6/9 06. Genre and Film Conventions Free Online FlashCards

What is film genre?

Genre is a flexible category grouping films through recurring patterns of story, character, setting, style, subject matter, emotional effect, or audience appeal.

What is a genre convention?

A genre convention is a recurring narrative, stylistic, or thematic feature that audiences learn to associate with a genre.

What are the two broad types of genre conventions?

Narrative conventions concern plot, character roles, conflicts, goals, and endings; stylistic conventions concern lighting, editing, camera work, color, costume, music, and design.

What is the genre contract?

The genre contract is the exchange in which films provide familiar signals and audiences expect recognizable conventions, while filmmakers may alter those conventions to create surprise.

How does genre combine repetition and difference?

Genre develops through repetition and difference: films repeat established conventions while varying their combinations, perspectives, tones, performances, settings, or thematic problems.

How do confirmation, modification, and reversal differ?

Confirmation uses a convention as expected; modification changes an element of it; reversal turns the convention against itself or overturns its usual meaning.

What is genre hybridity?

Genre hybridity occurs when a film combines conventions from two or more genres, such as romance and comedy in a romantic comedy.

What is a genre cycle?

A genre cycle is a concentrated period when many films repeat and develop a particular formula, subject, character type, or cultural concern.

What stages commonly describe a genre cycle?

The commonly used cycle model includes emergence, classical period, revision, parody or exhaustion, and decline or renewal.

How does genre knowledge shape audience experience?

Audiences use genre knowledge to choose films, anticipate events and emotions, interpret formal choices, compare examples, and evaluate how films fulfill or frustrate conventions.

What cultural work do genres perform?

Genres perform cultural work by expressing, negotiating, reinforcing, or challenging social values and anxieties through familiar stories, images, characters, and plots.

What does formal genre analysis examine?

Formal analysis examines recurring shots, editing, lighting, color, sound, and music, including how these features create fear, comedy, suspense, romance, or spectacle.