Outline

• The genre of ‘Action’ is one that centres on storytelling. It’s usually very fast pace and consists of things such as stunts, chases, fights, battles, and other thrilling scenes. The story usually has a central protagonist who is usually on a quest but faces obstacles in order to reach his/her goal.

Sub-genres

• Action-Comedy

• Disaster Film

• Girls With Guns

• Action-War

Action-Comedy

• This genre combines action and humor. Action comedies usually count on the actors to make the film funny, e.g. in Rush Hour, the film relies on Chris Tucker. The action scenes will be less intense than a normal action movie.

Disaster Film

• Disaster films often involve a unavoidable disaster/incident. Some disasters may be natural e.g. earthquakes and tsunamis, or could be man made e.g. 9/11. This type of film relies majorly on special effects.

Girls With Guns

• This genre involves a female protagonist who is usually the hero. This genre involves martial arts and weaponry. This genre is mainly popular in anime and Hong-Kong but has also had great success in American and European films.

Action-War

• Action War has all the aspects of an action film e.g. combat, explosions, stunts and chases, but the storyline is based around war or the time of war.

Star Theory

• Action Films use concepts such as Star Theory. This is to do with actors that appear in the film. Popular and well known actors attract a wider audience. There are certain stars whose trademarked genre is action, e.g. Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. When a genre favoring audience see these names, they almost immediately want to watch the film.

Special Effects

• Action Films tend to use a lot of special effects especially when it comes to explosions and fights. These effects make the film more enjoyable and thrilling for the audience. CGI is used to make it seem as if something is real which adds to the imagery of the scene in a film.

Fandom

• Fandom is the fan community for either a specific actor, genre, company or cast of a film. Fans will give time and money to show support for what they like. They join websites and favorite pages on sites like Facebook. There are also blogs and conventions that fans may go to.