Genre theory primarily exists as a way of catergorising texts - grouping them together by identifying similarities and patterns.
How is genre important?It is a way of organising the huge of amounts of texts that are available.
It can act as a set of audience of expectations.
It creates a relationship between audiences and producers which minimises the risk of financial failure – consider the money put into production and marketing…
It reinforces our ideas and values
It makes clear what ‘works’ artistically allowing for repetition.
It acts as short-hand communication for audiences.
It creates a structural framework that can be adhered to or played with.Descriptive approach to Film Genre
Genre is established through use of the following genre paradigms (easily identifiable elements)
Iconography
Themes
Narrative
Audience response
Character types/representation
Aesthetic
So how were these elements influenced by the chosen genre of your film opening/music video?Theorist ideas on genre
'The boundaries between genres are shifting and becoming more permeable' - Nicholas Abercrombie
This quote brings up discussion around the idea that genres are not static, they are constantly evolving due to 1) audience demands and trends, and 2) hybrid films (a mix of two or more genres).
Is your product a hybrid? Does your product reflect contemporary audience demands, rather than sticking to a classic genre type?Repetition and Variation - Steve Neale
This is idea that audiences want to have some idea what they are going to watch, however, in order to keep things fresh there are times when audiences need to be altered. So in short, filmmakers working within a genre need to walk a line: expand, develop, elaborate on the genre, but keep it under the overall structure of the specific genre umbrella.
What elements of your chosen genre did you keep and what elements did you subvert or change in order to keep your product fresh?Terms
Hybrid genre - is a text that combines or subverts the conventions existing genres to create a new one.
(Easiest example - Zombie film + Romantic Comedy = rom zom com (Shaun of the Dead))Sub-genre - a subcategory within a particular genre.
(a film type that fits in with a main genre type (thriller, Horror, western etc), but has also developed its own conventions and audience expectations - (see the myriad different types of Thriller: action, psychological, political etc).