Pages

Wednesday, 19 January 2011

JC The basic principles of genre

A 'genre' is a type of category or media product, with each genre possessing different characteristics and connotations. The distinctive features, principles and characteristics of each genre are recognised through their repitition over a long period of time through numerous films. The generic codes and conventions of a text - that is, in this instance, a film - are both flexible and dynamic.

Genre serves to create a set of expectations amongst an audience. Rick Altman suggested that genres "are not neutral categories, but rather ideological constructs that provide and enforce a pre-reading", whilst Thomas Schatz remarks "we might think of the film genre as a specific grammar or system of rules of expression and construction and the individual genre  film as a manifestation of these rules". The challenge for filmmakers, therefore, is to make a film identifiable with its genre, yet to make a project distinct and original.

The following are usually covered from different aspects within separate genres:
  • A recognisable protagonist
  • An archetypal hero/villain - one which is so predictable that it holds the same values across genres
  • Stock characters
  • Plot/Stock situations
  • An antihero
  • Icons/iconography - Objects, Locations and Stars
  • Background and decor
  • Themes
It is only once these have been recognised, that a filmmaker can break the convention within a genre.

No comments:

Post a Comment