Paradigms = typical pattern/convention.
Action:
- weapons - guns, knife
- explosions
- chase scene
- good vs bad theme - evil vs good
Horror:
- blood
- gore
- paranormal
- death
Thriller:
- murderer (male) + victim (female)
- chase
- isolation, entrapment
- night time
Comedy:
- disequilibrium near star - a problem to solve
- journey
- stupid/thick character
- intelligent character
Audiences
- arranged at retail outlets by genre.
- genres considered appropriate to certain ages/genders in society.
- systems of expectations about the content and style of a text. Pick pleasure out of a text.
- identify with repeated elements in generic texts + may shape their own identity in response (eg dress like the band).
Producers
- texts marketed according to genre as a niche audience already been identified as taking pleasure.
- standard production practises according to conventions - cuts cost.
- subscribe to conventions - activity given a format.
Descriptive genres
- film perceived as sharing aspects and attributes with other films in the same category, and is analysed accordingly.
Functional Genres
Films perceived as 'collective expressions of contemporary life that strike a particularly resonant chord with audiences' (Grant, 1986). So thrillers might be about terrorism now, or in the 1960s might be about the Cold War. Genre films are a product of their socio-historic context; watching them becomes a cultural ritual whereby hegemonic values are examined and perhaps enforced.
Genre Issues
- classification of genre is seen as both positive and negative by audiences, producers and theorists.
- rigorous conformity to established conventions while giving the audience what they want can actually lead to stagnation and the eventual ossification of a genre as a "they're all the same" judgement is passed.
However, there is such a diversity of genre due to sub-genres.
- We have names for countless genres in many media, some theorists argued that there are also many genres (and sub-genres_ for which we have no names (Fowler, 1989).
- Carolyn Miller suggests that 'the number of genres in any society ... depends on the complexity and diversity of society' (Miller, 1984).
Films with multiple genres:
- Inception - action, sci-fi, thriller
- Great Gatesby - romance, period
- Star Wars - sci-fi, action, fantasy, romance
Steve Neal, 2008
- 'genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations'.
- Genre is the same with minuscule differences.
- patterns of variation = characters, time period, circumstances
Auteur
- French for author - used to describe film directors who are considered to have a distinctive, recognisable style because they:
a) repeatedly return to the same subject matter.
b) habitually address a particular psychological or moral theme.
c) employ a recurring visual and aesthetic style.
d) demonstrate any combination of the above.
- Auteur's films are identifiable regardless of genre.
Andrew Sarris, 1968
- Auteur defined by:
a) Technical flair
b) Recurring characters of style (film maker's signature)
c) Convey film maker's personal vision of the world ('interior meaning').
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