Genre Reserch

Genre Research

The genre of the film we have chosen to do is an action thriller. 

An action thriller is generally a film Featuring guns, cool explosions, and amazing set pieces, this movie type first developed in the 1970s. These films often feature a race against the clock, lots of violence, and a clear evil—antagonist. Though they may involve elements of crime or mystery films, those aspects take a back seat to the action. Die Hard would be the most recognisable action thriller film.

These films are a hybrid of action and thriller films, action films being films in which an antagonist is thrust into a series of situations typically including physical altercations, violence, explosions and frantic chases. The main character of an action film is a resourceful person and achieves something against all odds, eg. defeating a villain or escaping death. Transporter would be a good example of and action film.

Whereas a thriller film is a film that uses surprise, tension and excitement as its main element.Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror. Films of this genre tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty and fast-paced, The Silence Of The Lambs is a good example of these types of films.

There are a few examples of films that are similar to the one we are producing, the most alike being 'Hitman', as this film includes many similar themes the most obvious ones being the use of a Hitman character as well gunfights and fistfights. Both films also include and aspect of espionage.

It could also be said that the film 'Faster' is similar. While this is a very tenuous link it could be said this film and ours is similar in the fact that they both include somebody avenging what had happened to them in the past.

Another film that is similar to the film we are looking to produce would be 'Lucy'. This is a fairly recent film that showcases a similar plot twist to our film. In 'Lucy' the main character turns on her captors and becomes a 'merciless warrior'. Our film has a similar plot twist, in our film the man who is being targeted by the hitman character turns on him and shoots the hitman, the person who is being targeted is later identified as the actual hitman.   

In each genre of film there is a specific type of music that you would expect to hear. In action films you would expect to hear fast paced music with a fast beat and along with some rhythmic editing this make the action scenes appear to flow better and run faster. A good example of this type of music would be in the recent action film Kickass. In this action scene the cover of 'Banana Splits" by The Dickies is used to make the action flow faster to keep the audience on edge.

Alternatively, thriller films build anticipation, tension and add the element of surprise. In these films you would expect to hear music performed by a brass band that has been specifically tailored to the films needs. For example in order to build suspension you would expect the music start really quiet then gradually get louder, this would help to build tension as every second of the film elapses. Or you my hear a shot, sharp, loud blast on the instruments to make the audience jump.