Genre: A class or category of artistic endeavor, having a particular form, content & technique.

In the 21st genre of a text, whether it be a film, book or any piece of media has become something susceptible to interpretation due to the high volume of media being distributed everyday. Many of which challenge our ideas and philosophies of life, a good short movie can have an outstanding impact that causes a change in the way you think of life.

In the same way a short film can challenge what we think a particular genre is by cross referencing or bridging several genres together in a way never done before. Because so much media is being distributed, we’re are not running out of idea, indeed it does become harder to create original material, but every time something new is created it leaves us with some little inspiration to create something else.

- David Buckingham, “Genre is not… simply ‘given’ by the culture: rather it is in a constant process of negotiation and change.

This quote just confirms it, nearly every time we see something new, we are negotiating amongst ourselves what it means to us.

For example, Most would categorize the short movie Across the hall a thriller, whereas, I do think it has several thriller features, such as the vague and enigmatic tittle combined with the unbelievable amount of low key lighting throughout the film. I also think those are features of a film noir. No public authority is involved like in most popular film noirs such as LA Confidential, but we have a characters identity, which at first as the audience we are led to think we know who the character is. We are led to think that the best friend is the Protagonist. As the film goes on he turns out to be the exact opposite. The Antagonist.That last paragraph can be summed up in one word. Mystery. Because that’s what a film noir is about. Keeping the audience in the dark until the very end (excuse the pun) or for eternity as they know it.