GenreAmber Jackson

Definitions

‘Genre’ stems from the french, meaning ‘type’ or ‘kind’.

The media categories different types of media products/text dependant on what they are so that a producer can reach the expectations of the audience though challenging (flexible) or meeting traditional (rigid) conventions of that particular category.

Rigid conventions: This genre covers a wide range of films, made for the mainstream market/audience. These types of films are simplistic and stick to what the audience know, so to attract that mass audience back. This is because it is easy for the audience to watch, the text doesn't make them think. Examples: Horror, Comedy, Romance

Flexible conventions: this form of media was created for a niche or independent audience. Even though some of the conventions are now used in hollywood mainstream films. Films are ever growing and expanding with the director pushing the boundaries, creatively, playing on the sub genre, in the hope to appeal to the niche audience again. You could say they have more of a base and ideas for the audience to think about. Examples: Rom-Com or Dystopian-Horror.

A ‘Genre’ comes from the greek theatre, used by Aristotle. This was to establish what the play was about. Then years later, in the 19th century, a linguist called Charles Sander Pierce researched fixed meanings and signs embedded in a piece of text. Genre follows strict guidelines and conventions to clearly identify what the audience ‘expected’.

Comparing the original vs the remake of star wars. The iconography can be clearly distinguished in the posters. The original the characters are shown as a whole, one man mission and focuses on the artwork, distracting away from the actors/characters. The remade one, clearly shows the characters at war with one another, which is what the film is about and establishes good vs bad (Jedi vs Sith)

Rigid Definitions

Adorno and Horkheimer, film critics, criticised mass made productions where repetitive and ‘standard’, following typical conventions. Hollywood films were being dominated by one particular idea, ‘The American Dream’.

Theologian Nick Lacey, says that there is a negotiation between how the audience vs the producer sees film and genres that they fit into. It is this differentiation that allows producers to play with genre conventions to create a hybrid genre.

Flexible Definitions

Dystopian and Utopian are polar opposites. The dystopian theme fits with words such as ‘bleak’, ‘depressing’, ‘dark’, ‘frightening’, all while set in the future where the atmosphere is dead.

Due to the fact that dystopian films are set in the future, the majority are also classed as postmodern. They also include elements of hyper realism or futuristic. There are many conventions connected to the dystopian theme, therefore there are a few sub genres to go with it, including; Dystopian-Horror, Dystopian-Fantasy and Dystopian-Socialism (tackling social problems)

Dystopian Genre

Dystopian narratives generally happen in a post apocalyptic world, an aftermath or another form of destruction (war/alien invasion). These will be the consequences of a man made issue. Example: 2012, World War Z, Rise of the planet Apes.

The Dystopian genre is very judgmental on society. Films containing themes of wars and the economic crash are very relevant at this current moment in time.

Dystopian Conventions