A Level Media: Preparing for the year ahead

Understanding Genre

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Key quotes:

“Genre conventions can be grouped under the following headings: Characters Narrative events Iconography Setting Technical and audio codes.”

Exploring the Media, Connell (ed)

"A genre is a particular type of media commodity. It has characteristic features that are known to and recognised by audiences because the same formula is reproduced again and again. .....Unfortunately, genres cannot be clearly identified as they are not static: they are subject to constant renegotiation between the industry and the audience.

...The audience know what to expect from a genre but at the same time they want to find something they don’t expect as it otherwise would be boring. "

Advanced Level Media - Bell et al

“Imagine though, a news bulletin presented by a 16 year old ‘new age traveller’ whispering in a thick West Country accent in extreme close up......The example shows the ideological significance of genres. The codes and conventions of genre tell us a great deal about the beliefs and values at a particular time of the society that produces them. From the example of the news broadcast we could suggest that our society tends to put more faith in the word of a smartly dressed, ‘well educated’, middle aged man or woman standing four or five feet away, looking us in the eye, than an unconventional teenager with a strong regional accent....Genres reflect the dominant values of a society.”

Television: A Media Student’s Guide, McQueen

Understanding Genre: Introductory Activity.

Genre is often seen by students as the most accessible or most straightforward of all the media concepts they are required to study. For many, genre study is simply seen as identifying genre codes and conventions but the study of genre is rather more complex. The exercise below is intended to help you understand the different elements involved in genre study.

ITV has been losing viewers over the past few years and is on looking for new ideas to build audience. The 8-9pm slot is seen as the crucial period for expanding the audience: currently Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? all act as ITV signature shows which return sound viewing figures but audiences must increase if the channel is to continue to attract advertising revenue. A new series is needed that will keep current audiences and attract new viewers.

You have been commissioned to produce a pilot for a new series that will help ITV to re-establish its identity as a mass market television service. The series must be scheduled within the 8-9pm slot but the brief is wide: you can suggest a series that is broadcast once or several times a week; programmes in the series can be 30 minutes or an hour in length; you can choose any theme, style or content. However, it is crucial that the series keeps the current audience and attracts a newer wider audience.

Prepare a presentation to introduce your ideas for the new series.

You should describe: content

style

length and frequency

outline of the pilot programme

And give a detailed explanation of why the series will appeal to a wider ITV

audience.

(Keep your notes and make brief notes on the appropriateness of other proposals)

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Name of proposed programmes

Content Would they succeed? Why?

Which were the most appropriate proposals? Why?

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Understanding Genre: Text, industry and audience

When producing your proposals for a new series you had to think from an industry point of view about a text and its impact upon an audience.

In a discussion of film genres, Stephen Neale has described genre as part of a process of “mental machinery” between “industry, text and subject.” (Genre, 1980, p19)

In other words, for a piece of media to be successful the industry needs to produce a text that meets the subject/audience’s expectations. To do this it will need to produce a piece that is:

conventional enough for an audience to recognise the genre as something they enjoy and challenging,

and unconventional enough for them to feel that they are watching something new, individual and

interesting.

Consider the proposals you have heard for a new series. To what extent were they

conventional enough for an audience to recognise the genre as something they enjoy and challenging? How?

unconventional enough for them to feel that they are watching something new, individual and interesting? How?

No genre is fixed and genres are always changing. By making your programmes unconventional, you are, of course, changing the genre to suit current tastes. As Neale puts it, genres are “systems of orientations, expectations and conventions that circulate between, industry, text and subject.” (p19)

Write a definition of genre in your own words:

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Understanding Genre: Text

This is the most straightforward aspect of genre study because it involves looking at the conventions of specific genre. In Exploring the Media, Connell suggests grouping conventions under the following headings:

Characters – representations, stereotypes, behaviour, body language, specific actors/stars Narrative events Iconography – props, symbolic codes Setting- mise en scene Technical and audio codes – camera use, editing, lighting, diegetic/non diegetic sound, sfx

Use these headings, identify the main conventions of the horror film genre as they are presented in the opening to Scream (Craven, 1991) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSjFOitjRCI :

Genre elements Conventions presented in the opening to ScreamCharacters – representations, stereotypes, behaviour, body language, specific actors/starsNarrative events –how is the narrative ordered and structured?

