1B Genre Essay

 Question - Analyse one of your productions in terms of Genre.

Genre is a style, especially within art and media that involves using a particular set of characteristics to portray an overall theme such as horror. Genre was a key concept in our AS coursework film opening, our film was called 'Untamed' fitting into the genre of Teen Drama. The film opening followed the life of Aubrey an 18-year-old girl who opposed her mother Carol portraying drama and conflict within the family.

Throughout the production, we portrayed Genre using characters, editing, dialogue and Mise-en-scene. We also used the work of theorists such as Daniel Chandler and Steve Neale to analyse and display the concept of genre.

To make our film opening recognisable to the genre of Teen Drama we used our editing skills to show quick cuts and blurry effects over the opening footage of Aubrey walking home dunk after a party, the use of this editing allows the audience to connect with the character of Aubrey as it represents her drunkenness which the audience can relate too using the clever editing techniques. We also used props such as a bottle of Vodka to make it clear that Aubrey was not in a good state. The use of this opening scene with teenage Aubrey helps to portray the genre of Teen drama as it comes across that Aubrey is vulnerable and indicates that drama is to follow. 

The screen time throughout the film opening is mainly on Aubrey this shows teenage empowerment and reinforces the genre of Teen Drama. She is also on the cover of the film poster and the background of the website which shows Aurbrey by herslef at night looking away from the camea this creates imagery that perhaps Aubrey is in danger and is being watched indicating that the genre is Teen Drama.

We also used the concept of sound through the use of dialogue to portray the drama and conflict at home, this is seen when Aubrey gets home to be told off by her mother who has been up all night waiting for her. The mother and daughter both raise their voices at one another which exaggerates the concept of drama. Aubrey then decides to run away, we again used quick editing and the background music to the song 'I kissed A Girl' by Katy Perry to highlight how Aubrey was rebelling against her mother. To show the rebellion and drama from Aubrey we used a hand-held camera which was unstable and shaky reflecting the relationship Aubrey has with her mother.

As well as using editing and camera work skills to enforce our genre we also used theorists. Daniel Chandler states that conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content. We used this theory that Genre is conventional it can be seen through the differences between our two characters used for instance Aubrey is young and free spirited, Carol is older and strict and expects her daughter to listen to her. This basic representation of conflict shows the obvious genre of teen drama which the audience would be able to relate too. We also looked at theorist Steve Neale whose theory is repetition and differences, which states that all genres contain instances of repetition and differences of stereotypical genres. We used this theory as we displayed elements of this in our film opening as its stereotypical for Teen Dramas to show family conflict or some sort of troubled/ rebellious teenager. This can be seen in the shot where Aubrey is running away late at night after the argument with her mum, this conforms to the stereotypical rebellious teenage character in most Teen Drama genre films.

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