Task: Think about these questions in relation to your AS coursework opening sequence. Create a post on your blog reflecting on your thoughts.
The first slide revolves around Robert Altman and his theories into genre.
- Genres are defined by producers and are easily recognised by the audience.- We as a class agreed that it was the producers who make sure that certain conventions are portrayed in certain films, causing us the audience to recognise those conventions with that genre of film. However we also noticed that sometimes it is hard to establish what genre a film falls into, as many films are now 'hybrid' films (a film consisting of more than one genre). Personally I believe that audiences can recognise genres, however you can always find conventions of other genres in that film. For our opening sequence we mixed two genres, that we believed hadn't been mixed before- Teen drama and Psychological thriller. As a group we believed that because we mixed two popular genres, our target audience would also increase.
- That texts 'belong' clearly to a particular genre in each case.-We as a class agreed that yes in some films it is very easy to say that's an action film or that's a romcom. However, as many producers have realised that the incorperation of two or more genres can potentially bring you a larger target market, more and more films contain a mixture of genres, making it a bit more difficult for the audience to decide which genre that film belongs to. Our opening sequence consisted of two genres- teen drama and psychological thriller. Our genres overlapped each other allot during the opening sequence making it harder for the audience to determine which genre our film really came from.
- Genres develop in particular ways.- Yes some genres develop in particular ways. Sci-fi and animation for example will continue to grow with technology continually developing. A development for example is many animated films now becoming 3-D.
- Texts in a genre share key characteristics.- Our class agreed that you can recognise certain traits or conventions in certain genres, making them distinctive and separate from the rest. However as more and more genres get infused together, it becomes harder and harder to define the certain traits within the film as they become mixed up with the other genre. In our opening sequence we mixed the conventions of teen drama and psychological thriller together, which did confuse some audience members.
- Genres are ideological- we agreed that its the producers who decide what makes a genre a genre and that they as high powered individuals decide what they want us to associate with that genre. This could apply to our opening sequence as we were the people in charge of choosing the genres and how to portray the genres to the audience.
- They are not specifically located through history- As a class and personally, I belive that throughout modern history you can pin point when a genre was most successful. For example the Western genre was incredibly popular during the 1950-60's. Now a days cause there is next to no market for the genre hardly any wild westerns are produced any more.
- Genre critics are distanced from the practice of genre, or its workings- Because genre critics normally have next to nothing to do with films for example, then who are they to question genre.
Slide 2:
- Might ways in which we label and divide objects, texts and people be constructed in ways that serve particular interests, rather than in logical, natural patterns? (Mcdougall J)
We established that it is the producers that define the genres, that label and divide the objects, people and text. They do this so they are easily recognisable for the audiences. However they are not always true depcitions of e.g a subculture of people, just a stereotype. However it is because it is a stereotype that we recognise it to be that subculture. - Should we read genre as a noun or a adjective ? - (Altman R)
Slide 3: Tomato Puree- Where would you find it in the supermarket?
- In class we used the example of tomato puree, much to everyones confusion.
We then went to understand that many, many supermarkets supply the product, however as we discussed we couldn't agree on an exact location for the product, with some people saying with the condiments and some saying world food aisle. We then linked this back to genre. We agreed that becasue something is somewhere else, does that change the object in itself ? In terms of films and genre, different people focus on different code and convetions they have associated with the genre. Other people will focus on different aspects of that genre, however the genre is still the same.
Slide 4: For you take as students when considering genre is NOT 'how does genre work? But why does genre work ?
Why does genre work? I believe that genre works beacuse of how we as an audience recognise the labelling that is put forward to us and serves the interests of the producers etc. Genres are labelledbecasue they help make it easy for the audience to recognise what codes and conventions they are putting forward, but also for the producers becasue it helps them identify a gap in the market. This then helps them establish which genre is at its peak of popularity.
Slide 5: According to Neale (1980)
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