Genre theory from HeworthMedia
Genre is a way of categorising a text through style and form. It is vital to be able to categorise texts in this way - both for production and analysis. Most students associate genre with film, and indeed this is where categories can be most easily identified. There are a particular set of theories associated with film genre and you can read more about them here.
A text is classified in a genre through the identification of key elements which occur in that text and in others of the same genre. These elements may be referred to as paradigms, and range from costume to music to plot points to font (depending on the medium). Audiences recognise these paradigms, and bring a set of expectations to their reading of the text accordingly: the criminal will be brought to justice at the end of the police thriller. These paradigms may be grouped into those relating to iconography (ie the main signs and symbols that you see/hear),structure (the way a text is put together and the shape it takes) and theme (the issues and ideas it deals with).
Genre is important for both the readers and creators of texts (ie the audience and the producers).
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Classification by genre is seen as both positive and negative by audiences, producers and theorists. On the one hand, rigorous conformity to established conventions while giving the audience what they want, can actually lead to stagnation and the eventual ossification of a genre as a "they're all the same" judgement is passed. This is what happened to the traditional Hollywood Western and Musical - once many profitable examples of these genres were pumped out by the studio each year, but the formats became stale through over-repetition and audiences lost interest. It is now only when a new Western or Musical that challenges the conventions and defies expectation (Brokeback Mountain or Moulin Rouge) comes along that non-niche audiences are willing to watch.
On the other hand, the genre of reality television has defied criticism that it is stale, contrived and predictable, and is now the basis of programming for entire networks. Although all possible variations of the same structure (contestants compete for a prize/live in the same house/go about a heightened version of their daily lives), iconography (surface realism and non-actors) and theme (aren't these people making idiots of themselves?) seem to have been run through in the space of a decade, it's still popular with audiences, who seem to enjoy the familiarity of the patterns presented onscreen.
Genre can provide structure and form which can allow a great deal of creativity and virtuosity, especially when a genuine reworking of generic conventions comes along (the Coen Brothers' reimagining of the Western in No Country For Old Men). Genre provides key elements for an audience to recognise, so that they may further appreciate the variation and originality surrounding the representation of those elements. When Scream was released in 1996, writer Kevin Williamson was praised for his fresh, ironic take on the conventional teenage slasher movie. He took the conventions (band of promiscuous teenagers picked off one by one by killer unknown) and turned them around, with the characters' self-awareness of their own predictability ("Oh, please don't kill me, Mr. Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel!") used as a prime point of pleasure for the audience. However, by the time Scary Movie 4 was released in 2004, it was seen as "formulaic and predictable". Thus we can see that most genre paradigms form part of a fluid system - they are constantly changing and adapting according to audience tastes, individual entries into the genre and societal influences.
GREAT SITE THAT GIVES MORE DETAIL HERE:
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre.html
Current state of genre theory
The definition of genre from dictionary.com is "a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, context, technique, or the like." Although it seems that genre should be easy to define, the finer points of textual categorization are not yet established.
Genres, according to Daniel Chandler, create order to simplify the mass of available information. Creating categories promotes organization instead of chaos. Jane Feuer has divided ways to categorize genres into three different groups. The first is aesthetic. By using this method one can organize according to certain sets of characteristics, and so the overall work of the artist is not disparaged by generalization. The second classification method is ritual. Ritual uses its own culture to help classify. If one performs a ritual associated with a system of ritual, one can be said to be practicing as a member of that system. The common taxonomical method is ideological. This occurs most often in the marketing of texts, music, and movies. The effectiveness of this type of categorization can be measured by how well the public accepts these categories as valid.
Amy J. Devitt focuses on rhetorical genre. Scholars generally recognize the restrictions placed on works that have been classified as a certain genre. However, viewing genre as a rhetorical device gives the author and the reader more freedom and "allows for choices." Genres are not free-standing entities, but are actually intimately connected and interactive amongst themselves. Rhetorical genre recognizes that genres are generated by authors, readers, publishers, and the entire array of social forces that act upon a work at every stage of its production.
This recognition does not make the taxonomy of texts easy. Chandler points out that very few works have all the characteristics of the genre in which they participate. Also, due to the interrelatedness of genres, none of them is clearly defined at the edges, but rather fade into one another. Genre works to promote organization, but there is no absolute way to classify works, and thus genre is still problematic and its theory still evolving.
