Genre Theorists

Seeking genre theorists is quite essential I think. It makes myself acknowledge  the attitudes, assumptions and expectations about a text which makes sense of it.

John Hartley
John Hartley states ''The same text can belong to different genres in different countries or times''. Meaning that the same text can be adapted to to fit multiple genres for example, Mamma Mia can be adapted to many genres like romance, comedy and musical. What is important is where the narrative mainly emphasised, for Mamma Mia you see many songs being sung which fits the main genre of 'musical'. The overall point of genre is to categorise the film, and thats it. It should not limit ones creative potential.
Here is an example of how a text can be changed from a comedy, family film to a serious and action packed one. This is done by emphasising the narrative particularly and by doing this they used special effects, colour grading, music and other editing techniques.

This makes me think about my own short film that the techniques I use need to be used correctly and well to make it obvious of what genre and narrative I am trying to seek. John Hartley has been very useful in researching as it has made me question myself to be more carefully in research and I will need to research thoroughly and see the typical conventions of what field I am going down and using.

John Fiske
John defines genres as 'attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for the convenience of both producers and audiences'. This theory is concerned about how genre creates a pattern in fact, that constantly follows the genre conventions it is known for. 

Of course my short film will follow traits of John Fiske's theory as the majority of my short film will follow the same genre conventions of what genre I choose. However I also want to include a lot of originality within my product, so in other ways I will challenge this theory too.


Tom Ryall
Ryall states that 'genres may be defined as patterns/forms/styles/structures which transcend individual films, and which supervise both their construction by the film maker, and their reading by an audience'. He proposes a theory that the type of conventions found in genres can be grouped within the following categories:
Iconographies - symbolic symbols associated with the genre
Narrative - structure, open/closed
Representations - characters/stereotypes
Ideologies - beliefs and ideas of the 'ideal' concept, themes

Moreover, his theory holds that conventions of a media text should be very clearly defined so that the audience is made aware of the genre. However also some elements should be different to keep it unique and abstract.