Genre Research: iBoy

 A movie that fits into the genre we are doing, that genre being thriller, is the movie iBoy. While this movie fits into the sci-fi thriller genre, we thought this would be a good movie to watch because it would take the conventions of a film with a thriller genre while adapting it to fit the sci-fi aspect of it. Even though we will not be incorporating any characteristics of a sci-fi sub-genre film, we thought we could learn from the way they adapted the film to fit this sub-genre, and apply it to our own film. Not only this but we also want to incorporate some of the elements that are used in this film since it is a thriller just like our film. Some of these elements include the suspense filled background music, diegetic sound, tracking shots, cutting between shots, jump cuts, close-up shots, fast paced editing, low key lighting, and hand-held camera movements. 

    These elements combined build up the suspense and tension throughout the film. The heightened music that is strategically placed helps accentuate the tensions on scenes in which the director wants to surprise/shock the audience. The jump cuts, hand-held camera movements, close-up shots, and fast paced editing can also do this, but they can contribute to the building up of the suspense before the action takes place as well. The low-key lighting, that can be seen throughout the film, gives the film a more mysterious feel which is directly related to the genre, thriller. 

   Some of the elements from this movie that we liked were the use of jump cuts that are incorporated along with the background music. In many scenes, the music would build up as the scene got more and more intense only for the music to suddenly stop as the film jumped into a completely different shot. This made the suspense build up even more because it was like the audience was left hanging, which felt like a play on emotions. This is something we would like to incorporate into our film since we would like to build up the suspense that is felt while our protagonist goes on their “quest”.

   Some of the elements of this genre that the movie had that did not appeal to us was the excessive use of animations that the film used in order to build up the action. Many times the film would incorporate these animations in times where the suspense would build up, or there was a lot of action taking place. The reason this did not appeal to us and we would not incorporate into our film is due to the fact that we simply don't have the editing programs that would be needed to incorporate this into our own film. Not only this but we feel as if animations would drift away from the path we want our storyline to take. In the film iBoy, the use of animations made sense based on the plot that they had and it didn’t take away from the serious yet thrilling tone of the film. However, we felt that animations would not go with our intended plot and would take away from the tone we are trying to set. Overall, the film was nice to watch, and exemplified the thriller genre.