Genre Research!

Hey! It's time for me to choose the genre for my project. At the onset, I have a few ideas of what I maybe want to do, but in all honesty, the specifics are very much not clear yet. Therefore, I’ve been delving deeper into the norms of different genres, and see what could work best with our budget and time limitations, as well as for the kind of story I want to tell. The stories that tend to appeal to me are stories with some type of social commentary, therefore, I’ll examine different film openings, in two different styles and genres, for social commentary films.

Horror (Get Out)

 
Get out immediately introduces what the main conflict of the film will be, by showing a Black man walking through a suburb, and being kidnapped, it introduces the viewer to the later main conflict which will involved a different Black man, getting kidnapped by the same White family. This creates a sense of intrigue in the viewer as they wait to uncover what the first scene was really about.

Dramatic (Okja)

In its first two minutes, Okja introduces, the incredibly unlikable (and real, reminding me of figures like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Elizabeth Holmes, antagonist of the story. Utilizing primarirly mise-en-scene elements, and dialogue, this character is developed as a greedy, superficial, CEO, who thinks she's super innovative, but is in reality just like any other head of a soul-less corporation. The conflict remains almost entirely in subtext, even as in the end of the two minutes, it is revealed that the "miracle cure" to hunger this corporation has found is a super piglet. This gives the viewer a sense into where the rest of the story will go, with a sort of feeling that something is not right, that leaves them seeking more. Credits are interspersed along the main A roll. 

Still from Opening of Okja, showcasing Mise-en-Scene elements

After watching a few different openings from a few different genres and films I've enjoyed in the past, I've decided that I'm going with a horror/thriller film. With the budget restraints, it is a film style that can be done with a low budget, as is seen in the cases of films like Parasite, and Get Out, there is no requirement for fancy graphic effects, or anything else of the sort. Nothing that would put a solid film opening in this genre too far from possibility, with solid planning and foresight. It is also a genre, that I've seen from this randomly selected bunch of movies I've enjoyed recently, and that tend to have social commentary, that I both enjoy, and has the capability to tell the type of stories I want to tell.