Genre and Conventions

Genre- (Latin-Genus) means Category/Type

There are many genres:

• Horror
• Thriller
• Sci-fi
• Western
• Mystery
• Action/Adventure

These genres can be mixed and matched to make up Rom-coms (Hybrids).

Genres are a way of categorising films. It is widely known that when an audience is looking for a film to see at the cinema or buy as a DVD they look at the genre they want first to decide whether they would like it. They choose a particular genre because the audience recognise conventions of a genre and expect certain 'events' to happen.

Here are some genre conventions and expectations:

• Sci-fi: Robot race, Pod people, Alien race
• Horror: Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein, Axe Murderer, Gore and ripping apart.
• Actions: Red skins, Arab terrorist, Russian/european terrorist.

Iconography is used to help establish a genre for example:

• Supernatural horror: Castles, remote locations, forests, wolves, mountains etc.

Iconography is the use of simple iconic images which are recognised by the audience as belonging to a particular genre.

A film has certain conventions that they follow. This structure is the one I used to structure my opening sequence for a horror film...

• Establishing the mood/setting through music, mise en scene and some characterisation.
• Then establishing basic story elements in equilibrium-normality. Some characters may be introduced and some element of the 'event' or story structure is laid out.
• Iconography- recognisable visual sign posts which establish genre.