Genre

Genre

Genre is type or category of film. It is a way of classifying a film to help us to identify it so we can:

Create it

Choose it

Understand it

List of Genre’s

Romance- Romeo and Juliet

Action- World War Z

Adventure- Indiana Jones

Sci-Fi- Star Trek

Thriller- Clockwork Orange

War

Western

Horror- Insidious

Animation- Shrek

Comedy-The Inbetweeners Movie

Musicals- Grease

Fantasy- Narnia

Major Genre- A dominant, important category

Sub Genre

Hybrid Genre or Generic Genre

How do we recognise genre?

We identify genre by looking at:

Generic codes and conventions- these are signifiers that have been established though time and should be recognised in the mise-en-scene, the characters and the storyline.

Signifiers are the physical aspects that we see or hear in a film, such as the clothes or props. We interpret these signifiers to create meaning.

Genre	Western	Gangster	Sci-Fi	Horror	Romance
What we see	Sand, guns, horses, saloon, tumble weed	Guns, drugs, council houses, cigarettes,	Lasers, space, robots, techno, stars	Ghosts, vampires, visions	Love, roses, fields
What we hear	Horses, gun shots,	Gun shots, swear words, cockney, reving of car engines,	Ship noises, machinery, gas door openings, lasers	Loud noises, screams, doors creaking	Kissing noises, wind
Typical Characters	Sheriff, deputy, villain, dog	Police officers, drug dealers, pregnant mother	Robot, girl with one eye, lobster, guy with pointy ears, old wise guy	Female victim, non-believe, hero	Hero, heroin
Typical Storyline	Someone kills someone and people hunt for them	Don’t pay money for drugs so they kill them	Typical fight with another planet or someone gets lost in space	Someone gets scared in a house	Someone leaves/breaks up with them, then they get back together or she finds someone better
Themes Morals Ideas	Revenge,	Revenge, breaking the law	Loss and fighting	Scary	Love, heartbreak
Examples	The good the bad and the ugly, True Grit	Scarface, the godfather	Star trek, gravity	Insidious, woman in black	The notebook