Genre Essay

'Apply the concept of Genre to your AS Film Opening'

To the audience, genre is simply a label that identifies a liked or disliked formula providing rules of engagement for the spectator in terms of enjoyment/pleasure. However producers and distributors create different perceptions and uses for genre. Producers of films see genre as a template for what they make. To the distributor, genre provokes assumptions about who the audience is and how to market the films for that specific audience. Genre is seen as being highly beneficial to producers, distributors and also the audience. In terms of our own production; our genre is social realism. Social Realism is a film genre which focuses on giving the audience a true indication of what life is like.

Daniel Chandler states how conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes and settings) and/or form which is shared by texts which are regarded as belonging to them. Our film opening follows this theory in the sense that most of our themes, settings and form relate to the general conventions of a social realism film. Ways in which our production relates to the social realism genre include: violence/crime/drug usage, fast paced tempo of music, lower class locations, stereotypical 'chav' attire etc. These are ways in which our opening does follow the forms and conventions of social realism, however Neale (1980) adds that 'difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre': mere repetition would not attract an audience. There are also ways in which our opening goes against the common forms and conventions of social realism. For example, our product involves a protagonist that would not match the common character in a social realism film due to his social class, dress code and age. You could possibly argue that our text exhibits the conventions of more that one genre. Drama could be incorporated into the chosen genre in the sense that a near death experience occurs within our opening displaying moments of drama and thrill.

John Hartley notes that 'the same text can belong to different countries of times'. Social realism is a genre most commonly associated with the country of the set. It allows the audience to either relate to the film or experience and investigate different cultures. A British social realism film therefore maybe seen as a different genre such as action, drama, thriller etc in different countries. Different countries may struggle to relate and understand the film.

Although our production involved repetition and difference (Neale), it was important we stuck to our genre of social realism and incorporated common conventions of social realism i.e common themes, mise-en-scene, locations, characters etc. Deborah Knight notes that 'satisfaction is guaranteed with genre; the deferral of inevitable provides the additional pleasure of prolonged anticipation'. Tom Ryall 'argues that genre provides a framework of patterns/forms/styles/structures, which act as a form of 'supervision' over the work of production of filmmakers and the work of reading by the audience'. This certainly applied to us when creating our production. We did various research into the social realism genre to help identify common conventions that we could build our product around. This close analysis of the social realism genre helps to 'guarantee meanings and pleasures for audiences' (Neale).