Moreover, the metagenre as a concept has been an importaint point to study. According to Giltrow, metagenre is "situated language about situated language". Metagenres such as institutional guidelines can be "ruling out certain kinds of expression, endorsing others", constraining and enabling. The concept of metagenre also provides a valuable way to understand the dynamics of institutional interrelations between genres. In the mental health discourse, for example, has been demonstrated the metageneric function of the American Psychiatric Association's (DSM) for standardizing and mediating the localized epistemological communicative practices of psychiatrists.
Exam 1 b genre
Read the Powerpoint, the post below, the mark scheme and exemplar answer (not a very good one) and attempt the question after having made notes.
1B Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre
Genre Powerpoint
Read the Powerpoint, the post below, the mark scheme and exemplar answer (not a very good one) and attempt the question after having made notes.
1B Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre
Genre Powerpoint
Candidates will need to choose one production from either Foundation Portfolio or
Advanced Portfolio.
Advanced Portfolio.
- Explanation/analysis/argument (10 marks)
- Use of examples (10 marks)
- Use of terminology (5 marks).
Examiners are reminded that candidates are asked to relate a media production to a theoretical concept and they are at liberty to either apply the concept to their production or explain how the concept is not useful in relation to their production.
Mark Scheme June 2010
Level 1
Explanation/analysis/argument (0-3 marks)
Candidates at this level attempt to relate the production to the basic concept of representation, with limited clarity. The account may be incomplete or be only partly convincing.
Use of examples (0-3 marks)
Very few, if any, examples are offered from the chosen production.
Use of terminology (0-1 marks)
The answer offers minimal use of relevant basic conceptual terms.
Some simple ideas have been expressed. There will be some errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar which will be noticeable and intrusive. Writing may also lack legibility.
Level 2
Explanation/analysis/argument (4-5 marks)
Candidates offer a mainly descriptive, basic account of how their production can be understood in the basic theoretical context of representation.
Use of examples (4-5 marks)
A narrow range of examples are described, of which some are relevant.
Use of terminology (2 marks)
The answer makes basic use of relevant conceptual terms.
Some simple ideas have been expressed in an appropriate context. There are likely to be some errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar of which some may be noticeable and intrusive.
Level 3
Explanation/analysis/argument (6-7marks)
Candidates demonstrate the ability to relate their own creative outcomes to some ideas about media representation drawn from relevant media theory.
Use of examples (6-7 marks)
Some relevant and convincing examples from the production are offered and these are handled proficiently.
Use of terminology (3 marks)
The answer makes proficient use of relevant conceptual language.
Relatively straightforward ideas have been expressed with some clarity and fluency. Arguments are generally relevant, though may stray from the point of the question. There will be some errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar but these are unlikely to be intrusive or obscure meaning.
Candidates at this level attempt to relate the production to the basic concept of representation, with limited clarity. The account may be incomplete or be only partly convincing.
Use of examples (0-3 marks)
Very few, if any, examples are offered from the chosen production.
Use of terminology (0-1 marks)
The answer offers minimal use of relevant basic conceptual terms.
Some simple ideas have been expressed. There will be some errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar which will be noticeable and intrusive. Writing may also lack legibility.
Level 2
Explanation/analysis/argument (4-5 marks)
Candidates offer a mainly descriptive, basic account of how their production can be understood in the basic theoretical context of representation.
Use of examples (4-5 marks)
A narrow range of examples are described, of which some are relevant.
Use of terminology (2 marks)
The answer makes basic use of relevant conceptual terms.
Some simple ideas have been expressed in an appropriate context. There are likely to be some errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar of which some may be noticeable and intrusive.
Level 3
Explanation/analysis/argument (6-7marks)
Candidates demonstrate the ability to relate their own creative outcomes to some ideas about media representation drawn from relevant media theory.
Use of examples (6-7 marks)
Some relevant and convincing examples from the production are offered and these are handled proficiently.
Use of terminology (3 marks)
The answer makes proficient use of relevant conceptual language.
Relatively straightforward ideas have been expressed with some clarity and fluency. Arguments are generally relevant, though may stray from the point of the question. There will be some errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar but these are unlikely to be intrusive or obscure meaning.
Level 4
Explanation/analysis/argument (8-10 marks)
Candidates demonstrate a clear understanding of representation and relevant media theory and can relate concepts articulately to the production outcome, describing specific elements in relation to theoretical ideas about how media texts represent the world and social life.
