Genre and Narrative in Film

Genre and Narrative in Film

Genre is an interesting subject because it is something that has developed a lot through time. Looking back hundreds of years most plays fell into only two genres, comedy and tragedy, and yet when we look at the extensive list of genres available now it is simply mind-blowing. A quick look on IMDB reveals almost 100 genres and those are just the ones that IMDB recognises. However, it is interesting to note that most films fall into these categories with very little variation. There are very few new ideas in modern film as most films use concepts from films that came before it. This is why films mostly fit into genres very easily. An interesting way to visualise this is through the seven basic plotlines. The idea of the seven basic plotlines is that pretty much all movies follow at least one of these basic plot lines. For example, there is “overcoming a monster” where the protagonist sets out to fight an evil force that threatens the protagonist’s homeland. This can be seen in movies such as “the hunger games” and “Star Wars”. Another example is “rebirth” where over the course of the film the protagonist is forced to change their way of life often making them a better person. This can be seen in movies like “despicable me” and “a Christmas carol”. The point being made is that most films follow very basic plots and fit very easily into genres.

Although there are numerous sub-genres there are a few genres that are the most popular and recognisable. These include comedy, horror, action, thriller, documentary and Sci-Fi and so on. But what makes these genres the most popular. The most likely reason for these being the most popular genres (apart from the fact that many writers struggle to think outside the box) is because these genres are the easiest for the audience to understand. Horror in particular is very easy to write by following tropes and clichés because in general it is quite easy to frighten people. All you need is an eerie high-pitched music score and a jump scare every now and then and you can call your movie a horror and people will see it because that’s what horror is designed to do. Like all movies each genre is designed to trigger certain emotions in an audience. Horror creates fear, comedy creates laughter and action creates adrenaline. These genres are popular because they are very good at creating an emotional response from the audience and because people enjoy laughter and adrenaline these genres take the main stage while other genres that often have the potential to really engage an audience are often swept aside. It is a shame that many good films that take the risk of doing something different fail at the box office because people aren’t interested in the new and different and many movie companies know that hence why more and more we see sequel after sequel of an old franchise rather than a new more daring take on pre-defined genres.

Most of the time the audience or film boards aren’t who decides what genre a film is. Instead it is the film makers. The genre of a film is always decided before the film is even made. But by doing this the filmmakers already know what boxes they are going to have to check in order to make their film a certain genre. This is partly why we see very little variation in the big box office titles because the studio is deliberately not straying too far from the simple easy basic plot lines that I mentioned earlier. If films were just made by having an idea and simply creating a film to be enjoyed rather than to conform to a particular genre then it is likely that we would see far far more variety in the big title films because instead of the films trying to be a certain way instead the films would just be unique and created to give the audience the incredible experience that only films are able to do rather than trying to conform to guidelines. Of course, genre would still exist because films would always take ideas and concepts from other films but it would be far more likely that we would see genre defining films in the modern age.

Genre affects what we see on the big screen because it grants film makers a template to create films that perhaps aren’t as great as they could or should be. If those templates were removed then perhaps we might not see quite as many films however I am sure that the films we would see would surely be able to blow us away by exploring how film can affect an audience in amazing ways.