2. What genre is your production?
• AS - Found footage horror
• A2 – Slasher/thriller
3. What are the codes and conventions
in your product that display this?
4. AS
• Time written in the corner
• Hand held shaky footage
• Black screen with white text
• Not knowing the story, just get POV snippets of the
story line
• Very little non diegetic sound, some bassy rumble
music
• Setting – empty school, isolation
• Editing, jumpy cuts and cutting off at crucial points
• Dropping of camera
5. A2
• Setting it in the past gives it more of a reality,
this may have actually happened
• The poster style is quite conventional of the
genre, not too much revealed, watching over,
eyes etc.
7. AS
• The dropping of the camera is quite typical of this
genre, wouldn’t see it in other genres, tells us that the
action is happening to the camera operator, and in a
sense to us, makes it much more personal and draws
the audience in
• The colour filters draw out the green, often used in
horror films, paranormal activity, particularly in the
night time scenes when they use night visual, direct
comparison to the scene in the cupboard with mine
• The camera angles are almost solely used in this genre
such as the low angle looking up at the characters face
as they use direct address, comparison to Blair Witch
8. A2
• Mis en scene – props such as the axe suggest
violence but not much actual visuals of the
violence, this would make it more horror/gore
• This is much more subtle about the suggestion
of violence as opposed to the display of
violence
9. Have generic conventions been
adhered to or subverted?
• AS Piece – Adhered to extremely, almost each
shot was directly comparable to films in its
genre, such as the blair witch shot, the
paranormal activity title screens, the
cloverfield running shots
• A2 Piece – Subverted a bit more but still quite
conventional, it is a bit more niche with the
1970s setting, although they're are a few in
this area such as The Conjuring
11. Purposes of genre
• Following the codes and conventions of genre
is beneficial to both the producers of media
texts and its consumers. WHY?
Producers Audiences
• They will be aware of what works
and what doesn’t
• Films can be targeted to audiences
more precisely and make more
money with less risk
• Audiences already established and
targetable, it is a safe bet
• Know what to expect
• Comfort in the familiar
• No risk in wasting their money
12. Genre Benefits Producers Theories
• Denis McQuail – “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”
• Christine Gledhill: “Differences between genres meant
different audiences could be identified and catered to… this
made it easier to standardize and stabilizes production”
• Nicholas Abercrombie: “Television producers set out to
exploit genre conventions… it… makes sound economic
sense. Sets, properties and costumes can be used over and
over again. Teams of stars. Writers, directors and
technicians can be built up, giving economies of scale”
13. Genre Benefits Audiences Theories
• The familiar codes and conventions make an
audience feel safe. However, genre is expected to
evolve so that audiences interest is kept
• Genre can present ideology to the masses. A
moral code can be offered to the audience:
Genre Moral Taught
Action Individual strength
Disaster Team work
Soap Opera Family values
Horror Mistrust, facing fears
Western Lone hero facing the odds
Rom Com Fairy tale romance
14. How does genre benefit your
productions?
Producer Consumer
• Set out guidelines for me to follow as
opposed to just starting from scratch
• The genre has these codes and
conventions because they are tried
and tested and known to be effective
• Will appeal to people who know they
will like it and they will tell their
friends who also enjoy this genre,
spread the audience base
• Posters have almost a template to
follow that will identify it as this genre
and draw people in
• People know what they are getting
themselves into when they see it, no
one is going in blind and therefore no
one is coming out unsatisfied
• Particularly with horror people get
scared because they know what is
coming next (or don’t as it happens),
they can identify that there is going to
be suspense in the film
• Find comfort in what they know
15. Rick Altman
• Genre analysis can be problematic. The word ‘analysis’ suggests a deep
investigation. However genre analysis can be prone to being too simplistic. It can
be a too Semantic approach – a focus on superficial elements e.g. iconography,
stock characters
• The second type of analysis is the Syntactic approach which looks at the effects of
these elements on the audience. It looks at its relationship with society
• The semantic approach is necessary to establish patters over a broad range of films
but it could be considered a means to an end – he end being the syntactic analysis
which can from it. The syntactic analysis can tell us something about the societies
in which the films are produced and consumed
Example
The heroes in early gangster films are all short in stature (a semantic observation)
The hero's smallness emphasized the affinity between the cocky gangster and the little
man in the audience who identified with the gangster on screen… the audience
recognizes the problems on screen and think “if that little guy on screen can push his
way to the top, why cant I? (a syntactic inference)
16. Steve Neale
• “genre are instances of repetition and
difference…difference is absolutely essential to the
economy of genre” – genre would die if the same
things were repeated over and over
• Neale argues that genre doesn’t just come from the
film, it also comes from the expectations that the
spectator has. The expectations provide the spectator
with a means of recognition and understanding. The
expectations help the viewer decide why certain events
and actions are taking place, why characters are
dressed the way the are, why the look or speak the way
they do etc…
