genre theory three notes

8/3/2019 Genre Theory Three Notes

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GENRE A2 MEDIA STUDIES H140: G3251. HOW FILM-MAKERS USE GENRE TO TARGET AN AUDIENCE

Take a look at the poster for Independence Day (Emmerich, 1996). At first sight it isclear that it is going to be a science fiction film.

Various ingredients of the genre are present in the advert: the distant earth and thegiant spaceship.

We see the ingredients, we re-organise the genre and if we like science fiction wemay decide to see the film.

However, the advertising campaign is more complex than that. Part of its successlies in its use of echoes from previous examples of the genre.

The shots of the distant earth are a familiar feature of science fact as well as fiction.Ever since the Apollo missions they have become a signifier of space travel animage that we know from real life shots as well as from Apollo 13 (Howard, 1995).

The picture is therefore plugging into the associations that we may have from thisfilm of realism and drama.

Similarly the poster is reminiscent of the marketing for the film Alien (Scott, 1979). This also involved a black space background, a mysterious looking alien object andan enigmatic (mysterious/ unknowable) threatening caption: In space no-one canhear you scream


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In 2005 the poster for War of the Worlds (Spielberg, 2005) bears a strikingly obviousresemblance to Independence Day. The theme of alien invasion is the same, of course, as is the reasons for the aliens ultimate downfall: a kind of virus.

Science Fiction as a genre became massively popular again in the 1990s mainly asa result of one ground breaking television series The X Files (Carter, 1993). Theenormous financial backing needed to make films such as Independence Day wasmade possible due to the popularity of the series

The X Files successfully tapped into two apparently contradictory parts of humannature: our fascination with and fear of the unknown. One of the strap-lines forIndependence Day read: The question of whether or not we are alone in theuniverse has been answered, which very obviously goes for those same feelingsand attempts to bring to our mind the associations from the programme.

There are also plenty of elements from another type of film which had been out of fashion for a long time. The masses of people killed and the idea of a few peopleganging together to survive against incredible odds are key ingredients of the


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disaster film genre which was massively popular in the 1970s including examplessuch as The Towering Inferno and the Airport movies.

Taken all together, Independence Day comes out as a hybrid movie where genresare mixed in an original way. This once again is part of the enjoyment of the film: wemay not spot where exactly the difficult genre elements are coming from but we areaware that we are seeing something different from a traditional science fiction film.We are able to enjoy the moments when our expectations are fulfilled (Will Smithhelps save the day), but at the same time we find it very enjoyable when the genretraditions are broken (e.g. when Will deals with an alien by simply kicking it). Ourknowledge of the genre allows us to predict a happy ending, but not the journey thatwill take us there.

2. GENRE CHANGES OVER TIMEAudiences liked the novelty of a sci-fi/ disaster movie hybrid.

Its success made it likely that many more would follow, and they did: Armageddon(Bay, 1998), The Day After Tomorrow (Emmerich, 2004) and War of the Worlds(Spielberg, 2005) all owe their existence to the success of Independence Day, whichhas become a genre defining moment in cinema.

Since Independence Day the sci-fi genre has become more heavily associated withaction as audiences expectations of sci-fi have shifted e.g. I, Robot (Proya, 2004)

Genre defining moments are fairly rare in the media and they only normally becomeapparent a long time after the txt has been created when we can properly see its

influence. They dont always have to be popular media products either.

Blade Runner (Scott, 1982) with its dystopian (dark, bleak, pessimistic view of thefuture) settings in hostile but recognisable cities in earths future has had muchmore effect on the science fiction genre than its contemporary E.T. (Spielberg, 1982)despite the fact that Blade Runner was virtually ignored on release and E.T. is one of the biggest films ever.

While genre defining moments do not happen that often, it is certain that genres dochange over time.

Consider music, to avoid repetition that could turn it into clichd comic scenarios thegenres of Rock, Hip Hop and R n B, just like Comedy, Horror and Drama in Film,have evolved in order to keep up with the changing fashions.

3. IDEOLOGY The changes in any genre also reveal a lot about the dominant ideology (thought,belief, ideas) of the time it was made. Consider the changes in Science Fiction overthe years:

1950s


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The 50s were a time dominated by a fear of invasion e.g. Invasion of the BodySnatchers (Siegel, 1956): The Cold War between the USA (Capitalism) and the SovietUnion (Communism).

1960s The 60s were a time dominated by excitement about the future e.g. 2001: A SpaceOdyssey, the Star Trek TV series (Roddenberry, 1966): fuelled by the space race andcompetition to reach the moon.

