11th October 2016

Genre Theory
The genre of a film is its type. This means that the audience will be able to
recognise what will most likely be in the film and they will therefore have
an idea about what to expect.
Different genres will include different settings, characters and objects but
all of the genres have the same set of conventions which include:

Narrative This is what the plot consists of.

Actors/characters certain genres are likely to have certain types

of characters and actors that play them.

Setting You would expect a horror films to be set in one of a few

places. It will be a dark and possibly old building that is largely
unoccupied.

Music The music in a film differs according to the genre. For

example, an action film will use lots of loud masculine music to
accompany the actions shots and quick movement whereas a horror
is most likely to use eerie instruments such as violins to create
tension.

Another thing that is vital to remember is the audience expectations

and how they are going to be satisfied. This is done by following the
conventions of the particular genre. For example, the audience of a horror
film expect a setting of an unfamiliar creepy place, eerie music,
vulnerable characters and some sort of threatening supernatural creature.
If the audiences needs and expectations are not met then they are not
likely to enjoy the film.
Daniel Chandler split the components of genre into two categories;
content and form. Content includes the themes and setting of a film.
This is what the film consists of. While form includes its style and
structure which is the order of plot and the editing of the film.
Steve Neale claimed that repetition and difference makes up a genre.
This means that although films have to stick to the conventions of the
genre to meet the needs of their audience, they have a licence to
change some of these conventions. This prevents every film from
following the same generic plot with similar characters and the same
ending. Instead, the audience is left with uncertainty and an interest to
watch the film. However, it is important that film producers to not
outweigh the repetition with differences or their film will be a failure.

11th October 2016

Films include two elements:

Semantic elements These are actual things and objects that

appear in the film. For example: props, setting and characters.

Syntactic elements These are concepts specific to each

individual genre (some may have crossovers). They could be
ideology or narratives. An example of ideology in the horror genre
is that supernatural creatures are feared because they are more
powerful than humans.