Use of examples (8-10 marks)
Candidates offer a broad range of specific, relevant, interesting and clear examples of how their product can be understood in relation to relevant theories of representation.
Use of terminology (4-5 marks)
The use of conceptual language is excellent.
Complex issues have been expressed clearly and fluently using a style of writing appropriate to the complex subject matter. Sentences and paragraphs, consistently relevant, have been well structured, using appropriate technical terminology. There may be few, if any, errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar.
EXEMPLAR ANSWERS
Candidates demonstrate a clear understanding of representation and relevant media theory and can relate concepts articulately to the production outcome, describing specific elements in relation to theoretical ideas about how media texts represent the world and social life.
Use of examples (8-10 marks)
Candidates offer a broad range of specific, relevant, interesting and clear examples of how their product can be understood in relation to relevant theories of representation.
Use of terminology (4-5 marks)
The use of conceptual language is excellent.
Complex issues have been expressed clearly and fluently using a style of writing appropriate to the complex subject matter. Sentences and paragraphs, consistently relevant, have been well structured, using appropriate technical terminology. There may be few, if any, errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar.
EXEMPLAR ANSWERS
1b)
Genre is often used as a way of distinguishing one style from another; it categorises works so that the audience can more easily choose what they want to experience. For my music video, the genre of our music was a hybrid of electropop/rock/dance, which come mostly from the original song and from our personal tastes. Since our genre is modern and not common, we drew conventions from artists that had similar styles to ours. The conventions we found for music video for our genre are; editing often cuts to the beat; for female artists – costumes are bold, they wear high heels, ands the performances are strong and full of attitude. Examples of artists’ videos that do this are Beyonce (through her powerful dance routines and sexy costumes) and Lady GaGa (who wears extreme hair, costume and makeup).
My music video consisted of my group members (4 girls) giving powerful performances with sections of dance routine. We stuck to these conventions because we wanted the audience to recognise it as belonging to a genre and looking back at it now I think we succeeded. The genre has postmodern influences as does our video. It starts with a short narrative to no music, where a girl looks at a picture in a locket of her and a guy, slams it shut and looks in a mirror – which transports her into ‘subconscious mind’. We filmed the bulk of our video in an all-white studio and with our powerful costumes that intertextually referenced the deadly sins and Marie Antoinette the audience can quite clearly see that it is not reality.
You can see that our video promotes strong women by their feisty performance and this is emphasised by the use of a male, white headless, mannequin with a ‘perfect’ torso. In the video the sins are corrupting the girl (but they are all just facets of her personality) and they dominate the mannequin. This is in contrast with Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ whereby media is predominantly made with a male or masculine audience in mind. Our target audience is 14-25 year old women, and this is obvious because the audience immediately identify with the main girl since she is the focus of the narrative and on the mannequin’s torso is a kiss mark, showing the women ‘marking their territory’ on him. If we were targeting men we would’ve used a real man, but by our production decisions the target audience and genre is clear.
We followed the convention of cutting shots to the beat, however we challenged the convention of keeping lines of the song in one shot. We cut midway through words and phrases in order to quicken the pace, which is often fast for this genre. An aspect of the genre which we developed is comedy. In some of the music videos artists take themselves very seriously, however we combined the sexy performances with the comic editing and cut aways to five the characters a ‘human feel’ in the make believe
Genre is often used as a way of distinguishing one style from another; it categorises works so that the audience can more easily choose what they want to experience. For my music video, the genre of our music was a hybrid of electropop/rock/dance, which come mostly from the original song and from our personal tastes. Since our genre is modern and not common, we drew conventions from artists that had similar styles to ours. The conventions we found for music video for our genre are; editing often cuts to the beat; for female artists – costumes are bold, they wear high heels, ands the performances are strong and full of attitude. Examples of artists’ videos that do this are Beyonce (through her powerful dance routines and sexy costumes) and Lady GaGa (who wears extreme hair, costume and makeup).
My music video consisted of my group members (4 girls) giving powerful performances with sections of dance routine. We stuck to these conventions because we wanted the audience to recognise it as belonging to a genre and looking back at it now I think we succeeded. The genre has postmodern influences as does our video. It starts with a short narrative to no music, where a girl looks at a picture in a locket of her and a guy, slams it shut and looks in a mirror – which transports her into ‘subconscious mind’. We filmed the bulk of our video in an all-white studio and with our powerful costumes that intertextually referenced the deadly sins and Marie Antoinette the audience can quite clearly see that it is not reality.
