EVALUATION - The Genre Theory

John Hartely - "Genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the meaning-potential of a given text"

Genre allows producers to know that their film production is economical. If a film keeps to the basic rules of a genre then they know the audience will be happy.

Neale 1980 - "One way of defining a genre is as a set of expectations"

The producers are expected to follow the majority of these expectations in order to make the film unique.

Nicholas Abercrombie - "Part of the pleasure is knowing what the genre rules are, knowing that the programme has to solve problems in the genre framework, and wondering how it is going to do so."

Steve Neale 1980 - "repetition and difference"

Abercrombie argued that thepleasure comes from "observing how the conventions of the genre are manipulated"

How the genre theory applies to our Coursework -

Our film follows the typical conventions of a thriller, whilst following the basic plotline of "problem --> questions --> danger --> solved."

The mystery of a thriller is what keeps the audience hooked. Since this is one of the main conventions of a thriller this is mainly what our narrative revolves around.

The part of the film which is individual to that film is the mystery. This is the unique part which the audience is not expecting, it sets it apart from other films and makes it worth the audience going to see it.

Lucy :)