Genre Research - Matt Bull & Gareth Allen

Thriller:

• Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains.
• If the genre is to be defined strictly, a genuine thriller is a film that relentlessly pursues a single-minded goal - to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the main character(s) is placed in a menacing situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy.

Top 5 Thriller Films:

1. The Godfather (1972) - Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
   
2. The Godfather Pt II (1974) - Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
3. Pulp Fiction (1994) - Dir. Quentin Tarantino
   
4. The Dark Knight (2008) - Dir. Christopher Nolan
   
5. Rear Window (1954) - Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
   

Social Realism:

• Social Realism is normally expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through obvious pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic.
• "Better than any other genre, social realism has shown us to ourselves, pushing the boundaries in the effort to put the experiences of real Britons on the screen, and shaping our ideas of what British cinema can be. While our cinema has experienced all the fluctuations in fortune of Hollywood's first export territory, realism has been Britain's richest gift to world cinema." Richard Armstrong
  

Top 5 Social Realism Films:

1. Last Resort (2000) - Dir. Pawel Pawlikowski
2. Burning An Illusion (1981) - Dir. Menelik Shabazz
3. Life Is Sweek (1990) - Dir. Mike Leigh
4. My Childhood (1972) - Dir. Bill Douglas
5. Rita, Sue & Bob Too (1986) - Dir. Alan Clarke

The reason why we have chosen these two genres to be incorporated in our film due to the aspect that both have areas in which our film is based on. Giving it suspense and tension as well as being in a real life situation.

Matt Bull & Gareth Allen