1. Film Genre Western Sci-Fi Drama Epics/Historical Comedy Crime and Gangster Horror Adventure War Action Musicals Film genres can be split into sub categories themselves. For example a film could be science fiction but also be a comedy, horror or a western.
2. Sci-Fi COMEDY: PAUL (2011)WESTERN: COWBOYS AND ALIENS (2011)DRAMA: SUPER 8 (2011) Horror COMEDY: SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004)SLASHER: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)MUSICAL: SWEENEY TODD (2007) COMEDY: HOT FUZZ (2007)SCI FI: IRON MAN (2008)DISASTER: TWISTER (1996) Action
3. What is genre? There are several theorists that have different opinions on what genre is. DENIS MCQUAIL says that genre refers to the commercial and industrial significance of genre. He thinks that genre helps target audiences and capitalize on the success of earlier films. CHRISTINE GLEDHILL says that the differences between genres meant different audiences can be catered to. DAVID BORDWELL says that there are many ways of categorising genre and asks if genre is determined by style, content, structure or cultural factors.
4. Conventions Because of certain conventions such as the stars, setting, plot and director a film can then become a hybrid, for example a sci-fi film, PAUL STARS: Simon Pegg and Nick FrostSETTING: American road trip to see extra terrestrial sightsCOSTUME: Popular sci-fi comics/characters on t-shirtsCHARACTER TYPES: Nerds, funny, best friends or buddiesPLOT: A road trip to visit alien sights in America turns into 2 friends helping a real alien to get homeTHEMES: Friendship, Protection, RomanceDIRECTOR: Greg Mottola The same can also be done for another sci-fi film, COWBOYS AND ALIENS STARS: Daniel Craig and Harrison FordSETTING: American Town in the 1880’s, cowboysCOSTUME: Cowboy hats, boots, guns, period dress codeCHARACTER TYPES: Outlaws, LonersPLOT: Alien weapons in an American town are used to stop an alien attackTHEMES: Justice/Conflict, romanceDIRECTOR: Jon Favreau Both films are sci-fi but because of the plots, characters and settings, they automatically become hybrids, Paul a sci-fi comedy and Cowboys and Aliens a Sci-Fi action film.
8. Do genres change over time? Genres do change over time, genres such as sci-fi have become more action orientated and genres such as horror have definitely changed. For example: THE BLOB (1958)“This horror film from the late 50’s is about a mysterious creature from another planet, resembling a giant blob of jelly, landing on earth. The people of a nearby small town refuse to listen to some teenagers who have witnessed the blob's power. In the meantime, the blob just keeps on getting bigger.”
9. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)This is also a horror film but from the 80’s. “Nancy and her friends are having violent nightmares which all feature one common element, a disfigured serial killer with a glove made of razors on his right hand. When one of the group is murdered in their sleep. Nancy realises that she must stay awake and try uncover the truth behind this phantasmic killer Freddy Krueger”
10. SAW (2004)“Two men wake up at opposite sides of a dirty, disused bathroom, chained by their ankles to pipes. Between them lies a dead man loosely clutching a hand-held tape player and a handgun. Each finds a tape the perfect fit for the player in their back pocket. They play the tapes. One is threatened, the other isn't. But they have a task: One must kill the other by 6:00, or his wife and daughter will die.”
11. All three of those films are horrors. One from the 50’s, 80’s and the 00’s. This proves that genre changes over time, but this is mainly because the audience changes over time too. For example, The Blob contains no swearing, sexual content or graphic violence whereas by the 1980’s in A Nightmare on Elm Street, special effects were getting more advanced and more swearing, sexual themes and graphic deaths were used to frighten a new audience. Saw however, the most recent of the films has a large amount of swearing, some sexual content and a large amount of graphic violence and gore. The audience for these films hasn’t changed however, The Blob, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Saw are all mainly targeted towards teenagers. The characters within these films are also mainly teenagers or young adults.
