Movie+Genres

__**Action**__ - A film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases. They occasionally have a resourceful character struggling against incredible odds such as, life-threatening situations, an evil villain, and/or being chased in several ways of transportation (car, bus, truck, etc.), with victory achieved at the end after difficult physical efforts and violence. Story and character development are generally secondary to explosions, fist fights, gunplay and car chases.
 * Movie Genres**

Examples: Rambo, The Terminator, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, James Bond


 * __Adventure__** - Adventure films are usually exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales, very similar to or often paired with the action film genre. They can include traditional swashbucklers, serialized films, and historical spectacles (similar to the epics film genre), searches or expeditions for lost continents, "jungle" and "desert" epics, treasure hunts, disaster films, or searches for the unknown.

Examples: Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Carribean, Braveheart, Gladiator

__**Comedy**__ - "make 'em laugh" films designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are light-hearted dramas, crafted to amuse, entertain, and provoke enjoyment. The comedy genre humorously exaggerates the situation, the language, action, and characters. Comedies observe the deficiencies, foibles, and frustrations of life, providing merriment and a momentary escape from day-to-day life. They usually have happy endings, although the humor may have a serious or pessimistic side. Comedies usually come in two general formats: comedian-led (with well-timed gags, jokes, or sketches) and situation-comedies that are told within a narrative. Both comedy elements may appear together and/or overlap. Comedy hybrids commonly exist with other major genres, such as musical-comedy, horror-comedy, and comedy-thriller. Comedies have also been classified in various subgenres, such as romantic comedy, crime/caper comedy, sports comedy, teen or coming-of-age comedy, social-class comedy, military comedy, fish-out-of-water comedy, and gross-out comedy. Examples: Happy Gilmore, Superbad, American Pie, Austin Powers, Anything with Seth Rogan/Jonah Hill

__**Crime & Gangster**__- These are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies. Crime films developed around the sinister actions of criminals or gangsters, particularly bankrobbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and violently murdering their way through life. In the 1940s, a new type of crime thriller emerged, more dark and cynical - see the section on film-noir for further examples of crime films. The stylistic approach ranges from gritty realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures (crime drama) to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains (crime thriller). Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies. Film gangsters are usually materialistic, street smart, immoral and self-destructive. Rivalry with other criminals in gangster warfare is often a significant plot characteristic. Crime plots also include questions such as how the criminal will be apprehended by police, private eyes, lawful authorities, or mysteries such as who stole the valued object. They rise to power with a tough cruel facade while showing an ambitious desire for success and recognition, but underneath they can express sensitivity and gentleness.

Examples: The Godfather, Goodfellas, Silence of the Lambs, Raging Bull, Shawshank Redemption

Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves, others, society and even natural phenomena. Drama is the most broad of movies genres and includes subgenres as romantic drama, sport films, period drama, courtroom drama and crime. At the center of a drama is usually a character or characters who are in conflict at a crucial moment in their lives. They often revolve around families; movies like Ordinary People dig under the skin of everyday life to ask big questions and touch on the deepest emotions of normal people. Dramas often, but not always, have tragic or at least painful resolutions and concern the survival of some tragic crisis, like the death of a family member (Terms of Endearment), or a divorce (Kramer vs Kramer). Some of the greatest screen performances come from dramas, as there is ample opportunity for actors to stretch into a role that most other genres cannot afford.
 * __Drama__**- A film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes.

Examples: Schindler's List, To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Deer Hunter, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (The list goes on and on and on)


 * __Horror__**- These films are a movie genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus they may overlap with the fantasy and supernatural genre. Horrors frequently overlap with the thriller genre. Horror films deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden worst fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Although a good deal of it is about the supernatural, if some films contain a plot about morbidity, serial killers, a disease/virus outbreak and surrealism, they may be termed "horror". Plots written within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Themes or elements often prevalent in typical horror films include ghosts, torture, gore, werewolves, ancient curses, satanism, demons, vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, zombies and serial killers. Conversely, stories of the supernatural are not necessarily always a horror movie as well.

