Genre
Genres are the categories of media depending on their shared elements, known as conventions. All genres have sub-genres which are any other shared themes to divide them even more specifically.
Steve Neale (1995) stresses that "Genres are not systems they are processes of systematization", he basically argues that genres do not stay fixed and change to reflect the ideology of the era, meaning that they are dynamic and evolve over time.
Steve Neals statement proves to be true after analyzing some media examples from the same genre but from different eras. The first trailer we analysed was "Nosferatu" from 1922, this is a film by F.W Murnau and features the first representation of Dracula, this trailer shows that the victims are the protagonist and Dracula is seen as the villain.
The second trailer we watched was for a movie from 1994 called "Interview With The Vampire", this is from the same genre which is horror and is also about vampires, however we can see that the dynamic has changed as the vampire himself is the protagonist meaning the story is told from his point of view as oppose to the victims.
To summarise the change in elements of genre, generic characteristics across all texts share similar elements depending on the medium and typical mise-en-scene/visual style, including areas such as iconography, props, set design, lighting, temporal and geographic locations, costume, shot types, camera angles, special effects, etc.
Jason Mittell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience and cultural practices too, they use genre to sell products. Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that very often make cultural references to their audience knowledge of society, other texts.
However, Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences "a set of pleasures":
The strengths of genre theory:
The main strength of genre theory is that everybody uses it and also understands it. The media experts use it as a way to study media texts, the media industry uses it to develop and market the texts, and the audiences use it to decide what text to consume, The potential for the same concept to be understood by producers, audiences and scholars makes genre a useful and also critical tool when defining media texts.
Sub-genres/Post modern styles
David Buckingham states that "Genre is not simply given by the culture, rather it is in a constant process of negotiation and change." David Bordwell (1989) also makes a statement that "Any theme may appear in any genre." These two statements support the fact that a media text can not only have one genre and can be made up of a series of sub-genres as well.
Horror films are a good example of this as they are basically just modern day fairy tales which often features a form of morality where those people who break societies rules are therefore punished. Horror movies also feature the fear of the unknown where the monster is the "monstrous other", such as anything that is scary due to the fact it is foreign or different. This could include the plot of a personal journey or the duality of man, which is the conflict between mans civilised and his savage primal instincts, an example of this would be the incredible Hulk.
The fact that sub-genres exist proves that genres are not fixed and that they will constantly change and evolve over time, this can happen due to changes in society or simply the ways in which an audience change their opinions and react differently to media texts.
The second trailer we watched was for a movie from 1994 called "Interview With The Vampire", this is from the same genre which is horror and is also about vampires, however we can see that the dynamic has changed as the vampire himself is the protagonist meaning the story is told from his point of view as oppose to the victims.
Jason Mittell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience and cultural practices too, they use genre to sell products. Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that very often make cultural references to their audience knowledge of society, other texts.
- Emotional pleasures, these pleasures offered to audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response. For example if you are emotionally invested into a media text you may take about the characters as if they are your friends and be genuinely upset if a character leaves the show.
- Visceral pleasures, refers to internal "gut" responses and are defined by how the films stylistic construction elicits a psychical response/effect from the audiences, for example felling the emotions of what is happening on the screen yourselves.
Christian Metz (1974) argued that genres tend to go through a typical cycle of changes during their lifetime. He listed these as the experimental stage, classic stage, parody stage and finally the deconstruction stage.
The strengths of genre theory:
The main strength of genre theory is that everybody uses it and also understands it. The media experts use it as a way to study media texts, the media industry uses it to develop and market the texts, and the audiences use it to decide what text to consume, The potential for the same concept to be understood by producers, audiences and scholars makes genre a useful and also critical tool when defining media texts.
Sub-genres/Post modern styles
David Buckingham states that "Genre is not simply given by the culture, rather it is in a constant process of negotiation and change." David Bordwell (1989) also makes a statement that "Any theme may appear in any genre." These two statements support the fact that a media text can not only have one genre and can be made up of a series of sub-genres as well.
Horror films are a good example of this as they are basically just modern day fairy tales which often features a form of morality where those people who break societies rules are therefore punished. Horror movies also feature the fear of the unknown where the monster is the "monstrous other", such as anything that is scary due to the fact it is foreign or different. This could include the plot of a personal journey or the duality of man, which is the conflict between mans civilised and his savage primal instincts, an example of this would be the incredible Hulk.
The fact that sub-genres exist proves that genres are not fixed and that they will constantly change and evolve over time, this can happen due to changes in society or simply the ways in which an audience change their opinions and react differently to media texts.
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