Genre

Genre in my short film

Steve Neale defines Genre as “instances of repetition and difference”.  What he means by this is that a genre must follow certain conventions so that an audience can understand that a film will be similar to what they are comfortable with; however should also be different so that the films are creative and unique rather than complete copies. He adds that “difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre” as an audience would not be attracted to a film that is exactly the same as another. Most films, as well as books, TV programmes, video games and songs fit into to a few different genres rather than the one.

My short film is called “The Huge Snooze”. The title alone illustrates the genres of the film, as it pastiches the popular Film Noir movie “The Big Sleep”. This image of film noir parody is present throughout the short film; even including the production logo which introduces the film, as it replicated the Universal Logo from the 1920’s and 30’s in which a plane span around the earth and as it span the earth rotated to reveal the words “A Universal Picture”. I stuck a model plane, the same plane that is in the Universal Logo, to the side of a Globe which was attached to string so when the string was pulled the globe span around which revealed the words “A One Rehearsal Picture”.

The short film contains conventional Film Noir characters as seen as it follows the life of Private Investigator Marshal Mallow; a typical New Yorker from the 30’s. It is made clear to the audience that he is a detective due to his costume; as he wears suspenders and a blaser in some shots and in later shots a fedora and a trench coat, the way he talks; as he speaks with a thick New Yorker accent which is heard majorly through narrations to replicate his inner monologue. However the hard boiled dialogue is purposely comical to illustrate that the film is a parody. Another conventional character within my short film noir parody is Lotta Clevage, the fem fatale. Again, it is clear for an audience to understand who she is due to her costume; as she wears a vintage wiggle dress with matching gloves, as well as a mink stole and a wide brimmed vintage hat. Her only dialogue piece is of her telling Mallow that she needs as she says “I need your help. I need you to help me find my baby.” This establishes her as a damsel in distress and a stereotypical female character, however prior to this, as Mallow notices Lotta talking towards his apartment out of the window, Mallow’s narration says “Dames equal Danger” which establishes an overwhelming sense of danger that the case Mallow goes on will result in him getting into trouble as Lotta is not as innocent as she perhaps first appears. These are all stereotypical character traits of both the Private Dick and the Fem Fatale.

A lot of the shots are directly taken from Film Noir films using lighting; shots which are repeated within most of them, such as a shot of Mallow looking through a pair of lattice blinds, as well as a light behind the lattice blinds causing a shadow effect on the wall, a light behind the Fem Fatale as she is standing outside the door with a sheet of tracing paper on it, to look like frosted glass when lit from behind, with the words “Marshall Mallow, Private Dick” written on it, with the word “Dick” crossed out and “Investigator” written below it. The light behind the fem fatale created a silhouette on against the paper. There are various other shots involving light and smoke to highlight Mallows face such as when he strikes a match to light a cigarette which lights up his face. The mise-en-scene is accurate to the period in which the film is set; 1930’s New York, as all of the props are vintage, such as a vintage chair, a vintage radio and even a 1930’s version of Cluedo.  The fact that there is a cluedo bored stuck to the wall with red ribbon and pins going in between cards that have been stuck onto the board, so that it resembles a cork board as well as the title on Mallows door represent how mise-en-scene has been used to inform the audience that the film is a comedy.