What is genre?

         GENRE           

Genre is a way of containing or categorising a media product based on its conventions. 

Genre is important to institutions because it helps them to identify their audience and market the film. This allows them to target the audience effectively as they know what conventions are needed in the film. This is done so that the institution can fulfil the expectations of the audience effectively.  

 

 

Genre is the main umbrella of categorising a film. An example of a genre is action, such as a comedy. This keeps the potential audience relatively small as a specific genre, such as romance, has a stereotypically mostly female audience. 

Sub-genre contains a category within the category of that genre. For example this might reveal the comedy is a dark comedy. Thus, making it even clearer to the audience what they can expect from the film. An example of this is the dark comedy Parasiste.

A hybrid-genre is when two or more main genres are merged together. This can be very effective in pleasing more than one audience. It can also make films more unpredictable which keeps films interesting as the audience is less sure of what audience they should expect from the film. This might have the ability to target a wider audience as they won't be sure of what emotions will be revoked.  For example, the horror-comedy film "Shaun of the Dead" offers the conventions of both horror and comedy films. A trailer for this film can be seen below.

 

With each genre, comes expectations from the audience. For example, if the audience is watching a horror film they may expect the setting to be a large house in a remote setting or to be set in a dark forest. They might also expect the victim to be a young girl or child. Above all, the audience wants to experience jump scares and experience suspense. On the other hand, if the audience is watching a comedy, they might expect to see an everyday situation that has been over-exaggerated to create a humorous effect. The audience wants to laugh and find a light-hearted escape in the film.

Research into a big institution

 Walt Disney 

Walt Disney studios, named after its creator Walt Disney, was started up by Walt Disney and his brother Roy in the rear of a small office based in Los Angeles. Here, the brothers created multiple short films, both animated and live-action. After four months, the company relocated next door in order to gain access to a larger workspace as the number of staff employed had grown significantly. At this point, the studio was known as “Disney Bros. Studio”. In 1925, the studio relocated again to the Silver Lake District, Los Angeles. In this new studio, over the next fourteen year many of the world’s beloved characters. Mickey Mouse, after which Pluto, Donald Duck and Goofy were also created. Today, the Walt Disney Studios are located in Burbank, California and has been formally named “The Walt Disney Company” since 1986. 

On 25th February 2020, it was announced that Bob Chapek would take on the role of Chief Executive Officer. The Walt Disney Company is not owned by one person, but multiple corporations and individuals. The largest current shareholder is the Vanguard Group Inc. Individuals with significant ownership include Bob Iger, the previous Chief Executive Officer of the company, as well as the CFO, Christine M. McCarthy and the general counsel, Alan Braverman. However, The Walt Disney Company owns other companies as well as their own. One of these companies is  21st Century Fox, which they have owned since 2019. Other companies include National Geographic, Marvel, Muppets Studio, ABC and GoPro. Moreover, they own significant shares in networks such as ESPN.

Walt Disney has enjoyed a number of successes in the box office since 1937 when “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was released. Their top five biggest box office successes include “The Avengers”, “The Lion King”, “Avengers: Infinity War”, “Star Wars: Episode VII - The force Awakens” and the highest grossing of all: “Avengers: Endgame” which generated a total of $2,797,501,328. In 2020, the highest grossing films produced by Disney included “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”, “Onward” and “Frozen II”. The budget for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”. The budget for these films ranged between $150 million and $275 million. 

Disney has employed a number of directors to work on their films, however there are some directors that have worked on a number of their most successful films. For example, Jennifer Lee, who directed “Frozen”, “Wreck it Ralph” and “Zootropolis”. Many of the same actors appear in a number of Marvel films such as in the “Avengers” franchise where many actors play the same character in multiple films. These actors include Robert Downey Jr who plays Iron Man and is also the producer of these films. Currently, Disney has thirteen movies in pre-production, eight in production and six in post-production. 

Being such a large institution comes with a number of advantages for The Walt Disney Company. The most significant of these is that the company is allowed greater creative freedom as they have bigger budgets and a great deal of financial security to rely upon if one of their movies were to be less successful than expected. It also means that they can use this budget to work in synergy with other companies and generate more revenue.

Research into a small institution

 Belstone Pictures

Belstone Pictures was started by the Chief Executive Officer Finn Cardigan Bruce in 2016 who gained an interest in film-making whilst studying at Hurtwood House. After leaving school, he wanted to continue his passion and this resulted in the creation of his own company, Belstone Pictures. Before setting up Belstone pictures, Finn Cardigan Bruce worked in London on a number of films and TV shows including “Top Gear” and “Downton Abbey” and then working as Executive Assistant to Shaun Redick and Ray Mansfield in Los Angeles. Belstone Pictures is currently based in Chelsea, London and is owned by its CEO and founder, Finn Cardigan Bruce. 

As of 2021, Belstone Pictures has released four films, one TV show and three short films. These films include “Tank 432”, “Tucked”, “Tracks” and “Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break”, however none of these have been released in cinemas. The most recent of these films is “Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break”. The actors that star in their films are usually unheard of actors, some of which have starred in several of their films. For example, April Pearson stars in both “Tucked” and “Tank 432”. Nick Gillespie was the director for both “Tank 432” and “Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break”. They currently have a total of nine films in pre-production and production.

Despite the limited budget that smaller institutions such as Belstone Pictures experience, there are several advantages. For example, since films released by smaller institutions usually star actors who are less recognised, this can be a great opportunity to launch their career, which helps the studio gain recognition in turn.