Creating a Genre - "Action" Sequence

When first approaching our given genre of Action, we were, it had to be said, a little daunted. Many of the obvious features of action films happen to be big, exuberant chases or even explosions and the thought of us being able to produce something anything near to that style was quite unbelievable.
It was only after we began to research the conventions of the genre that we realised it contained a lot of signature techniques.

Creating a genre, we found, is more than just creating a narrative that has action elements. The style of shots, audio, acting, editing... it all adds to make a genre.
Knowing this, we moved on to researching typical conventions of the action genre in all aspects of it and then looked at examples of how they have been used in the past.

Narrative Conventions: 

• Stereotypical, sometimes 2D characters - Hero, 'Damsel-in-distress', Villain etc..
• Chases or similar high action sequences.
• Frequent use of tension building.
• Some crossovers with the Thriller and Crime genres.
• Spying and espionage a common feature.
• Strong motives for the characters action that often represent a virtue, in the case of a hero.
• Use of gadgets and weapons can often be central to the plot.
• Drastic consequences of characters actions. (For example, the hero must save the world from destruction in an extreme case.)
• Often set in urban areas.

Technical Conventions:

• Fast paced editing style in high action scenes.
• Lengthier shots used to draw emphasis to specific props or plot points in dialogue.
• Shaky cam is used frequently, possibly to emulate the action of running.
• Tension building music is almost always used and other tracks used, for example, in chase scenes, usually feels very grand or epic in scale.
• Use of special effects for things such as explosions.
• Quite a mixture between very long and very short shots, again building tension or aiding narrative points.
• Point of view shots used in spy situations.
• Shot/reverse shot used heavily in dialogue.
• Dark, yet often saturated colours.

When we were fist given the script, we made the choice to add in a few crucial scenes to add to our sense of genre. The most notable of these was the chase flashback scene, which added more key narrative conventions to our clip. This led to our storyboarding, where we also made the decision to use many shot shots.
The hardest aspects of capturing our genre proved to be the location, continuity and character looks, mainly due to our limited resources within school. Whoever, a positive aspect that came from this happened to be the weather, as it rained constantly on our shooting days, giving the lighting in our shots a dark tone.

Representation: Conventions of the Anime genre

Anime, or Japanese animation, refers to a particular style of productions that are created in Japan. They come in many formats, such as graphic novels, video games, film and television series and often have rather unique attributes, particularly in their art style. Many anime productions have seen a surge in popularity in Western areas of the world, which could be attributed to successful televisions series such as the infamous adoptions of Nintendo's gaming series Pokemon, and the critically acclaimed film company Studio Ghibli. This has also led to American companies and others like them into creating Anime-inspired TV series such as W.I.T.C.H.

Anime television series have noticeable characteristics that are seen across the whole genre. The conventions can more often than not include:

• Colourful graphics
• Action filled plots
• Story lines that focus or fantastical or futuristic themes
• Exaggerated personalities
• Sometimes over the top art design of characters (such as over emphasised features)
• Light hearted or comical story lines
• Exaggerated voice acting
• Occasional unrealistic backgrounds (such as block colours often used in fight scenes)
• Interestingly, many have focuses or the elements or nature in some way
• Magic or some variation of power is often seen.
• Japanese influenced soundtracks and theme songs

This is all evident in a popular TV anime series entitled Ah! My Goddess, which I have recently been watching.