This document discusses genres and how audiences engage with them. It notes that genres provide both repetition through conventions but also novelty through variations, and this combination provides pleasure for audiences. Genres establish expectations for audiences and filmmakers can manipulate expectations for effect. Pleasure comes from both recognition of genre conventions and surprise at an artist stretching those conventions. The document also examines how genres are used by filmmakers, marketers, and audiences to understand a film's format, target demographic, and how to anticipate its structure.

2. STEVE NEALE
• GENRES ARE INSTANCES OF REPETITION AND DIFFERENCE
• PLEASURE IS DERIVED FROM REPETITION AND DIFFERENCE – THERE WOULD BE NO PLEASURE WITHOUT
DIFFERENCE
• WE MAY DERIVE PLEASURE FROM OBSERVING HOW THE CONVENTIONS OF THE GENRE ARE MANIPULATED
• STRETCHING OF A GENRE IN NEW DIRECTION, SHIFTS OUR EXPECTATIONS
• PLEASURES CAN BE FROM SHARING OUR EXPERIENCE OF A GENRE WITH OTHERS

3. • 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”
• PLEASURE OF POPULAR CINEMA LIES IN THE PROCESS OF DIFFERENCE IN
REPETITION

4. GENRE AND AUDIENCE
•ONE PLEASURE MAY BE RECOGNITION OF THE FEATURES OF A
PARTICULAR GENRE BECAUSE OF OUR FAMILIARITY WITH IT – WE
NEED KNOWLEDGE OF THE GENRE IN ORDER TO FOLLOW THE PLOT

5. •JONATHAN CULLER
•RYALL
•DANIEL CHANDLER
GENERIC CONVENTIONS EXIST TO ESTABLISH A CONTRACT BETWEEN CREATOR AND READER
THIS FRAMEWORK IS PROVIDED BY THE GENERIC SYSTEM
EACH WRITTERN TEXT PROVIDES A „READING POSITION‟ FOR READERS – A POSITION CONSTRUCTED BY THE
WRITER FOR THE „IDEAL READER‟ OF THE TEXT
EMBEDDED IN THE TEXTS ARE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE IDEAL READER – INCLUDING THEIR ATTITUDES
TOWARDS THE SUBJECT MATTER AND OFTEN THEIR CLASS ,AGE, GENDER AND ETHNICITY

6. RICK ALTMAN
•GENRES ARE USUALLY DEFINED IN THE TERMS OF MEDIA
LANGUAGE – SEMANTIC ELEMENTS AND CODES OR CERTAIN
IDEOLOGIES AND NARRATIVES – SYNTACIS ELEMENTS
E.G. IN WESTERN – GUNS, HORSES, LANDSCAPES

7. • PROBLEMS WITH GENRE CLASSIFICATION:
1. IT‟S A USEFULL CATEGORY BECAUSE IT BRIDGES MULTIPLE CONCERNS
2. TS DEFFINED BY THE FILM INDUSTRY AND RECOGNISED BY THE MASS AUDIENCE
3. THEY HAVE CLEAR, STABLE IDENTITIES AND BORDERS
4. INDIVIDUAL FILMS BELONG WHOLLY AND PERMANTLY TO A SINGLE GENRE
5. GENRES ARE TRANSHISTORICAL
6. THEY UNDERGO PREDICTABLE DEVELOPMENT
7. THEY ARE LOCATED IN PARTICULAR TOPIC, STRUCTURE AND CORPUS
8. GENRE FILMS SHARE CERTAIN FUNDEMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
9. THEY HAVE EITHER A RITUAL OR IDEOLOGICAL FUNCTION
10. GENRE CRITICS ARE DISTANCED FROM THE PRACTICE OF GENRE

8. HOW GENRE IS USED
• PRODUCERS OF FILMS USE GERNE AS A TEMPLATE
• DISTRIBUTORS/PROMOTERS – GENRE PROVIDES ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT WHO THE AUDIENCE IS AND HOW TO
MARKET THE FILM FOR THAT AUDIENCE
• FOR THE AUDIENCE – IT IDENTIFIES A LIKED OR DISLIKED FORMULA AND PROVIDES CERATIN RULES FOR THE
SPECTATOR IN TERMS OF ANTICIPATION OF PLEASURE
• WHEN A GERNRE BECOMES CLASSIC THEY CAN HAVE MAJOR INFLUENCE – PRODUCTION CAN BECOME FASTER
AND MORE CONFIDENT AS THE FILM MAKER IS FOLLOWING A TESTED FORMULA AND HAVE AREADY
SHORTHAND TO WORK WITH
• ACTORS CAN BE FILTERED INTO GENRES AND ARE ASSUMED TO HAVE „STAR QUALITY‟ WHEN THEIR
MANNERISMS, PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES, WAY OF SPEAKING AND ACTING FIT A CERTAIN GENRE.

9. •THE VIEWER:
BECOMES A GENERIC SPECTATOR AND CAN BE SAID TO DEVELOP
GENERIC MEMORY WHICH HELPS WITH THE ANTICIPATION OF
EVENTS.
•FILM IS A POST-MODERN MEDIUM IN THIS WAY BECAUSE MOVIES
MAKE SENSE IN RELATION TO OTHER FILMS, NOT TO REALITY.