Genre: blog tasks

 Genre: blog tasks

Work through the following tasks on your Exam blog. There is a lot of work here - factsheets to read and questions to answer before carrying out your own in-depth blog case study on a moving image text of your choice.

Task 1: Genre factsheets

Complete the following tasks using the Media Factsheets available on the Media Shared drive. You'll find them in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or can access them online using your Greenford Google login here.

Read Media Factsheet 03 - Genre: Categorising texts and answer the following questions:

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

The example is science-fiction e.g. the mise en scene of deep space, usually indicates the genre of sci-fi (the visual iconography such as repeated codes and conventions allow us to recognise genres).

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

Example, 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.

3) What are the different ways films can be categorised according to Bordwell? 

• Period or Country, e.g. US films of the 1930s

• Director / Star, e.g. Ben Stiller Films

• Technical Process, e.g. Animation

• Style, e.g. German Expressionism;

• Series, e.g. Bond;

• Audience, e.g. Family Films

4) List three ways genre is used by audiences.

1. They use their prior knowledge of the genre to anticipate whether or not they are likely to enjoy a text. This helps when selecting a media text whether it is a lifestyle magazine, a film or a television programme.
2.  They are able to compare a text through its shared characteristics with another. If you try to describe a TV programme to someone who has not seen it, you are likely to define its genre and then clarify what other text it is similar to.
3.  They also use their knowledge of genre to reject a text. For many of us there will be genres we actively dislike and therefore will avoid accessing texts we assume to hold those characteristics.

5) List three ways genre is used by institutions or producers.

a) Production- Genres are paradigms or templates media producers can follow. If a media producer wants to produce a new sit-com, there are certain ’rules’ that must be followed. This actually makes life easier for writers and producers as they don’t have to invent things from scratch. They can also look to successful examples

of the genre and attempt to replicate what was popular and, of course, avoid the mistakes made by texts which have disappointed the audience.

b) Attracting an Audience- Some genres have loyal fan-bases. People will try out a new sit-com simply because it’s a new sit-com and this can help media producers minimise the potential for failure.

c) Marketing Texts- Good examples of this are film trailers which usually attempt to clearly define the genre of the film and then show as many of the codes and conventions in the trailer. This acts to attract fans of the genre and set up the expectations 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.

1. The X men franchise- superman
2. The avengers franchise including Iron man, Captain America, The Hulk etc
3. Spiderman films
4. Guardians of the galaxy
5. Agents of Shield

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

At each period of time we can see the superhero offers slightly different narratives. He faces different villains, has to overcome different obstacles and has different types of relationships with the women in his life. The superhero genre has to fit in with the dominant values of the day if audiences are going to be able to relate to such a fantastical story. Genres replicate cultural myths and fears and by addressing them within stories a culture is able to play out those fears and concerns. Genres offer ideological reassurance when the narratives offer a resolution that addresses these fears and especially when the fears are overcome. Conventional superhero texts tend to show the hero defeating the enemy so this is often seen as one of the more reassuring of genres.

3) How can Schatz's theory of genre cycles be applied to the Superhero genre?

•  Innovation: The visual codes for the superhero genre were largely established via the comic books. As soon as film and TV began to use the comic book characters other codes and conventions regarding the presentation of the genre in moving image were set. This can be seen in the early superhero shorts of the 1940s.
• Classical: By the 1950s the superhero genre could be seen to be in its classical stage with the codes and conventions being replicated in the film and TV programmes of the time.
• Parody: Batman (1966) was intentionally funny and camp and wouldn’t let its audience take the superhero too seriously. It had an ironic tone that flagged up the daft nature of the genre and allowed the audience to enjoy the awareness of that. After Batman, the classical and parodic versions of the genre were largely located in children’s animation, from Spider-Man whose animated adventures were on TV from the late 1960s, to the less than serious versions of the genre in Mighty Mouse (a perennially popular cartoon first made in the 1940s), Atom Ant (from the late 60s), Captain Caveman (from the late 70s) amongst many, many more.
• Deconstruction: Superman (1978) started a new cycle in the superhero genre with technology leading the innovation with special effect 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 - successfully in the case of these two franchises. This brings the genre back to a period of innovation when new ideas and new developments create interesting new ideas within the genre

Task 2: Genre analysis case study

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:

Link to the trailer:

https://youtu.be/AL9zLctDJaU    

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

Prison break- because it is a really good show and it very easily communicates genre due to mise-en-scene shown.

