What is 'GENRE'?'

The word 'genre' comes from the French word meaning 'kind' or 'class'. To us, genre is the category a piece of media text comes from. Foe example the genre of a book, a film, a play can range from horror, thriller, action/adventure, rom-com, romance, comedy, sci-fi to drama. 

There are many ways to help us establish the genre of a film... 

We can look at the sounds in films. A rom-com film may include: diagetic sounds of kissing, laughing- soundtrack would stereotypically be upbeat, happy, may include the word 'love' etc.

We could also focus on the type of camera angles and edits the film uses. A horror film may use: low angled shots to make things appear bigger, more powerful and more menacing, over the shoulder shots to suggest the idea that someone is following them, quick edits to create a feeling of fear and suspense. (The Dutch tilt angle used in 'Virus' was typical of horror films)

Or we could look at the mise-en-scene. The mise-en-scene in an action/adventure film may include weapons and bombs, the weather is usually rainy and the more important fight scenes occur in the night to make it more frightening, army uniforms (Green Zone) sweaty, muscular, dirty men etc.





All these things help us to define the genre of the film. 
Genre is the expectation and template for creativity...