Genre: blog tasks

Task 1: Genre fact sheets

Read Media Factsheet 03 - Genre: Categorising texts and answer the following questions:

1) What example is provided of why visual iconographies are so important?

News broadcasts

2) What examples are provided of the importance of narrative in identifying genre?

Soap opera, Sitcom, 

3) What is the difference between character representation in action movies and disaster movies?

Action movie heroes are usually positioned outside of a supportive group and works alone to fight the villains/save the world. Their actions may also be viewed as immoral or unconventional but they still manage to get the job done. Contrastingly the disaster movie hero plays a role within a larger group of people who often have their own particular strengths and weaknesses that are integral to the groups survival.

4) What are the different ways films can be categorised according to Bordwell? 

• Period or Country
• Director / Star
• Technical Process
• Style
• Series
• Audience

5) List three ways genre is used by audiences.

1. They use prior knowledge of the genre to anticipate whether or not they would enjoy a text. This helps them select media that they would find entertaining.
2. They can compare a text with a similar text that is also in the same genre, this can help them to describe a text to someone who has not seen it.
3. They can avoid media texts that are in a genre that they do not like.

6) List three ways genre is used by institutions or producers.

1. Production - Genres are paradigms/templates media producers can follow. This makes production easier as the writers and producers have rules they can follow and so don't have to make everything from scratch. They can also look at successful examples of the genre in order to see what made it popular and replicate it in their own work or avoid the mistakes that disappointed the audience.
2. Attracting an audience - Some genres have loyal fans who will try a new work in that genre simply because it's in that genre, This helps producers mitigate the risk of failure
3. Marketing texts - An example of this is film trailers which usually attempt to clearly portray the genre of the film while also showing many codes and conventions. Another example of this is specialised tv channels which only show specific genres. Furthermore different times of day have certain genres that tend to be shown more often than others for example in England 9-10 p.m. are the conventional screening times for dramas to be aired.

7) What film genre is used as an example of how genres evolve? What films and conventions are mentioned?

Gangster. The genre focuses on groups of criminals romanticising the idea of a gangster lifestyle, texts within this genre often feature lots of violence and conflict between police and the criminals. The films mentioned are Scarface, Reservoir Dogs and The Sopranos.

Read Media Factsheet 126 - Superheroes: A Genre Case Study and answer the following questions:

1) List five films the factsheet discusses with regards to the Superhero genre.

1. Avengers Assemble (2013)
2. Scott Pilgrim (2010)
3. Chronicle (2012)
4. Super(2010)
5. Guardians of the galaxy (2014)

2) What examples are provided of how the Superhero genre has reflected the changing values, ideologies and world events of the last 70 years?

In the 1940s Superman was portrayed to be battling European villains threatening Metropolis even though he did not want to get involved he is forced into the conflict for the greater good mirroring how Americans first saw WW2 as  a European issue but as the war continued the US government decided that they would have to get involved even if lots of the population did not want to.

In X-men (2000) Mutants are seen as freaks by "normal" people forcing the mutants to try and hide their differences in order to fit in. Some join together with other mutants to react violently to discrimination whilst others try to work with humans in an attempt to fit in. This could be perceived as an allegory for the intolerance and discrimination marginalised groups faced and how discrimination is an issue in western culture.

3) How can Schatz's theory of genre cycles be applied to the Superhero genre?

• Innovation - Visual codes for the superhero genre were mainly established through comic books. As film and TV began to use the comic book characters other codes and conventions regarding the presentation of the genre in moving images were set. This can be seen in the early superhero shorts of the 1940s.
• Classical -  By the 1950s the genre could be seen to be in its classical stage with the codes and conventions previously introduced in the innovation stage being replicated in the various film and TV programmes of the time.
• Parody - Batman (1966) was intentionally funny and camp and didn't take the superhero genre too seriously. It had an ironic tone that flagged up the daft nature of the genre and allowed the audience to enjoy the awareness of that. After that both classical and parodic versions of the genre were mainly located in children's animation (e.g. Spider-Man[1960s] and the less serious versions like Mighty mouse[1940s], Atom ant[1960s], Captain Caveman[1970s])
• Deconstruction - Superman (1978) started a new cycle in the superhero genre with the improvements in technology leading to innovations with special effects allowing for more spectacular visuals. Both the superman series and Tim Burton's Batman franchise treated the fantastical world as seriously as in the classical era while still retaining some of the camp comedy and a tongue-in-cheek approach of parody portraying how the genre had been deconstructed and repackaged in an attempt to revitalise the genre and help it find a new audience. This brings the genre back to a period of innovation where new ideas and new developments create interesting ideas within the genre.
• The Cycle Continues - After 1977's Batman and Robin received a less than positive reception, the genre again needed to deconstruct and re-innovate. The next stage of the genre's development was the rise of Marvel Studios with X-men (2000) and Spider-Man(2002) and DC's return with Batman Begins(2005) and Superman Returns(2006). These series have themselves been deconstructed introducing a new generation of X-Men in X-men: First Class, recasting spider man and changing his love interest in Spider-Man(2012) and making Batman more dark and gritty in Chris Nolan's interpretation.

