Genre Reserach

Genre Research

Urban Genre

An urban thriller is a sub-genre to thriller movies mixed with urban realism. Urban or 'gritty' films are more realistic and often low budget (like our film) and rely more on a solid story and engaging characters rather than special effects such as CGI. This also ties into making a British film which is usually very realistic and deal with real life social issues. Urban have a very distinct style using things like bright simple colour schemes such as 'Trainspotting' (above), or have an urban style sound track commonly featuring rap or hip hop music like in 'KiDULTHOOD', an example of this can be found below.

The characters that feature in urban genre films are often criminals, delinquents or people that deviate from social norms, the characters could be things such as drug users or dealers (like our film and Trainspotting), young offenders, teenagers (KiDULTHOOD) or people that are unpopular with society.

The films mentioned above link into our film because of their distinct style, this is relevant because we will be trying to create a memorable style which includes our music and the visual aspects. Other films which feature a distinct a style are ones such as 'anuvahood' (above) with its soundtrack and bright colour.

Also a common setting for these films is that they take place in an urban setting with gritty environments which is something we are able to recreate. Combining this with the correct visual and audio style means we can create a film with distinct style while staying true to the urban thriller genre.

Thriller Genre

"A thriller provides the sudden rush of emotions, excitement, sense of suspense and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace thrills. In this genre, the objective is to deliver a story with sustained tension, surprise, and a constant sense of impending doom."

Above is the definition/ characteristics of a film which comes under the 'Thriller' genre. (definition from Wikipedia). This is relevant to the story of out film which is based upon the main character owes money and has a short frame of time to pay it back or he will be murdered. Time running out and the threat of death gives the viewer the feeling of 'impending doom'. But also because of the fast passed nature of our film this will create a rush and grab a viewers interest, these factors combined mean our film is also a thriller. The excitement will also be added to by the interesting visual style of the film and also the soundtrack which will be upbeat and fast.