Action Films usually include high energy, big-budget physical stunts and chases, possibly with rescues, battles, fights, escapes, destructive crises (floods, explosions, natural disasters, fires, etc.), non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and adventurous, often two-dimensional 'good-guy' heroes (or recently, heroines) battling 'bad guys' - all designed for pure audience escapism. Includes the James Bond 'fantasy' spy/espionage series, martial arts films, and so-called 'blaxploitation' films. A major sub-genre is the disaster film. See also Greatest Disaster and Crowd Film Scenes and Greatest Classic Chase Scenes in Films. 
Adventure Films are usually exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales, very similar to or often paired with the action film genre. They can include traditional swashbucklers, serialized films, and historical spectacles (similar to the epics film genre), searches or expeditions for lost continents, "jungle" and "desert" epics, treasure hunts, disaster films, or searches for the unknown. 
Comedy Films are light-hearted plots consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter (with one-liners, jokes, etc.) by exaggerating the situation, the language, action, relationships and characters. This section describes various forms of comedy through cinematic history, including slapstick, screwball, spoofs and parodies, romantic comedies, black comedy (dark satirical comedy), and more. See this site's Funniest Film Moments and Scenes collection - illustrated, and also Premiere Magazine's 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time. 
Crime & Gangster Films are developed around the sinister actions of criminals or mobsters, particularly bankrobbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life. Criminal and gangster films are often categorized as film noir or detective-mystery films - because of underlying similarities between these cinematic forms. This category includes a description of various 'serial killer' films.
Drama Films are serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction. Usually, they are not focused on special-effects, comedy, or action, Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre, with many subsets. See also the melodramas, epics (historical dramas), or romantic genres. Dramatic biographical films (or "biopics") are a major sub-genre, as are 'adult' films (with mature subject content). 
Epics/Historical Films include costume dramas, historical dramas, war films, medieval romps, or 'period pictures' that often cover a large expanse of time set against a vast, panoramic backdrop. Epics often share elements of the elaborate adventure films genre. Epics take an historical or imagined event, mythic, legendary, or heroic figure, and add an extravagant setting and lavish costumes, accompanied by grandeur and spectacle, dramatic scope, high production values, and a sweeping musical score. Epics are often a more spectacular, lavish version of a biopic film. Some 'sword and sandal' films (Biblical epics or films occuring during antiquity) qualify as a sub-genre.
Horror Films are designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films feature a wide range of styles, from the earliest silent Nosferatu classic, to today's CGI monsters and deranged humans. They are often combined with science fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is threatened by aliens. The fantasy and supernatural film genres are not usually synonymous with the horror genre. There are many sub-genres of horror: slasher, teen terror, serial killers, satanic, Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. See this site's Scariest Film Moments and Scenes collection - illustrated. 
Musical/dance Films are cinematic forms that emphasize full-scale scores or song and dance routines in a significant way (usually with a musical or dance performance integrated as part of the film narrative), or they are films that are centered on combinations of music, dance, song or choreography. Major subgenres include the musical comedy or the concert film. See this site's Greatest Musical Song/Dance Movie Moments and Scenes collection - illustrated. 
Science Fiction Films are often quasi-scientific, visionary and imaginative - complete with heroes, aliens, distant planets, impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and shadowy villains, futuristic technology, unknown and unknowable forces, and extraordinary monsters ('things or creatures from space'), either created by mad scientists or by nuclear havoc. They are sometimes an offshoot of fantasy films, or they share some similarities with action/adventure films. Science fiction often expresses the potential of technology to destroy humankind and easily overlaps with horror films, particularly when technology or alien life forms become malevolent, as in the "Atomic Age" of sci-fi films in the 1950s. 
War (Anti-War) Films acknowledge the horror and heartbreak of war, letting the actual combat fighting (against nations or humankind) on land, sea, or in the air provide the primary plot or background for the action of the film. War films are often paired with other genres, such as action, adventure, drama, romance, comedy (black), suspense, and even epics and westerns, and they often take a denunciatory approach toward warfare. They may include POW tales, stories of military operations, and training. See this site's Greatest War Movies (in five parts). 
Westerns are the major defining genre of the American film industry - a eulogy to the early days of the expansive American frontier. They are one of the oldest, most enduring genres with very recognizable plots, elements, and characters (six-guns, horses, dusty towns and trails, cowboys, Indians, etc.). Over time, westerns have been re-defined, re-invented and expanded, dismissed, re-discovered, and spoofed.Film Opening Techniques -
In a television program, motion picture (films), or videogame, the opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production.
They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show.There may or may not be accompanying music.Where opening credits are built into a separate sequence of their own, the correct term is title sequence (such as the familiar James Bond and Pink Panther title sequences).
