less likely to devote so much viewing time to horror, because usually there are already scary enough problems in their own daily lives.Movies rely heavily on electrical and computer technologies. Technology developments can affect genre film conventions on the distribution end by offering enhanced tools for advertisement and marketing. Gimmicks such as vibrating devices used in seats at showings of William Castle’s film The Tingler (1959) and the loud, loud sounds of Sensurround used during the movie?Earthquake (1974) are examples of short-lived horror film invention. New technologies such as Computer Generated Imagery (CGI), 3-D Movies, and HD technology serve to heighten realism, enhance special effects, and stimulate creativity, changing the face of film production?and genre conventions. There are many types of film genres; however, westerns and horror films constitute two of the most highly codified genres. The western has long constituted a popular genre. It is perhaps one of the most definitive of all genres in terms of consistent adherence to its main themes. It was first represented onscreen in the early 1900s in Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery. The setting, by definition, is the so-called Wild West of the American frontier during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The core of the conventions in a western were set up in films of the 1940s and 1950s. It features are the solo hero who upholds the moral Code of the West. The hero is usually a cowboy who is an outsider, an archetypal wanderer who expresses his power through his skills with guns and violence. The scenes are often expansive outdoor spaces that convey the idea of the American frontier as free and untamed. Many westerns depict the law as ineffectual against evil and lawlessness, with only the hero to left to prevail against villainy. There are few female heroes in this version of the story of the Wild West, and Native Americans are typically portrayed as savages who need to be conquered or destroyed.The western genre maintained popularity from about 1930 to the 1960s. Hundreds of westerns were being filmed during that time, and most of them had the same basic plot: straight shooting cowboys in white hats were the good guys who battled the villains who wore black hats, all for the love of a good woman. At the end the hero could be seen riding into sunset on his way to save other innocent people. Little wonder, then, that by the 1960s, interest in Western films had waned. Pretty much everyone had seen everything the genre had to offer, at least twice. The 1960s was an era of new cultural ideologies and approaches, and the growing interest in personal and social freedoms and civil rights issues helped fuel genre invention. Film portrayals of the Wild West shifted to a greater realism. This marked the development of the revisionist westerns--films that defy many of the established conventions for this genre. One of the first revisionist westerns was John Ford’s Cheyenne Autumn (1964), in which the victimization of the Indians is underscored and a strong female character is featured. During the 1970s, more complex portrayals of the western hero occurred. Films such as Little Big Man (1970), by Arthur Penn, envisioned the western expansion from the point of view of the Native Americans. The genre was re-invigorated by the exploration of psychological and social issues in such films as Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971). Post-Hollywood production law westerns such as director Sam Peckinpah’s, The Wild Bunch, and the spaghetti Westerns of director Sergio Leone such as The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, emphasized increased action and violence. In 1974, Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, co-written by Richard Pryor, spoofed the Westerns while raising interesting ideas about racial issues.From the 1990s to the current time, the once ubiquitous western genre films became marginalized. While the easily identifiable conventions that permeated westerns made them a popular movie staple, they inevitably made the movies seem lacking in sophistication and overly predictable. The western genre, it seemed, had nothing new to say that could capture an audience’s interest. However, filmmakers still sometimes have been able to revive interest in the genre through invention and satire. Dances with Wolves (1990) presented a sympathetic portrait of the Native American plight in the Old West. The Quick and the Dead (1995) offered a female protagonist as the one wearing he gun. Jim Jarmusch, also produced Dead Man in 1995 as well. Along with Clint Eastwood’s film, Unforgiven (1992), Dead Man is often referred to as anti-western, who would later direct his own classic western, because they feature introduced conflicted heroes who the break with several traditional conventions of the horror genre. Horror started as a minor film genre. The genre conventions feature fearful situations, horrific creatures, dangerous sexuality, and death. Horror films present situations where the normal order of reality is disrupted by monsters or other forces beyond human control. They suggest that humans and their well-being are often quite vulnerable. Most horror films are designed to expose and explore the audience’s worst fears. The films often end in a terrifying or shocking catharsis. This is a real chemical reaction, based on the thrill of progressive anticipation and the calming after-effect of relaxation.The earliest horror films such as Dracula and Frankenstein were Gothic in style. These films established classic horror movie conventions such as, settings in spooky old mansions, and dark, fog-shrouded streets with Victorian ghosts and evil scientists. Starting in the 1950s, the tone of horror films shifted away from the gothic style. Technological invention came into play during this era, with special effects work coming into widespread use in such films as The Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Fly. The monster movies of the 1950s were also the first so-called blockbusters, and many horror films premiered amidst a marketing blitz with advertising