Film Genres

There a many different genres to film such as Action, Adventure, Thriller, Crime and Romance to name a few. There are also sub genres such as Rom-Com.

What is a genre?
A genre is, in film, a way of categorising films based on similarites within the narrative from which films are created.  We also recognise genres by their lighting, camera styles etc. Audiences generally like things to follow a specific pattern or formula seen in other films often reluctant to open up to change.
Genre is important to both producers and audiences as the producer needs to have a specific target audience in mind in order to create a successful film whilst the audience need to be interested and engaged in the genre so they will go to see the film. Theorist Christine Gledhill notes that 'differences between genres meant different audiences could be identified and catered to. This made is easier to standardise and stabilise production.' 



Genres are constantly changing over time as different social groups come out etc. For example, Western Cowboys films used to be the most popular and now people are much more interested in all things futuristic and sic-fi.

From looking at the Top 10 films on IMDB, we can see that crime and drama are the most popular with films such as Shindlers List, The Godfather and Shawshank Redemption all being in the top 5 of the top rated movies.
There are certain conventions of a genre. For example, actors and actress usually stick to playing roles in films of a certain genre in order to develop and maintain a strong fan base. Stars such as Angelina Jolie- Pitt and Nicholas Cage are closely linked to action movies whilst Jennifer Anniston and Reese Witherspoon are usually known for Rom-Coms. The use of star power in a genre is particularly useful in attracting a specific audience.