#comedy or detective genre related media prefereably

[go-johnny-go-go-go-go]

Dear mutuals and/or tag visitors, pls give me an episode of Inside No 9 to (re)watch. I'm in that particular state of craving some entertainment yet being too tired to choose what to watch so I'm turning to the tumblr hive mind in hope of answers. thx

[i3asil]

Writing Tips : Genres

Hey there! Today I will just talk a bit about how Genres work and what you as a new writer can do to implement them and to narrow them down.

You will likely throughout your life have figured out your favorite genres. Be it through reading books, or watching series and movies. If you haven't yet, don't worry, just try to list some of your favorite media you've consumed and try to look at 'what you liked' about it.

Basic things are liking comedy, or action, or mystery thrillers, or zombies. A lot of this has developed through Sherlock Holmes and the plentiful CSI series, or Marvel Movies and Cartoons, and Scooby Doo, or Walking Dead whatever. The list goes on to eternity. But what is important to note is that these follow central genres despite being filled with multiple genres at once.

What do I mean by that? Well. Even though The Walking Dead for example also has a lot of Mysteries and Fighting and Romance and sometimes Slice of Life. You wouldn't definite it by those Genres. You'd still definite it by the main theme of it. Human conflic- I mean Zombies. So when you start writing a story, have at least one Genre in mind, and make it the focus.

Just because you might've chosen your main genre to be a mystery/crime related one. Doesn't mean that it doesn't end up with different genres inside. Sherlock Holmes and other Detective stories for example. They can still have the odd moments of comedy in them without being a Comedy Genre, they can still have Action in them without being an Action genre, they can still have a random Zombie case without being a Zombie Genre etc. Because at the end of the day, the story still revolves around cases, and mysteries or crimes to be solved. So you can have 'sub genres' or rather particulates of genres appear within your story, but they do not immediately define your whole work. Merely a scene or piece of plot.

So why does this matter? You might say this is obvious but… not really… because a lot of people, myself included, have no clue what their genre is! Maybe you just have characters in your head and want to have them interact in a world. And you haven't really figured anything out yet. So you can't even follow any tropes of the genres yet ( which will be its own post I can assure you ). When I started writing Steam's Shadow, sure I knew I wanted it to be set in Steampunk Theme but I didn't know "WHAT" I wanted the characters to do yet. In fact I had dozens of "first chapters" written and plotted out before I figured out which one seemed most natural for the characters I had thought up. Which ended up being a mystery crime story. This is a process that… for the most part cannot be explained but just… figured out through trial and error. Constant writing and reworking and sitting down and thinking. And its tough to conclude what genre you want to stick with because we all start out with what is called "Feature Creep" ( which again is its own post in the future ), which is simply put the issue of wanting too many features, be they plot points and themes etc., which overall just make the whole thing seem "busy". This will not only make you do a lot of extra work, but also make the reader not really know what the story is about and overall confuse people.

Its important to argue with yourself what kind of features you liked most. And instead of adding both together, to decide to only keep one. This is not to say you can't add them together, but this is usually best done with larger stories where you can more naturally blend between them rather than have it seem abrupt.

So what can you do? Make a list of genres you like, by trying to look at media you've consumed. Create small one or two page ( and I don't mean Mona Lisa sized canvas pages ) shorts where you play with a genre at a time, preferably with a handful of previously thought up characters. Evaluate which of those shorts you prefered and continue writing more shorts based on those picks and repeat this process until only 1-2 genres remain. Then decide if those can co-exist. Like in my case, a Steampunk themed Detective Novel, which is theoretically 2 Genres but the 'Steampunk' is more a background theme than the main focus. OR if they cannot. In which case you need to make the painful choice of picking one…. however this does not mean you have to throw the other away. NAY! You can keep the other in an ideas folder for the future. I have a folder with hundreds of story ideas, often times multiple chapters. They can all become future stories and you don't need to repeat the difficult process of filtering genres anymore!

I hope this helped and I thank you all for reading! Greetings! -Basil

[johnica-weeks]

Welcome to the 4th Johnica Week! I can't believe it's already the fourth edition and I'm so happy to have still lots of talented artists and writers joining the event and keeping the fandom alive by contributing (also) to the growth of this wonderful couple 🥰💕💕💕

When is the event? 📆

This year's Johnica Week will be a bit shorter, only four days, in order to keep entries more collected, avoid burnout for those faithful creators who want to challenge themselves and join everyday, and for everyone who loves to read fics but has less time on their hands. The event will start on Sunday 15th January and end on Wednesday 18th January, aka John and Veronica's 48th wedding anniversary!