You can see that our video promotes strong women by their feisty performance and this is emphasised by the use of a male, white headless, mannequin with a ‘perfect’ torso. In the video the sins are corrupting the girl (but they are all just facets of her personality) and they dominate the mannequin. This is in contrast with Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ whereby media is predominantly made with a male or masculine audience in mind. Our target audience is 14-25 year old women, and this is obvious because the audience immediately identify with the main girl since she is the focus of the narrative and on the mannequin’s torso is a kiss mark, showing the women ‘marking their territory’ on him. If we were targeting men we would’ve used a real man, but by our production decisions the target audience and genre is clear.
We followed the convention of cutting shots to the beat, however we challenged the convention of keeping lines of the song in one shot. We cut midway through words and phrases in order to quicken the pace, which is often fast for this genre. An aspect of the genre which we developed is comedy. In some of the music videos artists take themselves very seriously, however we combined the sexy performances with the comic editing and cut aways to five the characters a ‘human feel’ in the make believe
world. For example we used what was originally going to be an outtake, where one girl shakes her bum from side to side, and we matched it to the beat, giving it a comic edge.
You can apply Lyotard’s theory of mete-narratives to our video since it blurs the lines between reality and fantasy using the key signifier of a mirror in the opening narrative.
I think the my music video successfully conveys its genre while still maintaining enigma. The Reception Theory can be applied, since from feedback, many people had different interpretations, which is what this genre is all about. Looking at it objectively I would say that it is a fun, interesting video that invites playability and successfully promotes the song, which is the aim of a music video.
EAA 7 EG 8 T4 (19)
You can apply Lyotard’s theory of mete-narratives to our video since it blurs the lines between reality and fantasy using the key signifier of a mirror in the opening narrative.
I think the my music video successfully conveys its genre while still maintaining enigma. The Reception Theory can be applied, since from feedback, many people had different interpretations, which is what this genre is all about. Looking at it objectively I would say that it is a fun, interesting video that invites playability and successfully promotes the song, which is the aim of a music video.
EAA 7 EG 8 T4 (19)
1b)
For my A2 production (Advanced Portfolio) I created a teaser trailer in the sub-genre of slasher from the genre of Horror. The synopsis of this teaser trailer is about a young couple (roughly 17-19 years of age) who are in love in the beginning but the relationship turns sore and they split up, the girls moves on with her life and the boy doesn’t like this and starts to follow her; The girl starts tutoring a guy in her class who is struggling but who is a complete binary opposition to her ex-boyfriend in the sense that he is a bit of a geeky character and her ex-boyfriend is a Jock (both of these characters you will find stereotypically in horror films) one by one the girls friends keep disappearing or are murdered and the suspision lies in the hands of the ex- boyfriend due to spite. But the question is does he really love her enough to not kill her? Throughout the trailer the audience thinks the ex-boyfriend si the killer but actually as it turns out it’s the geeky boy who has become very obsessive over the girl and wants her to himself.
The characters in this production are all very stereotypical of what you would find in an American ‘slasher/horro’ film. The two main female protagonists are ‘Carie’ and ‘Hannah’ Carie is your stereotypical ‘final girl’ which you would find in of not all, most horror films, this character is always brunette and seen to be ‘innocent’ we used this key code and convention of the genre horror from the film ‘Halloween’ staring ‘Jamie Lee Curtis’, As she is the ‘final girl’, she has brunette hair, the same as ‘Catie’ and she also wears the coulor blue as throughout our production ‘Catie’ is seen wearing the colour blue. For ‘Hannah’ she is our stereotypical ‘scream queen’ we looked at a film called ‘Hell Night’ and from seeing this their ‘scream queen’ was
For my A2 production (Advanced Portfolio) I created a teaser trailer in the sub-genre of slasher from the genre of Horror. The synopsis of this teaser trailer is about a young couple (roughly 17-19 years of age) who are in love in the beginning but the relationship turns sore and they split up, the girls moves on with her life and the boy doesn’t like this and starts to follow her; The girl starts tutoring a guy in her class who is struggling but who is a complete binary opposition to her ex-boyfriend in the sense that he is a bit of a geeky character and her ex-boyfriend is a Jock (both of these characters you will find stereotypically in horror films) one by one the girls friends keep disappearing or are murdered and the suspision lies in the hands of the ex- boyfriend due to spite. But the question is does he really love her enough to not kill her? Throughout the trailer the audience thinks the ex-boyfriend si the killer but actually as it turns out it’s the geeky boy who has become very obsessive over the girl and wants her to himself.