1970s and 1980s The 70s and 80s addressed worries over the power of technology through films like The Terminator (Cameron, 1984) and Robocop (Verhoeven, 1987).

1990sIn the 90s this in turn leads to fear over the power of technology in the wrong handse.g. The X Files

2000sIn the 00s the impact of the internet on the concept of identity was examined infilms such as The Matrix (Wachowski 99/02/03) and I, Robot (Proya, 2004)

GENRE IDEOLOGY IN THE 2000sIdeology (beliefs/ thoughts/ ideas) can be found in everything from fairy tales,fables, religious stories through to TV and film.

Ideology can be the most difficult area to deal with and as a result students shyaway from it, but if you really want to explore how a genre changes over time, youshould be able to show how different texts reflect the ideas and values of the societyaround them.

Think about events that have happened in the last decade

ACTION - Shooter, Hitman, 300 and Transformers

The coming attractions are about vengeance, violence and kickingsomeones ass. Were living a fantasy where the message is if we cant winover there (Iraq), we can win at home on our home screens. To make a filmlike Transformers at a time of war is a political act

Paul Haggis, Oscar winning Director of Crash (2005)

Consider the fact that Transformers (Bay 2008/2009), films with good and badrobots slugging it out for the future of earth, was made with the full support of theUS Airforce and Department of Defence, who supplied the producers with militaryaircraft. When we do this the ideology of the film can take on a new meaning.

In this context a simple escapist Action film like Transformers could be viewed as

being one about a fear of terrorism/ foreign invaders and the idea of protecting theworld and standing up for whats right. As Haggis says, this idea of retaliating for


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9/11 and re-building the ego of America could be seen as central to recent Actionmovies.

ACTIVITYConsider the following genres in the 2000s. What do they say about this generation?

HORROR Saw, Hostel (Revenge fantasies), The Ring, The Grudge (Japanese re-makes)

COMEDY - Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Team America, Bruno (Satire) +horman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Judd Apato

4. THEMES AND NARRATIVEA Theme is the subject or topic of the film and a Narrative is simply a story.

In the same way you can recognise visual ingredients (iconography) typical of, forexample, a Western (cowboys/ guns/ saloons etc), you will also be able to recognisetypical storylines and themes of a Western the heroes and the villains building upto a gunfight at the end of the film, or the theme of what it is to be honourable in adishonest world.

However, these themes and narratives can apply just as much to sci-fi, and so arenot specific to one genre alone. It is important to remember that Genre should notbe thought of as rigid, but fluid, and capable of hybridity with other genres.

5. JUST FIVE GENRES THEORY: FRANK MCCONNELLAs has been discussed, the way we normally recognise genre is to spot the mostobvious elements from the generic repertoire science fiction is science fictionbecause it is set in space or the future, westerns are on horseback etc. This is easy,but not always helpful. Its very easy, for example, to argue that Star Wars is not ascience fiction film, it could, for example be called a fairy tale, or a western in space.

Frank McConnell (author of Storytelling and Mythmaking and professor of English at

University of California) argues that instead of basing genres around the obvious


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visual clues (iconography), it is more meaningful to split texts according to theirthemes and plots, and in particular their leading characters.

He came up with five genres which specifically refer to typical events in the historyof any society and the characters that play a part in them. He believes that sincefilms reflect society, they will always involve these kinds of typical events.

o The King/ Establishing the state 1 (Epic)o The Knight/ Consolidating 2 the state (Adventurous romance)o The Pawn/ Trapped in the institutionalised 3 state (Melodrama)o The Fool/ Responding to the madness of the state (Satire)o Apocalypse/ Collapse of the state which leads to a new beginning

(No single hero)

Although the terms belong to fairy tales or history, these five genres can be appliedto any situation in a film where the lead character will fit one of these roles and thestate will be their family, their business, or their empire.

Some of these are easy to spot. Its quite easy to spot the fool in the films of EddieMurphy or Jim Carrey or to see how Independence Day fits into the last category.However, even with such a small number of genres, there is still room for hybridity.

Thinking about a text ideologically is one of the most difficult things to do whenanalysing a text, but is crucial for the A2 exams and something you should look todo as much as possible.

ACTIVITYSee if you can fit five films you are familiar with into McConnells genres:Remember that a film can fit into more than one of the categories.

The King

The Knight

The Pawn

The Fool

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State = Circumstances/ situation/ position/ condition2 Consolidating = Strengthening, uniting, combining3 Institutionalised = Societal, establishment, traditional


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Apocalypse

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