RESEARCH - what is genre

Genres are used as a way to categorise different products that share similar features or characteristics. Genres are particularly important in the Media and Film industries because they:
- help quickly establish differences between different media forms
- help to establish certain codes and conventions that film makers can follow in order to make the product look a certain way, achieve a certain effect and attract a specific audience
- help to establish certain expectations and familiarity in audiences
- help audiences to develop personal tastes around genre and consumption (what they do and don't like) 

Some new terms that I've learnt now are:
- Sub-genre, which is identified as a subdivision of a genre of literature, music, film etc
- Hybrid genre or also called cross-genre, which is known as a genre in fiction that blends themes and elements from 2 or more different genres
- Codes and Conventions, where codes are defined as systems of signal which creates meaning, technical or symbolic. and conventions are generally accepted ways of doing something
- Genre tropes, which are common or overused thing in films (cliché) 


By looking at some specific images of films, we learnt that sometimes genre is really easy to identify, but sometimes is quite difficult. 
This images shows an obvious action film, because from the settings and costumes we see that it's a film about war and that suggests lots of fighting and action.

                                             

This is also an example of a genre which was easy and obvious to identify. The funny dressed people and their body language shows that this is a comedy film. We could also know that by identifying the character in the middle who is well known to be acting in comedy films. 



However, some films' genre is more difficult to guess by only seeing a simple image. On this image we see a man who is talking on the phone and also looking through a window, possibly hiding from someone. Some people would easily get confused and say this is n action film, while in fact it's a thriller.



This image shows a male and a female, sitting and talking to each other in a office and the first thought we have in mind is that this is a romance. But analysing the image in more details would give us even more ideas. By seeing the girl's face, which is kind of sarcastic, we could also tell that there is comedy involved in this film.