Examples: Halloween, The Excorsist, Friday the 13th, Poltergeist, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Ring, The Grudge


 * __Science Fiction__**- A film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic elements such as spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar space travel or other technologies. Science fiction films have often been used to focus on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues like the human condition. In many cases, tropes derived from written science fiction may be used by filmmakers ignorant of or at best indifferent to the standards of scientific plausibility and plot logic to which written science fiction is traditionally held. The genre has existed since the early years of silent cinema, when Georges Melies' A Trip to the Moon (1902) amazed audiences with its trick photography effects. The next major example in the genre was the 1927 film Metropolis. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the genre consisted mainly of low-budget B-movies. After Stanley Kubrick's 1968 landmark 2001: A Space Odyssey, the science fiction film genre was taken more seriously. In the late 1970s, big-budget science fiction films filled with special effects became popular with audiences after the success of Star Wars and paved the way for the blockbuster hits of subsequent decades.

Examples: Planet of the Apes, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Star Wars Series, The Matrix

=**__SHOT LENGTH__**=

1 . Extreme long shot
Extreme Long Shot This can be taken from as much as a quarter of a mile away, and is generally used as a scene-setting, establishing shot. It normally shows an EXTERIOR, eg the outside of a building, or a landscape, and is often used to show scenes of thrilling action eg in a war film or disaster movie. There will be very little detail visible in the shot, it's meant to give a general impression rather than specific information. //The extreme long shot on the left is taken from a distance, but denotes a precise location - it might even connote all of the entertainment industry if used as the opening shot in a news story.// Long Shot
 * [[image:http://www.mediaknowall.com/images/camangles/extremelongshot.jpg caption="Extreme Long Shot showing Hollywood sign"]] ||
 * Extreme Long Shot showing Hollywood sign ||
 * [[image:http://www.mediaknowall.com/images/camangles/longshot.jpg caption="Long shot"]] ||
 * Long shot ||

2. Long Shot
This is the most difficult to categorise precisely, but is generally one which shows the image as approximately "life" size ie corresponding to the real distance between the audience and the screen in a cinema (the figure of a man would appear as six feet tall). This category includes the FULL SHOT showing the entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom. While the focus is on characters, plenty of background detail still emerges: we can tell the coffins on the right are in a Western-style setting, for instance. Medium Shot
 * [[image:http://www.mediaknowall.com/images/camangles/medium.jpg caption="Medium shot of a street musician"]] ||
 * Medium shot of a street musician ||

3. Medium Shot
Contains a figure from the knees/waist up and is normally used for dialogue scenes, or to show some detail of action. Variations on this include the TWO SHOT (containing two figures from the waist up) and the THREE SHOT (contains 3 figures...). NB. Any more than three figures and the shot tends to become a long shot. Background detail is minimal, probably because location has been established earlier in the scene - the audience already know where they are and now want to focus on dialogue and character interation. Another variation in this category is the OVER-THE-SHOULDER-SHOT, which positions the camera behind one figure, revealing the other figure, and part of the first figure's back, head and shoulder. Close up
 * [[image:http://www.mediaknowall.com/images/camangles/closeup.jpg caption="close up"]] ||
 * close up ||

4. Close-Up
This shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a specific detail of mise en scène. Everything else is just a blur in the background. This shot magnifies the object (think of how big it looks on a cinema screen) and shows the importance of things, be it words written on paper, or the expression on someone's face. The close-up takes us into the mind of a character. In reality, we only let people that we really trust get THAT close to our face - mothers, children and lovers, usually - so a close up of a face is a very intimate shot. A film-maker may use this to make us feel extra comfortable or extremely uncomfortable about a character, and usually uses a zoom lens in order to get the required framing. Extreme Close Up
 * [[image:http://www.mediaknowall.com/images/camangles/extremeCU.jpg caption="Extreme Close up of a cat's eye"]] ||
 * Extreme Close up of a cat's eye ||

5. Extreme Close-Up
As its name suggests, an extreme version of the close up, generally magnifying beyond what the human eye would experience in reality. An extreme close-up of a face, for instance, would show only the mouth or eyes, with no background detail whatsoever. This is a very artificial shot, and can be used for dramatic effect. The tight focus required means that extra care must be taken when setting up and lighting the shot - the slightest camera shake or error in focal length is very noticeable.

