2013 Post 7A- What is Genre?

For my short film I will have to consider the genre it will fall under, as this is crucial to gaining an audience's understanding and thus shaping my film as a whole. Film genre consists of identifiable types and categories of film that include similar techniques or conventions. These categories can include ones listed below and much more:

-Plot
-Themes
- Subject matter
- Narrative
- Settings
-Stars
-Stock characters
-Styles
-Motifs



I created this diagram from my own knowledge of certain film genre conventions, allowing me to refresh my memory and consider examples of what conventions they may include.

 

Genre began as a commercial idea, generated by Hollywood in the 20s to generate income; this was when during a time when the major studios were established. Marketeers gave films a label, categorising them so that the audience could for the first time decide what they wanted to see, they would know what to expect and be drawn to the cinema, allowing studios to see which genres made the most money and thus gain the advantage.

Conventions and Paradigms

 Genres work to sets of conventions, responding to these by developing formulas and patterns, known as Paradigms. Conventions being what you would expect to see or hear in a media production, usually pertaining to the film genre.
Paradigms may acquire typical dominating ways of seeing and of representing the world around us, and can be grouped for those relating to:

Iconography- (main signs/symbols an audience sees or hears)
Structure- (the way a text is put together and the shape it takes)
Theme- (issues and ideas it deals with)

The positives and negatives of Genre:

Negatives: Rigourous conformity to established conventions can lead to the stagnation of a genre, for example Hollywood Westerns and Musicals started off very profitable but their formats became stale due to over-repetition of conventions.

Positives: Films that do not rely entirely on over-used conventions and prefer to challenge them help evolve a genre and increase its durability in today’s ever-changing society, e.g. Moulin Rouge defied audience expectations of a Hollywood Musical, being more contemporary and open with the passionate side of love.