Genre – a film category having specific content, style, narrative convention, imagery, settings, narratives, iconography, and characters or types of characters, all of which evinces a specific emotional response to the material.
High-Concept – A subset of various film genres, it is based on a premise that can be summed up in one sentence, even a few words, and it has an automatic hook.
Genre: The Evergreen of Film History. i.e. The Horror genre: Death is always the threat, usually multiple ones, usually grisly. The visual style is to serve the scares. Shadows and dark often play a huge part in the look. It might contain supernatural creatures or otherworldly monsters, and you’re going to respond emotionally by being frightened and, one hopes in the end, relieved.
Other genres include:
These writer/directors started out in horror and science fiction genres:
Genres are Good for the Film Industry The strength of the approach of thinking in the genre area, be that regular genre or high concept, is that it gives you a built-in audience. It’s invariably something that is highly promotable. The concept doesn’t depend on big stars. The concept is the star. Low budget, great hook, no stars necessary. Writing in genre is not easy and your idea must be interesting and special in order to get noticed and potentially sold. You must satisfy the expectations of the genre you’re writing in as well as deliver something new and different. Remember: The moviegoer is sitting down to watch it with a set of preconceived conditions and assumptions you need to satisfy. As the writer, you need to balance the tropes they expect with their need to see something new and different. Use the familiar as a springboard to present the new.
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