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Genres
Genre & Style Terms, A to Z
Discover the rich variety of movie genres and filmmaking styles that define how stories are told on screen. From classic genres like comedy, drama, and horror to stylistic categories like film noir, found footage, and surrealism, this section explores what makes each category unique. Learn how visual aesthetics, narrative tone, and audience expectations come together to shape the identity of a film.
- genre & style terms
- 330
- of the whole glossary
- 11%
- starting letters
- 26
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All 330 Genre & Style Terms
Listed alphabetically, each with its one-line answer first. This page runs from Haul Video to Multi-Cam. S is the busiest letter here, with 48 entries. Jump to a letter to see only the genre & style terms that start with it.
Genre & style terms starting with H
15 of 18 on this page · all H entries
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Haute couture is the protected, legally regulated creation of exclusive, custom-fitted clothing made by hand from start to finish, representing the pinnacle of fashion artistry.
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A heist film is a subgenre of crime film that focuses on the detailed planning, execution, and aftermath of a large-scale robbery.
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HFR (High Frame Rate) is the filmmaking practice of capturing and projecting video at a frame rate higher than the standard 24 frames per second.
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Looking down on a subject conveys vulnerability, smallness, or surveillance.
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High fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy set in a completely fictional, self-contained secondary world with its own rules, history, and often, epic stakes.
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High fashion is a general term for the most exclusive, influential, and trend-setting sector of the fashion industry, encompassing both haute couture and prêt-à-porter from luxury design houses.
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A 'High-Con Pace' refers to a rapid, high-energy editing style, often found in high-concept thrillers and action films, characterized by quick cuts and a relentless forward momentum.
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High-key lighting is a cinematic style characterized by bright, even illumination with minimal shadows, creating an upbeat and optimistic mood.
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Grand-scale dramas reconstruct past civilizations through sprawling runtimes, armies of extras, and moral gravitas.
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The Hong Kong New Wave was a transformative film movement in the late 1970s and 1980s led by a new generation of formally trained directors.
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Horror-comedy fuses fear and laughter, exploiting the body’s twin reflexes of scream and chuckle to heighten both.
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A horror film seeks to evoke fear and dread through supernatural or realistic threats.
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A storytelling style featuring interwoven narratives connected by thematic or character links
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Hyperpop is a maximalist, avant-garde microgenre of pop music characterized by its chaotic blend of electronic sounds, auto-tuned vocals, and surreal, internet-drenched aesthetics.
Genre & style terms starting with I
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IMAX film is a proprietary large‑format system that uses 70 mm film run horizontally to deliver ultra‑high resolution and immersive image quality.
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A film produced outside the major studio system, often with lower budgets and artistic freedom.
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The Indonesian New Wave signifies the vibrant rebirth of the nation's film industry after the fall of the authoritarian Suharto regime in 1998, characterized by new creative freedoms and a surge in thematic and stylistic diversity.
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An Instagram aesthetic is a curated visual style that serves as a microcosm of how a film's distinct look is crafted through cinematography and color grading.
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Three-dimensional works designed to transform viewers’ perception of space.
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Intermediality is a concept in media theory describing the way different media forms, such as text, painting, or video games, interact and are represented within a single film.
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The Iranian New Wave is a highly influential film movement known for its poetic realism, focus on child protagonists, and allegorical storytelling.
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Iranian Poetic Cinema is a celebrated style of filmmaking, emerging from the Iranian New Wave, that uses allegory, symbolism, and a contemplative, lyrical visual language to explore profound humanistic themes.
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A circular mask opens or closes the frame, focusing attention or providing vintage punctuation.
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A post-war film movement depicting everyday life and social issues with non-professional actors.
Genre & style terms starting with J
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A J-Cut is a film editing transition where the audio from the next scene begins playing before the visuals of that scene appear.
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The Japanese New Wave was a radical film movement of the 1960s that challenged social norms and cinematic conventions with bold and confrontational works.
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A jukebox musical film is a musical that features a score composed of pre-existing, popular songs, rather than original music.
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A discontinuous edit advances time abruptly, foregrounding the constructed nature of film.
Genre & style terms starting with K
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Kitchen sink realism was a British cultural movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s that focused on the harsh, unvarnished lives of the working class.
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Kitsch refers to art or objects considered to be in poor taste due to excessive sentimentality and gaudiness, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or affectionate way.
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A late 1990s film movement in South Korea marked by bold storytelling and social critique.
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A Krimi film is a genre of stylish German crime thriller, popular in the 1960s, typically based on the mystery novels of Edgar Wallace.
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Hand-to-hand spectacle rooted in Chinese martial arts became an international pop-culture phenomenon.
Genre & style terms starting with L
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Collective of Black filmmakers from UCLA (late 1960s–1980s) crafting a distinct, community-rooted cinema.
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A nightly entertainment program airing late in the evening and blending comedy, interviews, and music.
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A short, recurring musical phrase that signifies a character, object, or idea within a narrative.
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LGBTQ+ film is a collective term for motion pictures that feature prominent queer characters, narratives, and themes, reflecting the diverse experiences of the queer community.
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A performance format where participants mime the vocals of popular songs for entertainment.
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Lo-fi is a music aesthetic characterized by a deliberately imperfect, low-fidelity sound quality, often incorporating elements of hip-hop and jazz to create a calming, nostalgic atmosphere.
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Lo-fi beats are instrumental tracks, typically rooted in hip-hop and jazz, that are intentionally produced with a low-fidelity, nostalgic sound, designed for relaxation and focus.
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An extended, uninterrupted shot preserves real time to heighten immersion or tension.
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A lookbook is a curated collection of styled images or videos presenting outfits and costume concepts to convey visual themes.
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Positioning the camera below eye level magnifies power, menace, or grandeur.
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Low-key lighting is a cinematic style that uses deep shadows and high contrast to create a dramatic, mysterious, or suspenseful mood.
Genre & style terms starting with M
15 of 22 on this page · all M entries
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Magical realism is a narrative style where fantastical or magical elements are presented in an otherwise realistic, mundane setting as if they were an ordinary part of life.
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A genre centered on choreographed combat, featuring martial disciplines and stunt innovation.
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An edit that links two disparate shots through visual, audio, or thematic similarity for seamless transition.
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A 'Matrix Shot,' more formally known as 'bullet time,' is a visual effect that detaches the camera's viewpoint from the flow of time, allowing it to move around a moment that is frozen or in extreme slow-motion.
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This waist-up framing balances environment with character expression for dialogue-driven scenes.
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A cinematic concept in which films draw attention to their own artifice and production
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Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on interstellar or futuristic warfare, emphasizing military life, technology, and tactics.
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A cultural trend invoking the formative experiences of Millennials
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Mise-en-abyme is a sophisticated artistic technique where a film or image contains a smaller version of itself, creating a nested, self-reflecting, and often infinite loop.
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Cinematic works blending real footage with interactive or spatially anchored digital elements in real time or post.
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A film or television genre parodying documentary conventions for comedic or satirical effect.
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Monster romance is a genre that explores romantic and often sexual relationships between human characters and monstrous or supernatural beings.
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A film editing technique that condenses space and time through juxtaposed images.
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A montage sequence compresses time and information through rhythmic editing, music and visual metaphor.
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A filming approach using multiple cameras to capture simultaneous angles in real time.
Other categories
The Other Seven Categories
The rest of the glossary, each with its own A to Z index: filmmaking craft, characters and tropes, storytelling, industry and awards, pop culture and fandom, general terms, and the odd ones out.
