Research into chosen genre

Our chosen genre for our film opening is an action film:

Action


Action / adventure films are the least realistic films and tend to be the most expensive to create; they are often distributed / produced by huge companies (for example subsidiaries of the 'big six'). This is often due to the 'over-the-top' amount of violence and explosion that are shown in the films which cost a huge amount of money that is inaccessible to independent or smaller companies.
 An action film is often et either in the recent past (for example a recent war) or in the not too distant future, this creates an air of verisimilitude in a film that is already unrealistic. The viewer can still connect and relate with the film as they understand what is happening.

In terms of characters, there are the generic characters used:

- Firstly there is the stereotypical 'hero' character; he tends to be an average person that has a special ability - this allows the viewer to relate to the character and also adds to the verisimilitude of the film by making the main character seem like an average person, like anyone else.

- After this there is the 'side-kick' character. He often tends to be much less able than the 'hero' and tries to state out of the way, however he always seems to get dragged involved.

-The 'evil' 'bad' character of the film. This character always seems to want to get revenge and the director creates the film for the viewer to dislike this character. They are often designed to be a bit 'weird' or 'odd' and also have been built so that the viewer cannot relate to them - allowing the hero to get all the sympathy.

According to the film critic site 'IMDB', the most popular film of this genre, action, is the 2008 film 'The Dark Knight'. This had the most people watching it and also incidently had the highest rating of an action film on their website, with a rating of 9/10.

For our film opening, our group should try to use this film as something to learn from as it has the best figures for an action film. This will help us with our opening as we can use this film, studying the generic character involved, the camera shot used and how to create the right moods during our film, to create our own film and make it of a good quality and seem professional. We should first look at how the opening of this The Dark Knight runs to get an idea of how to make our own. Here is the opening of The Dark Knight: