Short Films - Themes and Genre

For our Short film we considered many different genres that we could include but we felt that the only ones that, while being realistic, we were able to do were; Romance, Comedy and Thriller. We ruled out genres such as action, historical, fantasy and Science-fiction for their sheer impracticality. The Romance and Comedy genres are very appropriate considering how they are classic examples of British cinema - same as thrillers. For our themes we in the end decided on the themes of immigration and the nature of life in London. We felt that they were relevant to the British people and the themes of British identity and society that are in the public spotlight at the moment.

Romance

This poster signifies that it is representing the romance genre as it has two people in a romantic embrace which is a conventional image for romantic movies. The targeted audience seems to be women of any age as the reddish colours seem to signify passion which would draw the women in.

Comedy

This poster shows how its part of the comedy genre by using some of the common themes. The fact that one guy is naked and all of the people smiling make it clear that this is a comedy. The apple pie on poster is also an iconic image, because of the hole in it. As the people on the poster are teenagers it clearly points the target audience as being teenage.

Thriller

This poster is clearly a poster for a thriller/horror film as the woman is clearly screaming. Additionally the dull colours show that this will not be an action movie.

Our themes would be relevant to an audience consisting of late teens/early 20s - especially the ones living in big cities such as London, Manchester, Birmingham etc. They explore current issues that affect people in their daily lives. Through our research we realised that short films are great vessels for short and coherent ideas that tackle issues of relevance. Following the right conventions of short films will allow us to put our point across in an effective manner. As outlined in our audience research the issue of practicality is very important as we will not be able to cover a film genre such as science-fiction as we do not possess either the technology or money to film such a movie.