Genre

what is genre?

A way of classifying different media products into different categories. 

They all have distinguishable features, otherwise known as generic conventions.

eg- horror, comedy, romance, action, sci-fi, drama, sitcoms, soap operas, quiz shows, documentaries, rock, pop, rap, hiphop, classical, r&b, jazz, country, folk, punk, magazines, newspapers, posters, billboards

Daniel Chandler’s basic definition

Conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the idea that they are made up of  particular conventions (such as themes or settings) and/or form (including narrative structure and  visual style) and all text of the same genre will share these conventions. 

 eg horror= blood, lowkey lighting, monsters

Generic Conventions

A film genre is defined by its conventions

These conventions must be present to make a film a genre film but should involve some aspect of innovation, subversion and/or inflection (otherwise it becomes a formula film)

Generic conventions will vary from genre to genre but will usually involve such areas of repetition as:

• Mise-en-scene
• Setting
• Visual style
• Themes
• Ideology
• Stars
• Character-types (including stereotypes)
• Narratives (including events and resolutions)
• Cinematography
• Special effects
• Sound/music

Genre recipe exercise

-fiction, thriller, action, western, melodrama, romcom, drama, fantasy, dark comedy, legal drama, satire, sci-fi, psychological thriller, historical fiction, spoof comedy (parody movie)

Choose one of the genres you came up. You are going to write a ‘recipe’ for the perfect genre film/ TV show:

Start by coming up with a list of key ingredients (about 5 - 10 things that would typically be used in a film /TV show of that genre).

Decide on the ‘amount’ for each of your key ingredients - the more important the ingredient the more you will need) Write this up as a list at the top of your ‘recipe’.

Create a set of instruction as to how the ingredient will be combined together and baked. You need to do this in the style of the genre you have selected (eg Romantic comedy - warm lovely over a cosy fire and accidentally burn off your eyebrow, Horror -   ‎Scorch  the top with a blowtorch set on high)

Parody Movies specifically horror (eg. scary movie 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,)

 ingredients

-1.5kg of B list and below celebs

-0.2kg of A list celebrities

-5 drops of dramatic ending

- 1 pinch of suspense

- 4 tbsp of stupid humour

- 5 buckets of  fake blood

- 7 bins of exaggerated and over the top props

instructions

THEORIES

Rick Altman 

-argues that genres are usually defined in terms of media language and codes (in the Thriller, for example: guns, urban landscape, victims, stalkers, menaced women or even stars, like Leonardo Dicaprio  or Jack Nicholson) or certain ideologies and narratives ( Anxiety, tension, menacing situation)

Jonathan Culler 

– generic conventions exist to establish a contract between creator and reader so as to make certain expectations effective, allowing compliance and deviation from the accepted modes. We understand films because we understand the generic conventions

Steve Neale 

- argues that Hollywood’s generic regime performs two important functions: i) to guarantee meanings and pleasures for audiences ii)  to offset the considerable economic risks of industrial film production by  allowing companies  to make films they know will be popular . He also said 'genres are instances of repetition and difference' and have changed as society has changed. As part of the develop of the genre Neale also argues that we can see evidence of hybridity - where genres mix together (eg horror, comedy and romance in Shaun of the Dead.