THE COMMODIFICATION OF THE ART OF THE FILM

What is Genre?  We know that genre is a type or category. We usually use it to refer to literature or art.  Like all classification systems, genre is a construction of the human mind, a way of sorting things out according to what they are like.  In film, genre has been consciously used by production companies for many years to create films that will sell to selected audiences. It is a way of ensuring as far as possible that the film will create the expected response in the audience.

Why does it work?  We like to think that we are unique individuals. If we were, then genre wouldn’t work, because there would be no way anyone could predict what our response to a film might be.  Genre works by using conventions to manipulate our emotional responses to a film.

How it works  Film techniques are used to set up responses that are often almost unconscious. The fact that they work is attested by the shared emotional experience of an audience to a film.  Genres appeal to different hopes, fears, desires, dreams and preoccupations that we have and, to a certain extent, share.

Genres in Children of Men  Road Movies – these include films like Thelma and Louise, Easy Rider, Goodbye Pork Pie etc.  They will involve a journey, usually to get away from someone, something etc. The journey will become more difficult and complicated as the story progresses.  Relationships will change in the course of the journey – discoveries are made, people become closer or are driven apart, characters’ lives are transformed.  As the end of the journey approaches, tension builds towards the film’s climactic moments.

THELMA AND LOUISE CONFRONTATION AT THE ROAD HOUSE

Science Fiction.  All science fiction is based on a theoretical possibility – a “what if” – that is capable of scientific explanation. Hence Star Wars is science fiction, while Harry Potter is fantasy.  In sci-fi, we expect to see characters exploring the possibilities and grappling with the consequences of future change. As a rule, we do not expect to see the world as we know it.

BLADERUNNER FUTURISTIC BUILDINGS – THE TYRELL CORPORATION

 Future societies are usually portrayed as either recognisable variants of contemporary society (Star Wars; I, Robot) or as Dystopias. In the former, the social and political setting is relatively unimportant; in the latter, it is very important.  Dystopias are political sci-fi, that play on nightmarish expectations of a future world characterised by harsh, devious, authoritarian and dictatorial governments; technology used to control, restrict and delude people; the heavy and obvious presence of security forces; and the absence of normal concepts of civil society – no civil rights; often basic human activities (such as childbirth and child-rearing) are interfered with.

 In dystopias, advertising techniques recognisable by a modern audience are used to brainwash the masses – see 1984 & The Handmaid’s Tale.  Dystopian heroes are usually rebels, often initially unwilling rebels, who are forced to try and deceive or defy the status quo in order to achieve something for the greater good.

In 1984 modern mass media – wall screens and films - are used for overtly propagandist purposes