Write/Produce an illustrated essay/Presentation to explain how genre is used to

construct meaning in film through visual and technical signifiers.

The main way that we can sort and identify films is by using genre. Genre is a

worldwide known concept and a useful categorizing tool. The word genre comes
from the French (and originally Latin) for kind or class. Many people have
debated about the usefulness of genre and whether or not it is still relevant in the
modern film era. In this research paper I will be investigating the concept in
scholarly reading and looking at the development of genre filmmaking. 2My case
study work will be the thriller genre and I will research its historical timeline and
the visual and technical signifiers identified in its codes and conventions.3
Film genres are a useful classification tool that categorizes films into groups based
on similar codes and conventions, settings, structure and themes. Film genres allow
the audience to decide whether or not they will want to watch the movie and if it is
something they would enjoy.
According to Stastica.com4 the top ten grossing genres for the last twenty years are:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Comedy
Adventure
Drama
Action
Thriller

6. Horror
7. Romantic Comedy
8. Musical
9. Documentary
10. Western

Genre can also branch out into other genres to form sub genres. Genres that seem
very different can be joined effectively to make a popular subgenre e.g. Comedy
Thrillers.
Carolyn Miller1 5suggests that 'the number of genres in any society... depends on the
complexity and diversity of society. She says that genre evolves alongside society
and as society evolves so too will genre. The more society evolves the more we will
see new genres and sub genres appearing to sort the evolution of new genres.

2 DANIEL CHANDLER-SOURCE
3 POWERPOINT PRESENTATION WEEBLY.COM
4 http://www.statista.com/statistics/188658/movie-genres-in-north-america-by-
box-office-revenue-since-1995/
5 Miller, C. (2015). Genre as Social Action (1984), Revisited 30

Neale6 backs up this idea by saying, genres are not systems they are processes
Basically he is saying that they are dynamic and evolve over time. Agreeing with this
idea, David Buckingham3 says, Genre is not simply given by the culture, rather, it is
in a constant process of negotiation and change.
It is already difficult enough to describe how a film is but if we didnt have genre
how would we be able to describe movies to our friends and do that film justice.
Genre allows the audience to know what films they will enjoy and which they
wouldnt and it is useful for filmmakers to know who their target audience will be,
Nicholas Abercrombie4 says, 'genres permit the creation and maintenance of a loyal
audience which becomes used to seeing programmes within a genre. The audience
enjoys the similarities of films from the same genre. Gledhill5 (1979) wrote,
Differences between genres meant different audiences could be identified and
catered tothis made it easier to standardize and stabilize production.
When watching films from the same genre, there will be a lot of similarities but also
something different is good, which Neale7 says the audience enjoy, Pleasure is
derived from repetition and difference. 8It is important if you still want an audience
to watch your movies that repetition on its own is simply not enough, as Neale later
says, difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre. 9
Audiences use genre clasifaction to get a feel for a movie and they will be able to
identify a movie by the look and feel of the movie and it will allow them to have
expectations for viewing, for example thriller movies will be very tense with dark
shadowy scenes whereas a romantic comedy will be upbeat and will normally have
bright lighting.
Film watchers genreally enjoy genre as they like trying to guess the outcome of the
film. Having that familiarity makes it easier for them to follow the narriatives and

7 ibid
8 Ibid pg.no
9 Ibidpg.no

they can engage quicker wih recognisible plots and characters., accoring to Feuer,
one theroists genre may be anothers sub-genre or even super-genre.10
If we look at what Bordwell7 says, Any theme may appear in any genre. He then
asks, Are animation and doccumentary films genres or modes? Is the filmed play or
comedy performance a genre? If tragedy and comedy are genres, perhaps then
domestic tragedy or slapsitck is a formula. He then continues to offers a useful list
of categories used in film analysis, Grouping by period or country (american films
of the 1930s), by director or star or producer or writer or studio, by technical
process (cinemascope films), by cycles (the fallen women films), by series (the 007
movies), by style (German expressionism), by structure (narriative), by ideology
(Reaganite cinema), by venue (Drive in movies) , by purpose (home movies), by
audience (teenpix), by subject or theme (family film, paranoid-politics movies).
Defiining films is hard because a typical thriller will never only have themes from
the thriller genre but other genres may overlap into the story. For example aspects
of action or genre might appear or comedy, as Gledhill8 says, It is difficult to make
clear-cut distinctions between one genre and another, genres overlap and there are
mixed genres. At first glance defining a genre appears straightforward but when
you analyse what makes a genre and the individual codes and conventions you
realise that many genres share similar codes and conventions making it more
complicated and leaving it open to indcidual interperatation.

