A genre categories films or different media texts under different groups according to their setting, the plot and the overall theme. Different genres include comedy, romantic, horror, thriller, chick flick etc.

The type of story told in the film and how it complexes with the issues, characters and their relationships give a clear idea of what genre the film falls under. For example, a film that may fall under the genre of romantic comedy would typically include two characters that meet and get involved in eachother but due to some conflict and challenges they face, they part ways to come back and unite later. An example of such a film would be monster in law which involves a couple that is about to settle down and get married however, the grooms mother decides to ruin their relationship.

Visual iconography of the film helps identifying the genre of the film. The props, costumes and make up used in the film give us a general idea of what the film is about. The get up of characters tells a lot about the character by providing it a cultural identity and making the film more relatable to its genre. A character of a western film would typically be dressed in clothes that were worn in the 19th century in the Wild West. They include a cowboy hat, a leather belt and cowboy boots. Similarly, a western piece would be set far from cities with infrastructure like New York City in undeveloped valleys in the states of Arizona and Texas. The props used in these films would be different guns riffles and things usually made out of leather.

Similarly in action films, the costumes of characters like the ones in avengers and terminator differentiate them from costumes of characters in a chick flick like white chicks. The camera angels, action sequences, like fighting scenes, different stunts, car crashes and explosions clearly give an idea of the type of genre.

The systems of beliefs ideas and values the plot follows would provide a clear idea of the genre of a film. A romantic movie would be based on the idea the true love always unites despite having to face many challenges and conflicts.

All of the elements of these different combines combined categorise a film under a genre

The opening scene plays a vital role of giving an insight to the characters, the plot and ideology behind the film. Sometimes the opening can involve direct contact with the audience for example, Annie Hall starts off with a monologue given by Alvy in which he literally tells the audience about himself and cracks jokes about his breakup with Annie Hall and his mid-life crisis. The audience find this type of film opening unique and intresting as it directly engages them.

Looking at the opening scene of the ‘Godfather‘, it is different from the example given above as the camera zooms out as two men (Bonasera and Corleone) have a conversation where Bonasera demands justice for the assault of his daughter. The appearance of both men and the way they talk connote their wealth and power which already tells the audience about its genre (gangster film). It highlights the theme of revenge, violence and mortality that is followed throughout the film. This allows the audience to deduce information about the film on their own.

‘Horrible Bosses’ is a film that revolves around three hardworking employees who are fed up of their bosses for mistreating them and how they plan to take revenge. The opening of this film explains why essentially the employees hate the bosses so much, why they do whatever they do later on in the film and what the characters in the film are like. This sort of gives the audience a backstory. 

In this post, I will be talking about the importance of the very first scene of a film and why it is essential. This will allow me to have a better understanding of this subject as my final A1 project is creating my own film opening. A film opening serves a very important purpose and in order to make my own, I must throughly understand what it takes into creating one and this research will set a base for me.

“Time is money” and in order to get the viewer to spare some time and sit for the next couple of hours to watch your film, you must give them something and leave them wanting more. This is absolute purpose of a film opening. It sets the tone and highlights the main themes of the film. This part of the film has the complete power of either making or breaking viewership hence, the opening must be able to create suspense and curiosity within the audience in order to keep them glued till the end.

The film opening must be very well thought-through. Without giving away too much, it should establish the main themes of the plot, the characters, the back story, what the conflict might be or what led to it for example a scene of a bomb blast sight can be shown. This might create suspense within the audience as to what led to all of this or what may happen next. It also not essential for the opening to be very high budget, the idea must be well thought of and well executed. The main purpose is to just give the audience a hint of what they are about to watch but keeping in mind there should be suspense of what’s coming up next to keep them on the edge of their seats.

This post was quite brief, however I will be choosing a couple of film openings that I will analysing and writing about so that I can link these ideas to an actual film opening to get a better understanding of it for my own final project

Hi I’m Zoha Ahmed, a student of Political Science, Urdu and Media Studies. Since the age of 12, unlike my peers, I was compelled to look into the different perspectives of life and display them through my own eye. I started to channel my views and insights through my political blog which only strengthened my love and passion for journalism. With my interest and enthusiasm for visual arts and media, this subject seems like a more than perfect fit.