Case Study of a Director

Brian De Palma

Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission: Impossible.

De Palma's films can fall into two categories, his psychological thrillers (Sisters, Obsession, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Raising Cain) and his mainly commercial films (Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito's Way, and Mission: Impossible). He has often produced "De Palma" films one after the other before going on to direct a different genre, but would always return to his familiar territory. Because of the subject matter and graphic violence of some of De Palma's films, such as Dressed to Kill, Scarface and Body Double, they are often at the center of controversy with the Motion Picture Association of America, film critics and the viewing public.

De Palma is known for quoting and referencing other director's work throughout his career. Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation plots were used for the basis of Blow Out. The Untouchables' finale shoot out in the train station is a clear borrow from the Odessa Steps sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin. The main plot from Rear Window was used for Body Double, while it also used elements of Vertigo. Vertigo was also the basis for Obsession. Dressed to Kill was a note-for-note homage to Hitchcock's Psycho, including such moments as the surprise death of the lead actress and the exposition scene by the psychiatrist at the end.

Our Film Genres and Sub-Genres

 

Our Film Genres and Sub-Genres

For our film genres we have picked  Horror, we then looked in depth of these film genres and we looked into each of the genres's sub-genres.

Horror Sub-Genres ( Main Task )

• Action Horror - Action horror is a combination od the intrusion of an evil force, event or a supernatrual persona of a horror movie that will have the gunfights and frebetic chases of the action genre. Examples of these sub genres include: Resident Evil, Ghost Rider, Plant of terror, Undead, Doomsday, Underworld, Priest, Dawn of the Dead, Blade and End of Days.

• Body horror - A body horror film is when the principal of the film is deruved from the graphic destruction or degeneration of the body, this means that in these types of film you will see unnartual movements or the anatomically incorrect placement of the limbs. Examples of these sub genres include: Altered States, The Invasion, The Fly, Rosemary's Baby, Eraserhead, The Thing, Re-Animator, Hellraiser, Videodrome, Cabin Fever, Virus and Teeth.

• Comedy horror - Comedy horror are a combination of comedy genre and and horror fiction. The short story 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' by Washington Irving is cited as "the first great comedy-horror story" Examples of these sub genres include: An American Werewolf in London, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Gremlins, Bad Taste, Braindead, Beetlejuice, Arachnophobia, Terror Firmer, Eight Legged Freaks, Shaun of the Dead, Evil Dead II, Tucker & Dale vs Evil, and Slither.

• Gothic horror - A Gothic horror films are the type of film that will combine the elements of goth and horror combine into one film. Sometimes gothic horror films will have the element of romance that will unfold into the setting of a horror tale. Examples of these sub genres include: The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein, Sleepy Hollow, Interview with the Vampire, Underworld, The Wolfman, From Hell, Dorian Gray, Let Me In and The Woman in Black.

• Natural horror - A Natural horror film features "nature running amok in the form of mutated beasts, carnivorous insects, and normally harmless animals or plants turned into cold-blooded killers." These sub-genres will sometimes overlap with the genres of science fiction and action/adventure. Examples of these sub genres include: The Birds, Black Sheep, Jaws, Mimic, Deep Rising, Them!, The Swarm, Pet Sematary, Lake Placid, Primeval, Anaconda, Snakes on a Plane, The Cave, Piranha 3D and The Ruins.

• Psychological horror - Psychological horror are horror films that will relie on the characters's fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music, emotional instability and sometimes it will contian the supernatural and ghosts. Examples of these sub genres include: A Tale of Two Sisters, Dark Water, Gothika, Ring, Ju-on: The Grudge, The Exorcist, Session 9, Silent Hill, The Others, The Mothman Prophecies, The Blair Witch Project, 1408, The Shining, Stir of Echoes, The Innocents, Frailty, Sinister (film) The Changeling, and The Sixth Sense.

• Science Fiction horror - Science Fiction horror film will often revolve around the subject of killer aliens, mad scuentist or experiments gone wrong. Examples of these sub genres include: Alien, Pandorum, The Fly, Event Horizon, Apollo 18, Doom, Pitch Black, The Mist, and It Came from Outer Space.

