Blog 1-Genre Research

Why did genres exist?

“Genres isn’t a word that pops up in every conversation about films or reviews – but the idea is second nature to the movies and our awareness of them. Movies belong to genres much the way people belong to families or ethnic groups. Name one of the classics, bedrock genres – Western, comedy, musical, war film, gangster pictures, science fiction, horror – and even the most casual moviegoer will come up with a mental image of it, partly visual, partly conceptual” ——Richard T. Jameson.

Genres are frames that help people explore different themes and expect certain content. It can be summarised by the word “stereotypes”, which, when you talk about a genre, you would immediately come up with a character off the top of your head.

Steve Neale admits that the genre’s complexity makes it hard to classify a product clearly into some categories. He put forward points that help us to organise genres:

· Levels of verisimilitude.

o Comparing reality to a piece of media and seeing its existence helps to classify the genre. E.g. if someone is flying up in the sky with a broom, that’s certainly a fantasy movie.

· Narrative similarities.

o A story’s structure and narrative device can be used to classify genres. E.g. Crime movies sometimes have narration interposed.

· Character-driven motifs.

o The main character may have defined attributes. E.g. in an action movie, there must be a villain that the hero fights against.

· Iconography

o Using mise en scene to a confident expectation can classify genres. E.g. you always expect old items in a house if the movie is a horror movie.

· Audience targeting

o Genres attract different audiences. E.g. Romance was used to draw the female audience, and war movies attracted males.

· Representational effects.

o Genres might be recognisable through their application of gender-specific representations. E.g. in Chinese ghost movies, ghosts are often girls wearing white dresses and having long black hair.

This is like

When you go and see a WW2 movie, you expect the filmto have the right prop and mood—Sherman E8 on the Aallies’ side and Tiger on the German side. You also expect the film to be real as possible.

Here is the sum of different genres:

· Comedy

o You expect to laugh while watching the movie

o The colour tone should be bright

o Language should be easy to understand

o Famous actor: Rowan Atkinson

· Animation

o You expect a fun story with a good ending

o The Colour tone should be bright

o Language should be easy to understand

o Famous character: Garfield

· Romance

o You wish to see the content of love

o The Colour tone might be bright

o You would love to see how characters develop relationships

o Famous actor: Audrey Hepburn

· Music

o You expect to see characters develop around themes of music

o Character makes an effort to be better in terms of music

o Whiplash

· Fantasy

o MAGIC!!!!!!

o Harry potter

· Action

o You expect gun fights, combat, car chases and things that visually stimulus.

o Famous actor: Dwayne Johnson

· Sci-Fi

o You expect to see future technologies

o Dune for example

· Thriller

o You expect to hear stories about murdering, killing, and solving problems

o Brick

In terms of our film opening, we are looking forward to producing a hybrid genre of Romance, Thriller, and Comedy.