genre

Demonstrate understanding of a relationship between a media genre and society home genre home

__ Traditional genre study __

Genre as a text


 * Were we to qualify a distinction between movies pre- 1960 and post, we look at new theories on films as texts. French structuralist theory in the 1960's dispelled with the idea of an author controlling a texts and pointed out that in all texts are a variety of messages come from all sources. This theory gave a dimension to the existence of messages from a variety of sources. The theory gave the audience(reader ) more right of participation. How we read a text is influenced by our culture and our society. e.g look at p 10. "The bride wore a red dress". Which culture is reading this sentence? See Godard's deconstruction of a musical comedy, A Woman is a Woman (1966)**

Part of what makes genres an interesting lens by which to consider the static and dynamic characteristics of cinematic genres is the ability to track changes over time and in response to cultural circumstances. Film theory tells us that shifts in genres occur in response to socio-historical events and cultural needs. Genres – and variations on the conventions of a given genre gain currency because they offer temporary solutions to social problems that cannot be resolved in the real world, such as contradictions based on race, economic and gender inequalities. (1)
 * When we read texts from countries, then, we need to weigh up whether we are seeing films as modes of dominant production.**

Consider iconography A sample **essay on Genre** The genre based critical approach to genre involves looking at a film based, as the name suggests, on its genre. Genre is, literally, the ‘type’ or ‘class’ of a film; for example ‘horror’, ‘thriller’ or ‘film noir.’ Films are ascribed to genre in a number of different ways – the iconography, themes, narrative, stars and director can all help identify the genre of a film. For example, ‘Night of the Living Dead’ can be ascribed to the horror genre. It contains the iconography (isolated house, blood and gore, zombies); the themes (distrust and incompetence of institutions like law enforcement, the breakdown of the family); the narrative structure (ending with a negative ‘twist’ rather than a restoration of Todorov’s ‘equilibrium’); a director (George A. Romero) and a setting (rural America) that are consistent with horror movies. A genre approach involves looking at a film with these codes and conventions in mind, but also looking at the influence of genre on audience demands and expectations. In addition two other areas require consideration: the use of genre in industry marketing and the similarities and differences between specific genre films. There are a number of advantages to using this theory to study and analyse specific films. The genre approach helps you to know what to expect from a film. Genre is all about expectation and surprise/similarity and difference: a film must be similar enough to the codes and conventions of a genre that the audience get what they were expecting, however it must contain enough different and surprising elements to make the film appealing and interesting to an audience. This point highlights another use of genre theory – it allows us to develop a greater understanding of the creative limitations involved in producing specific films. Different and original mainstream films are uncommon in because they diverge from genre conventions, leaving the audience unsure of what to expect. This limits a film’s appeal as the theory suggests that the reason that the majority of people watch films is the pleasure gained in anticipating and recognising the familiar. If is a film is too unfamiliar or different from genre expectations, it will be hard to market and ‘pitch’ at an audience. Indeed, M. Night Shyamalan’s most recent film ‘The Village’ was criticised by many as being falsely marketed as a horror film and many people disliked the film for not being like contemporary horror films. Another major advantage of the genre based approach is that it allows a film to be analysed in comparison to a large range of other films from a variety of sources that fall into the same genre category. Under an auteur theory approach to films you are focused on the films of one particular director. However the genre approach opens up a much wider range of films from different directors from different backgrounds. For example, using a genre based approach, the films of George A. Romero and the films of Wes Craven can be compared, both direct horror movies, but raised in different eras. This then leads on to possibly the most useful aspect of genre criticism. By analysing specific films from a variety of directors and time periods, we can gain an understanding of the way that society and audiences have changed over time.
 * //Identify the strengths and weaknesses of a genre based approach to the analysis//**
 * //of a specific film.//**

 essay sample from: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/0415371430/pdfs/genre.pdf



 **DYSTOPIA genre.Try out DYSTOPIA genre **