• Slasher film - Slasher film will often recole around a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner and always with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe. the Slasher film sub-genres will always overlap with crime, mystery and thriller genres. Examples of these sub genres include: Psycho, Black Christmas, Halloween, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Prom Night, Scream, Pieces, Hatchet, Friday the 13th, Child's Play, Candyman, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

• Splatter film - Splatter films are will focus on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence, by using special effects and excessive blood and guts. They will display an overt interest in the vulnerability of the human bodyand the theatricality of it's mutilation. Examples of these sub genres include: Cannibal Holocaust, Piranha 3D, Blood Feast, Demons, Saw, Guinea Pig (film series), Hostel, Hostel: Part II, Cannibal Ferox, Martyrs, Hobo with a Shotgun, Inside, The Collector, and The Midnight Meat Train.

• Zombie film -Zombie films will feature creatures who are usually portrayed as either corpses or mindless human beings. Examples of these sub genres include: Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, The Evil Dead, I Am Legend, Dead Snow, Land of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, REC and The Return of the Living Dead.

the sub-genre the my partner Gloria and I  Psychological horror - Psychological horror are horror films that will rely on the characters's fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, tense and suspense building music, emotional instability and it may contain elements of the supernatural and ghosts. We choose this sub-genre because it goes perfectly with our plot for our main task and it's the type of film we want to film.

Film Genres and Sub-Genres

 

       Film Genres and Sub-Genres

We started research Film Genres and Sub-Genres and in which category both of our films fit in. As you know we have choosen our BBFC rating and we found out that both of our films fit in with the BBFC rating 15, now we are about which category our films fits with the best and also what sub-genre our with suit best.

I got this infromation from http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html

