Genre

Genre plays a big part in the research of short films, in this project i will have to look at whether my short film will follow the codes and conventions of a genre or not. Theorist Richard Maltby said " The success of Hollywood is reliant on the combination of predictable elements with variation". He is saying that all Hollywood films should follow the codes and conventions of their typical genre. So for example a romantic comedy would typically have a boy and girl falling in love, they would be young and it would be a predictable ending.



Another media theorist Rick Altman disagrees with Richard Maltbys theory, he says that " Genres are restricted and they do not allow or acknowledge the hybrid". He is saying that Genres shouldnt stick to the codes and conventions of that genre but have a blend of different genres.

I think my short film will follow some codes and conventions of a typical genre but maybe not all of them.
There are 5 different reasons why people watch certain films or television programmes, such as



1. Social


2. Escapism


3. Entertainment


4. Personal Identity


5. Information



This is known as the Gratification Theory.




We researched different genres of short films that we could look into and brainstormed ideas, by looking at some genres we realised it would be too difficult to create a short film about certain genres as we wouldn't have the equipment and it would take up too much of our time.


We decided by looking into different genres that we would want to mainly concentrate on comedy, although it may have elements of different genres, as we may not be able to just stick to the one. Therefore my short fim will not just be comedy but follow conventions of others.