Genre

Genre:

·         A text is classified in a genre through the identification of key elements (codes and convention) which occur in that text and in other of the same genre.

·         These elements may be referred to as Paradigms or codes and conventions.

·         Audiences recognises these paradigms, and bring a set of expectations to their reading of the text accordingly:

·         These paradigms may be grouped into those relating iconography (i.e. the main signs and symbols that you see (hear), structure, (the way a text id put together and the shape it takes) and themes (the issues and ideas it deals with).

Paradigms:

Horror Paradigms – character, props, setting plot (bussing chase, scene death, structure).

Paradigms can be categorized into three elements which compound to form a horror trailer. These are: Iconography, Structure, and Theme. Iconography is concerned with signs, symbols and sound such as a moon, isolated house, and a knife. Structure, relates to the way a horror movie is put together to form cohesion such as editing (montage or continuity) and plot. Lastly, the final component of paradigms is Theme which represents the issues and ideas that the horror trailer is trying to put across to the audience for instance Scream 2, relates to teenagers and wants to represent the feeling of isolation and the fear of being home alone.

·         Genre works only through the use of specific rule and combination; as long as you have expected paradigms you can make any number of horror films.

Characters + setting + props = genre

Structuralism:

Structuralism is an ideology (theory/way of thinking about the world) that can be applied to film theory.

Structuralism film theory embarks upon how films convey meaning through the use of codes and conventions.

With key theories such as Ferdinand de Saussure.