The characters in this production are all very stereotypical of what you would find in an American ‘slasher/horro’ film. The two main female protagonists are ‘Carie’ and ‘Hannah’ Carie is your stereotypical ‘final girl’ which you would find in of not all, most horror films, this character is always brunette and seen to be ‘innocent’ we used this key code and convention of the genre horror from the film ‘Halloween’ staring ‘Jamie Lee Curtis’, As she is the ‘final girl’, she has brunette hair, the same as ‘Catie’ and she also wears the coulor blue as throughout our production ‘Catie’ is seen wearing the colour blue. For ‘Hannah’ she is our stereotypical ‘scream queen’ we looked at a film called ‘Hell Night’ and from seeing this their ‘scream queen’ was
wearing red, had red lipstick and had blonde hair, we chose our character of ‘hannah’ specifically so that she would have blonde hair and we also dressed her in a red costume and put red lipstick on her for her makeup. These two characters are complete binary opposites and are juxtaposed together.
From our research into ‘Horror’ teaser trailers we found that a common code and convention was a fast montage so we created a fast montage of all the killings throughout the film, however we also found that ‘slasher’ films portrayed someone else as the killer so that the audience don’t actually know who the killer is, or the suspect that the wrong person until is revealed at the end of the film; this is strereotypically done in horror films to create tension, suspense and even a narrative enigma.
On some shots of the killings eg. When the killer is following ‘Abby’ one the girls friends down into an underground tunnel, you have a point of view shot in the perspective of the killer walking behind Abby with the view of her back, we also tried to create yellow tinted lighting, using colour filters as we also found that this was a common code and convention of ‘horror’ also with the colour blue.
Through using these different lighting effects I have tried to anchor the preffered reading so the audience can tell what the genre of the film would be but also to connote that something bad is about to happen to that specific character.
There were many more signifiers throughout our media production that would have signified the genre to the audience however it was difficult with having to create a piece that lasted between 60-90 seconds and due to the fact that we are young film makers we don’t have big Hollywood film funding budgets. We only have small budgets to go on make-up and costumes. Had we had larger budgets though we would have been able to create a production a lot better. So there were limitations which could have had an effect on the genre.
EAA 6 EG 7 T3 (16)
From our research into ‘Horror’ teaser trailers we found that a common code and convention was a fast montage so we created a fast montage of all the killings throughout the film, however we also found that ‘slasher’ films portrayed someone else as the killer so that the audience don’t actually know who the killer is, or the suspect that the wrong person until is revealed at the end of the film; this is strereotypically done in horror films to create tension, suspense and even a narrative enigma.
On some shots of the killings eg. When the killer is following ‘Abby’ one the girls friends down into an underground tunnel, you have a point of view shot in the perspective of the killer walking behind Abby with the view of her back, we also tried to create yellow tinted lighting, using colour filters as we also found that this was a common code and convention of ‘horror’ also with the colour blue.
Through using these different lighting effects I have tried to anchor the preffered reading so the audience can tell what the genre of the film would be but also to connote that something bad is about to happen to that specific character.
There were many more signifiers throughout our media production that would have signified the genre to the audience however it was difficult with having to create a piece that lasted between 60-90 seconds and due to the fact that we are young film makers we don’t have big Hollywood film funding budgets. We only have small budgets to go on make-up and costumes. Had we had larger budgets though we would have been able to create a production a lot better. So there were limitations which could have had an effect on the genre.
EAA 6 EG 7 T3 (16)
1b)
The media production I am going to write about in relation to genre is my favourite piece from the whole course which is my horror teaser trailer.
