Media y13 research

What is genre?

Lucy Fitzsimmons.

What is genre?

Genre is a ‘type’ or ‘category’. For example there is different genres of music, films and fashion.

There are many genres of music, for example: Rock, Metal, Pop, Indie, Country, Hip Hop, Rnb and many more.

There are also many different genre of films, for example: Romance, horror, romcom, comedy, sci fi, and many more.

Lastly, there are also many different genres of fashion, also known as stereotypes, for example: goth, chav, hipster, etc.

Why is genre important?

• Genre is very important because it makes it easier for institutions to advertise whatever they are advertising. They know what audience they are targeting, for example if a new action film was being released, they wouldn’t make the advert for it with in pink frilly, girly font with a pop song backing it. They wouldn’t use that because it would attract the wrong audience and they would end up with negative feedback and overall would probably lose money. For an action film they would use upbeat, exciting music, with bold text, usually more masculine and aimed at males, as this is their main target audience and they want it to appeal to them the most. They would apply this theory to advertise different genres.

Genre theorists and theories.

Daniel Chandler – conventional definitions of genre tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (themes, settings) also including structure and style.

Tom Ryall – Genre provides a framework of structuring rules, in forms of patterns/styles/structure, which act as a form of supervision over the work of production for film makers and the work of reading by audiences.

John Fiske – defines genre as ‘attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts and meanings that circulate our culture for the convenience for the audience’.

What genre theories link to the horror genre?

• All of the theories that I mentioned in the previous slide link to the horror genre. Daniel Chandler mentioned genre being about theme, setting and structure, and for a typical horror story, the most reoccurring theme is that there would a killer, a target and a hero involved. The setting is usually in a deserted place, for example a haunted house or a forest, and the structure is often that the killer is after a particular person and there are many different obstacles get in the way, and terrible things happen, however in the end the hero saves the day.

What is narrative?

What is narrative?

• A narrative is a constructive format as a work of speech, writing, song, film, television, video games, photography or theatre, that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word "story" may be used as a synonym of "narrative". It can also be used to refer to the sequence of events described in a narrative .

Narrative theorists and theories.

Vladimir Propp – he proposed that it was possible to classify the characters and their actions into clearly defined roles and functions.

Todorov – suggests most narratives starts with equilibrium which is where everything is normal and protagonists are happy.

Roland Barthes – suggests that narrative works with five different codes which activate the reader to make sense of it.

What narrative theories link to the horror genre?

Toderovs theory fits in well with the horror genre, because it most horror films it typically starts with everything being completely normal and then something terrible happening and corrupting the normality, and then in the end everything ends up ok again.

Propps theory also links well to the horror genre as he said you can identify the characters and their actions into defined roles and functions. For example, the hero and the villian etc.

What is representation?

What is representation?

• Representation refers to the construction in any medium of aspects of ‘reality’ such as

people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing

as well as still or moving pictures.

What represention theories are there?

• The male gaze is a representation theory, its how men look at pictures of women and how they analyse them etc.

• Reception theory

What is an audience?

What is an audience?

• An audience are the people who certain media products are aimed at and the people who let the companies earn money and earn a reputation. Media companies need to advertise their products etc to the right audience otherwise they won’t make money and their product would fail.

Nightmare on elm street trailer.• Cinematography.

The camera is below the protaganist which makes them come across as more powerful and in control.

A shot behind the protagonist makes the scene scarier as you do not know what is behind them and you don’t know what will happen.

Sound

The sound of sharp objects scraping against a wall adds a scary, unsettling vibe to the horror film because it’s unpleasant and not enjoyable to watch or listen too.

The sound of a girl screaming is a typical sound used in horror films because it creates drama and panic.

Mise en scene.

The mise en scene used here is slightly destroyed and old and this makes it more scary because it looks deserted which shows the protagonist would most likely be more vulnerable.

Editing. At the end when the masthead is shown, they have put it in a red colour font to represent blood and death, and they have used a spikey, old fashioned font as well to go with the theme. They have also used splatters of blood on the side to again represent death. The editing throughout the trailer was very fast paced to add more drama and to keep the watcher on the edge of their seat.

Insidious trailer.Cinematography.

In horror film trailers a lot of the time they use shots when the camera is behind the protagonist because there is more of a mystery behind it and there is more tension.

Sound.

The sound of someone trying to escape from somewhere builds up tension as the watcher will put themselves in their shoes.

Mise en scene.

A timer was featured during the trailer and this added tension because there is a constant ticking noise which puts the watcher on edge.

Once again they used an object which makes a constant creaking sound which adds effect and it is scary looking.

Editing.

When text was shown it came up very quickly and in very scary font.

The scene changes were in time with the ticking which was very fast and added a lot of tension.

Research and planning.

Research and planning involve looking at other horror films and their trailers and getting inspiration and ideas from them and seeing what appeals, what has done well and what hasn’t done well. Planning would involved writing what you are going to do so you’re organised and your trailer would actually work and make sense. You could also do a few practise ones to see what works/what you like etc and get feedback on them.

Conventions of a horror trailer.

Typically in horror films they are set in deserted places, for example an island, forests, old houses/buildings etc because then the main protagonist who is the target are alone and are not easily helped, which altogether makes the film more tense and scary.

Conventions of a horror trailer.

Also, a convention of a horror trailer is that there is complete silence, and one reoccurring noise which is unsettling and unpleasant to listen to, which makes the watcher more nervous.

Conventions of a horror trailer.

Text always comes up during a horror film trailer, with a sound effect in the background to make it more unsettling and for it to have more of a impact. The text is always in spiky, old fashioned scary font to suit the theme.

What is digital technology?

• Digital media is a form of electronic media where data are stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission (e.g. hard disk drives or computer networking) of information or to the "end product”.

What is creativity?

• Creativity is the use of some ones own ideas and their originality. For example, the production of artistic work. Creative features that are used in horror films, for example would be the plot, how would people get killed? Why are they getting killed? Etc. Also, the costumes that they have to wear, and the settings and locations.

What is post production? • Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in

the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art. It is a term for all stages of production occurring after the actual end of shooting and/or recording the completed work.

• Post-production is, in fact, many different processes grouped under one name. These typically include:

• Video editing the picture of a television program using an edit decision list (EDL)• Writing, (re)recording, and editing the soundtrack.• Adding visual special effects - mainly computer-generated imagery (CGI) and digital

copy from which release prints will be made (although this may be made obsolete by digital-cinema technologies).

• Sound design, Sound effects, ADR, Foley and Music, culminating in a process known as sound re-recording or mixing with professional audio equipment.

• Transfer of Color motion picture film to Video or DPX with a telecine and color grading (correction) in a color suite.