Genre Advantages and Disadvantages Overview

In this blog post, I will be discussing the several genres my group and I have investigated, collating all the information together to make informed decisions on the advantages and disadvantages to each.

Historical Drama

I investigated this particular genre, and discovered that there are various advantages and disadvantages.

Disadvantages:

 > Setting could potentially be difficult to find as it has to be typical of the time period in which the film is set, and must reflect the status of the characters, and so there would be a limited potential to the locations we could realistically use, and a large amount of time would need to be sent location scouting.
> Mise en scene such as props and costumes would also have to be very specific to the time period, and so could be difficult to obtain and would most likely be fairly expensive. However, any props that were not correct for the time period would cause an inconsistency in the film, making it less believable and less realistic.
> The piece must be accurate culturally, and so a large amount of research would need to be carried out.

Advantages:

> These films generally follow Propp's Spheres of Action with a stereotypical villain and a hero/heroine, and so finding actors would be fairly easy.
> Historical dramas tend to follow the theory of equilibrium, and so we would be able to use this for our trailer.



Overall, the negatives out way the positives, and so we were able to fairly quickly rule out this as our chosen genre.

Romantic Comedies

Stacey investigated this genre, discovering multiple pros and cons to using this as our chosen genre.

Pros

> These films generally follow Todorov's theory of equilibrium, and so would be easy to recreate for our trailer.
> There is usually a male and a female character, and even though our group is comprised of girls, it would not be difficult to find a boy who might be willing to participate.
> Conventions obey Propp's spheres of action, and so there would be typical characters for us to portray, and so we could easily find inspiration from existing films
> Mise-en-scene is simple and uncomplicated, consisting of items we are likely to already possess or can be readily obtained, such as leather jackets and candles and chocolates, etc.
> Lighting is conventional

Cons

> The location tends to be well known cities, and so a large amount of travelling would need to take place, which could cause complications, particularly if someone needs to use public transport which is often unreliable. This could also prove to be expensive.
> There tends to be a large amount of characters, but we have a limited amount of actors which, if we increases, reduces the probability of everyone being free at the same time.

Due to the difficulty in logistics, we have decided not to choose this genre.

Sci  Fi

Caitlyn investigated this particular genre, looking at the positives and negatives of using it for our film.

Positives

> Propp's Spheres of Action are generally obeyed, and so our own characters would be easy to create
> Todorov's theory of equilibrium is normally used, and so our trailer would follow this convention
> This type of film can easily include moral panics as they often address issues of the future.

Negatives

> Within props there is normally forms of futuristic technology, which would be difficult to create and would need to be relatively original, and so could be time consuming and expensive
> Locations usually consist largely of outer space, and so we would have to use a green screen which could potentially look very fake and so unprofessional

This will not be our genre, as there are too many complications that could occur.

Dystopian

I also investigated the dystopian genre, which is usually coupled with sci-fi to make a hybrid genre.

Advantages

> Propp's Spheres of Action are generally obeyed, and so our own characters would be easy to create
> Todorov's theory of equilibrium is normally used, and so our trailer would follow this convention
> This film genre can easily include moral panics, especially about concerns for the future.

Disadvantages

> The disadvantages are similar to that of sci fi
> Props need to be very specific for the genre, and would be difficult to obtain
> Setting would be tricky to find, however, could be accomplished

We have also chosen to not choose this for our genre.

Social Realist

Finally, I investigated the Social Realist genre, and these are the pros and cons I found for it.

Pros

> It could very easily be adapted to central on a moral panic theme - in fact, most social realist films depict issues within the media
> These films usually only use a small cast, and so finding actors should be fairly simple
> Mise-en-scene such as props, costumes and locations are all typically very generic, consisting of every day items in an every day setting, and so the logistics of filming should be fairly simple
> Propp's Spheres of Action and Todorov's theory of Equilibrium are both obeyed

Cons

> These films address very current issues, and are often at the risk of offending the audience at any point
> There is potentially a limited amount of films from which we can in inspiration

Evaluation

After some discussion, we decided that our chosen film genre will be Social Realist, as this appears to have the least problematic disadvantages.