What is Genre?

A Genre is a category of art, music, or literature. Genres are used as a way to categorise different products that share similar features or charcateristics. Genres are particularly important in the media and film industries because they:

• Help quickly establish differences between different media forms.

• Help to establish certain codes and conventions that film makers can follow in order to make the product look a certain way, achieve a certain effect&attract a specific audience.
• Help to establish certain expectations and familiarity in audiences.
• Help to audiences to develop personal tastes around genre and consumptions.

A few key things in genre is 

Sub-Genre: A sub-genre is a sub division of a genre of literature, music, film. etc

Genre Tropes: The use of figurative language in literature.

Hybrid Genre: A combination of different genres for example horror and thriller.

Examples of different types of genres are action and adventure, comedy, fantasy, western, thriller, horror, sci-fi, chick-flick, romance, drama and much more. 

1.

The first still image I'm going to analyse is from a film called Hush by Mike Flanagan's which is a horror. From this still image alone you can immediately tell Hush is a horror by the sinister effect created with the dark colours and mood. In the image you can see a character wearing a mask which creates a sense of mystery as you can see his face and also scares the audience slightly as you are not aware of the characters identity and could be anything. The camera is angled at a low angle shot which makes the character look big and intimidating, creating the illusion of the character been evil and a villain even before watching the film. Horror is a very interesting genre and what i most like about it, is that it creates tension and suspense with the audience leaving them always intrigued for more. Other examples of horror films are, The blair witch, The exorcist, and Scream. 

2.

The second still image is from a well known famous chick flick called Mean Girls. This popular chick flick has been very successful in the theatres and has been reported as one of the best teen films. The mis en scene makes the genre very clear and the audience can tell immediately the film is a teen drama chick flick. The use of the sterotyped feminine colour pink that all 4 characters are wearing portrays the target audience is mainly aimed at young girls. This immediately reflects back on the genre of the film. Teen dramas/Chick flicks are very popular within teenagers as they're very relatable to their real lives even though they're very much exaggerated there is some underlying truth in the content. Other which flicks I've enjoyed watching are clueless, bridesmaids and much more. 

3.

The third genre is Thriller.

Legendary

And NO not Thriller by Michael Jackson.....

The third still image is from another popular thriller, Final Destination. Horror films and thriller films may seem very alike but even with the similarities there are a lot of differences which make both genres diverse in their own way. Thriller films are much more gruesome and more exciting, they both have the intend to scare you but a thriller creates much more tension, excitement and had more narrative.  We can tell that this still image from final destination is a  thriller and not a horror as it dosent use dark colours to create a cold dark atmosphere like the still image from Hush did but instead has a more lighter complexion. However, the characters facial expressions show fear as you can tell they're frightened, screaming. This has the same effect as a horror as it scares the audience but uses a different method and more mystery.