Genre What is genre? Genre is a loose set of criteria

of a category of artistic composition marked by a distinctive style, form or content. It is a way to

determine the different types of music, film, media etc.

Starter: List as many film genres as you can think of in 2 minutes!

Genre

Action

Adventure

Western

Romance

Science fiction

Comedy

Animation

Musical

Horror

CrimeDocumentary

Thriller

Drama

War

Sport

Historical

Fantasy

Genre TheoristsDaniel Chandler: Conventional definitions of genre 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.

David Bordwell: Notes that ‘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’.

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.

Rick Altman: Argues that genres are usually defined in terms of media language (SEMANIC elements) and codes in the Western e.g. landscape, horses, guns, characters/stars like Clint Eastwood or John Wayne, or certain ideologies and

narratives.

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.”

Can you guess the genre’sof these film trailers?

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuweUUA7s-w

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkII_JShveI

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKFDkpHCQz4

The Genre’s..

1. A fish called Wanda;Rom com and crime.

2. The panic room;Thriller

3. Evil dead;Horror

What’s the difference?Horror/Thriller… Thriller is a movie based on suspense, showing

especially the victim's point of of view. Horror is more about showing "horrid" things on screen such as murders or torture. The suspense in a thriller does not necessarily result in gruesome acts.

The supernatural is part of horror is to scare the audience. A thriller is not about scares, but rather about the hero being put into danger. If the point is to make an audience scream, it's horror. If the point is to make the audience just feel tense, it's a thriller. And a thriller is much harder to pull off than horror (which is one of the easiest effects to achieve in film).

THE END

Katie Li and Sophie Vassiliou