Applying Genre to Our Final Short Film Idea - Sam Swinson

Applying Genre to Our Final Short Film Idea - Sam Swinson

Not all short films will have a genre. This is because they are unlike normal feature length films as most feature length films will have 1 or two genres. Some short films may not have any genre, some short films may have just one genre or some short films may have multiple genres. If a short film has multiple genres's then it is known as a hybrid short film. This is because it will take elements of from one genre and then maybe it will take elements from another genre. A really good example of a short film that is a hybrid is Lovefield which I did a genre analysis of here.

Our short film will be made up of elements from multiple genres including drama and social realism. However, we class it as a Social Realism short film because of the narrative of the piece and how we are going to tell the story. Here are the key conventions that will be applied to our short film to make it part of the Social Realism genre:

Social Realism:

• Social realistic films will show real life situations with realistic characters, settings and stories. Our short film will do all of this because loneliness and depression is something that affects lots of young people that are the target audience for the short film. Additionally, the characters in the film are just normal everyday characters that are not our of the ordinary. Furthermore, all the locations that we are going to use in the short film are real places and even though we may change bits of the setting to more fit the characters (for example, the bedroom) they will still remain realistic and relate-able for the audience.
• Social realistic films show intense social interaction. Our short film will show this because the protagonist's friend is the only social interaction that the protagonist has with other people which means it will have a strong impact.
• Social realistic films will use the story line to move the audience on an emotional level.Our short film will do this because of the themes and issues that the short film deals with. Additionally, depending on the ending we choose the story line could move the audience more emotionally because of the uncertainty of the protagonist's death.
• Social realistic films will have characters that the audience can relate to. Our short film has this convention because both of the characters that are in the short film are very normal people who are dealing with the same things that lots of the target audience may be dealing with. This allows the audience to empathise with the characters and be more understanding of what they are going through.
• Some social realistic films will have a happy ending style to the ending of the short film where there is some kind of resolution to the problem. Our short film has an ending that has a resolution, however, it is not a happy ending. This is the use of Steve Neale's genre theory which is repetition and variation because we are using a lot of key conventions from social realism films, however, we are adding some variation to it.
• Social realistic films will shoot on location this makes the film more realistic and more relatable for the audience. This is the same for our short film because the whole film will be shot on location in real places. An example of this is Fish Tank because the film is shot on a real council estate.
• Social realistic films will use wide shots and a range of camera shot distances and angles so that the audience can understand what the setting is and where the setting is. Our short film will do this because we plan to have some long shots to show the setting as well as close-ups to show the characters facial expression. An example of this convention is Bullet Boy which uses lots of long shots and extreme long shots to show the setting.
• Social realistic films will normally use novice actors or actors that are not professional. This is because it adds to the realism of the film, also, lots of social realistic short films can't afford to pay big name actors. Our short film is the same as this because all the acting will be done by the group members and none of us are actors which could give the piece a more realistic look and feel.