Genre Production and Genre Consumption

Genres in cinema became systems of understanding and appeal for audiences, providing blue prints for film makers, keen to serve markets with a recognisable product.

Some of the earliest film makers learnt to rely on generic patterns in order to standardise production producers, to reinforce the audiences expectations and to create institution identities for the corporations themselves. Example of this would be Hammer films, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Gainsborough and Melodrama, who all have used generic patterns to create the production needed which has then attracted their audiences and has made a name of their corporations. The corporations use the cycle of genre as a structure to ensure that genre alters to keep film current so that they can continue producing films people want to see. An example of this would be how horror gained an element of gore in the 1970s with films such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Driller Killer which then died down and became popular again in the 2000 with films such as Saw.

Genre is important when studying film because of its many processes which can be individually analysed which go towards the production of the film and the ways that these processes manipulate the film into becoming the specific genre. An example of this would be Cinematography which is important to film and its genre as it is the art of photography and camera work in film making. This can then manipulate the genre and film as the way in which the clips are captured for the film ( e.g. using certain camera angles, lighting and sound) can alter the genre portrayed. Once a film is produced and sold with portrayal of a certain genre, the more copies sold then exposes the audience to the genre and the business accelerates and can produce and sell more films to further attract the wanted audience in the future.

Audience is a big part of genre as they distinguish what genre is wanted and what isn't in film. A specific genre of film is wanted when another dies down and becomes 'predictable', which is when a phase of a specific genre of film has been worn out by producers. An example of this would be if Sci fi films became popular and many sci fi films then were produced. This genre would then become unwanted by audiences as the 'familiar reassurance ' of the conventions of that genre ( e.g. cowboys and showdowns in a western) would become too predictable and many films storyline would be similar which would bore the audience. This then links to the idea of a 'Genre cycle' as that genre would die down and another would take its place in popularity which would maintain the producers level of income and the amount of people watching their films.