2. What Is Genre?
Genre, is simply the style of a work of
art, it defines the characteristics in
which you would expect to see within
the piece.
Examples of genre within film Include
Romance, Horror, Action, Adventure,
Sci-Fi and many more…
Although genre is developed to gain an
understanding of audience it is not
Binary, many films fit into multiple
genres, for example American Beauty
which exemplifies genres such as Dark
Comedy, Psychological Thrillers and
Romance
3. Sub-Genre
Sub-Genre is the categories within
genre they can be used to differentiate
different styles within genre this can be
seen predominantly in Horror and
Thrillers.
4. Genre In Short Films
Short films almost directly share their
genres with the rest of film however
some key aspects in relation to
audience are conveyed.
The audience of a short film is more
likely to seek an overall message
within a short film appose to just purely
watching it for entertainment. This
makes particular genres appear more
often within short films Such as
Comedy appose to genres such as Sci-
Fi as these tend to deal with less gritty
messages.
This also may be the case because of
budgeting however I believe both play a
key role in the frequency of specific
genres
5. Genre Fluidity
Genre within short film also often tends
to be less obvious, this is partly due to
the length of the film and the
prioritisation of story but also due to the
idea that a large majority of short films
genres are based around key themes.
For example the short film ‘Two Cars
One Night’ the themes within this film
are around the development of
friendship, this is obvious throughout,
however genre is less obvious, but on
closer inspection it can be argued that
the genre in which it fits into can be
Comedy, Drama and even experimental.
This shows the way in which Genre is
used within Short Films is somewhat
different to the rest of film.
6. Summary
In summary, genre within short film
shares the key categories and sub-
categories with film on a whole but the
way in which it explores and sets these
are slightly different.
For example categories such as
Experimental being fore frontal in the
genres within short film it shows the
difference in the distribution of
categorisation compared with other
types of film.
It can also be argued that short film is
a way of exploring and re-defining
genre as we know it.