The genre of the trailer is obviously ‘horror’ and this in itself allowed us to be creative with narrative etc but limited us because we had to stick to a certain amount of generic conventions in order for it to be recognised by it’s existing target audience. Steve Neal said that ‘genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations’ which meant certain generic features had to be included and repeated which in my case was the use of a creepy location of the woods as well as hand held camera and restricted narration to cause disorientation and suspense within our trailer. However, the pattern of variation Neal describes also links to my horror teaser trailer because we were able to creatively push the boundaries by twisting some generic features in order to make the trailer interesting and therefore cause the audience to want to watch the full movie. For this my group chose use a female psycho killer I order to subvert the stereotypical male dominated role. This female identification through point of view shots etc captured our female audience because were providing them with power and this is unusual for the horror genre although it is known for its forward thinking approach as it often attempts to focus on subcultural views instead of targeting the mainstream. Genre encompasses many parts and the trailer links to it in more ways than one. Its use of enclosed location and the fact the woods attempts to reinforce our society’s fear of loneliness and isolation which the woods creates when the three friends get lost. In these sections of the trailer we used a lot of heavy cross cutting between the female victim who is running anxiously through the woods in order to find her friends and get home safely. We also used the Kuleshove and collision cutting methods as the pace began slow as the friends head our in the car unaware of the danger before them and once they are in the woods we deliberately quickened the pace of editing to cause tension and to show that something is not right, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.
Editing and mise-en-scene is really important to genre and reflects very quickly certain moods and atmospheres. Levi Strauss and Roland Barthes argued that the horror genre like many others used ‘binary oppositions’ in order to show the contrast between good and evil in order to force the audience to be constantly questioning the trailer for example; in my trailer I used light and dark to connote their happiness and carefree attitude in the daytime and the darkness to emphasise their fear and reliance
The media production I am going to write about in relation to genre is my favourite piece from the whole course which is my horror teaser trailer.
The genre of the trailer is obviously ‘horror’ and this in itself allowed us to be creative with narrative etc but limited us because we had to stick to a certain amount of generic conventions in order for it to be recognised by it’s existing target audience. Steve Neal said that ‘genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations’ which meant certain generic features had to be included and repeated which in my case was the use of a creepy location of the woods as well as hand held camera and restricted narration to cause disorientation and suspense within our trailer. However, the pattern of variation Neal describes also links to my horror teaser trailer because we were able to creatively push the boundaries by twisting some generic features in order to make the trailer interesting and therefore cause the audience to want to watch the full movie. For this my group chose use a female psycho killer I order to subvert the stereotypical male dominated role. This female identification through point of view shots etc captured our female audience because were providing them with power and this is unusual for the horror genre although it is known for its forward thinking approach as it often attempts to focus on subcultural views instead of targeting the mainstream. Genre encompasses many parts and the trailer links to it in more ways than one. Its use of enclosed location and the fact the woods attempts to reinforce our society’s fear of loneliness and isolation which the woods creates when the three friends get lost. In these sections of the trailer we used a lot of heavy cross cutting between the female victim who is running anxiously through the woods in order to find her friends and get home safely. We also used the Kuleshove and collision cutting methods as the pace began slow as the friends head our in the car unaware of the danger before them and once they are in the woods we deliberately quickened the pace of editing to cause tension and to show that something is not right, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.
Editing and mise-en-scene is really important to genre and reflects very quickly certain moods and atmospheres. Levi Strauss and Roland Barthes argued that the horror genre like many others used ‘binary oppositions’ in order to show the contrast between good and evil in order to force the audience to be constantly questioning the trailer for example; in my trailer I used light and dark to connote their happiness and carefree attitude in the daytime and the darkness to emphasise their fear and reliance
on their senses. This is particularly important to the horror genre as characters are often shown in high angle shots to appear vulnerable and therefore under threat.
Gore or ‘body horror’ is also a common generic convention used by most horror films that we studied including Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero who used it to make the audience feel sick by forcing them to see extreme violence. In my own trailer we were inspired to use gore differently by showing a hanging scene in slow motion to create tension and the centoring in on the face and neck which had been broken and this was shown by the rope burn we had made from latex and the blood pouring down her chest. This shot moves clockwise and slowly zooms in to force the audience to see what the hang (woman) has done. In our final two shots we finish the trailer with the male anti hero being lifted off the ground with blood pouring out of his mouth which causes the audience to assume no one survives because the final girl is stabbed by her friend accidentally which quickens the pace and adds tension but she is the survivor who as Carol Clover suggests will be terrorised throughout the film and finally overcome the monster. This plays with the audiences emotions and links back to the horror genre well by creating our own style of horror. Andrew Sarris argues because it encompasses so much and is key to explaining a film. Genre is the ideas that collectively make a particular recognisable style that draws in its existing target audience. My horror trailer had expressionist camera angles as the female victim desperately trips over the camera and we see her running above it as well as close ups of her facial expression that causes us to identify with her fear and therefore makes us scared. This meant the audience also were forced to objectify the female victim from the high angle camera shot down her top in which we can see her breasts slightly after watching other Hitchcock movies which use the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey to force us to take a male’s viewpoint.