Task 2: Genre analysis case study

Carry out your own genre analysis using the model provided by media theorist Daniel Chandler. Choose a film or TV text and answer the following questions - brief answers/bullet point responses are fine:

Chosen text: Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAAO)

General

1) Why did you choose the text you are analysing?

This movie was one of the most memorable movies I have watched in the past year as it has a touching story with a strong message that many people still think of.

2) In what context did you encounter it?

I had first seen multiple clips of the movie reposted on different platforms such as tik tok, Instagram and Twitter/X with many people commenting on how well done the story was and it was also recommended to me from multiple of my friends who had watched the movie and felt that it was amazing.

3) What influence do you think this context might have had on your interpretation of the text?

Due to this movie being recommended by a lot of people I went into it in order to enjoy the narrative.

4) To what genre did you initially assign the text?

I initially assigned it as a Science fiction Action/Drama as it features qualities from the three genres

5) What is your experience of this genre?

At the time I first watched EEAAO I did not watch many Science Fiction media texts so I didn't have many expectations surrounding that part of the plot however I had watched plenty of Action and Drama movies so I was more familiar with these aspects of the film.

6) What subject matter and basic themes is the text concerned with?

EEAAO is a story about Evelyn a married middle aged Chinese immigrant woman who is running a failing laundromat with her husband, while being audited by the IRS she is dragged into the multiverse by an alternate version of her husband warning her that an inter-dimensional entity name Jobu Tupaki is killing every Evelyn. As the greatest "failure" of all the Evelyn's it's believed that her untapped potential could be the only way to stop Jobu Tupaki. The film deals with themes of nihilism and the meaning of life, it also deals with homophobia and generational trauma through Evelyn's daughter Joy. Family is one of the core concepts of the movie as the story deals with a mother daughter relationship.

7) How typical of the genre is this text in terms of content?

At first it seems like EEAAO features a stereotypical gadget that provides super powers to the characters that could be found in any science fiction movie but then we quickly find out how different it is as in order to activate the  device they have to do something strange and unexpected. It is mostly typical when it comes to action but a couple of the fights especially those involving Jobu Tupaki and some in other universes are a bit strange. The drama aspects are the most typical part of the story as it features a story about a family that's falling apart but by the end of the movie they have repaired their relationship after overcoming various obstacles.

8) What expectations do you have about texts in this genre?

For action movies people expect there to be lots of fights and tension with multiple types of conflict, a protagonist who can make it out alive against all odds and a main antagonist threatening the protagonist or the world. Drama movies focus on the obstacles, conflicts and struggles the characters face, characters often struggle with personal issues like mental illness. Science Fiction often focuses on imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.

9) Have you found any formal generic labels for this particular text (where)?

Action, Adventure, Comedy (IMDB)

10) What generic labels have others given the same text?

Multiverse film, Absurdist Fiction, Martial arts

11) Which conventions of the genre do you recognise in the text?

• Parallel universes (Evelyn and Jobu Tupaki temporarily travel to different timelines throughout the movie e.g. hot dog hands, pinatas, rocks)
• Advanced technology (the late Alpha-Evelyn developed "verse-jumping" technology, which enables people to access the skills, memories, and bodies of their parallel selves by performing bizarre actions that are statistically unlikely.)
• Features multiple fight scenes
• Using unconventional weapons
• A main antagonist

12) To what extent does this text stretch the conventions of its genre?

Many of the different scenes take place in different universes where the rules of reality are vastly different from our own for example the universe where Evelyn and Joy are just rocks is incorporated into the climactic fight towards the end of the movie.

13) Where and why does the text depart from the conventions of the genre?

