Genre theory

What is a genre? Well, to many, the dictionary term of genre states that it is "A style or category of music, art or literature." But according to Daniel chandler;

"The conventional definitions of genre tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (e.g. themes or settings) and/or form (including structure and style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as belonging to them."

This explains how genre is mainly based on the conventions within it, the themes and other content that would associated with a certain genre are what makes that genre unique and different. For example, the horror genre and the idea of how tension is built up in an overemphasised way; or romance in which two people meet and fall in love over time. Audiences tend to find a certain genre to be satisfying due to the fact that it can meet their expectations and they may find pleasure in predicting what will happen next.

Because of this, producers of simple and generic narration will need to depend on a certain amount of straightforward communication in order to please the audience. They want to be able to put the story across and sufficiently so that the audience can understand the film. Genres that use easily recognisable components but have a sense of uniqueness are seen to be of much importance; due to the fact that the audience knows what to expect from a genre but at the same time want some variations to prevent dissatisfaction and boredom.

Steve Neale support this clearly, quoting;

"Genre's are instances of repetition and difference. Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre."

Key components of a genre

The main identifying characteristics of a film falls into one or more of the following categories:

• Characters

• Iconography

• Setting

• Narrative

• Style

• Theme

• Audience response

• Genre hybrids

In terms of genre hybrids, traditionally genres tend to be of a fixed form, with each components consisting of something that would be associated to mainly that genre. However, David Buckingham states how

"Genre is not simply 'given' by the culture; rather it is in a constant process of negotiation and change."

This portrays the idea of how genre is constantly "evolving" how one genre will end up being mixed with another to make either a subgenre or a hybrid.

Stages of a genre:

Christian Metz, a French film theorist, has made 4 stages in which a genre would have to follow in order for it to be identified clearly;

• Experimental stage: This is the conventions of the genre that are visibly defined and the audience is aware of the genre. In this case for our short films, it would be the conventions of the horror genre that was mentioned in the previous post.

• Classical stage: This is where the conventions of a genre becomes iconic and more idealised as a guideline for it.

• Parody stage: For this stage to be successful, the conventions must be established and widely recognised. Once this has occurred, the conventions can be used to mock the genre as a parody and the audience must be able to understand the genre that is being mocked by looking at the tropes for such. For example, a film that parodies the horror genre is Scary movie, in which various well known horror films are parodied and the tropes are over exaggerated and mocked in the process

• Deconstruction stage: The conventions are still clear and the audience are still aware of the genre. However, some tropes and elements of the genre may be changed for example the editing style or the camerawork of the film may be different to the conventional methods. An example of this is the horror film, Blair witch project in which the film is shot from a POV perspective as if the film was a documentary in its own way. In this stage, hybrid genres are formed.

Problems of genre

There are a few problems to how genres work, for example, defining a genre is possibly biased due to the fact that many genres share similar quantities between them. For example, thriller and action films share the idea of tension building, but what is the difference between the two considering that some thrillers don't always have the horror aspects within them. Moreover, the amount of pressure placed upon a genre in order for it to not be repetitive and become boring to an audience. This is the issue that the horror genre is mostly facing, more and more people are becoming aware of the tropes that are associated and so more people can predict what may happen in a film and so they will be less inclined to watch it. But yet, so many people still decide to watch horror films.

However, there is a solution to some of these problems and it has been proposed by Rick Altman in his book known as "Film/Genre". Rick Altman has stated how;

"Genre allows texts to be produced to appeal to different audiences. Genre can be defined in terms of media language"

And so this is supported through the Semantic/syntactic approach. The semantic/syntactic approach looks at what is expected from a genre (semantic) and the ideology of that genre (syntactic). It gives us a more sophisticated outlook at genres, however the approach can be developed more, considering the audience and institute. The semantics looks at areas such as the location, characters, camera work, lighting, props, etc. Things that give out the genre traits, for example, a creepy house or isolated area is usually associated with the horror genre, due to the fact that it can give a sense of tension and the protagonists wouldn't usually have an advantage in such settings whereas the antagonists may have a higher advantage.

As for syntactic, this looks at the relationship between these tropes and the narrative of a genre, for example, in horror films the narrative the audience would suspect is the survival of the protagonists, maybe even one; and how the main antagonist is always after the protagonists. The idea of the unknown adds to the element of fear which should increase as the story progresses; leading to a resolution of some sort at the end. Throughout the film, the audience would feel a sense of suspense and fear, but this is an factor that appeals to the audience seeing as even though the fear is there, the audience is aware that they are safe from the situation.

Criticism of the genre theory

Richard Coe has expressed how the idea of genre is restricting one's creative abilities, and how artists, authors and film institutes will find it difficult for them to express themselves. He calls it;

"The tyranny of genre"

This means that if someone were to make a horror film then there are certain categories that must be met in order for people to recognise the genre and gain interest into the film. Unfortunately, this is an issue in which the genre will end up being repetitive and most form of creativity may confuse the audience. But then hybrids and sub genres of the main genre may help the producer make something unique, however, it depends on how well the audience would understand it in order for it to be successful.