Genre Theory

Tom Ryall, 1998

“Patterns/styles/structures which transcend individual film, and which supervise both their construction by the film-maker and their reading by and audience.”

Ryall says that genre provides a framework of structuring rules which allow film makers to follow and for the audience when watching the film. This means they can follow conventions f certain genres which put them into a genre and for the audience to know and see what genre film they are watching.

Steve Neal, 1980 “Genres are instances of repetition and differences.

Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre”. Meaning that is there was only repetition there would be no difference and therefore the film wouldn’t attract an audience.

He also argues that pleasure is derived from “repetition and difference”, as without difference there would be no pleasure.

We change our views of pleasure through different forms, one of which is how the conventions of genre can be manipulated which comes from Abercrombie, 1996, agreeing with Neal. Another is gaining pleasure by the stretching of genre so it branches off in different directions to alter our expectations of the genre.

“Repetition and difference” is all about how to gain attraction to the film by the audience and doing this by recognising the familiar elements of the genre but having them in an unfamiliar fashion and also by introducing other unfamiliar elements to the production.

Steve Neale, 1990

“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”

Neal argues that Hollywood’s generic regime gives off two inter-related functions. The first being to guarantee meanings and pleasure for audiences, and the second being to balance the risks of industrial film production by ensuring the film corresponds with conventions of the genre against innovation and difference to make people want to go see it.

Jonathan Culler, 1978

Culler states that generic conventions exist to establish a contract between deviation from the accepted modes of intelligibility. Acts of communication are rendered intelligible only within the context of a shared conventional framework of expression.

So the creator has expectations of what the viewer will already know prior to watching the film so the viewer has to have a level of intelligence within the shared conventions used within a film.

Daniel 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”

he also states that other pleasures can be derived from sharing our experience of a genre with others within an ‘interpretive community’ which can be characterised by its familiarity with certain genres.

According to Chandler, every text positions those who participate in a text of that kind, in this case as a viewer and as a storyteller, which gives different possibilities within response and action. Kress, 19988, agrees with Chandler and explains that each written text provides a ‘reading position’ for readers, a position constructed by the writer for the ‘ideal reader’ of the text.

John Fiske, 1988

“Attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for the convention of both producers and audiences”

This means that the reasoning for genres and their conventions is for classification for audience to know what type of films they like to watch and understand how certain genres in film are made and can pick up and follow these conventions. For the produces this is easier as they have codes and conventions to follow and they are able to produce something within a genre classification.

Rick Altman

Altman argues that genres are usually defined in terms of media language and codes or certain ideologies and narratives.

Media language is the semantic elements (the meaning of the words used), whereas the ideologies and narratives are the syntactic elements, (the structure). The codes come in the form of conventions for that genre in mise-en-scene with props and dress code rather than other aspects of film making like the cinematography and so on.

Genre and Audience Research into ‘uses and gratifications’ has identified

numerous potential pleasures of genre including the following:

One may simply be recognition with the genre. For audiences to recognise and identify key features of the genre is good as they can follow the storyline with expectations and this make the film more enjoyable for them.

Genres also offer empathy and escapism, it gives the audience a diversion from everyday life and also put them in the perspectives of the characters in the film and so they can connect with the storyline and the other characters creating empathy.

We also gain pleasure through repetition and difference, knowing the conventions and features of a genre and having certain expectation which will then be defied and therefore make the audience want to know more and watch more to find out what happens next.