Where? 🔎

Here on Tumblr, on AO3 and also on Instagram for visual artists!

💚 Use the tag #JohnicaWeek2023 in your entries here and on Instagram!

📚 > Here will be the AO3 COLLECTION where to post your fics! <

💚 Tag @eileen-crys​ and/or @johnica-weeks​ in your works so I can read, see and share them!

📚 At the end of the event I’ll make a Tumblr masterlist with all the works!

2020 Masterlist | 2021 Masterlist | 2022 Masterlist

The Theme 📚 

You’ve read it right, this year Johnica Week has a theme, linked to the 46th wedding anniversary, that is BOOKS. Like all the prompts, it’s up to you to follow the theme or not, consider it just as a general theme that you could build your entries around. I chose some prompts that might fit this theme, that are about books as physical objects or as idea for an alternative worldbuilding.

How? 🖼

You're encouraged to join with your preferred creative media or challenge yourself with something new! Fanfictions, drawings, comics, poetry, collages and photo edits, moodboards, anything you like! More in the RULES below.

Like all Ship Weeks, this is a fandom event to share love and creativity related to a particular couple, so be sure to engage with the entries and support all the artists and writers that chose to join! Reblog, leave likes/kudos and comment on the artworks to keep the fandom alive! 💜💖💕💜💖💕

These prompts are simply suggestions for the event, you can choose one, mix them together, follow them or not, be creative with the prompts or do something completely different! That’s up to you 😊 For each day I chose a situation that revolves around books, an undergoing theme, a literary genre and a type of Alternative Universe you can choose among.

💚 Day 1 - Sunday 15th

SITUATION: Transported from real life to a book’s world and living an adventure there/meeting the main characters. (Suggestions: Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc.) Note: not as an AU, but more on the idea of "real John and Veronica live an adventure in a book" as themselves.

THEME: Having fun together

GENRE: Action

AU: Superheroes/Superpowers (“Superheroes with Superproblems” comic book, Fantasy or Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Fantasy, Cyberpunk, etc.)

💚 Day 2 - Monday 16th

SITUATION: Misplaced/stolen book.

THEME: Math VS Poetry

GENRE: Horror/mystery

AU: Noir/Detective story (Victorian, Modern Crime Scene, Serial Killer, Futuristic, etc.)

💚 Day 3 - Tuesday 17th

SITUATION: Finding/reading a book for the other one or for the kids.

THEME: Long distance

GENRE: Fairytale

AU: Historical Fiction (Royalty, 1920s, Arranged Marriage, World War, Ancient Greece, etc)

💖 Day 4 - Wednesday 18th (Wedding anniversary!)

SITUATION: Bonding thanks to a special book.

THEME: Pregnancy

GENRE: Comedy

AU: Romantic cliché (Soulmates, bookshop, coffee/florist shop, alternative first meeting, etc.)

What can you do? ✒

You can join with fanfics, edits and moodboards, drawings of all kinds and if you want to sing or play an instrument please feel free to!

The requirements are:

John and Veronica Deacon as the main pairing;

Your love and creativity! 🥰

You can write/draw:

Fics with and without accurate settings and timelines;

Alternative Universes (AU) of any kind and genre, mixed or not with the promts (ex. Fem!John AU + coffee shop, A/B/O AU + Superpowers);

“What if"s;

Genderswap/genderbending of any kind;

Other Queen members, friends, pairings, family, poly ships (that have to involve both John and Veronica!), OCs, etc…

Fluff, angst, crack, hurt/comfort, action, mystery, sexy times… anything you fancy!

🔥 NSFW is allowed with PROPER TAGS! IMPORTANT note: please interact with NSFW only if you’re +18! 🔞

… and more! If you’re unsure feel free to ask!

We’re here to celebrate John and Veronica Deacon, not to create drama or fights nor to disrespect their privacy. So please be considered about your entries and comments and always try to be respectful to John, to Veronica, to their family and friends, to the people who ship them or ship other couples and to your audience.

Fics and fanarts about post ‘97 John ARE allowed.

Photos and videos from after his retirement in moodboards and edits ARE NOT allowed!

HOW to post? 🤔

You can post your entries here on Tumblr, on AO3 and on Instagram, using the hashtag #JohnicaWeek2022 and tagging me.

