Genre theory monday 2014

GENRE THEORY

A term used for the classification of media texts into groups with similar characteristics. Genres have characteristics and features that are expected by the audience

Iconography: particular signs that we associate with genres - physical attributes, costume, settings and props

WHAT IS GENRE?• Genre is the classification of any media text into a category or type: e.g. news, horror, documentary, soap opera, docu-soap, science-

fiction or lifestyle etc.

• Genres tend to have identifiable codes and conventions which have developed particular expectations, which may either be fulfilled or denied / diverted by the producer.

• You should consider typicality and subversion, as well as sub-genres or generic hybrids. The significance of genre to audiences, producers, publishers and broadcasters should also be carefully considered.

• Using the handout, list the conventions you used in your

DOES GENRE EXIST?• Film Theorist Rick Altman argues that there is no such thing as “pure”

genre anymore. Genre is progressive, in that it will always change.

• He says that generic conventions are very much a thing of the past. His theory suggests that audiences, in general have become tired of the same formula and need more to keep them entertained and to create appeal.

• He says that genre is surviving due to hybridisation – or genres “borrowing” conventions from one another and thus being much more difficult to categorise.

AN EXAMPLE OF HYBRID GENREWatch the trailer for Shaun of the Dead.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfDUv3ZjH2k

Try to identify which genres are evident in the trailer by listing the conventions from each genre.

List the conventions you have developed or “borrowed” from other genres

• Daniel Chandler "Conventional definitions of genre are based on the idea that they share particular convention of content e.g. themes or setting.“

• Steve Neale "Genres are instances of repetition and difference; this is what pleasure for the audience is derived from“

• John Hartley "The same text can belong to different genres in different countries or times“• David Buckingham "Genre is a constant process of negotiation and change“• John Fiske "Genre attempts to structure some order into a wide range of texts and meanings

that circulate in our culture for the conveniences of both producers and audiences“• Andrew Goodwin “Music videos are simply an extension of the lyrics”• Kate Wales “Genre is …an intertextual concept”

Chandler and Genre TheoryDaniel Chandler: Conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings) and/or form (including structure and style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as belonging to them.

Neale and Genre Theory

• Steve Neale declares that 'genres are instances of repetition and difference' (Neale 1980, 48). He adds that 'difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre': mere repetition would not attract an audience.

Traditionally, genres (particularly literary genres) tended to be regarded as fixed forms, but contemporary theory emphasises that both their forms and functions are dynamic. David Buckingham argues that 'genre is not... simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change' (Buckingham 1993).

Buckingham and Genre Theory

Goodwin and Genre Theory• Goodwin’s Theory is based on 8 main principles.

1. Links between Lyrics and Visuals2. Links between Music and Visuals (Complimentary, Contradicting or

Amplification)3. Genre characteristics4. Intertextual reference5. Notions of Looking (objectification of women)6. Voyeurism (direct gaze, other people looking at artist, insight into

artists life, screens and mirrors)7. Demands of the Record Label (representation of the artist)8. Performance based, Narrative based or Concept based music videos

GENRE THEORY – DANIEL CHANDLER

NARRATIVE - similar plots and structures, predictable situations, sequences, episode CHARACTERS - similar types of characters (sometimes stereotypes), roles, personal qualities, motivations, goals, behaviour.THEMES - topics, subject matter (social, cultural, psychological, professional, political, sexual, moral), ideologies and values. SETTING - geographical and historical;ICONOGRAPHY - echoes the narrative, characters, themes and setting, a familiar stock of images or motifs, the connotations of which have become fixed. Includes décor, costume and objects, certain 'typecast' performers familiar patterns of dialogue, characteristic music and sounds, FILMING TECHNIQUES - stylistic or formal conventions of camerawork, lighting, sound-recording, use of colour, editing etc s, obstacles, conflicts and resolutions.

GENRE THEORY – DANIEL CHANDLER

• Using Daniel Chandler’s criteria, identify how the following in your product help the audience to understand its genre:

• Narrative• Characters• Setting

Christian Metz: Model of Genre Development

• Christian Metz in his book "Language and Cinema" (1974) explored the development of genre in film and suggested that genre passes through four phases of existence.

• 1. Experimental - this is when early films helped to formalise convention for example, Nosferatu (1922).

• 2. Classic - this is when the phase of films which established the narrative conventions of the genre in its most successful and defining period for example Dracula (1931)

• 3. Parody - these are films that have mimicked the genre in some comical way for example Scary movie (1998)

• 4. Deconstruction - this is the phase where films which have taken generic elements of a genre and amalgamated/merged them into varifying sub genres for example Scream (1996) which merged the genres 'teen movie' and

'horror' together.

GENRE THEMES AND IDEOLOGIES

• Values in a media product are not the same as codes and conventions. Values are the ideological and cultural ideas embedded in a film. In a Western, the lone gunslinger represents the power of good to destroy evil.

In gangster films greed and the lust for power or wealth undermine the possibly attractive, but deeply flawed, central gangster character. Jealousy, revenge, loyalty and deception are themes of many thrillers and crime movies.

In horror films the monsters and zombies can be interpreted as metaphors for serious diseases, death or destiny. In the end the films give some hope that the audience’s worst fears can be overcome.