Iconography – props, symbolic codes

Setting- mise en scene

Technical and audio codes – camera use, editing, lighting, diegetic/non diegetic sound, sfxWhat ideologies are encoded in the horror genre? What does the genre seem to say about what it is like to live in the world?

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Understanding Genre: Text and changes in audience expectation

Scream and after

Scream was made in 1996. It was in part a parody of earlier fashions in horror but in many ways it can be seen as quite old fashioned now. From your knowledge of contemporary horror films, what are the conventions audience now expect? Think about: Characters, Narrative events, Iconography, Setting, Technical and audio codes.

..

Has the ideology of horror changed since 1996? How?

As the case of Scream shows and as Bell et al have argued,

“genres cannot be clearly identified as they are not static: they are subject to constant renegotiation between the industry and the audience."

(Advanced Level Media, 1999)

This can be seen also in the case of documentary as a genre.

On the next page there are a number of definitions of documentary.

Read the comments and award each a mark out of 5 (5: I strongly agree; 1: I strongly disagree), then

Agree your own definition of documentary, and

Identify what you would see as the key conventions of the documentary genre.

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Understanding Genre: expectations and conventions of documentary

1. (Documentary is) the creative treatment of actuality. Mark: 5 4 3 2 1

John Grierson, an early documentary film-maker and the man who coined the word documentary.

2. (A documentary is) a factual film which is dramatic.Mark: 5 4 3 2 1

Pare Lorentz (documentary maker)

3. Above all, documentary must reflect the problems and realities of the present.Mark: 5 4 3 2 1

Paul Rotha (documentary maker)

4. When you see somebody on the screen in a documentary, you're really engaged with a person going through real life experiences. So for that period of time, as you watch the film, you are, in effect, in the shoes of another individual. What a privilege to have that experience.

Mark: 5 4 3 2 1Albert Maysles (documentary maker).

5. You even have to edit your film as the event is actually happening. Have to decide it is this and this and this I want to look at; and not this, this and this.. .... You don't show the whole of the subject; you select; and your selection matters.

Mark: 5 4 3 2 1Richard Leacock (documentary maker)

6. Documentary must abandon its limited and always serious tone.......Audiences know full well that Grierson’s public education purpose ... is a virtual guarantee for boredom.

Mark: 5 4 3 2 1Brian Winston, media academic

Write your own definition:

And the main conventions and expectations of documentary are ........ (fill in the gaps on the next page)

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A documentary is ...

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Characters

Technical and audio codes

Audience expectations and positioning

Narrative elements

Setting Iconography

Ideological elements

DOCUMENTARY

Industry: why make doc’s?

Watch the following two TV documentaries which are about very different subjects. Do they use the same conventions? Why were the programmes made? Will they have met audience expectations of documentary? BBC Panorama Bursting the House Price Bubble PT1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL97yAE7PQw Planet Earth 2006 - FROM POLE TO POLE 5of 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QiOKMYcRM4

BBC Panorama: Bursting the House Price Bubble

BBC Planet Earth - From Pole to Pole

Characters – representations, stereotypes, behaviour, body language, specific actors/stars

Narrative events –how is the narrative ordered and structured?

Iconography – props, symbolic codes

Setting- mise en scene

Technical and audio codes – camera use, editing, lighting, diegetic/non diegetic sound, sfx

Audience expectations and pleasures – are audience expectations met? What are the uses and gratifications?Industry – why was the decision made to make these programmes

Mental machinery – “The audience know what to expect ..but.. they (also) want to find something they don’t expect” True?Ideology – what messages and values are encoded here?

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Understanding Genre: sub-genres

Both Panorama and Planet earth are examples traditional or conventional documentary and Bill Nichols in Introduction to Documentary has described this form expository or “voice of god” documentary. In total Nichols notes six types of modes of documentary and his guide is a very useful tool when assessing, analysing or considering documentaries and their different sub-genres. Nichols list included the following “modes” or sub-genres:

1. Exposition2. Poetic3. Observational4. Participatory5. Performative6. Reflexive

However, It is important to note that many documentaries use more than one mode of address, so when you are analysing a piece of documentary or planning your own work remember that it is possible to mix modes.

