Genre

Genre is the part of any media product be it film, television or print. The genre is something that is defined from the codes and conventions it follows; for example in the genre of horror, we expect there to be some form of enigmatic antagonist in which either an indivdual or group must overcome in order to reach an equilibrium. In terms of short films, there is never a set genre, as there are so many different variations, but one convention that can be placed into short films and in a sense create a separate genre known as 'short film' can be seen as there being almost always a twist. The climatic points in each short film lead into twists so that the audience are either shocked or provoked into reflecting on what they have seen. 

 

Genre can also be seen as seasonal. Around the time of mid November to the end of September, a spate of feel good films and also Christmas films are released; this is down to the institutions that are producing and distributing these films seeing an opening in the box office where profit margins will be at there highest.

Genre aims to target specific audiences to the product, for example not everybody enjoys seeing a 'slasher' film such as Friday the 13th. In being specific with genre you can tell whether or not you media product will be successful, if you look at the current trending of films in today's society, the genre of 'Superheros' has soared, so your target audience creates a large impact on the type of genre you are going to use.

In modern society genre has become a harder concept to define due to the sub-genre coming into existance. Now films and other media products can branch off into things such as 'action' and 'comedy'; and a prime example of genres being split further, is the zombie franchise and genre. A decade ago zombie films would have been classed under 'horror' and they show the generic formula for a horror product; they include monsters, fright and fast jump cuts to close ups of the creatures features, but as a particular film trend under a generic category gains popularity it splits off into its own genre such as the zombie genre.

In relation to short films, the iconography behind them is to entertain for a short period of time and grip the audience's attention. A lot of the conventions involve having a much smaller cast than that of a feature film, and the narrative is shown with only the absolute essential scenes to get the narrative to its conclusion, also the most obvious generic convention of short films, are that they are short, approximately under thirty minutes in length.