Screenwriting : Genre vs Setting by Craig D Griffiths

I also see genre and setting as different but with technology times have evolved. A setting doesn't necessarily have to strictly fit a specific genre, rules can always be broken the same way story development is no longer expected to follow a certain formula for it to work. Genres can also be cleverly intertwined for a single story... Dramedy etc. Probably props used in a Western movie can restrict its setting rules unless it's science fiction or animation.

This is an excellent question. One could write a book on it. Traditional settings in earlier cinema, always matched the film's genre. (apart from a few wild cards) As technology advanced, more cross pollinations emerged betwixt visual setting verses meat of story. Eg Vintage Noir and Neo Noir. The earlier Noir always had deep, dark, certain expected underground or seedy locations with psychotic film angles. The later Neo Noir on other hand, could even be shot on a sidewalk in any suburb, with no special camera angles . Yet was still Noir because of the thoughts and feelings of characters hijacking the audience to follow their psychological journey. As you rightly point out a farm hand falling in love with his boss could take place anywhere. A family soap in UK called Emmerdale Farm recently had the farm hand both seducing his widowed boss and ruining the life of most of the town. Was it a Western? NO. The storyline is last month. Yet the story could have been in a Western setting given the right director. I think if the actors/directors/crew in any given film, give such a good performance so that the audience suspend their disbelief, the film has a chance no matter dialogue or location.

Genre speaks to substance and style, setting to time and place. Brick is a film noir set in a contemporary LA high school. The Dark Valley is a western in the Austrian Alps. Wonder Woman is a superhero story set in WWI. But given how our characters relate to the era and location we place them into, sometimes genre and setting are difficult to separate. If a drama happens in the old west, it probably counts as a western if it likes it or not.

I think with things like Game Of Thrones we are beginning to see a separation between setting and theme.

Genre is a way of pressing theme and setting into a single homogeneous chunk.

We may be entering a new way of looking at story.

Stephen Floyd I think you make a valid point. Some settings are so imposing they inform everything.

Midsommar was an interesting film because the setting doesn't fit the traditional Horror mold. Settings don't have to be so on-the-nose...Look at films like the upcoming Vivarium (Thriller/Mystery), Stepford Wives or even Get Out. Unique settings can help elevate your message in ways that strict reliance on genre can't always get across. So the question I'd ask is: What's most likely to resonate with your audience?

Get Out wouldn't have worked with the setting of BBC/Netflix's Dracula, and vise versa. It has a unique message that requires a specific context to communicate its own message of 'Horror'.

On an unrelated note, when I was working for Blockbuster back in the day a customer wanted help choosing a movie for her husband. I recommended Seraphim Falls and said it was enjoyable “for fans of that genre.” The woman said she had never heard of that actor, and I said Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan were both pretty famous. She said she knew who they were but not “that John guy” I mentioned. I thought about it and said, “You mean genre?” And she said, “Yeah, John Rah.” I then had to explain the meaning of a word that’s been part of the English vernacular for 300+ years. If she was embarrassed, she didn’t show it.

Nadia Carmon great point. A setting does give you some free information. It informs the audience.

So choosing the correct setting is a great tool.

It also gives the opportunity to subvert expectations. Like setting a horror in the framework that would suit a romantic comedy. Throws the audience off edge. Makes them pay attention.

I have to admit that part of the planet feel like a different planet for an Aussie.

Nadia Carmon Midsommar's setting in Sweden's country side very much fits the horror genre. There are several horror movies that take place in those areas,.

Most genre's aren't about place. There are about the rules of the protagonist and the antagonist and some of the general trappings of the genre. The movie Outland was pretty much just a Western in space - new sheriff in town coming in to clean up the place. Blade Runner was a noir in the future. There have been many Sci Fi movies that take place in King Arthur days. Place doesn't matter.

@Nadia Cool point you make. Story is "Visual" aswell as genre dialogue. New film makers are more and more juxtaposing traditional concepts of setting and story in new ways. Now we have "Hybrid" films and cross pollination, where expected norms are blown out of the water. @All Like @Craig said we could see a Sci Fi shot in a shanty town where the expected norm would be the antagonist and protagonist have a gun fight. I feel as long as the story has a universal theme that audience can bond with, then any location has a chance. If executed well it is a breath of fresh air to see a human situation in an unexpected place or time but it has to be believable.

Genre tends to be. western constraint as well.

If you look at Japanese cinema. They have a passion for a lone hero fight against adversity (samurai tradition). This may be a western in the west or crime noir.

Audience sophistication I think is stretching genre in all directions.

I do like writers talking writer things.

Craig D Griffiths imagine, that. My Western novels aren't really Westerns, they are character studies, but set in the West. That's what kept one of them from being published by St. Martin's, the editor ferreted that out. I wanted them to go in the Western section at bookstores, just for sales purposes, but they always went into the general fiction section. The upcoming novel is no different, but I think it has enough of the genre aspects to slip by. The other day, I realized one of them actually had a lot of the Star Wars themes to it, kind of fitting. A reversal of sorts.

@Craig

Game Of Thrones was a blast!!!!!!

Genre is characterized by content, style, and specific form. The setting may be a part of a genre characterization, sure, but not necessarily so and it is not the wholly deciding element.

Beth Fox Heisinger true. And I think as we’ll expand, remember cinema is over 100 years old, classification that have held in the past may become irrelevant or out moded.

