Scriptwriting:Genre and Mis-en-scene

In scriptwriting class we talked about Genre,Iconography and Mise-en-scene specificity focusing on what they are.

Genre

 Is a term for the categories all forms of entertainment (Films,Music and Literature) have with each area having dozens of genres to choose from with the biggest genres also having sub/cross over genres which creates a completely new genre.

In film comedy is one of the oldest and most popular genres going all the way back to silent era have multiple sub genres including (Action,Romance and Spoof comedy) which all have the same purpose of making an audience laugh but now two genres are combined there can be a new approach with playing around with style,iconography and location to get the laughs.

Below are a random selection of comedy film posters that fall into a sub genre that fall into a sub genre.

Below are three of the biggest film genres and some of the many sub genres they have

COMEDY

Action comedy

Teen comedy

Rom-com

Spoof 

Slapstick 

ACTION

Action adventure

Action comedy

Action thriller

Martial arts 

War

SCI-FI

Horror

Comedy

Military

Time travel

Parallel universe

Alien invasion

MISE-EN-SCENE

Mise-en-scene is everything placed inside the camera frame from (characters,props and lighting) everything you see in the frame at any given time should be there for a reason either driving on the story or setting something up for a later scene.

When something needs focused on specifically in a scene there is multiple ways of drawing attention to it from rule of thirds blurring out the background and in older black and white films good lighting

When something is given screen time for no apparent reason and does not get explained like in Wizard of Oz (1939) when the scarecrow has a gun one moment and its gone the next it just leaves unanswered questions. Questions the audience is unable to answer because the film maker has not done what they should of done in the first place and answered where the gun came from and what its purpose is because it never gets seen again.

Iconography

Looking at Mise-en-scene in a film you can sometimes piece together what the genre is by the iconography on show. Iconography meaning objects and other visual symbols/conventions you would expect to see in a specific genre.Iconography is particularly frequent in film trailers which is one of the main methods of advertising and enticing an audience to watch a particular film

Its also the best time to show the story premise,characters but most importantly the genre of a film. Because people are less inclined to see a film they have little to no perception of over one where they understand E.G In a Slasher Film you expect to see (Young girls,Knives and Blood) if the trailer shows none of that how are you supposed to know its a slasher film.

This trailer for A Fist Full of Dollars (1964) is a good example of a trailer showing conventions and iconography of a Western film in the first 10 seconds alone you see (western town,cowboys and guns) all things you imagine when thinking of the wild west.