Genre theorists

David Buckingham

• His theory suggests that genre is always changing depending on the ideology of the public is constantly changing
• He also believes childhood was created and never used to be a thing
• Genre is more developed than before
• Believes that media reflects the bad and negativity in the world

This applies to my production as I need to be aware of the always changing public and what their ideology includes as this is rapidly changing.

Steve Neale

• Genre is instances of repetition and difference and differences are essential to the economy of genre
• Neale declared that genre is constituted by "specific systems of expectations and hypotheses which spectators bring with them to the cinema and which interact with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process"
• Believes that Hollywood's generic regime performs two inter-related functions; guarantee meanings and pleasures audience and to offset the considerable economic risks of industrial film productions by providing cognitive collateral against innovation and difference

This theory links to my production as I need to make sure my trailer has both differences and repetition of the horror genre to ensure I appeal to my target audience. I also need to make sure that my trailer perform these two inter-related functions but I can take the economic risks as there is no money to be lost. 

Rick Altman

• Research interests - Hollywood genres, the musical, film theory, narrative theory
• Semantic approach - concerned with the conventions of the genre that communicate to the audience eg; location of horror to be in a big, old house
• Syntactic approach - concerned with the relationship between these elements and the structure of narratives in genres eg; in horror we expect it start off quite calm and gradually develop the eeriness of the film

This theory heavily applies to my production as I need to make sure I am aware of both of these approaches, although I do need to go against them in some instances to make my production unique and interesting.

David Chandler

• Genres can become too restricted to all the conventions allocated with them
• Most genres overlap and states that the forms and conventions disappear when the two genres hybridise 
• His overall view is that genre is done to create order and simplify the masses of information that is available in production
• Creating these genres applies to our needs to organise chaos - humans hate mess and things with no order

This theory is important because I can now make sure that I am not too restricted in my genre by making mine different but also sticking to the overall genre characteristics. It is also useful because it has taught me that I do not have to necessarily stick to one genre just to make sure I appeal to my target audience.

These theories will be very useful for all the parts of my production as it has given me new knowledge and perspectives over what genre is about, which can aid me in targeting my audience through the things I do to appeal to them and suit my genre.