Genre

An Introduction to Film

Points to Consider;

• The study of any film concentrates on genre, narrative and representation – the major textual features of any media product.

• However, you will also be asking questions about

- what those films reveal about audiences (e.g. how they are targeted and how different audiences respond to films).

- the industry which produces and distributes them.

Genre – balance between industry and audience needs?

There are two important areas to explore when studying genre:

• How does the film industry use genre?

• What does genre offer audiences?

Genre – balance between industry and audience needs?

• The film industry generally uses genre fairly simply – as a means of minimising the risk of failure. Genre allows the film industry to produce the kinds of film it thinks audiences will like, predicting future successes based on what has already been commercially successful.

• Genre follows the principle of repeating and varying conventions – the elements which audience like and therefore want to see again.

• This tendency to repeat based on a particular commercial success often results in the emergence of a trend for a particular genre.

e.g. Gladiator (Ridley Scott, UK/USA, 2000) spawned a succession of similar ‘sword and sandal’ films, such as Troy (2004) and Alexander (2004).

Genre – balance between industry and audience needs?

• Genre can also be used creatively by screenwriters and directors who can extend and vary genre conventions as well as subvert or even parody them, as Wes Craven’s Scream series did with the horror genre.

• The way the film industry uses genres could suggest audiences are exploited and turned into passive consumers.

• However, it can be equally argued that audiences actively choose the films they watch and that whilst many genres offer audiences something that is familiar, they gain pleasure from having their expectations fulfilled.

• What audiences seem to like most, is the familiar with slight variations. If a genre becomes too formulaic, audiences tend to loose interest…

Genre – balance between industry and audience needs?

• …It follows the need to be reassured by the expected and yet challenged by the unexpected.

• You could say, therefore, that genre is the balance between the industry’s financial need for profit and audiences’ needs for entertainment and pleasure.

Genre – balance between industry and audience needs?

• …It follows the need to be reassured by the expected and yet challenged by the unexpected.

• You could say, therefore, that genre is the a balance between the industry’s financial need for profit and audiences’ needs for entertainment and pleasure.

The Bourne Ultimatum and the Bourne trilogy: Genre – repetition, variation and hybridity.

Key Vocabulary

Hybrid: a cross between one film genre and another.

The Bourne Ultimatum and the Bourne trilogy: Genre – repetition, variation and hybridity.

• The Bourne trilogy of films provides an interesting example of this balance between industry and audience needs. Even though some of the standard conventions of the action genre are still present for audiences to enjoy, the Bourne films demonstrate several departures from mainstream Hollywood action movie conventions.

• For example;

- The films appear far more aware of international politics than many traditional action films.

- They appear to integrate action into the narrative in a plausible way without the overuse of computer generated imagery which has become a recognised signifier of so many action films.

The Bourne Ultimatum and the Bourne trilogy: Genre – repetition, variation and hybridity.

• Clearly, the Bourne trilogy represents a hybrid version of the action genre, an increasingly common approach in many contemporary Hollywood genre films.

• Marketed as a ‘Bond for a new generation’, the Bourne trilogy combines elements from the action / spectacle / adventure and thriller genres, with elements from the political / conspiracy and espionage thriller.

• These various elements are densely packed into the Bourne films to produce a multi-layered style of film-making, which is somewhat different from a conventional Hollywood action film like Die Hard.

The Bourne Ultimatum Genre Conventions

• Characters – a hero, a villain, the villain’s accomplice and a victim.

• Narrative – a plot involving political intrigue, a mystery to uncover, an international dimension, usually based in the recognisable present.

• Mise-en-scene – a location which offers ample possibilities for putting the hero at risk.

• Camerawork – varied camerawork featuring spectacular action, usually involving weapons and death – defying stunts.

• Editing – rapid inter-cutting between key locations and people, to increase audience tension and suspense.

Group Work

Task: In groups, choose a film belonging to a genre of your choice. Analyse the film focusing on the following conventions:

• Characters

• Narrative

• Mise-en-scene

• Camerawork

• Editing

• Sound design

Present your findings – making use of you-tube, power-point etc, to deliver your chosen film to the group.

In doing so, try to make applicable narrative theory that has been covered in previous lessons.