genre blog task

Genre: blog tasks

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. Please note that you won't be able to access these factsheets from home so make sure you save the relevant PDFs to a USB, your Google Drive or email them to yourself.

Create a new blogpost in your Exam blog called 'Genre blog tasks' and complete the following:

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

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

"A screen behind the character at the desk and the combination

of media language choices creates an image we associate with a

news broadcast"

The example given was a screen behind a person with specific jargon that viewers now instantly recognise as The News.

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

"Some genres have particular types of story lines. For 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"

Different genres are naturally geared towards dealing with different themes, meaning the story lines will be similar in concept throughout a genre. An example of this could be the horror genre where a creepy doll is haunting characters. This has been repeated countless times.  

3) What is the difference between character representation in action movies and disaster movies?

"Where the action hero is isolated from other people, the disaster

movie usually often places the heroic role within a group of people."

Action movies deal more with the main character being misunderstood, smarter and stronger than everyone else in the movie. It's more of an ego trip whereas disaster movies are groups of people working together.

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

He came up with many more potential methods of categorisation –

these are just some examples:

• 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

5) List three ways genre is used by audiences.

-It informs their taste, meaning if they enjoy certain conventions in a genre, they will like those same conventions in another series or film of the same genre.

-The audience will have certain expectations of genre.

-The genre can also inform dislikes

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

-A template for media producers to follow so it's not as hard to establish their product

-Attracts an audience

-marketing texts

7) What film genre is used as an example of how genres evolve? What films and conventions are mentioned?

Gangster movies are mentioned. The hiding of a gun in a violin case. Producers had to evolve this concept as it became cliched.
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.

-Avengers Assemble (2013)

-Scott Pilgrim (2010)

-Chronicle (2012)

-Super (2010)

-Spiderman

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

-Early Superman fought Europeans to mirror the WWII zeitgeist

-Lex Luther was the ultimate capitalist during the great depression

-Two Faced from Batman Forever was a response to blurred lines over what was good and what was bad. Audience now needed more depth to characters.

-The ensemble cast of mutants in X-men experience prejudice akin to racism and homophobia

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

Finally, 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:

On SkinsGeneral

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

I enjoyed it the writing of certain characters and plots greatly.

2) In what context did you encounter it?

I found it on Netflix.

3) What influence do you think this context might have had on your interpretation of the text?

No previous concept of the programme.

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

Teen Drama.

5) What is your experience of this genre?

Not overwhelmingly positive, there are a lot of shows that aren't my 'thing' in this genre.

6) What subject matter and basic themes is the text concerned with?
The wacky adventures of 6th formers living in Bristol.

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

(based off https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TeenDrama)
-actors are actually adults(x) 
  they got teenagers to play the teenage parts
-unnecessary sex appeal for a female audience (x)
   Maybe sometimes, however I can't think of any examples and I think too highly of the writing staff.
-no more than two non-white main characters (0) 
-teens talk like adults, not teenagers(x)
    to their credit, they use British slang and each character has a different pattern of speech.

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

I typically expect them to be like 13 Reasons Why and the new Heathers. Where they have a quirk but ultimately don't do anything interesting or watchable with it. A lot of teen dramas are stuck in the 'Cliched' phase of Schatz's cycle.

9) Have you found any formal generic labels for this particular text (where)?

Netflix

10) What generic labels have others given the same text?

Comedy Drama

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

-Ensemble cast
-stock character types
-multiple narratives
-aim for realism (not very good though)

12) To what extent does this text stretch the conventions of its genre?
It deals with a lot of hot topic issues affecting teenagers across Britain.

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

There are lots of romantic subplots, making Skins sort of like a romance drama.

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)?
Teenage but mostly 18+
(Teenage) but 18+

2) How does the text address you?

I am in the target audience.

3) What sort of person does it assume you are?

Someone who would find the actions in Skins shocking, and therefore interesting.

4) What assumptions seem to be made about your class, age, gender and ethnicity?
teenage, mostly white, upper working class and middle.

5) What interests does it assume you have?
teenage life

Relationship to other texts

1) What intertextual references are there in the text you are analysing (and to what other texts)?

There is a reference to Carrie in Cassie's episode when she's leaving the clinic's office.

2) Generically, which other texts does the text you are analysing resemble most closely?
13 Reasons Why

3) What key features are shared by these texts?

-ensemble cast
-dark subject matter

4) What major differences do you notice between them?

-Skins has more of an episodic narrative with a few overarching plot lines over episodes whereas 13 reasons has one huge overarching narrative with episodic narratives thrown in.