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=__**CAMERA ANGLES**__=

1. The Bird's-Eye view
This shows a scene from directly overhead, a very unnatural and strange angle. Familiar objects viewed from this angle might seem totally unrecognisable at first (umbrellas in a crowd, dancers' legs). This shot does, however, put the audience in a godlike position, looking down on the action. People can be made to look insignificant, ant-like, part of a wider scheme of things. Hitchcock (and his admirers, like Brian de Palma) is fond of this style of shot. A cameraman, raised above the action, gets a high angle shot
 * [[image:http://www.mediaknowall.com/images/camangles/moviecamera.jpg caption="Cameraman gets a high angle shot"]] ||
 * Cameraman gets a high angle shot ||

2. High Angle
Not so extreme as a bird's eye view. The camera is elevated above the action using a crane to give a general overview. High angles make the object photographed seem smaller, and less significant (or scary). The object or character often gets swallowed up by their setting - they become part of a wider picture.

3. Eye Level
A fairly neutral shot; the camera is positioned as though it is a human actually observing a scene, so that eg actors' heads are on a level with the focus. The camera will be placed approximately five to six feet from the ground.

4. Low Angle
These increase height (useful for short actors like Tom Cruise or James McAvoy) and give a sense of speeded motion. Low angles help give a sense of confusion to a viewer, of powerlessness within the action of a scene. The background of a low angle shot will tend to be just sky or ceiling, the lack of detail about the setting adding to the disorientation of the viewer. The added height of the object may make it inspire fear and insecurity in the viewer, who is psychologically dominated by the figure on the screen.

5. Oblique/Canted Angle
Sometimes the camera is tilted (ie is not placed horizontal to floor level), to suggest imbalance, transition and instability (very popular in horror movies). This technique is used to suggest POINT-OF-View shots (ie when the camera becomes the 'eyes' of one particular character,seeing what they see — a hand held camera is often used for this.

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=__**TYPES OF LIGHTING**__=

**Front Lighting**

 * Front lighting is accomplished by lighting the subject directly from the front or, in the case of outdoors photography, by taking the picture with the sun to your back. This form of lighting is good for accentuating details in your photograph, but has the often-undesirable effect of giving your subjects a flat and uninteresting look.

Side Lighting

 * Side lighting is a useful alternative to front lighting. Lighting your subject from an angle will create shadows, resulting in more intriguing and artistic-looking photographs. Shadows provide the eye with additional information, creating the illusion of depth. Varying the angle at which the light shines will produce different results, and a little experimentation may produce new and interesting effects.

Back Lighting

 * Back lighting is often used to create a silhouette effect by placing a light source behind the subject. It is also effective when taking pictures of people who are standing in direct sunlight or otherwise harsh light. People will often squint when facing a bright light, and this is easily remedied by turning them away from the light. Reflected light or a fill flash will help in reducing shadows caused by back lighting, where desired.

Three-point Lighting

 * Three-point lighting is a combination of front, side and back lighting. The front, or key, light is the primary means of illuminating the subject (in outdoor photography, the sun is generally used as the key light). The side, or fill, light is used to generate shadows, and you can vary this light's angle and strength for different stylistic effects. The back light is used to help make the subject stand out from the background of the photograph.

Diffuse Lighting

 * Diffuse lighting results in a softer light that can generate dramatic effects and often preserves details that would be lost in bright sunlight or under harsh artificial lights. This type of lighting occurs naturally during the early morning and late afternoon hours, and is prevalent on cloudy days. You can generate your own diffuse lighting effects by placing a softbox in front of your light source or through the use of a reflective umbrella.