Films that are classed as being in the same genre will generally have similar codes
and convenctions, for example a typical film from the Thriller classification will
normally have a lot of quick cuts to make it more tense and exciting. Normally they
will make good use of shadows and lighting to contrast good and bad characters and
they make good use of dramatic music. Contrast that with a romantic comedy which
will use lots of bright lighting, less quick cuts and youll see how it creates a
comepletely different tone for the movie.

10 Allen, R. (1992). Channels of discourse, reassembled. Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press.

Thriller is one of Hollywoods favourtie genres, with lots of films follwing the thriller
narrative. Thriller has many subgenres and because of this a lot of this a lot of films
use some of the codes and conventions found in Thriller. As mentioned above,
thriller has many subgenres, because of this we will focus on one sub genre, we are
going to be looking at crime thrillers, in particular, the codes and convenctions and
how genre is used to construct meaning.
If we take a general look at crime thrillers we can list what the audience would
expect from a typical crime thriller movie. For this example we will focus on
hollywood crime thrillers for the purpose of the example. Normally crime thrillers
will follow the Russian film theorist Tzvetan Todorovs idea that all narratives
follow the same stages:

1. Equilibrium
2. Distruption of the Equilibrium
3. Recognition of the disruption
4. An attempt to repair the damage
5. New Equilibrium


One thing that is critical to a crime thriller to make it enjoyable is the use of
characters. Vladimir Propp created a model of characters that most film narratives
from this genre fit into. Its possible for one character in a film to be more than one
role identified by Propp. He identifies seven characters that are key to the plot and
the best way to show this is to use Christopher Nolans epic movie The Dark
Knight. Propps seven characters are:
1. The Hero, repairs the damage, restores the equilibrium.
(Batman/bruce Wayne)
2. The Villian, disrupts the equilibrium. (The Joker)
3. The Princess, genreally a female, the prime victim of the villain and
has to be saved by the hero. (Rachel Dawes)
4. The Donor, gives the hero something to help them restore

Equilibrium. (Lucius Fox)

5. The Helper, aids the hero on their journey to restore equilibrium.
(alfred)
6. The Dispatcher, they send the hero on the task to restore
equilibrium. (Commissioner Gordon)
7. The False Hero, a character that appears to be good but turns out
to be bad. (Harvey Dent)

To help set the mood and the tone for the films, directors will make good use of
lighting. A lot of scenes will take place in a dark shadowy area to add aspects of
tension and mystery. They use the technique of using low key lighting to create
heavy dark shadows, basically you use one light creates these heavy dark shadows
and it is very usefull when the camera is focused on one person as it brings out a lot
more features in their face and also add more depth to the emotions that the actors
are trying to portray.






The Godfather.

Fight club.

The use of camera angles helps engage the audience and make them feel part of the
production. The director will incorporate a range of different shots to effectively
engage the audience. They will typically use a mixture of close ups, high angle, low
angle and establishing shots.
Close up shots show a characters face up close and show in greater detail the
emotions they are going through, they normally great for a reaction shot and was
used effectively in Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho.

High angle shots are used to make a character look weak and powerless, the camera
will be high and above them and it will typically be from the point of view of the
attacker and it makes the viewer feel powerful and the character look weak.
Low angle shots make the audience feel weak and helpless. There is a scene in
reservoir dogs where this is used to great effect, basically the main protagonists are
a group of bank robbers and the robbery has not gone to plan, a member of the
group has kidnapped a cop and the he is in the trunk of the car and the audience is
looking at the protagonists from the perspective of the cop who is in the trunk.
Establishing shots basically are used to set the tone for the scene, they are normally
wide angled and they show the location where the scene will take place and dictate
the feel of the scene.

