G235: Critical Perspectives in MediaTheoretical Evaluation of Production - Question 1(b)Overview

Q1(b) is out of 25 marks and you have 30 minutes to write it.

You have to theoretically evaluate ONE of your coursework pieces against one unseen media concept/area of theory:•Genre•Narrative•Representation•Audience•Media Language

I recommend that you pick the product you want to analyse and stick to this for the exam. I recommend your trailer but am not being prescriptive.For you to succeed in this all notes must be prepared as if they are your revision notes for the exam.

G235: Critical Perspectives in MediaTheoretical Evaluation of Production - Question 1(b)Genre

Aims/Objectives1.To introduce the concept of genre theory

and key genre theorists.2.To have a basic understanding of how to

evaluate your coursework against genre theory.

What Is Genre?• ‘Genre’ is a critical tool that helps us studytexts and audience responses to texts bydividing them into categories based oncommon elements.

• Daniel Chandler (2001) - the word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for ‘type'.

The term is widely used in literary theory, media theory to refer to a distinctive type of ‘text’.

All Genres have Subgenres • This means that they are divided up intomore specific categories that allowaudiences to identify them specifically bytheir familiar and what becomerecognisable characteristics.

•Steve Neale (1995) stresses that“genres are not systems they areprocesses” – they are dynamic and evolve over time.

Generic Characteristics across all texts share similar elements...

1. Typical Mise-en-scène/Visual style(iconography, props, set design, lighting,temporal and geographic location, costume,shot types, camera angles, special effects).2. Typical types of Narrative (plots, historicalsetting, set pieces).3. Generic Types, i.e. typical characters (dotypical male/female roles exist, archetypes?).

Typical studios/production companies…

4. Typical Personnel (directors, producers,actors, stars, auteurs etc.).5. Typical Sound Design (sound design,dialogue, music, sound effects).6. Typical Editing Style.

• KEY: Important elements, less importantelements, elements of minimal importance.

How does this apply to your film trailer’s genre?

What is the genre of your teaser trailer?

• Social realism?• Thriller?• Urban?• Contemporary?• British?• All of the above?• Is it a hybrid?

Jason Mittell (2001) argues that genres arecultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience, and cultural practices as well.

In short, industries use genre to sell products to audiences. Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that often make cultural references to their audience’s knowledge of society + other texts.

Genre allows audiences to make choicesabout what products they want to consumethrough acceptance in order to fulfil a particularpleasure.

Pleasure of genre for audiences

• Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences ‘a set of pleasures’.

Emotional Pleasures: The emotional pleasures offered toaudiences of genre films are particularly significant when theygenerate a strong audience response.

Visceral Pleasures: Visceral pleasures are ‘gut’ responses and are defined by how the film’s stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed, or a ‘roller coaster ride’.

Intellectual Puzzles: Certain film genres such as the thriller orthe ‘whodunit’ offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mysteryor a puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot andforecasting the end or the being surprised by the unexpected.

The Strengths Of Genre TheoryThe main strength of genre theory is thateverybody uses it and understands it – media experts use it to study media texts, the media industry uses it to develop and market texts and audiences use it to decide what texts to consume.

The potential for the same concept to beunderstood by producers, audiences andscholars makes genre a useful critical tool. Itsaccessibility as a concept also means that itcan be applied across a wide range of texts.

Genre Development and TransformationOver the years genres develop and change as

the wider society that produce them also changes, a process that is known as generic transformation.

Metz (1974) argued that genres go through a cycle of changes during their lifetime.

1.Experimental Stage2.Classic Stage3.Parody Stage4.Deconstruction Stage

Teaser trailer – is it a genre?

Does it have specific conventions?

What separates teaser trailers from trailers?

They can be very often anti-narrative/surrealist.They can be ambiguous, open meaning(Eco, 1981) and experimental.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaser_trailer

Definition:

A teaser trailer, or teaser is a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming movie, game or television series.

Teasers, unlike typical theatrical (main) trailers, are usually very short in length (between 30–60 seconds) and usually contain little, if any, actual footage from the film. Sometimes, it is merely a truncated version of a theatrical trailer. They are usually released long in advance of the film they advertise. One of the reasons for the name "teaser" is because they are shown usually a long time (one or one and a half years) before the movie comes out, so as to "tease" the audience.

Teasers are also commonly used in advertising. The so-called teaser ad/campaign consists typically in (a series of) small, cryptic, challenging, advertisements which anticipate a large(r), full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event.

Teaser trailers are usually only made for big-budget and popularly themed movies. Their purpose is less to tell the audience about a movie's content than simply to let them know that the movie is coming up in the near future, and to add to the hype of the upcoming release.

Teaser trailers are often made while the film is still in production or being edited and as a result they may feature scenes or alternate versions of scenes that are not in the finished film. Other ones (notably Pixar films) have scenes made for use in the trailer only. Teaser trailers today are increasingly focused on internet downloading and the convention circuit.

Teaser trailer – a genre with many sub-genres/postmodern styles?

Teaser trailers are a genre intended to appeal directly to a specific audience.

They are used to promote awareness at an early stage in the marketing of a new film or a film that is part of a franchise

They don’t have to be literal representations

This is a medium known for being experimental and controversial

The generic conventions stay the same but the style (the look of something) changes

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kAEme33ZQHI

Nicholas Abercrombie (1996) suggests that 'the boundaries between genres are shifting and becoming more permeable'

Abercrombie is concerned with modern television, which he suggests seems to be engaged in 'a steady dismantling of genre’

Genres are not fixed. They constantly change and evolve over time.

David Buckingham (1993) argues that 'genre is not... Simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change’.

As postmodern theorist Jacques Derrida reminds us – ‘the law of the law of genre is a principle of contamination, a law of impurity’.

In terms of your coursework...

• How we define a genre depends on ourpurposes (Chandler, 2001).

• What was your purpose and the medium?

• Your audience and the industry sector youwere working within will have defined whatyou understood as the genre and sub-genreof the texts you created.

“Media texts rely on audience knowledge of generic codes and conventions in order for them to create meaning”.Explain how you used or subverted generic conventions in one of your production pieces.

Think of this question as the first part of your revision...