Read through Nichols’ list and watch the following two documentary extracts. Which mode is being used in each?

Ross Kemp on Gangs: South Africa - Cape Town http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZiq95dDju4

Super Size Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfBc-Rla0uI

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Modes of Documentary – Bill Nichols

1. THE EXPOSITORY MODE (voice of god)

This mode is what we most identify with the documentary. It tends to speak with authority and aims to teach the audience. It "emphasizes verbal commentary and argumentative logic" often using a narrator.Assumes a logical argument and a "right" and "proper" answer using direct address and offers a preferred meaning. Most associated with Television News programming.

Key Examples of Expository tradition in documentary include: Work of John Grierson Many nature,science and history documentaries

2. THE POETIC MODE – subjective, artistic expression

The poetic mode of documentary moves away from the "objective" reality of a given situation or people to grasp at an inner "truth" that can only be grasped by presenting the film as a poem, using poetic images, atmospheric music and often a poetic voice over.Codes emphasizes visual associations, tonal or rhythmic qualities, descriptive passages, andformal organization favours mood, tone and texture.

Key Examples of Poetic tradition in documentary include: Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi

3. THE OBSERVATIONAL MODE – window on the world

Observational (objective) mode is best exemplified by the Cinema Verite or Direct Cinemamovement which emerged in the late 1950s/early 1960s - it attempted to capture (as accurately as possibly) objective reality with filmmaker as neutral observer. This developed into what we now often call Fly on the Wall documentary.Codes/conventions: The filmmaker remains hidden behind the camera, ignored by the surrounding environment he/she neither changes nor influences the actions/events being captured. Since nothing is staged for the camera, the camera rushes about to keep up with the action resulting in rough, shaky, often amateur-looking footage.

Key Examples of the Cinema Verite/Direct cinema Movement: Frederick Wiseman, Hospital (1970) – fly on the wall, American hospital D A Pennebaker’s Don't Look Back (1967) - records Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of Britain

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4. THE PARTICIPATORY MODE

Unlike the observational mode, the participatory mode welcomes direct engagement between filmmaker and subject(s) - the filmmaker becomes part of the events being recordedThe filmmaker’s impact on the events being recorded is acknowledged, indeed, it is oftencelebrated.

Key Examples of the Participatory Mode include: The films of Michael Moore - here the filmmaker directly engages with the material being addressed, he becomes a character in the documentary - an essential part of the subject.

5. THE REFLEXIVE MODE – awareness of the process

The Reflexive Mode acknowledges the constructed nature of documentary and flaunts it -conveying to people that this is not necessarily "truth" but a reconstruction of it - "a" truth, not "the" truth. Codes/conventions: The artifice of the documentary is exposed - the audience are made aware of the editing, sound, recording, etc.

Key Examples of the Reflexive Mode include: Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929) - documents the mechanization of Soviet life in late twenties - the mechanical camera and cameraman become part of the subject Marc Isaacs’ Lift – he is present in a lift and we see him filming its occupants.

6. THE PERFORMATIVE MODE – filmmaker as participant

This mode of documentary emphasizes the subjective nature of the documentarian as well asacknowledging the subjective reading of the audience - notions of objectivity are replaced by"evocation and affect".Codes /conventions: This mode emphasizes the emotional and social impact on the audience

Key Examples of the Performative Mode include: films by Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock

(Source. Based on www.godnose.co.uk )

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Ross Kemp on Gangs: South Africa Super Size Me

Documentary mode

Conventional documentary features

Specific modal/sub generic features

Audience expectations and pleasures – are audience expectations met? What are the uses and gratifications?

Industry – why was the decision made to make these programmes in their respective modes?

Mental machinery – “The audience know what to expect .. but.. they (also) want to find something they don’t expect” True?Ideology – what messages and values are encoded?

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Understanding Genre: sub-genres – music video, a reminder

Performance videos the most common type (Firth 1988) feature the star or group singing in concert to wildly enthusiastic fans. The goal is to convey a sense of the in-concert experience. Gow (1992) suggests "the predominance of performance as a formal system in the popular clips indicates that music video defines itself chiefly by communicating images of artists singing and playing songs" (pp. 48-49). Performance videos, especially those that display the star or group in the studio, remind the viewer that the soundtrack is still important. "Performance oriented visuals cue viewers that, indeed, the recording of the music is the most significant element" (Gow, 1992, p. 45).