Genre Types	Genre Descriptions
	Action films usually include high energy, big-budget physical stunts and chases, possibly with rescues, battles, fights, escapes, destructive crises (floods, explosions, natural disasters, fires, etc.), non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and adventurous, often two-dimensional 'good-guy' heroes (or recently, heroines) battling 'bad guys' - all designed for pure audience escapism.
	Adventure films are usually exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locations, very similar to or often paired with the action film genre. They can include traditional swashbucklers, serialized films, and historical spectacles, searches or expeditions for lost continents, "jungle" and "desert" epics, treasure hunts, disaster films, or searches for the unknown.
	Comedies are light-hearted plots consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter (with one-liners, jokes, etc.) by exaggerating the situation, the language, action, relationships and characters.
	Crime (gangster) films are developed around the sinister actions of criminals or mobsters, particularly bankrobbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life
	Dramas are serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction. Usually, they are not focused on special-effects, comedy, or action, Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre, with many subsets
	Epics often share elements of the elaborate adventure films genre. Epics take an historical or imagined event, mythic, legendary, or heroic figure, and add an extravagant setting and lavish costumes, accompanied by grandeur and spectacle, dramatic scope, high production values, and a sweeping musical score. Epics are often a more spectacular, lavish version of a biopic film.
	Horror films are designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films feature a wide range of styles, from the earliest silent Nosferatu classic, to today's CGI monsters and deranged humans. They are often combined with science fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is threatened by aliens. The fantasy and supernatural film genres are not usually synonymous with the horror genre
	Musical/dance films are cinematic forms that emphasize full-scale scores or song and dance routines in a significant way (usually with a musical or dance performance integrated as part of the film narrative), or they are films that are centred on combinations of music, dance, song or choreography.
	Sci-fi films visionary and imaginative - complete with heroes, aliens, distant planets, impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and shadowy villains, futuristic technology and unknowable forces, and extraordinary monsters ('things or creatures from space') They are sometimes an offshoot of fantasy films, or they share some similarities with adventure films. Science fiction often expresses the potential of technology to destroy humankind and easily overlaps with horror films, particularly when technology or alien life forms become malevolent.
	War (and anti-war) films acknowledge the horror and heartbreak of war, letting the actual combat fighting (against nations or humankind) on land, sea, or in the air provide the primary plot or background for the action of the film.
	Westerns are the major defining genre of the American film industry - a eulogy to the early days of the expansive American frontier. They are one of the oldest, most enduring genres with very recognizable plots, elements, and characters (six-guns, horses, dusty towns and trails, cowboys, Indians, etc.). Over time, westerns have been re-defined, re-invented and expanded, dismissed, re-discovered, and spoofed.
	'Biopics' is a term derived from the combination of the words "biography" and "pictures. Although they reached a hey-day of popularity in the 1930s, they are still prominent to this day. These films depict the life of an important historical personage (or group) from the past or present era. Biopics cross many genre types, since these films might showcase a western outlaw, a criminal, a musical composer, a religious figure, a war-time hero, an entertainer, an artist, an inventor or doctor, a politician or President, or an adventurer.
	Often considered an all-encompassing sub-genre, 'chick' flicks or gal films (slightly derisive terms) mostly include formulated romantic comedies (with mis-matched lovers or female relationships), tearjerkers and gal-pal films, movies about family crises and emotional carthasis, some traditional 'weepies' and fantasy-action adventures, sometimes with foul-mouthed and empowered females, and female bonding situations involving families, mothers, daughters, children, women, and women's issues. These films are often told from the female P-O-V, and star a female protagonist or heroine
	Detective-mystery films are usually considered a sub-type or sub-genre of crime/gangster films (or film noir), or suspense or thriller films that focus 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, as he/she meets various adventures and challenges in the cold and methodical pursuit of the criminal or the solution to the crime.
	Disaster films, a sub-genre of action films, hit their peak in the decade of the 1970s. Big-budget disaster films provided all-star casts and interlocking, Grand Hotel-type stories, with suspenseful action and impending crises (man-made or natural) in locales such as aboard imperiled airliners, trains, dirigibles, sinking or wrecked ocean-liners, or in towering burning skyscrapers, crowded stadiums or earthquake zones.
	Fantasy films, usually considered a sub-genre, are most likely to overlap with the film genres of science fiction and horror, although they are distinct. Fantasies take the audience to netherworld places (or another dimension) where events are unlikely to occur in real life - they transcend the bounds of human possibility and physical laws. They often have an element of magic, myth, wonder, and the extraordinary. One of the major categories of fantasy-action films are the super-hero movies, based quite often on original comic-strip or comic book character. They may appeal to both children and adults, depending upon the particular film.
	Film noir (meaning 'black film') is a distinct branch of the crime/gangster sagas from the 1930s. Strictly speaking, film noir is not a genre, but rather the mood, style or tone of various American films that evolved in the 1940s, and lasted in a classic period until about 1960. However, film noir has not been exclusively confined to this era, and has re-occurred in cyclical form in other years in various neo-noirs. Noirs are usually black and white films with primary moods of melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt and paranoia. And they often feature a cynical, loner hero (anti-hero) and femme fatale, in a seedy big city
	Composed of macho films that are often packed with sophomoric humour, action, cartoon violence, competition, mean-spirited putdowns and gratuitous nudity and sex. Gal films or 'chick' flicks are their counterpart for females. This category of film is highly subject to opinion.
	Melodramas are a sub-type of drama films, characterized by a plot to appeal to the emotions of the audience. Often, film studies criticism used the term 'melodrama' pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled tales of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters that would directly appeal to feminine audiences ("weepies" or "woman's films").
	Road films have been a staple of American films from the very start, and have ranged in genres from westerns, comedies, gangster/crime films, dramas, and action-adventure films. One thing they all have in common: an episodic journey on the open road (or undiscovered trail), to search for escape or to engage in a quest for some kind of goal -- either a distinct destination, or the attainment of love, freedom, mobility, redemption, the finding or rediscovering of oneself, or coming-of-age (psychologically or spiritually).
	A sub-genre for the most part, this category shares some features with romantic dramas, romantic comedies, and sexual/erotic films. These are love stories, or affairs of the heart that center on passion, emotion, and the romantic, affectionate involvement of the main characters (usually a leading man and lady), and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story the main plot focus
	Films that have a sports setting (football or baseball stadium, arena, or the Olympics, etc.), event (the 'big game,' 'fight,' 'race,' or 'competition'), and/or athlete (boxer, racer, surfer, etc.) that are central and predominant in the story. Sports films may be fictional or non-fictional; and they are a hybrid sub-genre category,
	Supernatural films, a sub-genre category, may be combined with other genres, including comedy, sci-fi, fantasy or horror. They have themes including gods or goddesses, ghosts, apparitions, spirits, miracles, and other similar ideas or depictions of extraordinary phenomena. Interestingly however, until recently, supernatural films were usually presented in a comical, whimsical, or a romantic fashion, and were not designed to frighten the audience. There are also many hybrids that have combinations of fear, fantasy, horror, romance, and comedy.
	Thrillers are often hybrids with other genres - there are action-thrillers, crime-caper thrillers, western-thrillers, film-noir thrillers, even romantic comedy-thrillers. Another closely-related genre is the horror film genre. Thriller and suspense films are virtually synonymous and interchangeable categorizations. They are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension.

we have looked through the genres and we have seen that for our preliminary the main genre is detective-mystery films and for our main task the genre is horror.