Genre

Genre Scholarship workshop June 2012What is Genre? Genres are constituted of features of content (such as story and character and theme) and features of form (such as structure and style)Genres are instances of repetition and difference (Stephen Neale) repetition alone will not attract an audienceGenre is not... simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change' (Buckingham 1993)

Leo Baudry saysGenre films essentially ask the audience, "Do you still want to believe this?" Popularity is the audience answering, "Yes."Leo Baudry saysChange in genre occurs when the audience says, "That's too infantile a form of what we believe. Show us something more complicated."Leo Baudry saysAnd genres turn to self-parody to say, "Well, at least if we make fun of it for being infantile, it will show how far we've come." Films and television have in this way speeded up cultural history.

Important things about genre to considerThe link between genre and commercialismGenre and audience (audience theory)The changing nature of a genre and genre related termsHybriditySub genreGenre ParodyGenre cyclePost modernism The link between genre and styleDoes genre exist? (Everything is a re-mix)What about Auteur Theory? Where does that fit?The difference between TV genre and Film genre

Thomas Schatz's life history of a genre (fromHollywood Genres) :An experimental stage, during which its conventions are isolated and establishedA classic stage, in which the conventions reach their equilibrium and are mutually understood by artist and audience An age of refinement, during which certain formal and stylistic details embellish the formA baroque (or mannerist, or self-reflexive) stage, when the form and its establishments are accented to the point where they themselves become the substance or content of the work.Ideas about genre..Genre films especially are criticized because they seem to appeal to a pre-existing audience, while the film classic creates its own special audience through the unique power of the filmmaking artists personal creative sensibilityLeo Braudy from Genre: The Conventions of Connection

Ideas about genreI personally think that although a genre can be handy for filing a film, they often repress the ability for directors to make films. Even though it can be useful for the marketing of a film, I find that most of the films I like, or films that are seen as successful bridge the gap between many different genres.Citizen Kane, The Godfather,etc., seem to be a cross between many, at times being one thing or another.http://chemicalhalo.blogspot.co.nz/2010/03/film-genres-tracing-code-notes-on-film.html

The link between $$$ and genreStudios and TV networks see genre as a money making exerciseThe ability to re-use ideas, story, stars (and to sell to an already established fan base) makes economic sense Producers can predict audience expectationsAnd the highest grossing genres are

The link between $$$ and genre..driven by the profit motive, the commercial entertainer dares not risk alienating us by attempting new language even if he were capable of it. He seeks only to gratify preconditioned needs for formula stimulus. He offers nothing we havent already conceived, nothing we dont already expectGene Youngblood American underground film theoristGenre and audienceThe link between institutions texts and audiences is the focus of some modern genre researchStephen Neale thinks that genre cinema positions the audience so it can read/recognise the text and therefore feel gratification (see the uses and gratifications theory)However! All audience negotiate the meaning of texts based on their own class, gender, age, and ethnicity

Fandom, re-mix, mash-upRecognition of genre builds community among fans Examples?Re-mix and mash-up is part of the joy of genre appreciation helped along by web 2.0 and social mediaThink about how these fan created items helps sell genre films/tv shows

Post-modernism In a nutshell; everything has been done before and our culture is now a mass-produced mash-up of recycled ideas and iconsMovies make sense in relation to each other (genre) not to reality

Other interesting linksThe superhero genreTV TropesGenre Theory and Film NoirA rather intellectual discussion of genre theory