Genre is highly important when it comes to institutions. It is important because it allows for the marketing porcess to be a lot easier as audiences can be predicted and targeted through the films in that specific genre. Genre is also important for audiences because it lets them choose/categorise what genre the film they're watching is - in terms of prediction, expectation and anticipation. The genre that I chose to use for my film opening was romance. I decided to do a romance genre as I thought it would be more appealing and interesting for both myself and the audience. My film opening consisted on a variety of different conventions that are found within the romance genre. It was important for me to include common conventions within my film opening to ensure that audience were able to connect my opening with a specfic genre - in this case romance and therefore know what to expect within it.
One key convention that I used within my film opening was the use of narration. It was important that I used narration within my opening as it is very common within existing romance films such as 'Dear John' and 'The Notebook' which were key films I anaylsed during the researched stage. Using narration allowed for the audience to categorise what genre my film opening was. It was also important for me to use a female voice to complete the narration as this was the most common type of narration used and therefore was a huge factor within my opening. I also decided to go against common conventions and use the voice of a male as well within my opening. I decided to do this to ensure that I was trying to expand the common conventions found and try to expand the genre as a whole. Stephen Neale (1980) said that 'Genres are instances of repetition and difference'. I think that this theory is an important part of my opening in terms of genre because I feel like I did exactly that with the narration. I ensured that I used a common convention that had be repeated within different romance films- in this case a female voice, as well as mixing it up and trying to create a sense of 'difference' by using a male voice.
Another important theory that is relatable to my film opening is Nick Lacey's 'Repertoire of Elements'. Nick Lacey broke down anaylsing genre into five specific areas. These areas were: setting, character, narrative, iconography and style. The setting was a huge part when deciding my genre as I needed to use a setting that created a sense of 'love' - in this case it was the house of the old woman and therefore helped show the audience that she had an emotional connection with the setting. The character played an important part within the role of the romance genre. In my film opening I featured an old widowed woman who had lost love. The use of an O.A.P indicated that the genre was romance because they are most commonly found within that specfic genre. I had to ensure that the narrative was similar to existing romance films by including common conventions such as love and tragedy - love being the past relationship between the main character and her husband and tragedy being the death of her husband. Iconography also played an important role within my film opening. The use of a hand written letter and old photograph of a couple indicated that the genre was romance because it allowed for the audience to understand the relationship between the two characters. Finally, the style of my film opening was the final piece in the puzzle which allowed the audience to break down the conventions and therefore decide what the genre was. The shot lengths were not face past but instead were slow and gave enough time to understand what was going on. The use of slow shots informs the audience that the genre is not fast or frantic but instead is calm and peaceful. The use of a slow piece of music also gave the audience a good idea to what the genre was because it set a calm and peaceful atmosphere/mood for the film opening. Nick Lacey's 'Repertoire of Elements played an important role within my film opening because it helped the audience to break it down and relate it to similarities within existing romance films.
In conclusion, genre played an important role within establishing whether my film opening related to romance. It was very helpful towards the audience as it was a huge factor in understanding what to look for in certain genres and to understand that the common conventions within my genre were found in other romances films, therefore demonstrating that I successfully used the conventions to show what genre my film opening was.
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