Genre

Task 1: Genre factsheets

1) What example is provided of why visual iconographies are so important?

Someone sitting at a desk isn't genre specific however, if high-key lighting a screen behind the character and modern mise-en-scene creates an image we associate with a new broadcast.

2) What examples are provided of the importance of narrative in identifying genre?

In a soap opera it would not be unusual to see one of the story-lines follow a family having to deal with a domestic situation such as a member of the family having trouble with their boss at work. This type of story may also appear in a sit-com but the way the story develops and is dealt with will be different. The soap opera will take the situation more serious whilst the sit-com would use it as a device for humour.

3) What are the different ways films can be categorised according to Bordwell? 
Period/country, Director/star, Technical process, Style, Series, Audience

4) List three ways genre is used by audiences.
They use their prior knowledge of the genre to anticipate whether they will like it, they are able to compare a text through it's shared characteristics with another and they can use their knowledge of genre to reject a text.

5) List three ways genre is used by institutions or producers.
Genres can be templates for a producer to follow, genres can be used to attract an audience and genre helps with the marketing of the film.

Read Media Factsheet 126 - Superheroes: A Genre Case Study and answer the following questions:

1) List five films the factsheet discusses with regards to the Superhero genre.

Avengers Assemble, Guardians of the galaxy, Thor, Spider-man , Batman

2) What examples are provided of how the Superhero genre has reflected the changing values, ideologies and world events of the last 70 years?

3) How can Schatz's theory of genre cycles be applied to the Superhero genre?
-Innovation: The visual codes for the superhero genre were first established via comic books. As soon as film and TV began to use the characters from comics the conventions were set (1940's)

-Classical: By the 1950's the superhero genre could be seen in it's classical stage with the codes and conventions being replicated.

-Parody: Batman (1966) was intentionally funny and camp and let it's audience take the superhero less seriously. It had an ironic tone that made fun of the genre and allowed the audience the audience to enjoy the awareness of that. After Batman the parodic versions of the genre was mostly in animation.

-Deconstruction: Superman (1978) started a new cycle in the superhero genre with technology leading the innovation with special effects creating more realistic visual ‘miracles’. Both the Superman series and Tim Burton’s Batman franchise treated the fantastic world of the superhero seriously as in the classical era but they also used the camp comedy and a tongue-in-cheek approach of parody showing how the genre had been deconstructed and repackaged in an attempt to revitalise the genre and help it find a new audience.

Carry out your own genre analysis using the model provided by media theorist Daniel Chandler. Choose a film or TV text and answer the following questions - brief answers/bullet point responses are fine:

I saw the TV glow:

General
1) Why did you choose the text you are analysing?

It's one of my favourite movies.
2) To what genre did you initially assign the text?

Psychological Horror
3) What is your experience of this genre?

I like watching videos about people analysing films in general and a find myself often ending up watching videos about psychological horror films.
4) What subject matter and basic themes is the text concerned with?

The whole film is an metaphor for being trans (or queer in general) and so the main character is trapped in a life/ body that isn't theirs.
5) How typical of the genre is this text in terms of content?

I think the film is quite typical as it focuses on fear, suspense and atmosphere over graphic violence. It also has a  distorted perception of reality which is a convention of the psychological horror genre.
6) What expectations do you have about texts in this genre?

My expectations is a text full of suspense and uneasy atmosphere usually with some sort of manipulation.
7) Have you found any formal generic labels for this particular text (where - try imdb.com if unsure)?

8) Which conventions of the genre do you recognise in the text?

Uneasy tone, distorted perception of reality, manipulation.
9) To what extent does this text stretch the conventions of its genre?

It doesn't stretch the conventions a lot but it's unique about how it uses the conventions to tell a story that isn't typically represented in media.
10) Where and why does the text depart from the conventions of the genre?

11) Which conventions seem more like those of a different genre (and which genre(s))?

coming of age story- growing up, 
12) What familiar motifs or images are used?

A TV glow, pink smoke, 

Mode of address
1) What sort of audience did you feel that the text was aimed at (and how typical was this of the genre)?

Aimed at queer people which is slightly not typical of the genre.
2) What assumptions seem to be made about your class, age, gender and ethnicity?

middle class likely younger and gender and age aren't specific
3) What interests does it assume you have?

Watching tv shows

Relationship to other texts
1) What intertextual references are there in the text you are analysing (and to what other texts)? Intertextuality is when a media product references another media text of some kind. 

There isn't an exact reference to another piece of media but the main characters watch a show that is inspired by 90's tv shows.
2) In terms of genre, which other texts does the text you are analysing resemble most closely?
3) What key features are shared by these texts?
4) What major differences do you notice between them?