Intro to Genres

Let's Make a Movie

If you see visions of your first Indie Film, or you're just having fun with the kids, making movies can be fun. Whether it's a Thriller, a Western, a Comedy or a Romance, they all have one thing in common: they follow a specific Genre.

Genre is not an exact science like chemistry. But what exactly makes a Drama or a Thriller?

The most important step we must take as directors before attempting a genre film is to define what a genre is and then to understand its conventions.

Genre, a French term, derives from the Latin genus, generis, meaning "type," "sort" or "kind." So the short answer, when related to motion pictures is: genre is a type of film. A slightly more thorough definition is a well-known film type with immediately recognizable plots, props, locations, subject matter and/or technique.

We, in America, generally agree on the elements of Westerns, and on the components of a Gangster flick. As filmmakers we need to know these components of genre so we can build the specific look, feeling, and concept of the type of film we are striving for. Whether you embrace these "rules" of genre or reject them, you need to know them and your audiences' understanding of them to correctly communicate your message. We need to break the genre down, understand it, replicate it and (we hope) inject our own artistic flare to make it legit. I'm going to leave the artistic bit to you; here is a breakdown of the conventions that makeup some of the more common genre films.