If you prefer, you can post anonymously on AO3, HERE is an easy guide on how to do it!

If you’re on Tumblr and want to post a fic anonymously please send me a DM and I’ll post it on @johnica-weeks on your behalf, crediting it as Anonymous author!

🔥 TAG your work APPROPRIATELY! This includes all potential triggers and smut. On Tumblr you can include the appropriate warnings at the top of the fic followed by a "keep reading” cut (you can add it in desktop version AND on mobile by writing :readmore: in a new line!) Also be sure to tag the rating of your fic, the genre and the themes of your story, enough to help the readers!

✨ If you’re still unsure, HERE’s a useful guide on how to tag your works!

As a reader... 📖

If you’re a fan of John, of Johnica or simply like to read fanfictions, positive interactions are always much welcomed! Support the authors by leaving likes, a comment (even a little one!) and sharing their work. On AO3 you don’t need an account to leave Kudos and Comments! (Unless the author has willingly prevented guests to comment). To leave a comment on AO3 you simply have to choose a temporary mail and set your email to get a notification for an eventual reply.

If a work is not tagged appropriately, you can reach out to me via DM and I’ll warn the author. If anything makes you uncomfortable, simply close the work! Do not engage by leaving nasty comments or messaging the author!

🔥 IMPORTANT!!! 🔥

During the event, if any of you/your entries gets hateful comments or messages towards you, your entries, the Johnica ship, the event or other creators, please DELETE the hateful comment/message right away with no interactions and let me know! This is no place for haters, just for creativity and love.

If you see a hateful comment on other works do not engage, instead leave a positive comment to the same work and support the author! 💜

Realistic or not, remember that fanfictions are, by definition, FICTIONAL and not meant to be a documentary! There are lots of things we don’t know about John and Veronica’s private lives and don’t want to go in too deeply, gossip or speculate about them, so feel free to fly with your fantasy and let your creativity flow! 😊💖 Most of all… have fun, respect each other and support each other’s works!

If you have any question feel free to send me an ask or a DM!

Header and graphics by @eileen-crys​ and @/firefly-graphics

[nievefergie]

Is Disney an Auteur Through Genre Theory?

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson says to Moana, “If you wear a dress and have an animal sidekick, you’re a princess”. Disney’s most recent iteration of the animated princess genre appeared in 2016 and featured a number of updates to what is often considered to be an outdated and/or old- fashioned storyline. Even though it departs from the formula by doing away with one of the major elements—the prince and the love story between the prince and the princess — the film nonetheless adheres to the central formula of the princess genre of wanting more than the sheltered life they live. This can be seen in every Disney princess movie where the protagonist sings about wanting something of a future they look forward to. At the same time, this film offers a convenient vantage point to ask a different question: who is the author of the film, and why does it matter? Is Disney as a brand the auteur of this film because they created the Disney genre, or are Ron Clements and John Musker the auteurs of this film inside of the Disney Princess genre? This paper will explore Moana from these two particular theoretical perspectives in order to elucidate that Ron Clements and John Musker are the auteurs of Moana due to the fact that they created the highly intertwined Disney Princess genre.

In 1951, the French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma published an article by André Bazin called, ‘On the Politique des Auteurs’. Bazin argued that in cinema, the author of the film was the director and they are the singular creative force guiding the film through stylistic motifs and thematic preoccupations. Bazin referred to it as auteurism, and the theory took off all over the world. Auteurism remains a preferred theory of film authorship due to the value of originality in Hollywood and the entertainment industry. American film critics like Andrew Sarris argue that auteurism is made up of three parts: technique, personal style, and interior meaning. British film scholars argue that auteurism is more structural, with the director achieving high-quality work through anthropology and literary studies and their principle of methods (Chris). Most popularly known, auteurism is the simple theory that the director of a film is the mastermind behind the creative piece as its true author.

Though, in a time where cinema was being spoken about as original and how to tell apart true masters and authors during the French New Wave, nowadays the argument has little bearings. A large part of filmmaking is collaboration and all of the various jobs and hours going into it. There are writers, producers, directors, executives, actors, set designers, etc., that all contribute to the final product. It might almost seem expeditious to label one of these artists as an individual visionary. This opens up the debate for the auteur theory to enter the idea of the corporate author. Thomas Schatz developed the concept of the model from Bazin’s remark about Hollywood individuals being less interested in the system of cinema as a whole. Schatz argues that even from early Hollywood, certain studios were easily distinguishable from the other studios. You knew if you were watching an MGM film or a Warner Brothers film — they each had their own distinct brands as an effect of the overseeing producers. Each studio used synergistic mechanisms of industrialized production to create their own brand (Chris). This begs the question — in terms of big studio movies, who is the true author? The directors or the studio producing the film?

