Portfolio Project: Genre Research

 Portfolio Project: Genre Choices

    In order to write this blog post, I must first disclose the main idea of the film we intend to make the film opening for.

    The film follows a girl from her childhood to her early adulthood, chronicling the factors and events leading to her eventual self ruin and ruin of those around her through her self-worship.

    For this reason, the two genres we chose to research are Coming of Age and Psychological Thriller.

Coming of Age    

      Genre Conventions    

    Coming of age sees the psychological and moral growth of characters from childhood to adulthood. Coming of age films tend to imply a heavy focus on drama, relying on dialogue as opposed to action to illustrate this growth. While the genre is common in teen films, a more mature approach can be taken to the genre.

    The genre often carries a more positive connotation, with the psychologic and moral growth of the protagonist usually being positive. For our film's purpose, we intend to flip this on its head. The growth of our main character through her interactions with her father, peers, and her religion lead her to form a distorted perception of human interaction, and an exaltation of her self. Originally, we had intended to close in on the drama genre, but this change over the course of the protagonist's life constituted a coming of age approach rather than merely a drama.

Examples and Inspirations    

    The coming of age genre is a wide-reaching one, but there are certain uses of the genre that remind me of our intended use of it and will go on to be inspirations for our film.

All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001, dir. Shunji Iwai)

    All About Lily Chou-Chou is a bleak coming of age story following Yuichi through his middle and high school years. Yuichi's time spent with his friends in middle school is seen through rose-tinted glasses, but things change when a series of mishaps leads one of his friends down a path of bullying, dragging everyone else into it in the process. Yuichi spends his time throughout the film grappling with the cognitive dissonance in that he does not want to be involved in the bullying of others, yet he cannot find an escape from those pressuring him into this lifestyle. His only escape is his favorite musical artist, Lily Chou-Chou.

    It is no wonder that I would be inspired in some way by my favorite film. All About Lily Chou-Chou does well at breaking away from the typical coming of age conventions, telling a story not only without a happy ending, but no concrete ending to speak of. The viewers are left to think. What did they just watch? What does it all mean? Where will our main character go from here? This is a feeling I hope to evoke in the viewer.

Asian Cinematography (a quick tangent)   

    This film, along with other similar Japanese films (or any other eastern Asian films, especially those that fall under the drama umbrella), have heavily inspired me visually. To me, it seems many Asian directors will compose their shots in a more artistic and symbolic way, as opposed to composing them in order to serve a functional purpose. Instead, the composition does more to build tone and style, bringing the film to life. In my own work, I do not intentionally aim for these kinds of visuals, I just gravitate towards my own taste, and in many of my creations, this can be extremely evident. In the dream I had that led to the creation of this film plot, even my unconscious mind had composed every shot in a way reminiscent of this style.

All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001, dir. Shunji Iwai)

Love & Pop (1998, dir. Hideaki Anno)

Love Exposure (2008, dir. Sion Sono)

Revenge of the Google Home (2023, dir. Enzo Limongi & Jayden Luis); one of the shots I composed for this short film.

Examples and Inspirations Cont.    

Moonlight (2016, dir. Barry Jenkins)

    Moonlight is a Romance/Drama leaning heavily into Coming of Age, focusing on three stages in Chiron's life: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Throughout these three chapters, Chiron struggles with his identity and sexuality in a culture that does not see kindly to him.

    Moonlight's focus on three different stages of the main character's life allows the viewer to get an in-depth view at how external factors, like how Chiron is treated negatively by his community, and his support from those close has effected him in adulthood. This progression will be similar to the main character of our film. However, our character will be led to a totally destructive end; an end of the ruin of others and herself. 

Psychological Thriller    

Genre Conventions    

    Since I have already researched this genre on this blog and because the film will not overtly focus on this genre specifically, I will give a brief overview of its conventions and how we plan to implement them into our film. 

    Psychological thrillers include suspense and thriller genre conventions (ex. creating anticipation and suspense, darker themes and visuals, complex stories, etc.) while also posing questions regarding the psychology of the protagonist and/or other characters. Common thematic topics include crime, mental illness, substance abuse, morality, etc. See my blog post here to get a more in-depth view on the Psychological Thriller genre.

    Our story does indeed contain heavy psychological elements, such as the protagonists relationship with religion, her morality, and her perception of the world and human interactions. However, the film will lean into being a thriller nearing the end of the film. Thus, it is important that the tone of the film overall will reflect the tones often seen in psychological thrillers, as tone is an important factor in evoking emotion from the viewer. We intend to solidify this tone in our film opening.

"Oh my gosh this blog post was too serious." -Jd

Sources:

Ejaz, X. (n.d.). Codes and conventions of coming of age films. SlideShare. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/codes-and-conventions-of-coming-of-age-films/118678895#5

MasterClass. (2021, September 1). How to write a psychological thriller. MasterClass. Retrieved from https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-psychological-thriller