1. Genre Characteristics
• visual imagery (shot type, mise-en-scene)
• plot
• characters
• setting – where & when?
• narrative development
• music
• stars + directors
• iconography Iconography:
Those particular signs
that we associate with
particular genre such
as physical attributes
and dress of the
actors, the settings
and the tools of the
trade

2. Problems with Genre
• Genre can become a self-defining system where
definition and demarcation are self-perpetuating.
i.e. To define a genre we must isolate the body of
films which constitute the genre, but to be able to do
that we must be able to define the characteristics that
make the genre!
• It is easier to reach a pattern of looking at genre as:
Early form Classic Decline Comeback