2) To what genre did you initially assign the text?

Crime and action/adventure genre because the main settings are in prisons and also the whole show is about cons escaping prisons and committing crimes but with good intentions.

3) What is your experience of this genre?

I don't have any experience of this genre as I don't usually watch many crime films or TV shows but this specific show caught my interest because it has a fascinating and exciting narrative.

4) What subject matter and basic themes is the text concerned with?

The subject matter is a guy who broke his brother out of prison as he was falsely accused of murdering the President's brother. So on good intentions, he fakes a crime and gets arrested and put in the same prison as his brother so that he can break him out but he then gathers many partners that he is forced to break out too even though he didn't want to.

5) How typical of the genre is this text in terms of content?

It is typical as the show is set in many prisons which is a key feature of the crime genre but it also has a very different narrative to most crime films and shows because it falsifies the need to commit a crime on bad intentions and subverts the typical aspect of bad people and gangsters that are normally conveyed in the crime genre as it opposes negative messages that are typically portrayed.

6) What expectations do you have about texts in this genre?

The expectations would be bad people, gang violence and hostile imagery, which are all shown as key conventions of crime but they also subvert these features.

7) Have you found any formal generic labels for this particular text (where - try imdb.com if unsure)?

Prison break, Crime files, Crime prevention scare films etc.

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

I recognise antagonists and criminals who will never learn to improve themselves or be rehabilitated and there are also many weapons used with guns at the ready on almost all the characters and there are also a few damsels in distress who according to the props character types theory are also a part of crime texts being saved by either a criminal who has had good character development or by the hero.

9) To what extent does this text stretch the conventions of its genre?

It stretches it quite a bit because although it contains many of the main features of the crime genre, it also shows a narrative that opposes key aspects of it. 

10) Where and why does the text depart from the conventions of the genre?

such as having no main character as a hero and everyone being intentionally bad criminals. 

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

There are also a lot of aspects of the action genre since the characters are always on the run throughout all the seasons with no settling down or sense of peace as they always had some motive to reach.

12) What familiar motifs or images are used?

There is familiar motifs of escape and running from the cops as they are under good intentions but physically committing bad crimes for good reasons and the show symbolises that the heroes can always beat the bad guys even though it takes an extremely long time to and a lot of motivation to pull through.

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)?

Teenagers and young adults but also adults in general as the narrative is really interesting so it attracts all audiences except children who may not like crime and due to reasons such as gang violence. It is also very family friendly as it forms personal relationships with the characters who will do anything to save their family members.

2) What assumptions seem to be made about your class, age, gender and ethnicity?

It shows that people of the lower class tend to be more evil and sneaky, turning out to be criminals with negative thought processes because they don't have enough knowledge to succeed in life or be a good person.

3) What interests does it assume you have?

Interests in the crime genre and in violent scenes as well as a family friendly narrative because it forms personal relationships with the characters who will do anything to save their family members.

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.

It interlinks with the Odyssey and the Shawshank redemption.

2) In terms of genre, which other texts does the text you are analysing resemble most closely?

The Odyssey because it mirrors the narrative of the brothers (main characters) journey home with the Odyssey's return.

3) What key features are shared by these texts?

They all show aspects of action/adventure as well as criminality and weaponry, violent images and bad people.

4) What major differences do you notice between them?

Prison break is a modern action TV series about brothers escaping prison and fighting a conspiracy while the Odyssey is an ancient Greek epic poem about the hero Odysseus's long and perilous journey home after the Trojan War.