Romance
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion and the journey of the two main characters. Romance films are usually certificated 12A and often explore common themes that appear in this genre such as love at first sight, forbidden love, young with older love, tragic love, ect. Films like Romeo and Juliet explore the themes love at first sight and forbidden love. Romance films are high key lit and are located in romantic settings. Some romance films are set in the summer, high key lighting is used and colorful scenery, and may be located near the beach. Some other romance films are released in winter and based around Christmas such as 'the Holiday', snow can used as mise-en-scene to create a romantic setting. The plot of the film usually involves a male and female meeting falling in love then they face obstacles such as finances, physical illness, family that threaten to break their union of love or betrayal, and usually at the end of the film they are reunited. The target audience of romance films are typically female. There are many films that are in the romance sub-genre such as romantic comedies like 'Knocked Up', and romantic fantasy films such as Twilight.
British social realism
British social realist films focus topics and issues in modern society we live in, themes which occur in this genre are money, drugs, class, religion and political views. The target audiences varies depending on the topics that the film involves also the age of the main characters. Social realist films that have young main characters such as 'Kidulthood' is likely to appeal to the age group 13-18 as the film is set in a culture that appeals to modern youth. however as this genre involves topics such as drugs and sex, these films are usually rated certificate 15 or 18. Conventions in british social realist films are that they are filmed on location, usually are non-professional actors, semi improvised scripts, humour and seriousness, ect.
Horror
Horror films aim to scare their audience by playing on the audiences fears. This genre uses low key lighting to create a dark atmosphere which will make the scenes more intense for the audience, also sound effects such as footsteps and heavy breathing are used to create suspence. These types of films use a horror film score which is recognisable to the audience as they assosiate the sound with the idea that something bad/scary is about to happen. Horror films are often given higher rating such as certifacte 15 or 18, due to the content that the film contains, the target audience is teenagers and young adults. Elements in horror films include ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons, torture, monsters, zombies, serial killers, ect. Lots of horror films continue and become a series of films such as Paranormal Activity and Saw francises.
Thriller
Thriller films uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Thrillers are usually rated certificate 15 or 18 and the target audience is teenagers and young adults. Thrillers generally show good and evil fighting against eachother, thriller include all sorts of plot twists during the film to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats. A small range of colours are used in thriller films such as black, white and red, red symbolises danger and passion which often appear within the film. Also some colours are used at certain plot points, for example the colour blue implies that somebody is going to die or red implies that the character is in danger. Low key lighting is commonly used in thrillers to create suspense. Common subgenres are psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, spy thrillers and mystery thrillers.
