Genre Analysis

GENRE ANALYSIS:

Different film industries have several media institutions, that are production houses responsible for the financing, distribution and publicity of media products, mainly films. Usually, these institutions buy films under particular genres that they consider worthy to be publicized by them. Due to this reason, every film is based on a particular genre and at times a combination of sub genres.  Before starting, let us see what the word ‘Genre’ really means.

INTRODUCTION –A genre is an important concept for film critics, film makers and audiences as well as media theorists. A film genre is said to have both, academic as well as practical applications since films are categorized by their genre at every stage of their existence  whether its when then script writer write the story, to the final stage where they end up as real films on celluloid and movie stores. This categorization builds our understanding about thee film as a media text. A media text is said to belong to a specific genre, as it adopts the codes and conventions needed to create and represent that genre in accordance to the expectations of its target audience. At times, texts from different mediums, belong to the same genre. ’Audiences’  have a set of expectations to a media text and what it contains according to its genre in terms of transportation, representation, costume, mise-en-sene, characters, setting, sound tract etc. We can relate these to the term ‘genre-specific’ elements. These are what the audience expects to find while experiencing a media text. For example, having a horror or thriller theme, the audience would expect things like, dark lighting, a quiet old place, a heroin in white, very obvious diegetic sounds etc. However, having the same sorts of genre-specific elements, horror and thriller are still two different genres, as horror relates to super natural activity while thriller caters more to reality.Genres also differ from industry to industry, as  Bollywood art film will be different from that of a Hollywood art film since both cater to different cultures and traditions as well as social and environmental problems (art films cater to reality and the surrounding). Hollywood art films might show a teen-aged girl getting into drugs, however a Bollywood art film would want to show the problems of poverty, considering their own occupational problems.

Despite having such elements, texts from the same genres are not always the same. Genres are defined as dynamic, since their boundaries keep changing. Media texts often challenge codes and conventions, while still being able to define certain parts of the usual genre categorization. To an audience, genre texts could get very boring if they keep following the same predictable conventions. This can result to people not wanting to consume new films, rather revisiting their old favorites.These genre spacific elements are also called genre paradigms. These are part of the descriptive approach of genre analysis. This approach involves viewing a film as belonging to a category, or being an example of an established type. The film is perceived as sharing aspects and attributes as another such as structure, theme and visual style. Hence, this approach relies heavily on these genre paradigms and codes and conventions.  But what are codes and conventions really? CODES AND CONVENTIONS – You can call these stereo types.

 We relate to codes and conventions in any media text without even knowing. When you go out to watch a romantic comedy, you expect good looking heroes and heroins, nice and slow sound tracts, intimacy, heroin crying, hero proposing and all that with a touch of comedy having funny dialogues and scenes, but if you go and watch ghosts and weapons, you wont be sure if thats the movie you paid for now would you? These expectations are what make codes and conventions important in catering to a particular genre. So who are genres important to? PRODUCERS – These give a pattern of construction while having an established audience that makes it easy to market to. Also, when working for the same genre over and over again, specialization is experienced and also, a producer has a big choice to those specific starts who act for the particular genre. Fans of genres also know the codes and conventions, so not much work into reinventing the wheel all the time is needed. DISTRIBUTORS – This creates a clear channel of marketing and distribution as it has a target-able audience and fans are easy to attract and persuade into buying other texts within the same genre.Genres are very important for the initial marketing of the movie. They are also extremely important to some finance companies such as Netfix and Lovefilm, that heavily rely on the categorization and presentation of genres in order to attract their own target audience. This happens mainly because some institutions choose their type of audience than the type of films before, such as Disney, that caters mostly to children as it target audience.  Another method of analyzing genre is known as the Functional Approach. In this approach, the film genre is perceived as 'collective expressions of contemporary life that strike a relative knowledge about it to the audience'. This approach can be most useful in representing art films since they are most close o reality as well as some romantic films where the audience can relate to the feeling delivered.

Sub Genres-In order to attract your target audience to the fullest, you can always combine genres. For example, if you plan on making a horror film but in your survey, you find out that more people tend to watch romantic movies more than horror, you can always keep romance as a sub genre and your film is now a romantic-horror and you may have attracted more people by now. However, your combination of genres must be relevant. That is, you can combine a romantic comedy, with a hint of action, but in this case, horror would not be considered as an option. Or you can combine thriller and action, but comedy here would not seem very appropriate. This is because you can play with codes and conventions to a certain level, but you need to make sure your media language remains easy to read. You must never cheat your audience, since your audience is who will really decide if your product is good or not, despite all the money and effort you put in it. As mentioned before, codes and conventions differ with industries. A Hollywood horror would be different from a Bollywood horror. Hollywood makes it more realistic while Bollywood makes it more exaggerated. Hollywood would probably use action, or bible words in the conclusion, but Bollywood mainly uses their Hindu teachings in their conclusion and would last for longer, usually three to four hours. A Hollywood chick flick would have a rich pretty looking girl with the best wardrobe, the best house with a swimming pool, the most expensive and trendy car, a pet that she carries along and the best looking boyfriend, however in Bollywood, their girls and women are shown in big houses with usually two staircases wearing heavy jewelry, flashy colorful ‘saris’ which they stay in all the time even while going to bed. Film industries in different countries have different conventions in accordance to their own trends and cultures. An art film by Bollywood would be very different from that of Hollywood, having local faces with very prominent Indian accents and showing completely different cultures and a completely diffenet representation and construction even though the genre’s the same.

So basically, genre does not simply rely on the text but also the way all micro, genre specific elements are put together to one macro level and then the text is constructed  This is what really allows us to distinguish between different genres.

Criticism on Genre- As mentioned above, genre categorization and analysis is very important to critics. It is often harsh but useful. Pointing out types can be either negative or positive. For example calling a film a 'Western' or 'Eastern' type can be an indirect way of racial and social discrimination. This is known as the Semantic Approach.Another approach is called the Syntactic Approach. This takes into account the relationship between the semantic elements, or between those elements and the aspects of real life, within the media text. This approach can make good use of genre since at times the inequalities and incidents within a media text can become more meaningful by the justifications given by these approaches. So basically, have the correct representation of genre in accordance to the story line and the target audience is very important otherwise the outcome of the complete media text might not make sense.

Coming to my own GENRE, as according to the concept of my film, that is on poverty and child labour, the genre of my film is ART. Art films are indeed tricky, as far as film genres are concerned. This is basically because art films have a very limited set of codes and conventions. Unlike the expected scenes and mise-ene-sene one would find in horror films or romantic fims, art films tend to cater ti reality, hence different aspects of life. So with each aspect, a new concept and treatment is used. Yes, however, there are certain characteristics that art films tend to carry along. These include a great use of sound, both diegetic and non-diegetic, use of cultural aspects, at times repetition of something, like soundtrack (motive), ordinary actors and a simple storyline with very little exaggeration in both, the story, the direction, as well as the editing. I will shoot and create my film in the same manner. It will be a simple product on the daily life of a girl or child forced to work rather than going to school. After examining a number of short art films, i have planned to make my film look dull, i would use color filters, and use a slow depressing background score, with a great use of the fluit and make my film look like a true 'ART FILM'.