media

1. Analysis of Genre: Lacey’s Repertoire of Elements
In his book Narrative and Genre: Key Concepts in Media Studies, (Palgrave, Macmillan), Nick Lacey
defines genre elements as constituting the 5 key areas below:
 setting
 character
 narrative
 iconography
 style
Genre elements Conventions
Setting- mise en scene/
location
At the very beginning, a long shot of new York.
Black & White bar – loos like a western, gun shots fired – creating impact
straight away.
Genre convention – in the most popular city, showing famous buildings.
Characters –
representations,
stereotypes, behaviour,
body language, specific
actors/stars
Star Theory - Liam Neeson – Famous actor, audience automatically
interested in film.
Character of an ‘ex-cop’ so tells us he’s the ‘good guy’. Creates enigma
codes, why isn’t he a cop anymore? Why does he look so shabby?
Cops – always in action thrillers, always the good guys.
the girl hats been kidnapped,
Narrative events –how
is the narrative ordered
and structured?
Is it elliptical/enigmatic
(elements left out to
intrigue/entice the
audience)
Starts off telling us the main characters past – ex cop, leaves us wanting
to know what happened to his career.
Then tells us he basically hunts down the bad guys. So still doing good.
Enigma codes created straight away, who’s the girl kidnapped and killed?
Why does the main character want to help so much? Maybe something
similar happened to him whilst being a cop in new York city?
Iconography –Well
known or recognisable
people/objects/buildings
Mise en scene/ props,
costume, setting,
symbolic codes
Phone rings – a conventional factor of all thriller/action/horror films.
Girls costume – Red coat skipping across the road, looks like ‘little red
riding hood’ fairy-tale about child abduction (relates o tis films storyline)
New York city itself is where most famous thriller action films are filmed.
Pastiche is used as they are relating to an old fairy-tale, combining it with
a modern action thriller film.
The red coat – colour of anger, blood, death.
Guns, car chase as soon as the trailer begins.
STYLE: Technical and
audio codes – camera
use, editing,
diegetic/non diegetic
sound, sfx. Mise en
scene/lighting, colour
Black and White all the way through. Creates an old vintage look, maybe
to suggest this film is just like the old style action thriller that audiences
class as ‘the best films’
Background sound effects are much amplified. Gets the heart beating,
wanting to watch more.
Lots of fading in ad out effects, quiet a calm effect contrasting to the

2. Analysis of Genre: Lacey’s Repertoire of Elements
storyline of the film itself.
Fast pace editing, suggest action thriller genre.
Summarise how the above helps to define genre in the text
Each one of these points help us recognise and identify hat this film is a stereotypical action thriller,
using star theory to attract the audience and also making lots of enigma codes for the audience to
try and find out. By watching the trailer I identified that this film is an action thriller.
Name of text: Genre: Action/Thriller
Target Audience for A Walk Amongst The Tombstone –
This film has quiet a wide target audience. Both females and males aged between 15 and 35. .
Class of target audience maybe B to E. As it’s about an ex-cop that’s let himself go, and wanting to
get back to saving people being the good guy. So it’s inspiring for young people. Liam Neeson
himself gives the film a wide audience as he is a popular actor probably in the same category as Tom
Cruz.