John Lasseter once noted in his forward to The Walt Disney Film Archives: The Animated Movies 1921-1968, that, ‘‘people sometimes describe something as ‘Disney’ as if it were a single look and style, when in truth the look of the studio’s work was continuously evolving. Films were influenced by new artists joining the studio or coming into their own, new technologies being developed, and new styles arising in the culture of the day” (Mason, 3). From as early as 1921, audience members could tell the difference between something like an MGM film and a Disney film. Even as directors and technology changed, the brand was still aware of its market. Walt Disney wanted to make films for everyone, for both children and adults in the same medium. It would be highly unusual to see an ‘adult’ movie under the Disney brand. Their family-friendly brand is without competition as noted by Joel Best and Kathleen S. Lowney, who claim, “‘Disney’s rivals have clear moral reputations, [...] in contrast, the name Disney has become closely linked in the public mind with decent, family-oriented entertainment” (Mason, 4). With a set brand in mind, Walt Disney created the Walt Disney Company, and in that, he became an auteur of the work he was distributing. When he passed away, the company became the auteur of Walt Disney’s work.

When Moana was announced by the Walt Disney Company in 2014 and slated to premiere late 2016, it was marketed to be the next Disney Princess movie. It was to be directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, who had just previously directed The Princess and the Frog in 2009. The two directors joined the Walt Disney Company over 40 years ago while they were in their twenties, being trained by one of the original Nine Old Men. Throughout their time at Disney, the two together have directed seven films: The Great Mouse Detective (1986), The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), Hercules (1997), Treasure Planet (2002), The Princess and the Frog (2009), and Moana (2016). It stands to reason that their directing of The Little Mermaid is what resurrected Disney’s feature animation business and began what fans and historians refer to as ‘The Disney Renaissance’. After The Little Mermaid’s success, Disney green-lighted Musker and Clements’s next project — a comedy called Aladdin. Aladdin was to also feature a princess, and prince, their love story, a faithful and lovable sidekick, and an evil villain (Miller). Even though Disney already had three successful princess movies before the Disney Renaissance during the Golden and Silver Ages in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959), Disney had not done another fairy tale since. It seemed as if Musker and Clements had created a new form of Disney Princess, and their Disney Princess was modernized for this time period’s new genres.

John Musker and Ron Clements’s Disney Princesses stood different than the princesses of before. Not only were they bringing in a substantial amount of money through things like tickets, but also through merchandise and consumerism. Little girls wanted to be these princesses. These new princesses inspired them to be strong. After the success of four Disney Princess films in the Disney Renaissance, The Disney Princess line was created in 2001 as an advertising and marketing campaign to encourage children to identify with the characters so they would buy associated products by contributing to a new ‘girlhood’ (England et al.). Disney had officially taken the work that John Musker and Ron Clements achieved through Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, and made it more than just individual markets under Disney Animation’s properties, but into a whole brand of itself, the genre, under ‘the Disney Princess’.

The term ‘genre’ is French for type or kind, but when used to describe works of literature, films, or television programs, genre theory implies that these works of art can be categorized into a class of related works. Film and television genre categories are very limited and culturally specific. Rather than using the genre ‘comedy’, the specific genre like ‘screwball comedy’ and ‘romantic comedy’ are used to measure comic forms of mass media. Due to the industrialization of mass media, the genre became a way to standardize similarity and differences in the production of a product (Feurer). Audience members know that if they go into a film labeled as a romantic comedy, they know to expect tropes such as a heterosexual romance, a quirky best friend, enemies turned to lovers, and the ultimate happy ending.

Because critics argued that these genre films lacked originality, they decided they weren’t art or original because they were not authored works. Auteur theory attempted to take back the artistic merit in films from the Hollywood assembly line of studios and celebrate individual artists as the author of the films rather than following the categories already produced. Yet Jane Feuer, a film theorist, argues against the auteur theory destroying genre by stating,

However, it was discovered that certain authors expressed themselves most fully within a particular genre—John Ford in the western or Vincente Minnelli in the musical. In some sense, then, genre provided a field in which the force of individual creativity could play itself out. Some viewed the genre as a constraint on complete originality and self- expression, but others, following a more classical or mimetic theory of art, felt that these constraints were in fact productive to the creative expression of the author (Feuer, 107).