• In Bond films the audience feel safe in knowing that Bond (or his British MI5 equivalent) will save them from the political evils of the world – whatever they may be at the time

• In Pop videos, the audience will often see good being represented as pop icons are often considered as role models for young children

GENRE THEMES AND IDEOLOGIES

List the themes or ideologies that are conventional to your product

Have you developed these in any way?Have you “borrowed” themes from another

genre?

'Uses and gratifications‘ research has identified many potential pleasures of genre, including the following:

•One pleasure may simply be the recognition of the features of a particular genre because of our familiarity with it. Recognition of what is likely to be important (and what is not), derived from our knowledge of the genre, is necessary in order to follow a plot.

•Genres may offer various emotional pleasures such as empathy and escapism - a feature which some theoretical commentaries seem to lose sight of. Aristotle, of course, acknowledged the special emotional responses which were linked to different genres. Deborah Knight notes that 'satisfaction is guaranteed with genre; the deferral of the inevitable provides the additional pleasure of prolonged anticipation' (Knight 1994).

•P55 AS Media Studies

Genre and Audience

•Steve Neale argues that pleasure is derived from 'repetition and difference' (Neale 1980); there would be no pleasure without difference. We may derive pleasure from observing how the conventions of the genre are manipulated (Abercrombie 1996). We may also enjoy the stretching of a genre in new directions and the consequent shifting of our expectations.

•Other pleasures can be derived from sharing our experience of a genre with others within an 'interpretive community' which can be characterized by its familiarity with certain genres (Daniel Chandler).

Tom Ryall (1978) – Genre provides a framework of structuring rules, in the shape of patterns/forms/styles/structures, which act as a form of ‘supervision’ over the work of production of filmmakers and the work of reading by the audience.

John Fiske defines genres as ‘attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for the convenience of both producers and audiences.’

Steve Neale (1990) argues that Hollywood’s generic regime performs two inter-related functions: i) to guarantee meanings and pleasures for audiences ii) to offset the considerable economic risks of industrial film production by providing cognitive collateral against innovation and difference.

Neale (1980)- much of the pleasure of popular cinema lies in the process of “difference in repetition” – i.e. recognition of familiar elements and in the way those elements might be orchestrated in an unfamiliar fashion or in the way that unfamiliar elements might be introduced

Rick Altman argues that genres are usually defined in terms of media language (SEMANTIC elements) and codes (in the Western, for example: guns, horses, landscape, characters or even stars, like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood) or certain ideologies and narratives (SYNTACTIC elements).

Can Genre be defined by audience? Is it a question of film comprehension?

Neale (1990) – Genre is constituted by “specific systems of expectations and hypothesis which spectators bring with them to the cinema and which interact with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process.”

Jonathan Culler (1978) – generic conventions exist to establish a contract between creator and reader so as to make certain expectations operative, allowing compliance and deviation from the accepted modes of intelligibility. Acts of communication are rendered intelligible only within the context of a shared conventional framework of expression.

Ryall (1998) sees this framework provided by the generic system; therefore, genre becomes a cognitive repository of images, sounds, stories, characters, and expectations

1. To the producers of films, genre is a template for what they make.

2. To the distributor/promoter, genre provides assumptions about who the audience is and how to market the films for that specific audience.

3. To the audience, it is a label that identifies a liked or disliked formula and provides certain rules of engagement for the spectator in terms of anticipation of pleasure e.g. the anticipation of what will happen in the attic scene of The Exorcist.

4. When genres become classic, they can exert tremendous influence: production can be come quicker and more confident because film-makers are following tested formulae and have a ready shorthand to work with, and actors can be filtered into genres and can be seen to have assumed ‘star quality’ when their mannerisms, physical attributes, way of speaking and acting fit a certain style of genre.

5. In turn, viewers become ‘generic spectators’ and can be said to develop generic memory which helps the in the anticipation of events, even though the films themselves might play on certain styles rather than follow closely a clichéd formula. E.g. the attic scene from The Exorcist – we expect something to jump out on the woman because all the generic conventions are in place, but in the end, the director deflates the tension. We do not consume films as individual entities, but in an intertextual way. Film is a post-modern medium in this way, because movies make sense in relation to other films, not to reality.

6. It is the way genre films deviate from the clichéd formulae that leads to a more interesting experience for the viewer, but fore this to work properly, the audience must be familiar with generic conventions and style.

David Bordwell notes, 'any theme may appear in any genre' (Bordwell 1989) ‘One could... argue that no set of necessary and sufficient conditions can mark off genres from other sorts of groupings in ways that all experts or ordinary film-goers would find acceptable'

PROBLEMS WITH GENRE CLASSIFICATION

Theorist and Critic Rick Altman (1999) came up with a list of points he found problematic with genre classicfication .

a) Genre is a useful category, because it bridges multiple concerns.

b) Genres are defined by the film industry and recognised by the mass audience.

c) Genres have clear, stable identities and borders.

d) Individual films belong wholly and permanently to a single genre.

e) Genres are transhistorical.

f) Genres undergo predictable development.

g) Genres are located in particular topic, structure and corpus.

h) Genre films share certain fundamental characteristic.

i) Genres have either a ritual or ideological function