Case Study Of Genre

Genre

Genre is a category to which a type of media belongs to, according to certain content and manner. Genre also works as a template, for film makers a certain genre will have expectations to present through their film.


Conventions and paradigms -
Genre function according to set of rules and conventions, which govern their capacity and range. They respond to these rules and conventions by developing formulas and patterns. Over time, these formulas and patterns may acquire not only typical, but even archetypal force, dominating ways of seeing and representing the world around us.

Paradigm = The overall pattern created by a film that helps us categorise is, almost seen as a template.

Conventions = The individual elements which help specify which genre a film belongs to. For example the conventions of genre would be weapons, explosions, car chases etc.

Why do we categorise films?

We categorise films so they're easy to find. Categorising separated the different interests. Making it easy for the viewers to find, so they can watch a film in the genre that they like.
For example romance genre should represent love, romance, happy endings, break ups. Films also belong to certain genres to make it easier for the audience, so if they are interested and enjoy a certain genre it will be easy for them to find a film which suits them by finding films under the category of their chosen genre. Furthermore film stars can associate themselves with a particular genre that they like to take part in e.g. Will Ferrell is known for slapstick comedy, when his face is shown the audience they will suddenly recognise what kind of film they are likely to see if he is being shown.

The idea of genre grew with the evolution of the film industry, although it was particularly developed in Hollywood in the 1920/1930s. If you know the genre you want to categorise you can target the correct target audience.

Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct from artistic style.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconography