Realism

Verisimilitude – the appearance of being true, realistic or believable.

Social Realism – presenting and drawing attention to living conditions of minorities or lower social classes

Magic Realism – crossing over fantasy and reality, whether fantastical elements are depicted as real or realistic elements take fantastical turns.

Hyperreality – casually inserting elements of an artificial reality into an otherwise realistic depiction of the world.

Visual Style

Iconography – signs associated by the audience with a specific genre.

Intertextual Referencing – referencing another piece of media by using recognisable elements of it.

Visual/sound motifs – repeated narrative elements that create meaning (such as a logo for a group of people or a theme representative of a specific character.

Colour Grading – enhancing and altering colour in scenes to achieve a desired visual effect.

Auteur Trademarks – recognisable elements in films that can be linked to the director and their style of filmmaking.

Tone

Pathos – evoking an emotional response from the audience.

Bathos – following serious ideas with humorous or exaggerated ones.

Suspense – a state of uncertainty about the outcome of events.

Comedy – emphasized attempts to make audiences laugh at films.

Dramatic Irony – When audiences know something the characters of the film don’t.

Distancing effect (verfremdung) – preventing spectators from identifying with characters by disrupting events.

Postmodern humour – linking humour with serious meanings.