Genre

Genre is a French word meaning type or kind and it a way of categorising a media text through its style and form. A media text is classified to be in a specific genre through identifying concepts (paradigms) that occur in the text and are typical to that genre. Genre provides key elements for an audience to recognise, so that they may further appreciate the variation and originality surrounding the representation of those elements. Therefore, we can see that most genre paradigms form part of a fluid system they are constantly changing and adapting according to audience tastes and societal influences.

 Sub-genres

are identifiable sub-classes within a larger film genre with their own distinctive subject matter, style formats and iconography For example, a film may fall into the Action genre, however it may also be part of a more specific sub-genre such as:

Spy Espionage Political thrillers Race against time Martial arts film

Hybrid genres are also considered Cross media genres and is the name given to films when two genres are merged together. For example, a hybrid of a horror and action genre would mean that there would be a combination of scenes that would be typically found in both of these types of genres. Examples of hybrid genres are: Romantic Comedy Romance and Comedy Comedic drama Comedy and Drama Action Comedy Action and Comedy Romantic Fantasy Romantic and Fantasy Dramatic horror Horror and drama

Tom Ryall is a theorist who was keen to stress that genre was a 3 part relationship between the text, audience and producer. These three elements are linked and usually referred to as Ryalls Triangle. He stated that genre provides a framework for structuring rules which act as a form of supervision over the production of media texts and the way an audience receive them.

Genre may be defined as patterns/forms/styles/structures which transcend individual films, and which supervise both their construction by the filmmaker, and their reading by an audience.

Chandler states that conventional definitions of genre tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings) and/or form (including structure and style) which are by the texts which are regarded as belonging to them. 'Specific genres tend to be easy to recognize intuitively but difficult (if not impossible) to define.'

Schatz put forward the idea that genres tend to pass through several stages in a predictable pattern or cycle throughout their lifecycle. Stage 1 Innovation: experimenting with genre conventions or challenging them to form a new genre/sub-genre/hybrid. The challenge to audiences is likely to gain popularity for the film through its originality. Stage 2 Classical: the film will generate pleasure through the reinforcements of predictable concepts of popular structures. Stage 3 Parody: some conventions are exaggerated in order to allow audiences to relate to the film as well as evoking enjoyment and pleasure from audiences Stage 4 Deconstruction: pleasure is gained by the texts ability to subvert its recognizable forms by braking, ignoring or altering conventions.

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discuss the Western genre is to address neither a single Western film nor even all Westerns, but rather a system of conventions which identifies Westerns films as such, If we extend these ideas into genre study, we might think of the film genre as a specific grammar or system of rules of expression and construction and the individual genre film as a manifestation of these rules,