Opening credits since the early 1980s, if present at all, identify the major actors and crew, while the closing credits list an extensive cast and production crew.In movies and television, the title and opening credits may be preceded by a "cold open," or brief scene, that helps to set the stage for the episode or film.
A dramatic monologue is a piece of spoken verse that offers great insight into the feelings, actions or motives of the speaker.
Further Details-
Television and film use certain common conventions often referred to as the 'grammar' of these audiovisual media. This list includes some of the most important conventions for conveying meaning through particular camera and editing techniques (as well as some of the specialised vocabulary of film production).
Conventions aren't rules: expert practitioners break them for deliberate effect, which is one of the rare occasions that we become aware of what the convention is.
Music –
Music helps to establish a sense of the pace of the accompanying scene. The rhythm of music usually dictates the rhythm of the cuts. The emotional colouring of the music also reinforces the mood of the scene. Background music is asynchronous music which accompanies a film. It is not normally intended to be noticeable. Conventionally, background music accelerates for a chase sequence, becomes louder to underscore a dramatically important action. Through repetition it can also link shots, scenes and sequences. Foreground music is often synchronous music which finds its source within the screen events (e.g. from a radio, TV, stereo or musicians in the scene). It may be a more credible and dramatically plausible way of bringing music into a programme than background music (a string orchestra sometimes seems bizarre in a Western).
Editing –
Cut. Sudden change of shot from one viewpoint or location to another. On television cuts occur on average about every 7 or 8 seconds. Cutting may:
- change the scene;
- compress time;
- vary the point of view; or
- build up an image or idea.
There is always a reason for a cut, and you should ask yourself what the reason is. Less abrupt transitions are achieved with the fade, dissolve, and wipe – but these may look unprofessional in such as an opening of a film.
Matched cut. In a 'matched cut' a familiar relationship between the shots may make the change seem smooth:
- continuity of direction;
- completed action;*
- a similar centre of attention in the frame;
- a one-step change of shot size (e.g. long to medium);
a change of angle (conventionally at least 30 degrees).
*The cut is usually made on an action (for example, a person begins to turn towards a door in one shot; the next shot, taken from the doorway, catches him completing the turn). Because the viewer's eye is absorbed by the action he is unlikely to notice the movement of the cut itself.
Opening Titles Sequence & Order -
While there are numerous variations most opening credits use some variation of the basic order noted within:
(NAME OF THE STUDIO)-
name of the studio that is distributing the film and may or may not have produced it (Buena Vista, Columbia, Lions Gate, Universal, etc.).
(NAME OF THE PRODUCTION COMPANY)
- name of the production company that actually made the film.
- name of the investment groups or companies that financed a substantial part of the film (usually credited as "in association with").
(PRODUCER NAME) PRODUCTION or/and (director only) A FILM BY (DIRECTOR or PRODUCER NAME)
- director's or producer's first credit, often "a film by XY or "a XY film".
STARRING
- principal actors, ( Sometimes the stars' and director's credits will be reversed, depending on the star's deal with the studio).
(FILM'S TITLE)
- name of the film.
FEATURING
- featured actors.
CASTING or CASTING BY
- casting director.
MUSIC or MUSIC COMPOSED BY or ORIGINAL SCORE BY
- composer of music.
PRODUCTION DESIGN or PRODUCTION DESIGNER
- production designer
(as a variation some of the below may be noted:
SET DESIGN
COSTUMES or COSTUMES BY or GAWNS (older movies)
HAIRDRESSER
MAKE-UP ARTIST
SOUND RECORDING (older movies)
VISUAL EFFECTS DIRECTOR or VISUAL EFFECTS BY)
EDITOR or EDITED BY
- editor.
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
- director of photography.
PRODUCER or PRODUCED BY, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER- producers, co-producers, executive producers, 'also produced by' (credited for various reasons according to contracts and personal scrutiny of the principal producer).
BASED ON THE BOOK, (PLAY, GRAPHIC NOVEL etc.) BY or FROM A PLAY/BOOK BY (older movies)- if based on a book or other literary workorBASED ON THE CHARACTERS BY or BASED ON THE CHARACTERS CREATED BY- if based on characters from a book
or
other mediaSTORY or STORY BY
- person who wrote the story...
...on which the script is based, gets "story by" credit, and the first screenplay credit, unless the script made substantial changes to the story.
WRITER(S) or WRITTEN BY
- screenplay writers.
The Writers Guild of America allows only three writing credits on a feature film, although teams of two are credited as one, separated on the credits by an ampersand ("X & Y".)
- if each works independently on the script (the most common system), they are separated by an "and".
- if more than two persons worked on the screenplay, the credits may read something like "screenplay by X & Y and Z and W" X and Y worked as a team, but Z and W worked separately.
DIRECTED or DIRECTED BY- director
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