Genre

 Factsheet 3

Visual iconographies are very important because they use codes and conventions. An example which is used is Science-Fiction.  Matrix

The examples which are provided for the importance of narrative in identifying genre are Independence Day, Deep Impact and The Day After Tomorrow. The representation of heroes is a part of the codes and conventions of the genre.


There is difference in representation between characters in action movies and disaster movies. Usually characters in an action movies are presented with strength, dominance and power. The hero is usually isolated. In contrast the disaster movie usually often places the heroic role within a group of people. Often they all have particular strengths which play a part in solving the problem through the collaboration of a group who works together.

 Bordwell noted the ways some movies could be categorized. He came up with many more potential methods of categorisation. According to Bordwell films can be categorized via:

• Country or period 
• Director/ star 
• Style
• Series
• Audience 

Three ways genre is used by audience are:

1. prior knowledge of the genre- to anticipate whether or not they are likely to enjoy a text.
2. compare a text through its shared characteristics with another
3. They use their knowledge of genre to reject a text.

Three ways genre is used by institutions and producers:

• Attracting an audience-loyal fan-bases
• Marketing texts- film trailers.
• Production-which means to look at successful examples of genre and replicate them within their film or TV series. They don't have to invent things from scratch. The Gangster Genre has evolved. The genre focuses on groups of criminals, often romanticises the gangster lifestyle and the texts within this genre are violent and deal with conflict between the police and the criminals. They also focus on rivalry and internal conflict- These themes are the same whether the text is Scarface, Reservoir Dogs or The Sopranos.

Tommy Gun hidden in a violin case- audience were taken back. It would then be pleasurable and then eventually boring. - it had become a cliché.
Horror is a good example as well. This is because they included sub-genres so the films are very wide range. 

Factsheet 126

•  Hulk, Spiderman, Iron man, Super, Scott Pilgrim
• From the sheet I can infer that Superhero movies offer a range of audience pleasures and feelings; this means that producers will continue to make superhero movies in order to replicate this success, applying new ideologies based on the period of the movie to make it relatable and suited to a particular audience.
• Shnatz proposed that all genres go through the same cycle: Innovation, Classical, Parody, and Deconstruction. Superhero movies have followed this cycle, as, over time we can see that more and more of these movies include twists of humor so that they are not taken too seriously by audiences, opposing traditional superhero movies.
• General

•  The film I will be analysing is The Fault In Our Stars. This is because it portrayed key codes and conventions which I found interesting.
• I was introduced to this media text after reading the book
•  The context held many examples of the genre of integration of the text; there was no clear protagonist and no external conflict. All in all, it was a very personal film which would be classified as a romantic tragedy.
• Initially, I assigned the text to a romance, but later learnt that there was a hint of drama as events unrolled.
• This genre is very familiar to me as I watch a lot of other movies with the same structure of events
•  The text is concerned with themes such as illness, cancer, love, and futility of life
•  This is very typical for this genre as Integration as it's heroes are a couple, it has a civilised setting, emotional conflict.
•  heroes are a couple, it has a civilised setting, emotional conflict.
•  Have you found any formal generic labels for this particular text (where)?
•  What generic labels have others given the same text?
•  Heroes, setting, conflict, and resolution.
•  At the end, this particular text (unlike other texts in this genre) does not have a resoution of ove, but of death, which is unexpected and atypical.
•  At the end, this particular text (unlike other texts in this genre) does not have a resoution of ove, but of death, which is unexpected and atypical.
•  The resolution resembled that  of a text with a genre of order.
•  What familiar motifs or images are used?

• Mode of address

•  The very typical audience for this genre which this media text was aimed at was teens.
•  This text addresses its audience by making it think about the futiity of things we do and how we should be greatful for things we have that others may not.
•  The text assumes that I, a member of its audience, am a self-thinking teenage girl with a desire for the love they displayed in the text
•  What assumptions seem to be made about your class, age, gender and ethnicity?
•  It assumes that I am interested in the finer arts in life such as love and reading.