1. Genre
What is it and how is it relevant to
me?

2. What is it?
Genre is the type or class which a film conforms
to.
There are certain key components of genre
which a film must conform to in order to be
included within that genre.

3. Key Components?
• Stock Characters
• Stock plots, situations, issues and themes
• Stock locations and backdrops
• Stock props and signifiers
• Music and Sounds
• Generic Conventions

4. So What’s my Chosen Genre?
My chosen genre for my Film opening is a
Thriller. I have chosen this genre as it best suits
the plot outline which I have thought up
however it will also be spliced with the horror
genre as certain elements of the full film plot
are horror based which needs to be signified
within the opening.

5. Stock Characters
• Normal Citizen facing danger: can be male or
female (will be male in mine due to overall
story arch)
• Serial Killer/ Criminal: As mine will be mostly a
psycological thriller this stock character will
also be fullfilled by the “normal Citizen”
character.

6. Stock Plots, issues and themes
• Facing Death
• Antagonist is smarter than Protagonist at start
• A mystery that must be solved
• Morality of Individuals
• Innocent individual in a corrupt world
• Solving an Enigma

7. Stock Locations and Backdrops
• Most usually in ordinary cities, rarely rural but
still possible
• A corrupt world
Within my film I will use the setting of a city and
to show the corrupt world I will signify that
bullying is occurring within my opening.

8. Stock Props and Signifiers
• Often weapons such as Knifes and guns (Knifes
famously used by Hitchcock in the thriller
Psycho)
• Hats and long coats ( these usually help to
build suspense as they can hide identity's)

9. Music and Sounds
• Usually heavy bass line augmenting in tempo
to build suspense
• Usually electronically sounding although
Christopher Nolan has shown that
Orchestrated sounds can be just as effective

10. Generic Conventions
• Close ups
• Little revealed about characters
• Scrawled writing
• Gradual increase of editing pace

11. Splicing in the horror
• One key stock character within Horror Films is
death or rather the personification of death,
within mine the protagonist will become
Death over the course of the film which is
something he must himself solve
• Part of the film will include gothic references
to Death which help to include it in the Horror
genre.

12. So for my Film? Part 1
I will utilise the stock characters from the
Thriller genre whilst merging one from the
horror genre with them. To create the
physiological thriller aspect of the film I will have
no direct antagonist. I will utilise a classically
orchestrated score as this is what I am best at
composing. I will dress my actors in the correct
costume to be included in the genre.

13. So for my Film? Part 2
My film will be set in the city and follow an
innocent protagonist trying to outsmart the
antagonist in order to solve the enigma in order
to defeat him.

14. What's inspired me?
• Sherlock Holmes – Guy Richie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=098Qxdbe
dQI
• Inception – Christopher Nolan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8APU-
ZHEUg
• The Prestige – Christopher Nolan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI_qlGJ4O
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