Low angle shot

High angle shot

Close up

Establishing shot

One of the most important roles when making a film is the role of the editor. The
editor is given all of the footage and given direction from the director in regards to
how they want to movie to look. Two different people could edit the same movie but
both movies could have a completely different feel to it depending on how the editor

interprets it. When editing a crime thriller they will normally try and use quick
camera changes and plenty of quick edits as it adds a lot more excitement to the
scene.
Story telling is crucial in any film and one technique that is particularly effective is
the use of mise-en-scene, this is basically the placement of everything in the shot
and can be used instead of dialogue to tell the story. As Albert Hitchcock once said,
if its a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a
perfectly clear idea of what was going on. 11He brilliantly demonstrates this in the
opening of his movie Rear Window. The opening is recorded in a single shot and it
sets the narrative for the film. The opening shows the location for the whole movie,
introduces us to the main characters and it gives us all of the background
information. It does this without any dialogue and using only props and camera
angles. During the opening we learn that its the summer, the thermometer shows
90 degrees Fahrenheit, then we see that the main character has a broken leg and it
shows us his smashed camera along side pictures from a crash at a racetrack, from
this we know that he broke his leg when he was filming the race. It is a fantastic
opening and a great example of how effective mise-en-scene is when used well.
Mise-en-scene can be used to create all kinds of moods and feelings and sets the
scene well, which is very important in the Thriller genre.

11 Alfred Hitchcock.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alfredhitc141870.html

Telling us the Temperature.

Telling us the protagonists name.

Showing us he is a photographer.

Showing us how he got injured.

The Last code and convention we will discuss is sound, sounds are used to create
meaning and understanding for the audience. There are two types of sound used in
film. Diegetic (sound whose source is visible on the screen) and Non-diegetic (Sound
that is not visible in the scene) both are vey important to the film. Sounds are used
to show the characters emotions and feelings to help engage the audience. It is used
to set the mood and the tones for the scene and to help build suspense and tension.

To be honest, before I started this essay I had the preconceived idea that genre was
very limited and not overly that useful, but throughout the research period I
realized that genre is actually in fact extremely useful and provides a history of
form, style and shot list indicators that are to making genre movies.
In my opinion during the pre-production stage, knowing what genre your film is
going to be helps you plan your treatment and learn more about your target
audience and what they will be expecting from the movie. Of course genre has some
limitations, if we make it prescriptive. However, the history of genre shows the form

is very dynamic and capable of incorporating so much that has resulting in it

evolving a hybrid nature to accommodate changing audience perspectives. It is a
very reflective and reflexive concept and grows with audiences increasingly
sophisticated tastes and expectations. The challenge is trying to be ahead of its
audiences who ultimately control its destiny.
Genre engages a very dynamic interplay between producers and audiences.
Audience readings are individual. Viewers interpret movies differently so one
persons thriller could be another persons horror. For the audience, genre is a
known that allows them to pick and chose what movies they think they will enjoy.
Equally they want to be challenged by the film and their own expectations so the
boundaries of genre are limitless.
In conclusion I believe that genre is and will continue to be relevant and extremely
important to the film industry and that without its rich history and its evolutionary
form, the film industry would look completely different.

Bibliography
4

Abercrombie, N. (1996). Television and society. Cambridge, UK:

Polity Press.
5

Allen, R. (1992). Channels of discourse, reassembled. Chapel

Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
6

Bordwell, D. (1989). Making meaning. Cambridge, Mass.:

Harvard University Press.
2

Boyd-Barrett, O. and Newbold, C. (1995). Approaches to media.

London: E. Arnold.
3

Buckingham, D. (1993). Children talking television. London:

Falmer Press.
7

Cook, P. and Bernink, M. (1999). The cinema book. London: BFI

Pub.
1

Miller, C. (2015). Genre as Social Action (1984), Revisited 30

Years Later (2014). Letras & Letras, pp.56-72.