that made use of the new medium of TV. Cold War fears and scientific breakthroughs inspired the subject matter of many of the era’s horror films. However, the inventions soon became conventions, and the late 1950s through the early 1960s saw a proliferation of low-budget horror films by production companies such as Hammer Studios and American International Pictures. The usual horror film conventions were considered outdated in the 1960s, as television began showing the real life horrors from the Vietnam War and the social protest movement. This encouraged further innovations in the genre, particularly the increased inclusion of violence and factors that added up to more realism. Alfred Hitchcock opened the decade with Psycho (1960), which could be considered the first modern psychological horror film. Michael Powell's Peeping Tom was another notable example of this subgenre. In addition, films such as Blood Feast, Witchfinder General, and Repulsion, featured controversial levels of sex and violence. Horror movies such as?Rosemary's Baby?(1968) and George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead?(1968) undermined numerous classic horror film conventions, and they had a powerful effect on horror audiences and future filmmaking in the genre. In the late 1970s, big budget horror films such as The Towering Inferno and Jaws captivated mainstream Hollywood filmmakers. These films relied heavily on producing movies that stuck to the conventions of their respective horror subgenres, because such consistency guaranteed that there would be “bums on seats.” However, cynicism and grim economic times served also whet the public’s appetite for realism in horror. Thus, independent filmmakers were able to thrive, producing their own films on shoestring budgets. The early careers of Roman Polanski, William Friedkin, and Brian De Palma produced films that bucked mainstream Hollywood conventions. Films such as Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), debuted to great popular success. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the horror genre was developed into a big business and innovation ceded to convention. The major studios were seeking relatively safe financial investments, and an increased number of formulaic films were produced in the genre. The studios invested in high-production, special-effects heavy films, and mainstream horror filmmaking became increasingly dependent on sequels and remakes. Films such as Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Halloween racked up the reboots. With seemingly nowhere left to go in the realm of explicit violence, filmmakers, sought to revitalize the horror genre by making fun of its conventions in the 1990s. Wes Craven's Scream, was one of the first horror films to comically parody the genre, additionally including a self-referential subtext. The movie Scream, was one of the first horror films to comically parody the genre, additionally including a self-referential subtext. It featured characters who often made reference to the conventions of the horror movies genre with ironic humor. In the Evil Dead, Sam Raimi parodied the zombie subgenre. ?Inevitably, these film were serialized and copied with the production of similar genre films. Two years later in 2000, Scary Movie, a parody about horror film parodies, was released. This provides a clear illustration of the inextricable connection between invention and convention in genre films. The inventiveness of parody is only possible when the full range of the conventions of a genre are well-known to the audience. In other words, to fully appreciate Scary Movie, audiences not only had to have mastered the traditional conventions of horror but also the films that parody those conventions.The events of that day changed global perceptions of what is frightening, and set the cultural agenda for the following years. The film industry, already facing a recession, felt very hard hit as film-makers struggled to come to terms with what was now acceptable to the viewing public. Anyone trying to sell a horror film in the autumn of 2001 (as George Romero tried with?Land of the Dead) got rebuffed. "Everybody wanted to make the warm fuzzy movies."(LA Times 30/10/05)After a lull in horror releases immediately following 9/11, the influence of current events on film was seen in the invention regarding apocalypse films like?28 Days Later,?Resident Evil, and?War of the Worlds. Zombie films quickly moved from invention to establishing conventions as a horror movie staple. The more liberal social conventions of the post-millennium supported increased levels of violence gore in horror films. The advancement of HD technology and imagery also has helped develop and refine the torture porn subgenre. Films such as Hostel?(2005) and Eli Rot’s Saw?series thus became quite successful?at the box office. Traditional genres conventions can suddenly have a rekindled popularity. For example, currently, classic horror films seem to be having an upswing at the box office. Recent films such as The Conjuring, present variations on well-worn horror staples such as ghost stories and scary monsters. Even though studios and production companies attempt to manage, or at least predict, the next biggest trend, they are often as likely to fail as they are to succeed. As with most things in life, films and viewers thrive on the dynamic interaction between knowledge based on stories from the past and creative visions of the future. By going back and forth between convention and invention, filmmakers create a dialogue within each genre that keeps an audience enthralled with their output. The fact that a filmmaker can use genre films to present familiar stories and situations and then manipulate and transform them using plot twists, unexpected characterizations, and other changes means that there is an infinite amount of potential stories that can be accessed and created, despite the limitations of the human mind. Genre film classifications denote a legacy of how a body of work can be built up and maintained while becoming fodder for future productions. ................
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