2. GENRE CONVENTIONS
The genre of my film is a crossover of Art house and Auteur films. Although this gives me much more
creative license and the ability to be a bit more abstract, there are still certain conventions that
any film of this genre will try and recreate. Some typical features include a distinct focus on the
characters’ psyche as opposed to a typical Hollywood film with a clear plot and, most of the
time, a resolve. This works perfectly with my idea as I am creating a teaser of a film which is
almost entirely about what the characters are hallucinating, feeling and thinking due to the
nature of its topic. This however also creates a much more niche market than a typical
Hollywood movie, the film is more targeted towards those who see film as an art form as
opposed to mere entertainment and those who want to question certain aspects of life and
existence. Making the audience question things is often achieved by having bizarre, seemingly
meaningless and unrelated scenes, which in actual fact often depict the directors’ philosophy on
life in some way or another. Another convention of this genre is that it often uses lesser known
actors, innovative ideas and creativity combined with whatever they can get their hands on due
to a smaller budget, which often leads to weird creations to say the least. When David Bordwell
(film scholar) looked at this genre, he commented that Hollywood films are usually "question-
and-answer logic, problem-solving routines, (and) deadline plot structures“, whereas Art House
is “authorial expressivity… loosening of the chain of cause and effect."
AUTEUR- ‘emphasis on the authorial expressivity of the director’
3. INSPIRING FILMS & DIRECTORS OF
THIS GENRE
DAVID LYNCH
David Lynch is one of my primary inspirations and one of the best known and most achieved auteurs,
with the prominent use of dreams and imagination imagery throughout almost all of his films he is an
ideal inspiration for my teaser. David Lynch commented on this that "Waking dreams are the ones that
are important, the ones that come when I'm quietly sitting in a chair, letting my mind wander. When
you sleep, you don't control your dream. I like to dive into a dream world that I've made or discovered;
a world I choose… [You can't really get others to experience it, but] right there is the power of cinema.”
Another key recurring motif in his films is the depiction of deformity and bizarre split identies, so
essentially both mental and physical hindrances. I may use this to recreate the displaced and strange
feel that can be gained from many of his films. Another thing which will definitely inspire some of my
shots is the use of uneasy flashing or flickering lights, fire and characters surrounded by draping fabric.
4. INSPIRING FILMS & DIRECTORS OF
THIS GENRE
• MOSTLY BASED IN CHARACTERS’
HEADS-dreams, hallucinations and
inner drama
• Depicts a lot of emotion
• Fast paced and time lapsed areas
DARREN ARONOFSKY • A lot of focus on destructive
obsessions and distortion of
reality.
• Use of aerial/XCU shots
5. ICONOGRAPHY
BUSCOMBE-
Edward Buscombe had a clear theory on film and genre, that there are two essential
parts to help distinguish what genre a film is, these parts are the inner (themes)
and outer (iconography) forms. The categories Buscombe gives for iconography
are location, props, appearance & miscellaneous. A clear example he gives to
back up this theory is the western genre, which has specific icongraphy of
wagons, weapons, horses, cowboy hats, etc. This iconography has important (and
sometimes obvious) symbolic meaning which helps to hold up the plot and vibe
of the film. This is shown in horror films when a vampire is warded off by use of a
crucifix-it implies that Christianity can conquer all evil.
A fault in Buscombes theory is that it is difficult to apply it to many films and many
genres because often in art house, biopics, psychological horror films or sub-
genres there are very few items which re-occur through the defining films of that
genre. There is no particular iconography, or at least very little, to link them
together as a genre; the genre is more defined through plot and atmosphere.
Many of these genres are fairly heterogenous.
6. THE NEAREST YOU CAN GET GET TO ICONOGRAPHY
WITHIN THE ART HOUSE GENRE
• OUTLANDISH/BIZARRE COSTUMES AND MAKEUP
ERASERHEAD (1977) 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES (1968) THE RED
(1968)
SHOES (1948)
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
(1971) KOYAANISQATSI (1982)
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE
CREMASTER 1 (1996)
SPOTLESS MIND (2004)
7. THE NEAREST YOU CAN GET GET TO
ICONOGRAPHY WITHIN THE ART HOUSE
GENRE
• ABSTRACT AND BEAUTIFUL LOCATIONS
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
(1971)
•STRANGE FILTERS AND LENSES
REQUIEM FOR A DREAM
8. REPEATED USAGE OF HOME
FOOTAGE/ SEEMINGLY
UNRELATED SCENES/
FOCUSING MORE ON BEAUTY
AND MEANING THAN PLOT
