Genre

What is a Genre?

Genre is a way to categorise media texts using conventions. e.g. Thriller.

Genre is used to specify the category that a media text falls into, if there was no genre then audiences would not know whether they want to watch a film or not, genre allows us as an audience to find films in the same category, if we liked an action film and we wanted to find another one we simply look up the genre. From there actors, directors and writers will be exposed to us, we can then decide what film we want to buy. Genre is useful for both the audience and the institutions.

What is a Hybrid-Genre?

A hybrid-genre is two recognised genres combined to make a new genre. e.g. Action Thriller.

Conventions? A genre convention is anything you associate with a specific genre. e.g a machine gun in an action film, or a rose in a romance.

Examples of different Genres:


ACTION: Action films are heavily Action orientated, meaning there's plenty of guns, explosions and usually big muscly men with serious, foreign voices. The expendables would be a prime example, I don't think i've ever seen so many explosions crammed into 90 minutes before, and though some critics may deem the expendables a comedy film, it is probably the best example of an action film.







WESTERN: Western's are often criticised for being too similar and repetitive due to the exact same location being used most of the time, being dustbowl years California. Such conventions as Horses, Stetson hats, revolvers and moonshine would show up in westerns, the plot line usually follows an outlaw rebelling against the system however there are westerns known for following the sheriff of a small desert town  opposing a strong rebel force. 

ROMANCE: Romance films are eye watering (either eye wateringly cringey or eye watering beautiful...this perspective difference often depends on your gender) ballads of love often between unexpected candidates, or maybe a spontaneous fling on holiday...just a guess. Roses, sex and perfect people would be the main conventions in a romance film.




COMEDY: Comedy films are accessible to anyone of any age and are introduced to us at a young age, the narrative is often exaggerative and unusual, and follows the outcasts of society in their quest for success, its almost morbid watching the weak fail and then laugh about it, but that's comedy. It may also be humorous to include actors that are typically the strong members of society, or simply to use actors that are generally used in comedy films e.g. Will Ferrell. There are few conventions that come up in comedy's other than the satirical, sarcastic humor that is evident from the outset.