Overview of Film Genre

1. Film Genre

2. All films are classified by:
1. Its makers
2. Its marketers, reviewers and the BBFC
3. Its consumers
These classifications (horror or thriller?, PG or 18?) have
material effects on the ways we encounter, enjoy and
understand film.
They shape the status of the film; they determine
whether the film gets made and whether the film gets a
wide UK release.

3. This presentation focuses on „genre‟
and ways of grouping films to create
expectations and evoke audience
familiarity.

4. Recommend a film task:
How do you go about telling a friend about a film?
What frames of reference do you use to help your
friend understand what the film is like?

5. The word „genre‟ is simply a French word for
„type‟ or „kind‟.
The term has close associations with biology
and the classification of plants and animals.
This biological association is useful as it helps
us think about how genres change, mutate and
produce hybrids.

6. Audiences often seek the pleasures of the
familiar.
We enjoy the ritual and reassurance
involved in knowing broadly what „might
happen‟ in a particular film.

7. What „might
happen‟ in
Love
Happens?
What are you
basing your
judgements
on?

8. What „might
happen‟ in
Fright Night?
What are you
basing your
judgements
on?

9. An important development in thinking about
film genres has been to put them into the
context of audience‟s understandings and
activities.
Genres are no longer seen as sets of fixed
elements, constantly repeated.
They are seen as working with ‘repertoires of
elements’ or fluid systems of learnt
conventions and expectations

10. Film makers and film spectators are both active
on both sides of meaning making.
The film maker can rely on certain kinds of
audience familiarity to play with, and the
audience can look forward to having their
expectations challenged or developed.

11. These genre conventions and
expectations include:

12. Narrative – how the stories in a genre
usually begin and conclude, what kinds of
characters are at the centre of the film

13. Audio-visual codes of signification – aspects of
mise-en-scene associated with a specific genre;
stars and actors associated with a specific genre
(including directors and film production
companies)

14. Ideology and real world values – including
perceptions of how realistic the genre is seen
to be; and how it taps into the ideological
values of the film audience.

15. Activity:
Get the weekly listings for The Odeon and/or Cinema City
Organise the films on show by genre (including films you consider to
be genre hybrids)
What conventions and expectations do you think the films will
include?
Organise your ideas under the headings:
Narrative
Audio-visual codes of signification
Ideology and real world values
Have a look at the “Story Types” worksheet. Which of Phil Parker‟s
Story Types do your films fall under?