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 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.
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. 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, herion crying, hero proposing and all that with a a touch of comedy having funny dialogues and scene, but if you go and watch ghosts and weapons, you wont be sure if that 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 targetable audience and fans are easy to attract and persuade into buying other texts within the same genre.
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. 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 fron that of Hollywood, having local faces with very prominent Indian accents and showing completely different cultures and a completely diffenet representation and contruction 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 contructed. This is what really allows us to distinguish between different genres.
Coming to the genre of my own film, as written before, i'll be making an art film. So what are the specialties of' an 'art' film? After observing a number of art films, i have managed to notice how the representation, construction, audio and mise-en-sene, along with the story is done. Firstly, as these cater to the nieche market rather than the mass market, they tend to be more 'realistic' and ordinary in an artsy way, and way less glamorous and are not made with the intention of hitting the box office to a high level. They have a low level of audience to whom they cater to and the director and producer do not aim to produce a blockbuster. Film critics and scholars define art films as 'those with the formal qualities that mark them as different from main stream films, which include, amongst other elements, a social realism style; emphasis on the authorial expressiveness of the director; and focus on the thoughts and dreams of characters, rather than presenting a clear, goal driven story.
They tend to have ordinary looking actors, mainly of the country the industry represents, or whatever kind of culture is represented in the movie, and they also tend to have a narration or a voice over of someone with a very cultural accent, that makes the feel more strong and creates the mood for the serious and truthful story or scene being presented. They do not usually have the typical 'Indian' songs after every fifteen to twenty minutes and tend to go on fast even if the film is long, say three to four hours.The audio on the other hand, is usually cultural or whatever's appropriate to the story, again, it does not have to be very glamorous with hundreds of actors and a whole new choreography of an item song. Usually, colored filters are used while shooting, mainly yellow filters, giving that very 'artistic' look the audience tends to enjoy. The mise-en-sene is again, very ordinary yet so extra-ordinary. It show's things simply the way they are, making it look familiar and alien to the audience at the same time. A market scene would appeal to us differently if its captured within an art film with the most amazing camera use, than it would in reality while we are in the market doing our daily chores. Art films directors often do that. They know what their audience would like to see. They use camera angles and audio techniques accordingly. A scene covering the most beautiful and eye catching scenery would do perfectly with slow and steady camera movements. Art films are like an epitome of all these things represented in a very unusual and attractive way.
Coming to the genre of my own film, as written before, i'll be making an art film. So what are the specialties of' an 'art' film? After observing a number of art films, i have managed to notice how the representation, construction, audio and mise-en-sene, along with the story is done. Firstly, as these cater to the nieche market rather than the mass market, they tend to be more 'realistic' and ordinary in an artsy way, and way less glamorous and are not made with the intention of hitting the box office to a high level. They have a low level of audience to whom they cater to and the director and producer do not aim to produce a blockbuster. Film critics and scholars define art films as 'those with the formal qualities that mark them as different from main stream films, which include, amongst other elements, a social realism style; emphasis on the authorial expressiveness of the director; and focus on the thoughts and dreams of characters, rather than presenting a clear, goal driven story.
They tend to have ordinary looking actors, mainly of the country the industry represents, or whatever kind of culture is represented in the movie, and they also tend to have a narration or a voice over of someone with a very cultural accent, that makes the feel more strong and creates the mood for the serious and truthful story or scene being presented. They do not usually have the typical 'Indian' songs after every fifteen to twenty minutes and tend to go on fast even if the film is long, say three to four hours.The audio on the other hand, is usually cultural or whatever's appropriate to the story, again, it does not have to be very glamorous with hundreds of actors and a whole new choreography of an item song. Usually, colored filters are used while shooting, mainly yellow filters, giving that very 'artistic' look the audience tends to enjoy. The mise-en-sene is again, very ordinary yet so extra-ordinary. It show's things simply the way they are, making it look familiar and alien to the audience at the same time. A market scene would appeal to us differently if its captured within an art film with the most amazing camera use, than it would in reality while we are in the market doing our daily chores. Art films directors often do that. They know what their audience would like to see. They use camera angles and audio techniques accordingly. A scene covering the most beautiful and eye catching scenery would do perfectly with slow and steady camera movements. Art films are like an epitome of all these things represented in a very unusual and attractive way.
