Post 4 - Genre as a Media Concept

In our media studies lesson we have been studding and discussing genre in depth. In class we had to evaluate our own opinions of the subject 'genre'. This is important because we need to put theory into practice when we come to making our short film for our A2 course.

Firstly in my research of different genre I investigated into Robert Altman and his theory's. From what I gathered from his work his basic theory is that it is vital that the genre needs to be easy and clear to understand for the audience. If the audience does not relate and understand the genre (or is miss led) of the film it will not be as affective. this is the producers job to make sure the audience easily recognize the film's genre. The audience expects certain things from certain films. A good example would be the Expendables. For me personally judging from what Ive heard from the film and the actors that are involved that it is fair to say that I have a certain amount of expectation that the film is going to be action packed with big names as Jason Statham, Steve Austin and Bruce Willis makes the film a predictable genre. The text in the film are very important because it shows characteristics in peoples behaviour which helps the audience understand roles of the characters. I will look into these theories in more detail latter on.

My own view on genre is that it is important to identify when making a film. I think genre plays a big part on people interpretation of a film if he or she can illustrate the type of film it is. Different genre films are directed at different audiences. Target audiences are important.

Another theory of Altman is that 'genres develops in predictable ways'. It is important to keep changing genres because audiences demand new and different genres or else they will all be watching the same things that have already been done before. Audiences want something new which is where I agree with Altman's theory. New genres must be looked into and developed. Sometimes new genres are created but it is very hard to predict when or how it will be made. Sometimes it is made just by accident, a new branch of genre is created. This could be films looking into homosexuality, War and death in different ways and prospectives than previously looked at.

Texts in a genre share key Characteristics is another one of Robert Altmans theory's about genre. This theory looked at how conventions of a film are important. And how producers need to follow these conventions so that audiences are not confused and they get full value for money when watching a film. I agree with this part of Altman's theory. When making a film it is easy for directors and producers to make when conventions are followed in chronological order this makes it clear and easy to understand.