Throughout the film we get to see the multitude of different universes through the experiences of Evelyn with multiple of them appearing to take place in an entirely different genre than the main movie such as the universe where Deirdre and Evelyn are in a relationship which appears more like a romance than any other scene. Another departure from the conventions of the genre come from the multiverse being used as allegory for whereas in most media containing multiversal travel the multiverse is instead used as a plot point without digging deeper into the idea of the multiverse barely interacting with the idea and instead using it as an excuse to keep popular characters alive as seen in the movie released in the same week 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' where the idea of the multiverse is used in order to further the plot without diving deeper into what a multiverse could mean for the story as a whole.

14) Which conventions seem more like those of a different genre (and which genre(s))?

One of the recurring locations of the movie is a laundromat which might be more commonly found in a romance drama.

15) What familiar motifs or images are used?

EEAAO uses the image of a multiverse map to depict how the different universes interact with each other this is very similar to other media containing multiverses such as 'Across The Spider Verse' and 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'. Furthermore there is a frequent use of the iconography of Chinese new year as the film takes place near to the Lunar new year and it is an important plot point relating to the relationship between Evelyn and Joy.

Mode of address

1) What sort of audience did you feel that the text was aimed at (and how typical was this of the genre)?

EEAAO was made with the intent of being relatable to as large an audience as possible with the director Daniel Kwan saying "We tried to make a movie that everyone can relate with, but we thought we'd fail... But it turns out we didn't, like literally everybody has something they can relate with."

2) How does the text address you?

The conclusion of the movie shares the message that "if everything is meaningless that means every moment is just as meaningful" with the metaphor of the bagel representing the notion that when you look at life, there's nothing but a pointless void to see. The hole in the centre of the bagel is a metaphor for her feelings of nothingness and the general sense of emptiness in the face of basic existence. The film creates an opposing viewpoint of the bagel via the metaphor of googly eyes.The googly eye is the inversion of the bagel, the eyes are black dots within a white void opposite to the bagel, which is a white void within a black bagel. The consistent and simple colour inversion links these two seemingly unrelated objects. The googly eyes represent Waymond's perspective on life. Similarly to Joy he also believes that life is big, scary and confusing, but instead of that filling him with dread, it empowers him to be kind. He says if nothing matters, then you might as well be kind.

3) What sort of person does it assume you are?

EEAAO tries not to make many assumptions about the audience as it was intended to be relatable to a large audience however it may be assuming that you are not a racist or homophobic person as the main characters are Asian and the Joy of the Evelyn we're followings universe is a lesbian and in one universe we can see that Evelyn and Deidre (the IRS worker) are in a relationship in a universe where they have sausages for fingers.

4) What assumptions seem to be made about your class, age, gender and ethnicity?

As previously mentioned in question 1 I believe that EEAAO doesn't make many assumptions about your class, age, gender or ethnicity as it has a diverse cast featuring characters that are from different ages, genders, ethnicity and class. However I also believe that the movie may be most relatable to female working class Asian American immigrants as the main character embodies all of these traits.

5) What interests does it assume you have?

EEAAO assumes that you have an interest in either action movies, science fiction, comedy, drama or adventure. Another thing it may assume you have an interest in is the multiverse.

Relationship to other texts

1) What intertextual references are there in the text you are analysing (and to what other texts)? Intertextuality is when a media product references another media text of some kind.

• Raccacoonie + multiple mentions of Ratatouille (the movie) - Ratatouille(2007)
• At 00:48, the scene with black apes is taken from "2001: A Space Odyssey." - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• Waymond says "Snap out of it!" like Short Round. - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
• The bullet stopping, the instant skill learning, the guiding through cubicles, the binary choices - The Matrix (1999)
• The dialogue scenes between movie star Evelyn and Waymond. - In the Mood for Love (2000)
• During a montage of the different paths Evelyn's life could have taken, one of them shows her at the premiere of Crazy Rich Asians. - Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

2) In terms of genre, which other texts does the text you are analysing resemble most closely?

Across the spider verse has a similar plot with inter-dimensional travel, spider people from across the multiverse and an inter-dimensional entity that wants to take down the protagonist. Another similar movie would be Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which also features a plot focused on the multiverse.

3) What key features are shared by these texts?

All of these texts feature the main characters travelling between dimensions and fighting an antagonist that chases them across the different universes with the intent of harming/killing them.

4) What major differences do you notice between them?

• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness features a lot less universes than the other two movies with the characters only travelling between a couple of universes.
• Across The Spider Verse has different people in the same role with many different people taking on the role of "Spider-man/woman" showing the audience that anyone can be a hero
• EEAAO has the characters taking abilities from their alternate lives who made different life choices leading to them leading different lives compared to the characters in the universe that we start off in.