Music videos are characterized by three broad types: performance, narrative, and conceptual (Firth,1988). These types describe the form and content selected by the director or artist to attract viewers and to convey a direct or indirect message.

Narrative videos present a sequence of events. A video may tell any kind of story in linear, cause-effect sequencing. Love stories, however, are the most common narrative mode in music video. The narrative pattern is one of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for something to happen (Schwichtenberg, 1992).

Conceptual videos rely on poetic form, primarily metaphor (Firth, 1988). The conceptual video can be metaphysical poetry articulated through visual and verbal elements. "These videos make significant use of the visual element, presenting to the eye as well as the ear, and in doing so, conveying truths inexpressible discursively" (Lorch, 1988, p. 143). Conceptual videos do not tell a story in linear fashion, but rather create a mood, a feeling to be evoked in the experience of viewing (Firth, 1988). Conceptual videos contain the possibility for multiple meanings as the metaphor or metaphoric sequence is interpreted by the viewer. "Thus the metaphorical relations between images structured according to musical and visual rhymes and rhythms play a suggestive role in soliciting multiple meanings from us, the viewers/listeners, that resonate with our experience--something we can feel and describe" (Schwichtenberg, 1992 p. 124).

A given music video may actually have elements of more than one category. Andrew Goodwin (1992), in describing Madonna's videos, suggests that the essential narrative component of a music video is found in its ability to frame the star, "star-in-text," as all Madonna's videos seem to do. A story exists solely for its ability to create, or in Madonna's case recreate, the star's persona. This blending of elements can also enable a type of music such as rap to have cross-over appeal to a wider audience.

NB All quotations from a long and sometimes difficult article which is well worth reading: “Cultural approaches to the rhetorical analysis of selected music videos.” Karyn Charles Rybacki and Donald Jay Rybacki http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/trans4/rybacki.htm

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Understanding Genre: hybrid genres mixing modes.

Watch the opening 15 minutes of Are Your Kids On Drugs? This went out mid evening on Channel 5

How many different modes are used? What are they?

How is it structured? Go into detail here: include timings, overall structure, links between sections, mode of address and anything else you think is relevant.

What ideologies are encoded?

Who is the audience?

Do you think the programme was successful in capturing the attention of its audience? Why?

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Understanding Genre: 800 word analysis

Using the ideas covered in this booklet, write an 800 word analysis of one of the following texts which explains the extent to which it conforms to or deviates from its genre. In your writing you should use detailed analysis and examples from the text to explain why it uses and/or deviates from convention.

Girls Aloud - Call The Shots - Official Music Video available on YouTube

strangers (2004)- short film by: Erez Tadmor & Guy Nattiv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpjHSiQLPmA&feature

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Dispatches – Britain’s Secret Slaves (Channel 4 documentary) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vWazRB5uHM

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Use the following as a guide to help you:

1. Overall genre: what genre/ subgenre is being used?

2. Consider the text - Describe the ways in which the piece conforms to and deviates from convention? Look at the following textual conventions:

Characters – representations, stereotypes, behaviour, body language, specific actors/stars

Narrative events –how is the narrative ordered and structured?

Iconography – props, symbolic codes

Setting- mise en scene

Technical and audio codes – camera use, editing, lighting, diegetic/non diegetic sound, sfx

3. Consider how producer intentions and audience expectations have impacted upon the conventionality of the text.

producer/industry: What do you think is the aim or purpose of the piece? Why was the decision made to make these programmes

audience: Who are the intended audience? How does the text position them? What are audience expectations of this genre? Are they met? What are the uses and gratifications?

“The audience know what to expect but they (also) want to find something they don’t expect” Does this happen?

4. Consider the Ideology – what messages and values are encoded? Are they likely to have changed over time? Has this impacted upon the textual conventions?

5. Sum up. is the text a successful example of the genre?

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Understanding documentary genre: a miscellaneous collection of terms that you might find helpful:

presenter or voice-over narration mode of address

interviews

experts comment

vox pops drama documentary

archive footage “fly on the wall” filming

animation graphics

reconstructions non diegeticmusic

video effects: black and white/slow-motion/fast-motion etc

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