How do we analyse Film

The film industry and the film analysts within use different techniques to analyse films and separate them into different genre, Genre Theory is a technique used by media analysts to facilitate the categorization of films. Genre depends on certain factors such as story line, who the director is and even the audiences expectations, for example, In order to understand Genre we may look at several examples. When we speak of the western we know that within this type of film genre we may expect to find gun fights, horses and Indians within the mise en scene, the heroic standalone cowboy and sometimes iconic actors and directors that are well known within the genre.

For Example, when looking at the horror film where we generally know everyone will die except one victim, generally a young women. The audience who go to watch these horror films expect to see zombies, werewolves, horrific scenes and more within the mise en scene, as well as style techniques such as low key lighting and fast pace editing are all so well known within the genre. They also expect specific content and a certain style of film making which helps define each genre.

To analyze genre’s media analysts can use many different techniques, for example Lacey’s Repertoire of elements defines genre elements constituting the 5 key areas, Setting, Character, Narrative, Iconography, Style. Media analysts can use this to put the elements in to different sections and write down the corresponding conventions from the film they are analyzing.

A different technique would be Daniel Chandlers theory that Conventional theories of genre tend to be based on the fact that they constitute particular conventions of content, this idea by Daniel Chandler suggests that genres can become too restricted to all the conventions in them, not allowing them to change. An example of this is in horror movies, these movies generally contain supernatural scenes such as doors slamming by themselves and people levitating etc. But this may not necessarily apply to everyone as different people have different opinions on what should be put into a horror movie.

Steve Neale is another Media analyst, who’s theory was the Theory of Repetition and Difference, he stated “Genres are instances of repetitions and difference”, “Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre”. Here Steve Neale is saying that a film and its genre is defined by two things; How much it conforms with a genres stereotypes and conventions, he says that a film must conform to these conventions enough that it can still qualify and be identified as a film of that genre, and how much a film subverts the genres stereotypes and conventions.

For example, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre trailer shows conformation of horror convention as it is set in an abandoned house that has been inherited from an elderly relative, this is very much standard of the genre as it places the the audience in a mysterious and unfamiliar environment.

The Paranormal Activity Trailer shows subversion of horror convention as it is set in just a regular house. This is uncommon for the genre as they usually pick a “spooky” location such as a manor or abandoned location.

From this poster from the film Leon, we can see that the film show features of violence and/or relationship as the red color portrays these common themes throughout move genres, both of these themes were shown throughout the film as the leading protagonist is a hitman, someone who is hired to kill others, meaning that the red can represent blood, Aswell as the leading female role, Matilda falls in love with the said hitman. The colour black which is shown on the buildings in the background of Leon on the poster also shows that there could be evil within the film. The ‘O’ in the Title - Leon shown on the poster is in the shape of a sniper scope which could mean that the movie is based around guns and crime, as it can be seen throughout the film.

Leon is an example of a subversion from the genre of action, it has the same conventions as a film such as James Bond but shows many different features.The main Protagonist in this film Leon, rather than being seen as a manly, hunk who get all the ladies is portrayed as a strange man who has weird habits, such as only drinking milk and sleeping with his eyes open in an arm chair, but in films like Skyfall, the main protagonist, James Bond is the more common manly hunk who is well-groomed and dresses in smart clothing. This is similar for the main female character within both films, in Skyfall, the main female character is shown as sexually attractive and has the interest of both James Bond and the audience, where as in Leon the main female character is a 12 year old girl who has interest in Leon, even though she is far too young for him, and within the film he has no family, and claims that a plant is his best friend.

Mean Girls is a Teen-Comedy directed by Mark Waters which was released in 2004. This film follows the conventional themes for its genre/category. The film being a teen comedy generally has a set group of characters which are seen for their different personalities and how they dress, such as, Jocks, Nerds, and the pretty girls which in this film are known as “Plastics”. The narrative for the film is Linear, it has a clear Beginning, Middle and End and it

is easy to keep up with, but is slightly unconventional as it uses things like a montage and or a flashback, an example of this is when Cady who is the main leading protagonist in the film, is talking about her time growing up in Africa, and comparing the animal kingdom to how the girls act. The film shows a similarity to most Teen Comedies, with scenes set in common settings such as High-Schools, Malls and Classrooms. Napoleon Dynamite a film by Jared Hess which was also released in 2004, is another Teen-Comedy but shows both similarities and differences to Mean girls, instead of the leading protagonist being a popular new student the film shows an unpopular teenager who is just the exact opposite to the main characters in Mean Girls. Napoleon never gains popularity and struggles to gain many friends as he is different to others in many ways. But the iconography in both films is still so similar, Napoleon is seen as a nerd which are also in Mean Girls, aswell as jocks and pretty girls, they are all seen in both films, the setting are also similar, Highschool, Classrooms, and both films have a talent show at different points. In mean girls the main characters are dancing with everyone cheering where when Napoleon danced only one person clapped

Auteur Theory is where a director creates a film which where a iconic film genre can be dramatically changed but still show some of the same iconic features such as the scene or common protagonists and/or antagonists within the film.

A film maker who demonstrates a particular style would be Tim Burton, who is a director who is massively known for his take on the films he directs, no matter the genre of the film that he is directing, he has a gothic theme/style for example in his films Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas which seems to show in all of his films. Film analysts will use this specific style seen in most of his movies to categorize him as an Auteur filmmaker.

Another example would be the actual director of Leon, Luc Besson, who is seen as an auteur director for being a filmmaker who vales artistic merit over commercial success, he rather the film be how he wanted it rather than how well it did in box office sales and whether the film actually profited. The film Leon shows the features of an action film but with minor things changed within which dramatically changes the audiences views on the film.

The Director of Napoleon Dynamite, Jared Hess can be seen as an auteur director because he uses the films genre and certain parts of it from Lacey’s repertoire of elements as key concepts in his film involving around setting, character, narrative, iconography and style, he uses the iconic features within these certain parts of the films genre and changes them to create a unique film like no other within its genre, the genre being Teen-Comedy for his film Napoleon Dynamite.

In conclusion, the use of auteur and genre theory can lead to a much larger appreciation of films and in turn, help inform film analysts, as the genre gives the audience an idea of what kind of film it is going to be as it could have many different features but it will most likely have different iconic features which helps pick its very own genre. The use of genre helps

the audience to have an insight on what kind of move it is going to be, this can also be shown through the movies poster. The auteur theory can apply to most movies that the director has changed slightly to create a unique movie within its genre, it gives the audience an idea of what the movie is like based on the settings, iconography and characters, this then can allow media analysts to analyze movie genre in many different ways. Using different auteur and genre theories when analyzing movies gives a wider appreciation to the audience, and can change the feelings of the audience based on the movies genre.