Descriptive and Functional Approach to Film

WORKSHEET:  GENRE BY DESCRIPTION

1. Now make a table in your notes with each of the 7 genres along the top (leave a space for one EXTRA CATEGORY) -- and 5 columns for each of these categories:  i) theme, ii) mood and iii) setting iv) other elements v) examples of the genre.

	Film noir	Gangster	Horror	Western	War	Science fiction	Monster Movie	auteur
Themes	Mystery, detective, investigation	Mob, organized crime, violence, family values	Suspense, terror, supernatural, evil, redemption, re-encarnation	Injustice, crime, vengeance, loner, power, tyranny	War, death, fights, man vs man, honor, conflict, duty, psychological suffery	Vision of the future, conflict, unknown, man vs future	Science fiction, Terror, mas vs monster, exploration, unknown
Mood	worried	happy, contrast, extreme violence	Suspense, tension, terror, disturbing	Adventure, action, suspense, dramatic	Serious, down, bleach, sombre	Action, sombre, cheerful	Adventure, action, fear
Setting	Naturalistic, urban, driving scenes	Parties, family houses, social events, urban/rural	Isolated, haunted house, graveyards	Old west, cowboys, desert (Nevada etc)	War Trenches, battlefield, destruction, dark, dirty	Advanced technology, space, future, cities	Island, cities
Other	Black and white		Music, different shots		Sound explosions, army music
Examples	The Big Sleep (Hawkes)	The Godfather (Francis Coppola) The goodfellas (Scorcese)	The Shining (Stanley  Kubrick) The Ring	The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges)	Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick), 300	Metropolis (Fritz Lang)	King Kong (Merian Cooper and Earnest Schoedsack)

2. DISCUSSION POINT:  What are the problems you have found when you start to group films by using this descriptive approach – what are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach? Does this list take account of the auteur interpretation of film or film-makers such as Hitchcock? Write some notes here to explain your position.

This approach is useful when you are trying to categorize films because they are separated because they have things in common however it is also not very good when you have films which fall under many categories (E.g. Psycho, or any auteur film) This is because the auteur policy tries to make films which do not fall under a category and that are all consistent because of the director. In the case of Hitchcock his films do not fall under a specific descriptive genre because when you see at the characteristics it may fall under various categories.

A good thing about the descriptive genre separation is that it helps the industry as people go to the cinema to see a film because of its genre. However at the same time some people might not see some films because of their genre and that they dislike that genre. It also helps on the film pitch as when you present your film if it has a established genre it is easier for the producers to understand your film rather than if it is an unknown thing.  If we consider the auteur interpretation of film, the descriptive approach to genre is not very useful as it is against the auteur policy because it is categorizing auteur films as similar to other films which may not be auteur and the distinctive thing about auteur films is that they are different from other films.

3. Little Red Riding Hood – auteur

1. Location: House – Little Red Riding Hood is talking to her mother and she needs to take an envelope of money (McGuffin) to her grandmother. Her mother tells her that she must stay on the track and do not talk to strangers
2. Location: city – Little Red Riding Hood is walking towards her grandmother’s house when a man talks to her and tells her to go through a “shortcut” and she does so
3. Location: Grandmother’s apartment: The man arrives to the apartment and hides the grandmother inside a closet
4. Location: Grandmother’s apartment: Little Red Riding Hood arrives but she sees no one there but the man is hiding behind the door with a gun
5. Location: Grandmother’s apartment: A shot is heard but actually a policeman has shot the man as he was trying to steal the money