Talk:List of film genres

01:58, 8 Mar 2004 62.31.108.18 (removed machinima - production technique, not genre)

But under the entry for machinima, it says

"Machinima (a portmanteau word for machine cinema) is both a film genre and a collection of associated production techniques."

Only one can be right. The other should be changed.

Distinctions between categories of categories

<Jun-Dai 6 July 2005 23:21 (UTC)> These distinctions between genre, style, and format seem pretty artificial. I've never seen the like outside of the Wikipedia, and I'd love to see some references--or have they indeed been invented for the purposes of this page? Generally speaking, heist is not a genre--it is a story archetype. You can have Western heists, noir heists, sci-fi heists, etc. There is nothing in the definition of a heist film that has to do with genre, except in the outline of plot conventions. Comedy, which is generally considered to be a genre, does not qualify under the definition provided here. A comedy is not considered a comedy because it is about something, it is considered a comedy because it was made in a certain filmmaking mode: designed to provoke laughter. The broad category of comedy does not define storylines, characters, visual styles, premises, settings, subject matters, or anything along those lines, and as such, that, by the definition provided here, keeps it from being a genre. Film noir, on the other hand, is a category defined mostly by subject matter, which, by the definition provided here, would make it a genre. It is listed under style, however. As a style, it is in no way distinct from expressionism--what sets it apart is the subject matter, as well as the collection of conventions (archetypal storylines, character archetypes, plot twists). This would in fact make it more of a genre as defined on this page than most any other film category listed under "genre".

This page smacks of primary research and arbitrary definitions. Characteristic style is generally considered to be one of the most defining aspects of a genre. Unless people can provide some external references to support the article as it is currently written, I'm going to nominate it for an overhaul and see that it gets rewritten. </Jun-Dai>

I agree that there should be some change, as it is, the article currently doesn't divide the complex world of films in small number of easy to grasp packages; The number of genres is huge and they are not on the same level. E.g. "comedy" and "fantasy" are well established genres, but "propaganda" is often non-fictional and everything can be an "art" film if it's made well enough. Grouping things is a good strategy to cut down on the size of genres, even if I can't cite any academical references.

I think we could group those "genres" into "technical genres", like 3D, Machinima, Short, "story genres" (what screenwriters would call the technical type of storyline) like comedy, drama, satire, melodrama, thriller, horror etc. and "domain genres" (what's the most apparent element), like cop film, road movie, circus film, medieval film, baseball film.

I think this separation would fit the bill especially well, since "genre" is not a one-dimensional attribute: A cop film can be a drama, it can be a comedy or a thriller. Plus it can be 3D cop comedy or a short cop comedy. But any film will at least choose one from all three genre types. Comments? Peter S. 17:16, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

Merge with Cinematic genre?

At first sight this list seems to overlap considerably with Cinematic genre. Would there be any objections to my merging them and redirecting one article to another? --Tony Sidaway|Talk 23:41, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

I say go for it GTBacchus 02:38, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

Works for me -- go ahead. Just remember that people are going to be continuing to look for a place to list genres as new articles about teen films and the like get written. Make it easy for them to add to a list or find a place for new additions in paragraphs of prose. — Catherine\^talk 05:25, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

God idea. I'd say leave this page intact, and redirect the other to this place, since this article title is simpler. Peter S. 17:23, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

Avant-garde

Would an avant-garde film qualify as a type of genre or style? Also, would a caper (a heist film that also contains humor) be the same as the heist genre?