This document discusses film genres and their defining characteristics. It identifies common genres such as science fiction, horror, western, war, comedy, romance, action, thriller, police, and musical. A genre represents a system of symbols and themes that allow an audience to recognize a particular category. For example, the western genre is typically associated with cowboys, guns, horses, mountains or deserts, Indians, and the "taming of the west" narrative. The document notes that genre boundaries can be flexible, allowing for hybrid genres like Terminator 2, which combines science fiction and action genre elements.

1. Category/Type

2.  Science Fiction
 Horror
 Western
 War
 Comedy
 Romance
 Action
 Thriller
 Police
 Musical

3.  Genre-A cat act between the audience and filmmakers.
Audiences build up ‘generic memory’ and can
anticipate things happening so the director can play on
this
A genre is a system of signs/symbols/themes by which a
particular genre can be recognised. The western genre=
Cowboy hats, Cowboys, guns, horses, mountains or
deserts, Indians, gunfighter. ‘Taming the west’.

4.  Genre boundaries can be
flexible and you can get genre
hybrids. Terminator 2 is an
example of sci-fi which is a
genre hybrid.
This is a sci fi because:
• He is a part robot part human
• He is indestructible
• He can scan and analyse things like a
robot
• In the beginning he teleported
• He beats everybody(which is also
classed as action)