G235: Section 1 (b) Genre

What Is Genre? ‘Genre’ is a critical tool that helps us study texts and audience responses to texts by dividing them into categories based on common elements.

Stephen Neale Genres are instances of “repetition and difference”, and that they are systems of expectations and conventions that circulate between industry, text and subject. He stresses, “genres are not systems they are processes” – they are dynamic and evolve over time. Genres can be seen as 'a means of controlling demand'. Hollywood’s generic regime performs two inter-related functions: i) to guarantee meanings and pleasures for audiences ii) to offset the considerable economic risks of industrial film production by providing cognitive collateral against innovation and difference. Genre is constituted by “specific systems of expectations and hypothesis which spectators bring with them to the cinema and which interact with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process.”  

When applying Neale to your coursework, think about how you have followed or changed genre conventions (repetition and difference) and how you used this to appeal to your audience. You can also talk about how the genre you have chosen has changed over time in response to audience (dynamic and evolve over time).

David Chandler David Chandler is a British theorist who is primarily concerned with the way in which genre can be identified. He named a number of categories that can help define a genre:   NARRATIVE - similar plots and structures, predictable situations, sequences, episodes, obstacles, conflicts and resolutions. CHARACTERS - similar types of characters (sometimes stereotypes), roles, personal qualities, motivations, goals, behaviour. THEMES - topics, subject matter (social, cultural, psychological, professional, political, sexual, moral), ideologies and values. SETTING - geographical and historical; ICONOGRAPHY  - echoes the narrative, characters, themes and setting, a familiar stock of images or motifs, the connotations of which have become fixed. Includes décor, costume and objects, certain 'typecast' performers familiar patterns of dialogue, characteristic music and sounds, FILMING TECHNIQUES - stylistic or formal conventions of camerawork, lighting, sound-recording, use of colour, editing etc.

You can use Chandler’s categories to define the genre and demonstrate the conventions of your chosen genre. Other pleasures can be derived from sharing our experience of a genre with others within an 'interpretive community' which can be characterized by its familiarity with certain genres.   Here you can use Chandler to highlight how genre can be used to categorise audience by their shared enjoyment of particular conventions. Think how certain genres inspire fan conferences or how fans can interact online.

Christian Metz Model of Genre Development Christian Metz in his book "Language and Cinema" (1974) explored the development of genre in film and suggested that genre passes through four phases of existence. 1. Experimental - this is when early films helped to formalise convention for example, Nosferatu (1922). 2. Classic - this is when the phase of films which established the narrative conventions of the genre in its most successful and defining period for example Dracula (1931) 3. Parody - these are films that have mimicked the genre in some comical way for example Scary movie (1998) 4. Deconstruction - this is the phase where films which have taken generic elements of a genre and amalgamated/merged them into varifying sub genres for example Scream (1996) which merged the genres 'teen movie' and 'horror' together.

Rick Altman Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences ‘a set of pleasures’.   Emotional Pleasures: The emotional pleasures offered to audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response. Visceral Pleasures: Visceral pleasures are ‘gut’ responses and are defined by how the film’s stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed, or a ‘roller coaster ride’. Intellectual Puzzles: Certain film genres such as the thriller or the ‘whodunit’ offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or a puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot and forecasting the end or the being surprised by the unexpected.

Format for writing assignment para 1 Intro: which of your projects are you going to write about? briefly describe it para 2: what are some of the key features of the concept you are being asked to apply? maybe outline two of the theories/ideas of particular writers briefly para 3; start to apply the concept (genre), making close reference to your production to show how the concept is evident in it para 4: try to show ways in which ideas work in relation to your production and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be challenged para 5; conclusion Again remember you only have 30 minutes and that you really need to analyse the finished production, rather than tell the marker how you made it