IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

Seeing yet another competition entry form asking for the genre of a film makes me wonder how useful these descriptive terms are.

Does it help people choose which films to see at BIAFF for example?
Does it help judges realise when they may have missed the point?

What is the difference between "fiction", "story" and "drama"?

Are those split genres helpful? "comedy/horror" , "reportage/drama"

Does "music" help?

Totally useless Dave, a film is a film is a film.

My gut instinct was to agree with Michael, but thinking about it I can see many advantages and only one disadvantage - that being that, like creators of all sorts of art, we don't tend to like our work to be "pigeonholed"

Dave Watterson wrote: Does it help people choose which films to see at BIAFF for example?

Yes, and it might help in creating a balanced programme for organisers of festivals

Dave Watterson wrote: Does it help judges realise when they may have missed the point?

Yes, because if they know the point they will be able to produce better comments for the maker by informing them "why" they missed the point.

Dave Watterson wrote: What is the difference between "fiction", "story" and "drama"?

One would only need to ask that question if two or three of them ever appeared in the same festival/competition. Which is unlikely

Dave Watterson wrote: Are those split genres helpful? "comedy/horror" , "reportage/drama"

Again, it can be from the viewers' perspective. I might like horror, but not comedy/horror.

Dave Watterson wrote: Does "music" help?

Probably. The video should be judged on it's effectiveness in promoting the music (rather than detracting from it which a particularly good "drama" music video might)

It becomes even more important when one considers genres like "historical fiction". Without that tag, a film might be taken as a straight documentary and considered to be poorly researched or innaccurate.

I think categorising films by genre is good idea, for all the reasons Tim has already mentioned.

My story is a drama ,fiction based on fact , that should cover all basis

music can create an atmosphere as well as looks from a good actor

I totally agree with Tim, 100%.





(That's gotta be worth a pint?)

OK most of you seem to like listing film types ... now the $64,000 question: which ones?

At present BIAFF seems to accept any description. Other festivals require entrants to tick a box beside one of a limited number of options.
Accepting anything leads to confusion like deciding what is a drama compared with a story.

What would be appropriate descriptions?

The main value of categorising films is to ensure that like is compared with like. There is a world of difference between documentary and story films (fiction; narrative; drama). Within story there are many potential sub divisions that may be set by the organisers of a Festival's particular interests; e.g comedy, horror, SF, fan, etc. similarly documentary can be sub divided. As Tim points out this makes the judge's job just a little easier. There are other potential categories such as length; student; seniors and so on. It's nice to see Festivals that specialise along with the general Festivals as per BIAFF. If you subscribe to Withoutabox you will find every interest catered for.

ned c

Mike Shaw wrote: (That's gotta be worth a pint?)

You're so easily bought, Mike. I'd have stretched to two

Dave Watterson wrote: What would be appropriate descriptions?

As Ned points out, it is sometimes good to have special categories. There may be a few festivals that have a "comedy/horror" category and makers (and fans) of those types of films would naturally be drawn to them.

But I don't see that festivals have to impose "genres" on their entrants. I like the form to be blank, allowing the maker to put whatever (s)he thinks. If you start specifying genres as categories (ie tick one of the following) then you are almost obliged to offer a prize for each.

I like that a film maker can enter a film and, optionally, specify what sort of film they have made as this may be useful to the judges and audience alike.

Quite apart from that, if you had to include every possible genre/sub genre, the list would be endless and we'd end up with some with only one film.

How would you categorise John Ingham's fictional/factual/drama? Far better to leave it to him (optionally) to label it.