Quinn's Further Research into the Action Genre

From doing further research into the genre of action I have found out many conventions used within the four main categories of Sound, Mise-en-scene, editing and camera angles, through this I have found certain ways and styles that introduction action films are shot.

From the genre of action the sound is usually booming and intimidating, for the introduction of many films the music starts slow then gets faster to build up tension, there is almost always music and it is loud and fast to reflect the action that is happening on screen. The sound other than the music is almost always non-digetic other than the speech itself, most of the sound effects are added afterwards such as gun shots and doors closing.

There are many commonly used props in the action genre like weapons such as swords and guns, other frequently used props are things associated with action such as fast cars. Other action conventions within mise-en-scene is actors and costume, in many action films the characters are usually strong brave males, and they often wear dark clothing which give off a gritty look. The set in action films is again usually dark and not very colourful, and many scenes often take place in stereotypical masculine locations, such as ‘The Italian Job’.

In the genre of action the editing means that each shot is shorter than a usual average for other films because of the fast paced action scenes, another common editing conventions is that introductions to action films often contain a short fast paced action scene before the opening credits to set the mood and establish the characters. One of the most common editing tricks used predominantly in action films is slow-motion, this is often used to make a shot more dramatic, an example of this is ‘300’ which has a staggering 30 minutes of slow motion effects within it.

Finally there are many camera angles which are used very commonly in the genre of action, foremost the low-angle shot is used often, usually showing either the main character or main ‘villain’ in both of these examples it is usually an strong looking male, and the shot is used to portray this. There are also many close ups in action movies, sometimes of a gun or an object or a body part such as a mouth, these are usually used to draw all of the audience’s attention to this object.

-Quinn