Genre

What is a film genre?

• It is a category that defines the film and creates a contract with audiences’ expectations

• A genre is about creating a clear emotional and narrative experience for your audience

• Most student films struggle because they can lack genre awareness, leading to a confused tone, that can feel flat and unitentional

Your Creative Process

Idea + Genre = Story

• Genre defines how your idea feels and how audiences find it

• Audiences choose films based on emotion and genre is emotional shorthand

• Streamers like Netflix and Prime organise everything by genre. It’s how we decide what mood we’re in

• Financiers, producers, and collaborators want to know: what kind of film are we making?

Knowing Your Genre

• Genre defines the rules and tone of your story

• It guides the filmmaker’s visual language and emotional language

• Every shot, sound, and cut is filtered through what the genre is and what you want the audience to feel

• Genre tells the audience how to watch your film

Audience Expectations

Every genre comes with audience expectations:

• Horror: Suspense, Scares

• Comedy: Laughs, Funny Scenario

• Thriller: Tension, Mystery

• Romance: Feel good, Heartbreak

• Drama:  Emotional stakes

Comedy

• Colour bright cheerful

• Lighting high key light lighting

• Cast and environment evenly

• Composition using the camera to create

• Misdirection and a joke

• Art Direction cosy colourful inviting

• It gives a feeling of warmth and fun

• Sound: Upbeat, Lively

Sci-Fi

• Colour: Cold, Blue, White, Chrome

• Lighting: Neon, Tube Lights, Sterile

• Composition: Symmetry

It feels Tech, Future, Clinical, Science

• Sound: Electronic pulse score

Thriller

• Colours: Washed out, Harsh, Natural tones

• Composition: Moving elements either characters

• Light or Camera: Creates a sense of unease

It feels like something is going to happen. We feel on edge

• Sound: Music, Pulsing Base, Creates Tension

Horror

• Composition: Wide, Negative space, Distant framing

• Lighting: Natural, Muted colours, Cold, Blue

• Time of year, Autumn, Leaves on the street

• Girl in night clothes wearing heels scared of something audiences can’t see

• Sound: Music, Pulsing, Drones, Uneasy