In what ways does your media products use develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing media products?

2.  “ The word ‘genre’ means ‘type’ or
‘category’. To study a film as a genre
involves treating it, not as a unique
entity, but as a member of a general
category, as a certain type of film. The
aim is therefore to classify, or organise, a
large number of films into a small number
of groups.” – Warren Buckland

3. To help give and understanding of what
genre is, here are some quotes to help:
 “patterns/styles/structures which transcend
individual films, and which supervise both
their construction by the film maker and
their reading by an audience” (Tom Ryall,
1998)
 Genre is there, according to Ryall, to place
convention for the film maker to recognise
and develop within their own work, but also
for the audience to identify.

4.  Steve Neal (1990) argues that
Hollywood’s generic regime guarantees
meaning and pleasures for audiences.
 Steve Neal (1980) also states that much
of the pleasure from popular cinema lies
in the process of “difference in
repetition”. Meaning, we gain pleasure
by watching films that we can identify
features of genre conventions but in an
unfamiliar way. So not every film is
exactly the same, but still easily
identifiable within a specific genre.

5.  Another by Steve Neal (1990) is that
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” which expands on his
latter point of “difference in repetition”.
This is because viewers go to see films
within genres they like and thus have
their expectations of what will happen in
the film and the interaction comes from
the difference that this film has to other
in that genre.

6.  Jonathan Culler (1998) declares that
generic conventions exist to establish a
contract between 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. Meaning that genre is there
to work as a framework for viewer and
film-maker which can be used to see
whether the film is successful (intelligent)
or not.

7.  Ryall (1998) sees the framework provided by
the generic system, therefore, genre
becomes a cognitive repository of images,
sounds, stories, characters, and
expectations.
 Similar to Culler, John Fiske (1988) believed
that genre has come to represent
“attempts to structure some order into the
wide range of texts and meanings that
circulate in or culture for the convenience
of both producers and audience”. So
audiences can go see films they know they
like (ones from specific genres) and film-
makers can use the conventions from
genres to ensure they appeal to audiences.

8.  Audiences and industries use genre to
help appeal certain movies to people
whom like that genre
 Genre helps to allow industries to follow
certain codes and conventions to
create films within a specific genre
 However, the purpose of films is to be
different from one and other but to still
be classified in a genre, thus, the
boundaries of genre’s are ‘fuzzy’ and not
clear

9.  My short film is mainly about war, but I
would not classify it within the war genre,
emphasising this fuzzy boundary
between genres. I would however,
classify it within the drama genre with
elements of war.

10.  Uses a dramatic story line to move the
audience emotionally
 Contains real life situations and
characters along with settings and stories
to allow the audience to build emotions
with the characters
 Journeys through characters
development to gain more emotional
connection between audience and film

11.  Often contains conflict or disaster/difficulty
and pain
 Audience can relate to the characters
because it is more a realistic storyline
 Includes climaxes which throughout for
there to be a form of realisation at the end
– can be both a happy or sad ending but
commonly happy endings
 Most importantly, drama can have aspects
of other genres to create more of a
storyline for the audience

12.  A realistic storyline that many people
can relate to as it is about PTS (post
traumatic stress)
 Character development is the climax
creating tension and the realisation at
the end of the short to see what the
problem is
 Contains a problematic storyline

13.  I believe the main convention I have
developed with my work is the use of PTS
as the disaster. This is because it is only
becoming recently a widely known
disorder which affects many people. As
this is something new that may not have
been fully investigated and shown in
films involving disasters from the war and
it also strays away from the common war
storylines.

14.  I have challenged conventions such as the
happy ending as I have gave it a sad ending.
Sad ending are still seen in drama conventions,
however, I have challenged this, not so
common, convention in that there is no
resolution or no prospect for resolution
because of the characters condition. It shows
the character at an older age after the war
and the journey through his every day which
emphasises that it has never went. Implications
of his condition never getting better come
from the short being set in the past making the
ending far more sad which challenges the
conventions more.