The concept of genre

What have I learn about genre?

Throughout my learning I have found out that genre is never static and is always evolving. This is because genre is constantly regenerated all the time to ensure the audience can identify film through repetition, familiarity and variation. This offers the audience a comforting reassurance when they watch a film. This creative strategy includes a set of conventions which are: visual iconography, familiar narrative, mise-en-scene and a style of representation. However if film producers constantly repeated movie styles, audiences would grow old of the cinema so they would have to reclassify a film. This is also known as regenrification. Films can be put into ‘sub-genres’ which is when films are branded within a genre itself. One example of this is ‘Science-fiction’ genre as it could have many sub-genres like ‘Monster invasion’. Hybridisation is when a film has two genres such as ‘Science-fiction horror’. This process doesn’t limit film industries as the list could be endless. In my opinion, I think the most limiting way of understanding genre is through hybridization, due to the fact that some people may argue genre is dead. This is because genre has developed so many times over the years that classic genre can't be classified anymore. One example of this is horror. There are now science fiction horrors, crime horrors, romantic horrors etc.

Regenrification is majorly important for institutions as it’s a way of keeping genre alive. Their aims would be reassuring an audience through familiarity. This process is very important as it offers comfort for the viewers.  However at the same time they might have to create new ideas and not repeat old genres. This is called variation which is key for film producers. Furthermore, these concepts are significant for the audience too as they have to be entertained. Some may want familiarity however some may want variation. Categorizing plays a big role in genre as film producers can easily reclassify films. For example they could call their film a physiological thriller and a physiological crime. Some may argue that this idea of rebranding films is the reason for why genre is dead. Audience’s years ago would go and see a film for the genre as they knew what they were going to get, nowadays genre can be called anything.

Film making process- what do I need to think about?

When starting my coursework I need to consider many aspects that involve genre. These would be things like: camera angles, positioning, mise-en-scene and what affects these give off. I think this is going to be a hard task as I have to include many ideas in order to make my film successful. Before this however, I would need to research my information on thriller films. This could be things like looking up what sub-genre’s thrillers have and base my ideas on one which I like. Watching thriller films will also help me understand the conventions of thrillers but also give me inspiration.

Additionally, I would need to think about the set of rules genre has which would be thinking about repetition, variation and familiarity. The main aspect I would like to work in would be variation. This is because I aiming to make my film as original as possible. I want to create new ideas into thrillers which will shock but also entertain my audience. Nevertheless, familiarity and repetition must come into my work too through the conventions such as mise-en-scene and representation.