Genre Conventions

Genre	Conventions	Image
Horror	Ø  Blood and gore Ø  Ghosts or zombies Ø  Group of scared humans Ø  Low-key lighting Ø  Forest or haunted house.
Comedy	Ø  Funny Ø  Silly Ø  Injury Ø  Dangerous props Ø  High-key lighting
Action	Ø  Danger Ø  Guns Ø  Adventure Ø  Dangerous location like skyscraper Ø  Male/Female who is amazing at martial arts.
Drama	Ø  Relationship Ø  Crime Ø  Death Ø  Suspicion/curiosity of character
Romance	Ø  Relationship problems Ø  Dramatic Ø  Aimed at a female audience Ø  “Boy meets girl” Ø  They always reunite.

Linear or Non-Linear?

The opening scene of Fast and Furious 5 contains action, which you would expect to see in the middle of the film, where Dom (one of the main characters) is in a prison bus and his "crew" make the bus flip and help him to escape.


This means that this film follows a NON-LINEAR sequence which means that this doesn't follow a normal pattern (a beginning, middle and end). In this case it goes straight into the action and doesn't start off with an introduction like introducing the characters that where not in the previous Fast and Furious film.

This scene is deliberately set in an isolated location with not many people around so that when the bus is flipped, nobody will know about it for hours. It is lit naturally in open daylight so that the audience can see all of the special effects like skid marks on the road. Dom is clothed in an orange jumpsuit to show the audience that he is going to prison, and his crew are clothed in casual clothes like t-shirts to try and imply how hot the weather is.

Stereotypes of an Action Film

Action films are best know for explosions, guns and fights as shown in the picture. But there are other things important in an action film as well such as lighting. The lighting in a action movie normally is bright so that the special effects are easily seen such as explosions and gunfire.

The location is also very impotant to an action film because it has to be somewhere where things can go wrong such as a fourty story building like in Die Hard where people fall out of the building to their death.

There are also many different costumes and make up used on certain characters such as Bruce Willis in most of the Die Hard films is in casual attire like a vest. The villains however are always smartly dressed in a suit for example. The make up used to creates wounds is one of the most important features in an action film for the reason that it gives people like Bruce Willis a sense to the audience that he is a person who will never give up.

Conventions of a Comedy

A comedy is a genre of film which is professional entertainment used with jokes and sketches in order to make an audience laugh. There are generally no rules which a comedy follows apart from to make the audience laugh. The one thing which the director and audience have to understand before making/watching the film is that what one person find funny another will cringe at. There are three types of comedy which are slapstick, physical movement and gestures such as clowns, dark humor, deals with disturbing subjects such as murder, and wit or wordplay, the manipulation of words and phrases like puns usually aimed at the more educated person.


Common conventions used in a typical British comedy is that a comedy is always set in bright places so that the atmosphere is light and happy and to create a realistic environment, because of this most scenes are filmed in the daytime. Dialogue is also usually loud and clear to make sure it can be heard and laughed at. A lot of edited sound effects are also used to make emphasis on certain scenes and sketches. Props are also an important part of comedies, mainly dangerous props or things that can just go wrong very easily such as riding a bike or eating a cake.


Characters in a comedy are usually quite idiotic and dumb so the contrast between them and "normal" people are huge and very noticeable and emphasizes their stupidity. Other people such as very clever people or "nerds" are often used because stereo typically they are the most socially awkward people and unaware of social boundaries. The main form of comedy these type of characters used is sarcasm.

Reservoir Dogs Opening Titles

Reservoir Dogs' opening title contain many of the usual things that you would expect to see in any opening titles such as credits and a soundtrack. These are played throughout the two minutes and for a large part of that are all that there is because of a black background but this is only after the first part where they show us the characters included in the film. The opening titles start by showing us a group of men, mostly dressed in black suits with black sun glasses on sitting around a table together which would suggest to the audience that they are all working together. This may imply that they are part of the mafia because they fit the general profile of a mafia member i.e. being smartly dressed and trying not to show facial features with wearing the sunglasses. The next part of the titles show the group of men walking out of the cafe, smoking and talking with one another which suggests they are all friends. It then shows them individually creating the effect that they are all different, some are cleanly shaven and tall with slick haircuts while others look a bit scruffy with messy hair and a bit of stubble. Once each of them has been shown individually, they are once again shown as a group walking towards two cars implying eight of them are getting into two cars, again showing a sense of friendship. The credits with a black background then roll through with only music in the background until about ten second before they end and you can start to hear the sound of someone upset and struggling therefore suggesting once again that these people are gangsters and may be part of a mafia-like organisation.

Link to the opening titles:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Xi3ioasik

Stereotypes in a Horror Movie

1) Groups

In every horror, there is always a group of people who are trying to escape the horror part of the film e.g. running away from zombies. Generally a group in a horror, such as a zombie film, contains a person who is; dumb and doesn't have a clue whats going on, cocky and thinks he can take on the world, clever and knows how to make plans to survive, the innocent woman who sometimes is rock solid and other times just there to add some eye candy, and the survivor who leads the group although he would be better on his own.

2) The Dumb Guy

This person is normally a man who is clueless about whats going on until its too late. He is usually the first person who dies in a horror movie by doing something incredibly stupid like tripping over a tree root or getting separated from the group.

3) The Cocky One

Again like the dumb guy he is normally a man and one of the first to die by thinking he can take on hundreds of zombies by himself, although in most stories he is usually a nice man who tries to hold off the hoard on his own.

4) The Innocent Woman

In every horror film there is a good looking woman who sometimes is amazing at using a gun and could probably survive on her own, however in most horror movies she just screams hides at the back of the group. This normally means she is in it until the end.

5) The Survivor

This man is the alpha male of the group. He is the one who takes charge and can do pretty much anything. Usually he is a strong figure in the film and survives until the very end of the film with the woman. You would normally think that he would be better on his own.

My name is Jack Hebden and this is my first post for my AS Media blog.