Altman proposed that film genre can be analyzed on two levels: macro and micro. The macro level refers to the stories films tell, focusing on syntactic elements like characters and plot points. The micro level analyzes how those stories are presented semantically, through stylistic elements such as camerawork, editing, music, and visual motifs. For example, in the teen slasher genre, macro features include absent authority figures and stock characters, while micro features incorporate techniques like masked killers, point-of-view shots, and tense musical stings.