Film genre

The term Cinematic genre refers to the primary method of film categorisation; "genre" usually refers to films that contain similar qualities, such as distinct or general theme or subject matter, {i.e. Westerns, Art House Film).

Categorizing film genres

Three main types are often used to categorize film genres; setting, mood, and format. The film's location is defined as the setting. The emotional charge carried throughout the film is known as it's mood . The film may also have been shot using particluar equipment or be presented in a specific manner, or format.

Setting

Members of the "Crime" genre is usually associated with darker elements, and first person narrative of crimes or events. Many use the plot of murder or homicide and the subsequent investigation.

Films catogarized as "Film noir" usually portray its stories with a loose narrative and camera work used more as a means of conveying an overall theme or motif to the viewer. Some films associated with this genre have also been known to use avant-garde] styles of camera work and cinematography.

Historical film usually centers around historical events such as tales from the ancient world, films set in more recent times such as the 1960's, or even recent events such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Some of these films may also portray a version of a historical event that may not be entirely true and may be written more to entrall the audience that give honest historical information.

Science fiction film films focus on the placement of characters in an alternate reality which posits as true that which might happen in light of new scientific discoveries or would have happened if current knowledge of the sciences was different.

Sports film usually feature sporting events and locations pertaining to a given sport, as well as historical matches such as in the film Cinderella Man. Some sports films feature more extreme sports such as motorcross, skateboarding, and snowboarding.

War film battlefields and locations pertaining to a time of war

Western films usually portray a story that takes place in the American west or is associated with those elements or ideas that pretain to the "frontier" or the stereotypical symbols of horses, the open plains, and gun fights.

Mood

Action - generally involves a moral interplay between "good" and "bad" played out through violence or physical force.
Adventure - involving danger, risk, and/or chance, often with a high degree of fantasy.
Comedy - intended to provoke laughter.
Drama - mainly focuses on character development
Fantasy - speculative fiction outside reality (i.e. myth, legend)
Horror - intended to provoke fear into audience
Mystery - the progression from the unknown to the known by discovering and solving a series of clues
Romance - dwelling on the elements of romantic love
Thrillers - intended to provoke excitement and/or nervous tension into audience

Age

Children's film - films for young children. As opposed to a family film, no special effort is made to make the film attractive for other audiences.
Family - intended to be attractive for people of all ages and suitable for viewing by a young audience
Adult film - pornographic content.

Format

Animation - illusion of motion by consecutive display of static images which have been created by hand or on a computer
Biographical - a biopic is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person, with varying degrees of basis in fact.
Documentary - a factual following of an event or person to gain an understanding of a particular point or issue.
Experimental (avant-garde) - created to test audience reaction or to expand the boundaries of film production/story exposition then generally at play.
Musical - a film interspersed with singing by all or some of the characters
Narrative - fictional film driven by the partial or total telling of the story through a "voice-over"
Short - May strive to contain many of the elements of a "full-length" feature, in a shorter time-frame

Criticisms of film genres

What genres are not

There are other methods of dividing films into groups besides genre; for example auteur critics group films according to their directors. Some groupings may be casually described as genres but this definition is questionable; for example, independent films are sometimes discussed as if they are a genre, but in fact independent production does not determine a film's storyline, and they can belong to any genre.

Some have argued that genre needs to be distinguished from style; the latter describes the choices made about such things as cinematography, editing, and sound and a particular style can be applied to any genre. Others argue that this distinction is too simplistic, since some genres are primarily recognisable by their styles.

Are film genres definable?

A genre is always a vague term with no fixed boundaries. Many works also cross into multiple genres. In this respect film theorist Robert Stam has noted:

A number of perennial doubts plague genre theory. Are genres really 'out there' in the world, or are they merely the constructions of analysts? Is there a finite taxonomy of genres or are they in principle infinite? Are genres timeless Platonic essences or ephemeral, time-bound entities? Are genres culture-bound or transcultural?... Should genre analysis be descriptive or proscriptive?

[..]
While some genres are based on story content (the war film), other are borrowed from literature (comedy, melodrama) or from other media (the musical). Some are performer-based (the Astaire-Rogers films) or budget-based (blockbusters), while others are based on artistic status (the art film), racial identity (Black cinema), location (the Western) or sexual orientation (Queer cinema). (Robert Stam 2000, 14).

Many genres have built in audiences and corresponding publications that support them, such as magazines and websites. Films that are difficult to categorize into a genre are often less successful. As such, film genres are also useful in areas of marketing, criticism and consumption.

John Truby, Hollywood story consultant states that "...you have to know how to transcend the forms [genres] so you can give the audience a sense of originality and surprise." Some screenwriters use genre as a means of determining what kind of plot or content to put into a screenplay. They may study films of specific genres to find examples. This is a way that some screenwriters are able to copy elements of successful movies and pass them off in a new screenplay. It is likely that such screenplays fall short in originality. As Trubysays, "Writers know enough to write a genre script but they haven’t twisted the story beats of that genre in such a way that it gives an original face to it." It makes sense for writers to defy the elements found in past works and come up with something different or opposite to what's been done before. Originality and surprise are the elements that make for good movie stories. For example, Spagetti Westerns are known to have turned the western film genre upside down by making the good guy be bad as well as good. Prior to them, westerns had what are now considered genre clichés, like good guys wearing white hats, bad guys wearing black hats, and the good guy always beating the bad guy in a shootout. The cliché western disappeared after the Spagetti Westerns broke the "rules" of the genre.

Style compared to genre

Whereas film genres identify the manifest content of film, film styles identify the manner by which any given film's genre(s) is/are rendered for the screen. Style may be determined by plot structure, scenic design, lighting, cinematography, acting, and other intentional artistic components of the finished film product. Many historians debate whether film noir truly is a genre rather than a style of film-making often emulated in the period's heyday. The most obvious distinction is between fictional film and non-fictional film.