Who Likes to Stick to Just One Genre?

Hey ktfilms. NY Lately looks great. You and your cinematographer are putting in work! Kudos!

I agree Capital P. It might be hard for some of us to answer this yet

Good to see that there are a lot of opinions on this. Most of the ideas that pop into my head are dramas, a lot of them psychological or crime. I have some other ideas like one romantic comedy but I always seem to have that prediliction for drama. I too would love to be able to switch things up and do different styles.
 
While I have plans to one day direct the next great American classic drama, I find myself partial to the somewhat bizzare, more in depth comedys. They are funny but not in a slapstick fashion at all. Really a combination of drama that. Examples would have to be some Wes Anderson films (The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, Juno, Garden State, etc.) I know the last two movies are a little heavy on the cute, and usually really popular amongst teenage girls who think they've seen a movie about their emotional roller coasters, but I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff :).

At least directing it. My favorite genre of film is Drama.
 
ktfilms said:
Although some of my favorite directors generally stick to one genre (Brian De Palma, John Carpenter)....I actually enjoy and admire directors who dabble in many genres (and are good at it) -- like Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder....and more recently Marc Forster, the Coen Brothers, Danny Boyle....even Woody Allen.

I hope that my career allows me to tackle all the stories I want to explore -- which definitely fall under different categories. In fact, I have a laundry list of genres that I'd like to take a stab at.

Here are two feature films that I've recently completed (and are in post) that fall under 2 totally different genres:

NEW YORK LATELY - drama - www.nylatelymovie.com
DISMAL - horror - www.fearmakersdismal.com

I've also got a few shorts that fall under the crime/gangster (FAVORS) and comedy (HUBRIS) realm....for convenience, all the trailers are on my main website:

www.kitchentablefilms.com

I would love to be able to work as a filmmaker who can easily slip from genre to genre and still create strong work. That would be the ideal situation.
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I checked out the site for Dismal, which was very well laid out and professional, and also the trailer, which looked and sounded beautiful! Now how I can see this movie eventually? You got me curious. ;)

The first feature I am planning is horror, because I know it's something I can pull off given my resources and access to a location, etc. But it's not where I would like to stay. I'd love to get into dramas of various sorts, but the fact is, drama is a tough sell unless you have a name for yourself. I'll work my way there I hope, over time.
 
JonathanLB said:
I checked out the site for Dismal, which was very well laid out and professional, and also the trailer, which looked and sounded beautiful! Now how I can see this movie eventually? You got me curious. ;)
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Sent you a PM - didn't want to hijack the thread

thanks!!
Gary
 
I'm pretty much a horror director when it comes to film. For theater, I direct anything. In film, I normally am directing a movie that I have written, and that's just the genre I like to do. I try to make good honest original horror. That's my thing!
 
Dramedies are where I really seem to find my groove now. I've done action, drama, screwball comedies, war dramas/comedies, etc. All small, of course, but within a genre, nonetheless. I have yet to try sci-fi or various other genres/sub-genres, just very basic works.

Anyway, dramedy is certainly where I have been enjoying myself the most lately.
 
I have found that I've drifted far too into the horror/thriller zone when it comes to making films, but thats primarily because I enjoy the generally darker material. Looking at my shorts so far I got...

1 Zombie movie
1 Suspense movie
1 Action/Thriller
1 Ghost movie
2 "Slasher" movie (one leans on the side of drama)

Among others... I am recently feeling the need to depart for the genre and try something else, which is why my next film for Twilight Fest is more of a sci-fi drama than horror. However, the plot still revolves around suspense and a murder is still involved-- I'm working on making a script where no one dies, but its proving hard. (not that its hard to make a script without a death, just that its hard for me to make something I consider intense/enjoyable without death or the threat of it). If I could make a mission statement about the sort of "genres" I would enjoy doing later on, I would say that I would primarily like to make movies that take the audience places they wouldn't be able to go, places in their imaginations. So I suppose that means primarily sci-fi/fantasy films is what I'm gearing towards.
 
bigox said:
I'm pretty much a horror director when it comes to film. For theater, I direct anything. In film, I normally am directing a movie that I have written, and that's just the genre I like to do. I try to make good honest original horror. That's my thing!
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I think that's cool... the first feature I want to do is horror, as I mentioned, but I really don't see myself as a horror guy. I'm trying to come up with a horror short I can put together before the end of this year, having it finished by the end of January or so anyway, then getting that out to festivals so that I can hopefully build some momentum and credentials for shooting my feature before I go about doing it. My problem is, I was brainstorming last night for horror shorts, and all I ended up coming up with were funny parodies of horror stories, funny stuff basically, because I see so much of the horror stuff out there is actually just funny, not scary or eerie.

I'm still working on this brainstorming process, lol.
 
First I'm shocked that know one has said nothing about that Hichcock only stayed in the thriller genre. He did two comedys one who was only comedy(Mr. & Mrs. Smith) and one based around a murder(The trouble with Harry). Then he did heavy drama or melodrama, like Rebecca.


Daryl Auguste said:
Examples would have to be some Wes Anderson films (The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, Juno, Garden State, etc.)
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Second can you see something wrong hear??? If not then your an idiot, the last two are not Wes Anderson films and as a fan am insulted. Juno directed by Jason Reitman, Garden State directed by Zach Braff(J.D from Scrubs).

Stay for the end credits people.
 
Tony D'Amato said:
First I'm shocked that know one has said nothing about that Hichcock only stayed in the thriller genre. He did two comedys one who was only comedy(Mr. & Mrs. Smith) and one based around a murder(The trouble with Harry). Then he did heavy drama or melodrama, like Rebecca.
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I mentioned Hitchcock in the very first post.
 
I meant that you said that he only did thrillers and I didn't like that no one said something against it. That he did alot of diffrent films not only Thrillers but that was the majority.
 
Oh snap it's Gary King, my friend on myspace..I've been following your work so that I can work with you on my first feature project, solely because I noticed you were a multi-faceted director (and a damn good one that)
 
CRProductions said:
Oh snap it's Gary King, my friend on myspace..I've been following your work so that I can work with you on my first feature project, solely because I noticed you were a multi-faceted director (and a damn good one that)
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You are too kind -- I appreciate the feedback.

DISMAL (my horror feature) played last weekend at the Horrorfind Weekend as a sneak preview/test screening....the theater had over 400 hardcore horror fans attending. It was awesome. The best part is that as soon as the film ended the majority of the people were already asking about the sequel!!
 
You're very welcome and I'm totally serious...congrats on the positive feedback on The Dismal...I have a feeling your career is going to take off man...I really do
 
That's a good thing the project turned out well, as a former critic I can tell you how happy other critics always were to see a project with the perfect title to make fun of ;) "After 30 minutes, I realized why this project was called Dismal, because it really was in every respect dismal." I mean, you set yourself up for those corny jokes, so it means more pressure to succeed, haha.

In today's film criticism, I have noticed that it's almost more popular to be clever than to be informative. I did research with a philosophy professor in college, actually got paid by the department as a part-time employee for this research, into current trends in film criticism and we discovered that basically in many cases, the film reviews were not so much reviews OF entertainment, but also entertainment in and of themselves. It's an interesting phenomenon, which is why I always roll my eyes when the critics try to be clever with making fun of a film's title. Although, I guess it has its moments, like one of my favorites from that amazingly poorly reviewed Alone in the Dark film with Christian Slater and Tara Reid. "I can see why they called this Alone in the Dark, because while watching this film I really was alone in the dark." Ha-ha-ha. So clever. ;)
 
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