Genre refers to a category of artistic works defined by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. While genres are not always precisely defined, they play an important role in determining what audiences will consume as the classification of a genre can attract or repel potential viewers or readers based on their understanding of that genre. Producers must also identify the genre of a film early on to guide decisions around casting, props, sets, and dialogue.
2. - What is genre?
A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature,
characterized by similarities in form, style or subject matter.
Although genres are not always precisely definable, genre
considerations are one of the most important factors in determining
what a person will see or read. The classification properties of genre can
attract or repel potential users depending on the individuals
understanding of a genre.
The producers and institutions have to know what kind of film genre
they’re going to produce right from the word go, so they know to get
the right actors, props, set, dialogue etc.
3. Theorists
• Daniel Chandler: “Conventional definitions of genres tend to be
based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of
content (such as themes of settings) and/or form (including structure
and style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as
belonging to them. “
• Gunther Kress: “Genre is a kind of text that derives its form from the
structure of a (frequently repeated) social occasion, with its
characteristic participants and their purposes.”
• Denis McQuail: “The genre may be considered as a practical device
for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently
and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers.”
• Andrew Tudor: Argued that genre is only what we collectively
believe it to be. He says that a genre defines a moral and social
world.
• John Hartley: Argued that genres are agents of ideological closure;
they limit the meaning potential of a given text.
