Once Upon a Genre

A little update...

So, genre.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what genre my film would fall under. I think it could be considered a comedy, so that is what I'm going to go with.

I researched the genre of comedy to find out more about and see if my film really is a comedy.

Comedy films are described as "make 'em laugh" films; they are meant to elicit laughter from their audience. They are usually light-hearted dramas (although they can have a darker/more serious side) that amuse, entertain, and provoke enjoyment. Films under this genre usually have a happy ending

In a comedy, the situation, language, action, and characters (so pretty much everything) are exaggerated for a humorous effect. It is meant as an escape from day-to-day life.

Some believe that the term of comedy is too broad to describe a film, so I started looking into the different sub-genres of comedy.

Comedies can exist as a sub-genre under other major genres (romantic comedy, horror-comedy, etc.); however for the purpose of my film, I believe Comedy to be the major genre.

There are many different types of comedies:

Situational comedies derive humor from having a group of already established characters and exposing them to different situations.

Slapstick comedies were more popular during the time of silent films since they don't require any sound to be effective. It is considered to be primitive and universal comedy as it uses broad, aggressive, physical, and visual actions (a pie in the face, chase scenes, etc.). 

Gross out comedy relies heavily on vulgar or sexual humor and often contain a lot of profanity.

Observational humor finds humor in the common practices of everyday life.

A parody film satirizes other film genres or classic films.

Straight comedies don't fall into a specific type of comedy; they use comedy in a broad sense, for comedic sake.

Surreal comedy includes behavior and storytelling techniques that aren't logical. It has strange juxtapositions, bizarre situations, and abnormal reactions to normal situations.

There are many more sub-genres and hybrid sub-genres that I found, but I don't think they're too relevant to what I'm doing for my film.

I believe my film would fall into the category of an observational comedy as it focuses on a common task; it's an aspect of everyday life.

In another post I'll look more into observational comedy.

Anyway, that's all for today.

Until next time...