Genre Exam Questions

What genre is your production?

• AS - Found footage horror• A2 – Slasher/thriller

What are the codes and conventions in your product that display this?

AS

• Time written in the corner• Hand held shaky footage• Black screen with white text• Not knowing the story, just get POV snippets of the

story line• Very little non diegetic sound, some bassy rumble

music• Setting – empty school, isolation• Editing, jumpy cuts and cutting off at crucial points• Dropping of camera

A2

• Setting it in the past gives it more of a reality, this may have actually happened

• The poster style is quite conventional of the genre, not too much revealed, watching over, eyes etc.

How does mis-en-scene support the genre?

AS

• The dropping of the camera is quite typical of this genre, wouldn’t see it in other genres, tells us that the action is happening to the camera operator, and in a sense to us, makes it much more personal and draws the audience in

• The colour filters draw out the green, often used in horror films, paranormal activity, particularly in the night time scenes when they use night visual, direct comparison to the scene in the cupboard with mine

• The camera angles are almost solely used in this genre such as the low angle looking up at the characters face as they use direct address, comparison to Blair Witch

A2

• Mis en scene – props such as the axe suggest violence but not much actual visuals of the violence, this would make it more horror/gore

• This is much more subtle about the suggestion of violence as opposed to the display of violence

Have generic conventions been adhered to or subverted?

• AS Piece – Adhered to extremely, almost each shot was directly comparable to films in its genre, such as the blair witch shot, the paranormal activity title screens, the cloverfield running shots

• A2 Piece – Subverted a bit more but still quite conventional, it is a bit more niche with the 1970s setting, although they're are a few in this area such as The Conjuring

Genre Theory

Purposes of genre

• Following the codes and conventions of genre is beneficial to both the producers of media texts and its consumers. WHY?

Producers Audiences

• They will be aware of what works and what doesn’t

• Films can be targeted to audiences more precisely and make more money with less risk

• Audiences already established and targetable, it is a safe bet

• Know what to expect• Comfort in the familiar• No risk in wasting their money

Genre Benefits Producers Theories

• Denis McQuail – “genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers”

• Christine Gledhill: “Differences between genres meant different audiences could be identified and catered to… this made it easier to standardize and stabilizes production”

• Nicholas Abercrombie: “Television producers set out to exploit genre conventions… it… makes sound economic sense. Sets, properties and costumes can be used over and over again. Teams of stars. Writers, directors and technicians can be built up, giving economies of scale”

Genre Benefits Audiences Theories

• The familiar codes and conventions make an audience feel safe. However, genre is expected to evolve so that audiences interest is kept

• Genre can present ideology to the masses. A moral code can be offered to the audience:

Genre Moral Taught

Action Individual strength

Disaster Team work

Soap Opera Family values

Horror Mistrust, facing fears

Western Lone hero facing the odds

Rom Com Fairy tale romance

How does genre benefit your productions?

Producer Consumer

• Set out guidelines for me to follow as opposed to just starting from scratch

• The genre has these codes and conventions because they are tried and tested and known to be effective

• Will appeal to people who know they will like it and they will tell their friends who also enjoy this genre, spread the audience base

• Posters have almost a template to follow that will identify it as this genre and draw people in

• People know what they are getting themselves into when they see it, no one is going in blind and therefore no one is coming out unsatisfied

• Particularly with horror people get scared because they know what is coming next (or don’t as it happens), they can identify that there is going to be suspense in the film

• Find comfort in what they know

Rick Altman• Genre analysis can be problematic. The word ‘analysis’ suggests a deep investigation.

However genre analysis can be prone to being too simplistic. It can be a too Semantic approach – a focus on superficial elements e.g. iconography, stock characters

• The second type of analysis is the Syntactic approach which looks at the effects of these elements on the audience. It looks at its relationship with society

• The semantic approach is necessary to establish patters over a broad range of films but it could be considered a means to an end – he end being the syntactic analysis which can from it. The syntactic analysis can tell us something about the societies in which the films are produced and consumed

Example

The heroes in early gangster films are all short in stature (a semantic observation)

The hero's smallness emphasized the affinity between the cocky gangster and the little man in the audience who identified with the gangster on screen… the audience recognizes the problems on screen and think “if that little guy on screen can push his way to the top, why cant I? (a syntactic inference)

Steve Neale

• “genre are instances of repetition and difference…difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre” – genre would die if the same things were repeated over and over

• Neale argues that genre doesn’t just come from the film, it also comes from the expectations that the spectator has. The expectations provide the spectator with a means of recognition and understanding. The expectations help the viewer decide why certain events and actions are taking place, why characters are dressed the way the are, why the look or speak the way they do etc…