2. • Content
• Subject matter
• Structures
• Themes
• Mood
• Plot
• Settings
• Props
• Narrative events
• Period
• Situations
Ways To Define A Genre
3. What is a film
genre?
There are many different film genres. The main and
most common genres include; drama, crime, horror,
thriller, history, comedy. These are based on
similarities in either the narrative elements or the
emotional response to the film.
Low-Budget Movie High-Budget Movie
4. Films can also be classified by the setting, theme, topic, mood, target audience or
budget. The setting is where the film is taking place, meaning the environment
and its surroundings. The theme/topic refers to the issues or concepts that the
film revolves around. The mood is the emotional tone of the film, and the
emotions that are present and shown within the film. Other ways of categorizing
film genres is by the target audience such as audience such as audience such as
children's films and teen films, or by type of production e.g. big-budget
blockbuster or low-budget film.
Classification of films
5. Sub-Genres
These are types of sub-classes genre within a larger, better known genre.
These have their own distinctive subject matter, style and formulas.
Examples of sub genre's
Comedy: family comedies, dumb comedies, British humor, stand-up, clown, parody etc.
Crime: cop & robbers, law and order, victim, film noir, suspense-thriller, trial films etc.
Drama: diary films, high school, love, medical, tragedy, fallen women, generation gap etc.
Historical: biblical, Greek myth, medieval, Roman empire etc.
Horror: ghosts, reincarnation, gothic, Halloween, serial killers, terror, teen terror etc.
Musical: dance, hip-hop, concert, ballet, beach party, Broadway etc.
6. Categorization
Since genres are easier to recognize than to define, this means that different countries
and cultures recognize genres differently. A common example is war movies, in US
they are mainly related to the first and second world wars, whereas other countries
relates to other wars in other historical periods.
You can identify the categorization of a film by its setting. However films with the
same setting can be very different, due to the themes or moods used in the film.
7. Romance
Romance has many different sub-genres within it. This includes
historical, romantic, chick flick, romantic comedy's and romantic
thriller.
Romance films are mainly aimed at a female audience, as its
known women to be more emotional than men.
‘Boy meets girl’ is very typical in romance and most viewers
watch to see a happy ending.
Consists of what happens in day to day life, this may include
wedding bells, hearts and flowers, which symbolise love.
Usually the characters go separate ways from an argument and
go their separate ways but end up re-uniting.
