Some Genre Ideas
20 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in A2 Theory
Genre is a French term with Latin roots – it means TYPE or KIND.
In Media / Film Studies we often ask the question “To what genre does this film belong?” or in other words “What type of film is this?”
Genre is both a description and a form of classification. To place a film within a genre, we must be able to describe the individual film, and we must be able to explain the principals on which it can meaningfully associated with other films of that genre.
Genre study is a formal way of examining the system of conventions whereby genre establish patterns of repetition; but this goes further because GENRES ARE NOT CLOSED – THEY ARE PARTLY OPEN SYSTEMS which need to stay the same in order to survive, BUT genres also need to retain the possibility of change and innovation.
Genres are then COMPLEX SITES of CULTURAL REPITITION and CULTURAL DIFFERENCE. To understand genre you must understand patterns of fixity and patterns of change.
THE WORLD of GENRES
Much genre theory has been based on Westerns.
Westerns are historical films which depict a world which disappeared in the early 1900s (say 1914). Many Westerns concerned the opening up of the frontier to white European settlers. Concepts included the ideological transformation of a desert into a garden. Tensions focussed on legal struggles over property and possessions.
Western also presented filmmakers with great locations. Western is a great ‘location’ genre. In this environment the cowboy (white civilised American) will be obliged to meet his racial ‘other’ – the Indian or savage. The result is a clash between white civilisation and primitive Indian over the issue of Indian land.
The Western explores various historical realities with all their legal, geographical and racial dimensions, but it also explores questions of personal identity, usually in the form of heroic male quest for personal self-definition and self-validation, often in opposition to other competing identities such as the savage and the bandit.
The Western moves between norms of a morality play and an existential drama in this negotiation between broad social consideration and those of the individual ‘character’.
Genre Research
12 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in A2 Theory
Genre:
Different types of genre are used for different types of film/trailer. For my own personal trailer, I am thinking of using a comedy/romance genre. I’ve been looking at the typical romcom film trailers on youtube, such as Wild Child.
I’ve noticed the fast transitions in this trailer, and at the beginning of the trailer as she’s on the phone to ‘Ruby’- this scene is not in the film itself. Also at the beginning the ‘montage’ of different scenes are split so you can see what kind of life she has. I think this is a clever idea for my trailer, to show how perfect her life is to begin with. I want my trailer to have more of a story to it rather than a typical romcom, I want it to be a family film. They’ve managed to do the transitions in time with the sound. When it thunders, the transisitions flash and get faster. It’s the same with the scene when she flashes the camera. Each transition flashes in time with the shutter. Upbeat soundtrack until the dilemma of the film arrives. In this film, there’s two dilemmas. Once the trailer is back on track with the happy/funny scenes, the music starts again but with a different song, and again, ends with another. It has short sounds when an object is pulled out. ‘Poppy’ pulls out her phone and you hear a small ‘whipping’ sound. I think it’s clever to use that as it joins the soundtrack and the footage together rather than leave them seperate. This film’s quite funny so it shows some of the funny scenes- not all of them and not the funniest ones. And you see the ‘clique’ that is ‘Harriet’ and her followers. It shows a scene to show that dilemma as the tea is poured over her while she’s sat on the bench. The style of this trailer tells the story in a basic way. I’m particularly looking at this genre because I’d like to base my own trailer on this type of movie.
Narrative Research
06 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in A2 Theory
Discourse time and narrative time are two main elements of duration. From wikipedia; ‘The separation between an event and its narration means that there is discourse time and narrative time.’ The work of Gérard Genette → Gérard Genette suggests that Voice is concerned with who narrates, and from where.
Fabula and Sujet
Please click the thumbnail to read the definition of Fabula and Sujet. This distinguishes plot and story as the Fabula is the story, and the Sujet is the plot. The plot is unchronological, and the fabula/story is chronological.
Binary Opposition- In critical theory, a binary opposition is a pair of terms or concepts that are theoretical opposites. In structuralism, a binary opposition is seen as a fundamental organiser of human philosophy, culture, and language. In the community of philosophers and scholars, most believe that ‘unless a distinction can be made rigorous and precise, it isn’t really a distinction’. In post-structuralism, it is seen as several influential characteristics or tendancies of Western and Western-derived thought, and that typically, one of the two opposites assumes a role of dominance over the other. The categorization of binary oppositions is ‘often value-laden and ethnocentric’, with the illusory order and superficial meaning.
Narrative Research
06 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in A2 Theory
Here is some research on narrative. I have used the Mediachs site and the narrative page for ideas to contribute to this.
Conventional Narrative Has: 1)A plot development in which there is a logical relation between one event and another. 2) A sense of closure at the end. 3) Stories that are focused on characters. 4) A narrative style that attempts to be more-or less objective.
On the theory side of media studies, there are two theories that were created for narrative. Vladimir Propp was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analysed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. Born on 17th April 1895, died 22nd August 1970. The narrative structure that he looked at contained thirty one functions and eight characters-
Functions; Absentation, interdiction, violation of interdiction, reconnaissance, delivery, trickery, complicity, villainy/lack, mediation, beginning counter-action, departure, first function of the donor, hero’s reaction, receipt of a magical agent, guidance, struggle, banding, victory, liquidation, return, persuit, rescue, unrecognized arrival, unfounded claims, difficult task, solution, recognition, exposure, transfiguration, punishment, wedding.
As quoted from Wikipedia, ‘Some of these functions are inverted, as when the hero receives something while still at home, the function of a donor occurring early.’
As for the characters that Propp devised-
The villain- stuggles against the hero.
The donor- prepares the hero or gives the hero a magical object.
The (magical) helper- helps the hero in the quest.
The princess/prize- the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero’s journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
Her father- gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
The dispatcher-character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
The hero or victim/ seeker hero- reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
False Hero- takes credit for the hero’s action and tries to marry the princess.
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