The genre I have chosen to research is the action genre. In a typical action film there is a lot of physical storytelling, this is achieved with stunts, chase scenes and fighting. The story often has a main hero which is trying to achieve his ultimate goal by overcoming any issues in his path.
Typical features in the action genre include: Props such as guns, knives, drugs, weapons, money, cars- usually exotic cars. Usually in action films the editing is very fast paced especially in scenes where there are car chases or fighting going this is achieved by using lots of cuts and not keeping one camera angle on too long. The setting in an action film is usually in a big modern city such as L.A, London or New York however some action films are shot in big open deserts an example of where this has happened is in Mad Max and Mission Impossible. Action can happen in any time of day in an action film typically at night there is a stealthy aspect where as in the day time its guns blazing, all-out action. Typical characters in action film include a main protagonist almost always the hero in the film, a villain that will not stop until the hero is dead, a detective type/full police squad, a mob boss and a hitman type character these are just a few examples of the types of characters found in action films.
Examples of action films include: die hard, James Bond Casino Royale, Fast 5, Jason Bourne and mission impossible. These are your main types of action films with high speed chases, gun fights, explosions and fast paced editing however within the action genre you also have your sub genres such as action-comedy which includes films such as rush hour and hot fuzz. By adding a sub-genre to the action genre this gets rid of the repetitiveness that is found in action films a rush hour film is very different to a Jason Bourne film despite them both being action films. The era the film set also adds a level of difference to the action genre we see this in the Lord of The Rings Trilogy and Hobbit Trilogy, these types of films are very different to a mission impossible film but still have that element of action to despite it not having any guns or gadgets in them. Even though some films achieve difference there are many films which often have a lot of elements from other films integrated into them making them very repetitive we see this is in superhero films where not a lot can be done to change the structure causing almost every single superhero action film to be the same with the same results (the hero beating the villain). This is also present in the James Bond franchise where in every film there is James Bond, a villain, exotic cars, cool gadgets and chase scenes/violent scenes. So why do people still pay to see a James Bond film even though they know what will happen? It’s because people love these types of films, it provides comfortable reassurance where the audience is expecting high speed chases and gun scenes , James Bond despite repeating the same structure it changes the villain, it changes the cars, it changes the cool gadgets this keeps it fresh and exciting but also keeping the main elements that make an action film.
Action films have not always been as popular as they are now as the years have gone by the popularity of actions has increased since the first few were made in the 1930s according to the charts even to today’s date the popularity of action films are still increasing and this is backed up by the amount of action films being made. In 2010 action films became the second most popular type of genre and still increasing in popularity where as in 19 30 it was probably one of the most unsuccessful genres.
Looking at IMBD top films, films such as the dark knight, The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, inception and Star Wars are all in the top 20 rated films of all time, this shows how popular and successful the action genre really is.
Literacy point. Yousuf, make sure you use a capital letter for the first letter for the names of films, there are a couple of instances in this work in which you have not.
ReplyDeleteSome good research here Yousuf, and I like the fact that you have backed up your research with some data.
WWW- You have shown good understanding of the concept of genre and fully understood the typical features of the genre
EBI-You had used the second graph and discussed exactly what it tells you about the popularity of action in relation to the others and then offered suggestions as to why these trends are there.
The action and horror genres start off very unpopular and then start to rise. Around the 1980s horror is at its peak this is because films such as jaws and exorcist were starting to be released at this was the pinnacle of horror and were some of the scariest films at its time. However after 1980s horrors starts to decline, this is because weaker horror films were being released compared to exorcist etc. Action is still rising at this point with films such as terminator and aliens along with the StarWars films which were action packed films that were very popular, the rise doesn't stop there as it increases even more surpassing the crime drama completely which seems to be at a steady level in terms of popularity, its not very popular nor very unpopular in relation to the action where its steady rise in popularity. The comedy genre is in the same situation as crime where it is fluctuating however relatively maintaining its popularity in some of the higher percentages. Finally the drama genre starts off as the most popular and almost 60% more popular than action genre however over time it starts to decline in popularity and as the drama genre declines the action genre is on a rise, according to the graph in a few more decades we may see action as the most popular genre surpassing drama.
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