Think of the dial up modem days (yes I am that old). People would talk about access to the internet based on Baud rate of their modem. Now we speak in meg per second and caps and IP addresses.

I don’t know what we will change to. But I think I can feel something in the air. It may be lead by the streamers and how they classify things.

Craig, genre is genre. Streamers (I assume you mean Netflix, Hulu, etc) use genre/sub-genre in the same way. We’ve had this discussion before, but, again, what’s growing are the number of genre/sub-genres. There are more now and there will probably be more in the future. ;)

Eventually all things break under the weight of repairs and patches. If the original genres worked there would be no need for the sub genre. The existence of sub genre proves that the genre model became inadequate.

You are 100% correct genre is genre. I am not putting a saddle on a dog and calling it a horse. I am saying a movie set in 1850 Texas with a man that wear a big hat and rides a horse may not be a Western. It just happen to be set in the Old West.

This stream has gone down a well worn path.

But when I post a script to a site or answer a query and I get asked what genre. I sometimes struggle. Because my stories straddle genre like the previously mentioned cowboy.

I think a prime example is the series Westworld. The setting is western with the cowboys, guns and vagrants but in the world's reality it is an amusement park people pay to enter. The residents and animals are all clones. Their personalities and attributes can be tweaked via computer screen. The people who pay to enter the park are allowed to do whatever they want. Its like a giant western video game. Totally a sci-fi genre. So yeah I think setting and genre matter. You can mash things up to get something unique and interesting.

The genre system is not in repair, nor is it breaking down or in patches. Genre works just fine. Genre is a way to categorize, decipher, discuss, define, and create work. Sorry you seem to disagree with it, Craig, that’s your opinion and choice, but it’s not going away. Genre is used in art and literature as well.

Genre is indeed genre.

I always liked Filmsite's genre, sub-genre, and film sub-genre types and category breakdowns.

https://www.filmsite.org/genres.html

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, all!

Beth Fox Heisinger is correct. Genre isn't in need of repair.

Subgenres exist because of the nature of the genres. They have their own particular set of rules that defines them.

Vampires are a subgenre of horror only because the vampires have their own set of archaic rules. Werewolves have their own rules. Zombies have their own rules. Horror is more fantasy than Sci fi, but the two can easily work together as in Alien (1979).

Drama is a catchall for seriousness. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) as a big budget production shows up in the Drama/Historical category, but a cheap vampire meets undead sharks movie would show up under horror. Romcoms are neither super romantic (like the 70's/80s romances), nor super comedy funny. You could have a romcom on a dude ranch, or in space, and it would still be a romcom because it follows those rules.

The Witch (2015) takes place in 1630 Puritan New England, but it's not a period piece drama - it's horror. Meek's Cutoff (2010) takes place in 1845 and doesn't have drunken saloons and cattle raiding, but it is certainly a western.

Beth Fox Heisinger there is no project to repair genre. So perhaps my terms are a bit radical.

Is it evolving? I visited the site Bill Costantini linked. It is good. Bikers are a sub category of action. But “Son of Anarchy” would be a crime/drama.

I am personal (just me - not an industry wide suggestion) separating setting from ‘genre’. This way people do not expect certain story element from the setting.

Love, Money, Bombs - A relationship drama set in a dystopian alternate reality.

AMY - A family drama set in an urban drug gang.

The Valley - straight up Dystopian SciFi.

Hostage - Crime Drama.

Somethings stick to conventions. Others need more scope.

I just believe that as story tellers we are becoming more complex and systems need to evolve with us.

Both go hand in hand. When a setting presents obvious environments (maritime, night club, romantic setting), audience can imagine what type of subject matter the genre might be. Example Café Settings where families gather or lovers cuddle, Alhambra Castle Garden, Malaga, Spain or Hyatt Coral Gables, FL with the Alhambra Castle theme with employee uniforms that match the setting. I worked there for 2 years and shot a movie there. Local studios used it all the time for movies and commercials. (Ex. Cacoon, Miami Vice, modeling video). Scandal, White House, or Madam Secretary in Washington, DC.

Doubt that genre is just a setting due to driving force. However when driving in a car I suppose genre is just sitting.

Hi Micheal, genre is setting, tropes, expected beats and story elements all rolled into a single term.

My thinking is that Setting is a separate thing. A subset or consideration in a pure genre. But my thesis is that modern story telling is outgrowing genre.

We may continue to evolve it. Adding sub genres, hybrids and new genres (romcom).

This is a thought discussion. There are examples in all industries of classifications limiting people’s thinking.

Which is just another consideration.

Crag I actually thought about your post for a while.

I came up with this box of thought.

Genre Drive: RURALERS

The rules of the archetypes, stereotypes and the abnormal where rural base origin of character or characters cannot be completely transformed regardless of setting because of core being setting.

Kind of happens a lot in movies.

While there is no such genre per say perhaps it is clever to think of genre drives.

You actually inspired me to think different of genre.

Actually pretty smart thinking Craig with the streaming and platforms from the independent ones to the masses ones.

Maybe if we know more what we want to watch as the noisy media world gets noisier one those genre drives with explode with marketability.

It could get a hell of a lot more complicated and elaborate than this post but damnit you might just be on to something. Thanks for the food for thought.

Thanks Michael.