Deciding a Genre

          I have been giving some thought as to what genre my video should conform to. I'm currently torn between either comedy or horror. Both are genres that are admittedly hard to do well. Comedy requires a perfect sense of timing in order for a joke to be effective. Half a second to soon or too late and the joke flops. The story has to be written simple enough to allow jokes to be worked in, but with enough logic that the story works. Along with that, the jokes need to be original and surprising enough to invoke laughter or some for of joy in a person.

Horror is similar in that it has to be in some way original, or at least executed well enough to elicit a feeling of trepidation in a viewer. Atmosphere is vital in horror and audio is vital in atmosphere. While the visuals do matter in setting a tone and conveying information, it's really the audio working behind the scenes that sucks you into the story. And my view of good horror is that the threat stays hidden. Only shown in the blurry background or heard vaguely in the audio. If the monster is kept a mystery to the audience, the audience will have to use eventually use their imagination to create their own personal monster in their head. And while I wouldn't want this to be the major cause of fear in my movie, a good mystery is almost always a boon in horror.

Fortunately, I do have experience with making comedic skits on a bi-weekly schedule for TV Production course; and while I've only done horror once before, I think that it may have been the best video I've made so far. I'm not worried that I'll pick a genre I can't do well. I just want to pick the genre that I can do the best.