Our short film is a hybrid of a Thriller and a Fantasy genre; the events and situations that occur in the short film puts a sinister spin on the Fantasy genre.
In terms of Rick Altman's theory, genres have fixed characteristics in which construct that particular genre and have repeated conventions in terms of Steve Neale's theory.
4 Repeated Fixed Characteristics in a Thriller:
- Tension- the highest tension point in our short film will be when one of the characters cheats as it causes the worst consequence, which is the characters possessions being taken away.
- Anticipation- the audience will become highly hopeful when the board game begins causing havoc; they will hope that all these bad occurrences, such as the loss of real money, will be resolved.
- Anxiety- the audience will become most anxious when they see one of the characters cheating, having seen the bad occurrences that the game has already caused they will be worried about the consequences of this action.
- Enigma- this will be generated when the audience realise that the board game possesses some kind of strange power that allows unrealistic things to happen which is unexpected. It will raise questions and make the audience eager to know what's going on and how.
4 Repeated Fixed Characteristics in a Fantasy:
- Supernatural- the board game itself possesses some sort of supernatural power that allows strange things to occur that can't be explained, such as the power cut.
- Magic- similar to the supernatural power, it causes unexplained things to happen that aren't realistic and not capable of a board game.
- Imaginary- the strange occurrences alter normality and create a 'separate world' for the characters as everyone else outside and around them aren't affected.
- Unrealistic- the events that occur during our short film provide a sense of mystery and unusualness due to the abnormal behaviour of the board game.
Jumanji is another Fantasy film that has a similar plot to our short film. It's also a hybrid of a Family and Adventure genre. It's about a boy who discovers a board game that turns out to possess some kind of supernatural power which allows the unthinkable to happen, such as a stampede of elephants and other animals in the middle of New York, raging monkeys that take over the city and turning their house into a jungle. The board game even engulfs the boy and doesn't release him till many years later when it becomes clear that the game has to finish in order for all these catastrophes to go away. It relates to our film due to the tension and imagination that's sustained throughout, which is what we will aim to do.
It could be argued that our short film will be a modern day version of Jumanji that's been altered and changed to fit in with our evolved culture. This would relate to Buckingham's theory of Negotiation and Change as the situations that our Monopoly board game produces are focused around money issues which contrasts with the random animal stampedes and giant killer wasps that Jumanji produces. It shows that over time, since 1995, money has become more depended on as our ideologies have changed and our culture has evolved.
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| Stampede |
Zathura is another Fantasy film that's linked to Jumanji and can relate to our short film too, it's also a Space Adventure genre.
It deals with the same issues of a board game causing havoc, but this has a slight Sci-Fi twist. It's about two brothers that discover a board game. The younger brother decides to start playing and becomes confused at the game due to the card that appears to of done nothing. Unexpectedly, the card comes true and a meteor shower begins which is soon followed by a killer robot and a shooting star that grants any wish. The Fantasy genre is clearly sustained throughout and the film ends the same way as Jumanji and our short film; they have to keep playing in order for all the bad things to go away.
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| Meteor Shower |
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| Killer Robot |
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