Thus, even though auteur theory evolved from the need to distinguish itself from what they considered was a lack of originality, they only further introduced genre and genre theory into the romantic bias of auteur criticism.

Audiences know what a Disney princess is. They know she wears a dress, her family is important to her, she always has a ‘want’ and she’s going to have a song where she declares it, and she has a love interest. The first Disney Princess movie to drift away from this was the Pixar film, Brave (2012). For the first time, there is no love interest. The movie is about familial bonds rather than the love between a man and a woman. But this movie, although under Disney, is still Pixar. This means that it is a weird combo of the Disney Princess genre and the Pixar genre that Disney bought. This set the standards for the new Disney Princess genre — rules can be broken. Which is where Moana comes in. Moana is a princess of an island called Motunui who wishes to see the world, or more specifically, the sea. She desires to explore and goes on a quest to save her island and family. Along the way, she does meet a man, but he is not her love interest. The demigod Maui remains a friend and guide along the whole film, never breaking or abusing the barrier between that romantic and mentor relationship.

So then, one may question: is Moana really a Disney Princess movie? Does it fit inside the genre that the Walt Disney Company created? And in turn, does it fit inside of the genre that Ron Clements and John Musker helped solidify during the Disney Renaissance? And finally, does that mean the Walt Disney Company are the auteurs of Moana, or does that mean Ron Clements and John Musker are? John Musker and Ron Clements changed Disney Princesses forever in 1989. They made the Disney Princess genre typically a musical fairytale, with a song about wanting something. In Moana, the song is called ‘How Far I’ll Go’ and is written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The song describes the need to be out in the sea and how she plans to do that. Similarly to other Disney Princess ‘ I want’ songs like ‘Almost There’ and ‘Part of Your World’ from Clements and Musker’s The Princess and the Frog and The Little Mermaid respectively, the main protagonist sings about what she wants. These songs are clear indications of what the princess desires. The characters from Clement and Musker’s Disney Princess movies always sing these songs, and Moana adheres to this model they’ve created. Moana also fits inside the Disney Princess genre of having an animal best friend and sidekick. Jasmine has Raja, Ariel has Flounder, and Moana has Pua and Hei-Hei. Once again, Moana adheres to the Disney Princess genre. So even though Moana is newly different without having a prince or a love story, the base of the personality of the princess is still there and she still holds the crown, so she is a princess.

With Moana being apart of the Disney Princess genre, one could argue the Walt Disney Company is the auteur of the hit 2016 movie. Yet more important to make the distinction of who the auteur is, we have to look back at who created the genre inside of the company. The modern Disney Princess genre created during the Disney Renaissance was formed from Ron Clements and John Musker, therefore, they must be the auteurs of Moana, simply because they are the auteurs of the genre. Both genre theory and auteur theory give the audience expectations about what they are about to see. Going into a Disney film, you can expect family-friendly content with good morals. When going into a Ron Clements and John Musker Disney film, you know you’re going to get a classic modern Disney film. The audience knows this because Ron Clements and John Musker were hired by the brand that Walt Disney Company created to design a new and better genre for their animated fairytale adaptations, and that made the Disney Princess genre that Moana falls into. They created the genre, so they are the auteurs.


Bibliography

Kackman, Michael, and Mary Celeste Kearney. The Craft of Criticism: Critical Media Studies in Practice. Routledge, 2018.

Mittell, Jason. “A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory.” Cinema Journal, vol. 40, no. 3, 2001, pp. 3–24.

Brookey, Robert Alan, and Robert Westerfelhaus. “The Digital Auteur: Branding Identity on the Monsters, Inc. DVD.” Western Journal of Communication, vol. 69, no. 2, Apr. 2005, pp. 109–128. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10570310500076734.

Íris Alda Ísleifsdóttir 1988. From Snow White to Tangled: Gender and Genre Fiction in Disney’s “Princess” Animations. 2013.

Mason, James Robert. Disney Film Genres and Adult Audiences : A Tale of Renegotiated Relationships. 2017.

England, Dawn Elizabeth, Lara Descartes, and Melissa A. Collier-Meek. "Gender role portrayal and the Disney princesses." Sex roles 64.7-8 (2011): 555-567.

Miller, Bruce. “Disney's Ron Clements Still Looks to Do More, Post-'Moana'.” Sioux City Journal, 12 Sept. 2018.