Genre refers to the category or type of a piece of media. Categorising movies by genre can be done in various ways such as:
By audience – this will be the demographics of which the film is aimed at, e.g. family film.
By setting – sometimes, a staple location can heavily influence the type of film, e.g. western.
By topic or subject matter – the nature of what is happening in the film could also come into its own as a genre, e.g. sci-fi.
By content – a certain feature of the movie that is important to how the story is told can determine the type of film, e.g. musicals.
By narrative – what the plot of the film focusses on can define what type of movie it is, e.g. redemption.
By method – the physical way in which the film was made also becomes a genre, e.g. animation.
I am looking at the movie conventions of the action-adventure genre.
Conflict – The scenes of violence in which the protagonist partakes fulfil the action aspect of the film. This will be thrilling for audiences to see.
This is an example from The Bourne Identity.
Race against time – A time constraint is often featured to put something that the protagonist values at stake, adding a sense of urgency to the film.
An example of a race against time is featured in Avengers: Endgame. The avengers need to retrieve the infinity stones from the past but are only able to go back to the time period designated to each stone once and for a limited amount of time.
Unusual/exotic location – They are often set in foreign locations to isolate the main character and make it more difficult for them to navigate when attempting to fulfil their goal.
An example of an exotic location is within the Indiana Jones franchise, where his adventure takes place in locations such as Egypt, Nepal and more.
Mission – There will be a major task for the main character to complete in order to ‘save the day’ that helps to construct the basis of the storyline. Examples could include things like defeating the villain in battle or retrieving an item.
For instance, in Avengers: Infinity War, they have to work together to defeat Thanos before he is able to acquire and use the infinity stones to wipe out half of Earth’s population.
Peril/jeopardy – There will be various occasions where the protagonist will be placed in dangerous situations to add tension to the story by suggesting to the audience members that the main character is still vulnerable to succumbing to perilous situations.
Here’s an example in Kingsman: The Secret Service. The situation that Eggsy is placed into is life-threatening. They have reinforced this idea with the fact that, even though he survived, someone portrayed to be equal to him in ability appeared to drown as a consequence of the challenge.
Hero & villain – Usually a hero and villain are featured as the main characters of the movie. Their conflicting motives formulate the reasoning behind their dispute.
An example of a hero and villain can be seen in Black Panther with the main characters T’Challa and Killmonger.
Teamwork – A common convention of AA movies is that there will be teamwork between the protagonist and their teammates. These characters will be companions to the hero throughout their journey.
An example of this can be seen in Wonder Woman with Diana (Wonder Woman) and her team consisting of Steve, Sammy, Charlie and The Chief.
Jasmine Cooper 