The Importance of Genre

Genre is a concept made up of different elements which define a type of film. Each genre can usually be established at the start of a film by certain iconography, music, narrative and misc-en-scène. All these elements can build up in the mind of the viewer and from all this, the viewer can subconsciously think about what kind of movie it will be like and the kind of things they may expect. For example in Cabin Fever (directed by Eli Both), the viewer can build up the idea of the film purely by the title sequence. Combining the denotation and connotation can allow the viewer to predict what is going to happen in the film. The bold black font with hooks on looks sinister and can infer that something horrific is going to happen.

The sounds that you hear over the opening credits go from birdsong to the buzzing of flies, suggesting the presence of something rotting. From this, the audience knows that something or someone is going to die. The background image also suggests the idea of death as it starts as a plain white background, perhaps suggesting purity and innocence of what could happen, then slowly turning a pus-like yellow, perhaps conveying infection (the title of ‘Cabin Fever’ also suggests infection) and finally diffusing to red so that the audience immediately knows that there is going to be death and a high body count.

But it is not only the opening of the film that can give the audience an indication of what the film will be about. DVD covers can often give away clues as to what will happen in the movie. In class, we have started to watch ‘Fargo’ (directed and produced by the Coen Brothers) and we also studied the DVD cover.

The large, bright red title indicates that ‘Fargo’ is an important character and while it isn’t a blood red, the use of the colour red could have been used to indicate that there may be some danger of which the characters of the film must overcome. Also, the use of the names, Frances McDormand, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, which are well known names on the cover indicate – particularly of the Coen brothers – that you know to expect the unexpected. In addition, the cover image show two figures in isolation and from this, the audience can work out that the movie is set in a cold part of America (from the snow and the badge on the woman’s coat) and that a crime has occurred that has to be solved (from the dead body and the fact that the woman has a police officer badge on her hat). The fact that the movie is an eighteen suggests that there may be strong langue, violence and perhaps sexual content. While people say that you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can certainly judge a film by it’s cover.