Genres - Research to Guide My Choice

Today I feel like going over some of the characteristics of the genres I had been throwing around in my mind. 

So, I found this site that outlines the main characteristics of film genres, not so unlike what we had done in class a while back.  The two genres that I had been thinking about doing were either a satire or a mystery film.  On another page the site, I found a chart that categorized a bunch of sub-genres into the broad umbrella of the main genres of film.  

Satires, as I would expect fall into the category of a comedy, are characterized as through their use of "a humorous or anarchic take-off that ridicules, impersonates, punctures, scoffs at, and/or imitates (mimics) the style, conventions, formulas, characters (by caricature), or motifs of a serious work, film, performer, or genre."

Some of my favorite movies are satires, such as Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs, and Blazing Saddles.  Other examples include Airplane!, The Naked Gun Series, and the Austin Powers series.  However, some say that comedy is a bad genre to make a first movie with.  This site outlines just why it is such a bad idea to do exactly that.  The author argues that comedy may seem like an easy way to go, since all you have to do is have a good sense of humor.  Well, that is also the bad part, many people believe they are funny but just are not funny at all.  If anything, I'm not funny, just funny looking. *insert laugh here*

My second film genre that I had in my mind was a mystery film.  Mystery film plots are characterized though "focus[ing] on the unsolved crime (usually the murder or disappearance of one or more of the characters, or a theft), and on the central character - the hard-boiled detective-hero." 

Some examples of these films would be Murder on the Orient Express, The Big Lebowski, and Memento.  This website concurs that comedy is a bad idea due to the reasons stated above, however gives the green light for basically everything else (except for drama...).  The article outlines what genres work in the indie film world.  The article specifically outlines that, "Thrillers work.  So do action films, horror films, and family films."  If anything, this article just helped to bury the hatchet in my satirical dreams.  

So, with the research I have done on my genre choice, Mystery, I think I can go ahead and start looking at the openings of these types of film to give myself ideas of how to write my script.  

In my next posting, I will schedule out the project so that I can leave enough time to film, edit, and polish my project.  Til next time!