In my trailer we also used an iconic symbol of the noose because obviously as a hangwoman she needed the prop but also as a female the circular shape suggested female power and this is something the horror genre often does but for male characters using guns etc as phallic symbols which we also used as the male anti hero takes out a knife and stabs his friend frantically when she walks up behind him. The horror trailer was made much darker in Final Cut Pro using the brightness and contrast menu and also dragged the saturated colours towards the blue in order to create a dark, dusky night time atmosphere a generic convention of horror trailers. The generic conventions we chose to use were all important to the success of our product and since distributing it on YouTube we have over 4000 which I am really pleased with and gives me the confidence that we obviously stuck to the genre enough to capture our intended target audience but were creative enough to make people want to keep watching the trailer and virally sharing it with others.
Genre places a media text into a grouping giving it an identity which can be recognised by the mainstream society and I believe my product is successfully fitted to the horror genre using the narrative that todorov argued was important to the horror genre by following an equilibrium at the beginning then a problem which in our case was the male anti hero playing a joke on the soon to be female victim making jump running after him causing their separation then a pathway to resolution – as they attempt to find each other and then a new equilibrium at the end which we deliberately left as an open ending to capture our audience effectively.
EAA 10 EG 10 Term 5
Gore or ‘body horror’ is also a common generic convention used by most horror films that we studied including Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero who used it to make the audience feel sick by forcing them to see extreme violence. In my own trailer we were inspired to use gore differently by showing a hanging scene in slow motion to create tension and the centoring in on the face and neck which had been broken and this was shown by the rope burn we had made from latex and the blood pouring down her chest. This shot moves clockwise and slowly zooms in to force the audience to see what the hang (woman) has done. In our final two shots we finish the trailer with the male anti hero being lifted off the ground with blood pouring out of his mouth which causes the audience to assume no one survives because the final girl is stabbed by her friend accidentally which quickens the pace and adds tension but she is the survivor who as Carol Clover suggests will be terrorised throughout the film and finally overcome the monster. This plays with the audiences emotions and links back to the horror genre well by creating our own style of horror. Andrew Sarris argues because it encompasses so much and is key to explaining a film. Genre is the ideas that collectively make a particular recognisable style that draws in its existing target audience. My horror trailer had expressionist camera angles as the female victim desperately trips over the camera and we see her running above it as well as close ups of her facial expression that causes us to identify with her fear and therefore makes us scared. This meant the audience also were forced to objectify the female victim from the high angle camera shot down her top in which we can see her breasts slightly after watching other Hitchcock movies which use the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey to force us to take a male’s viewpoint.
In my trailer we also used an iconic symbol of the noose because obviously as a hangwoman she needed the prop but also as a female the circular shape suggested female power and this is something the horror genre often does but for male characters using guns etc as phallic symbols which we also used as the male anti hero takes out a knife and stabs his friend frantically when she walks up behind him. The horror trailer was made much darker in Final Cut Pro using the brightness and contrast menu and also dragged the saturated colours towards the blue in order to create a dark, dusky night time atmosphere a generic convention of horror trailers. The generic conventions we chose to use were all important to the success of our product and since distributing it on YouTube we have over 4000 which I am really pleased with and gives me the confidence that we obviously stuck to the genre enough to capture our intended target audience but were creative enough to make people want to keep watching the trailer and virally sharing it with others.
Genre places a media text into a grouping giving it an identity which can be recognised by the mainstream society and I believe my product is successfully fitted to the horror genre using the narrative that todorov argued was important to the horror genre by following an equilibrium at the beginning then a problem which in our case was the male anti hero playing a joke on the soon to be female victim making jump running after him causing their separation then a pathway to resolution – as they attempt to find each other and then a new equilibrium at the end which we deliberately left as an open ending to capture our audience effectively.
EAA 10 EG 10 Term 5
