Genre Essay (Draft)

In relation to genre I have chosen my A2 coursework which my short film named ‘Jeté’. The genre for our media production is drama which enabled us to create a realistic narrative within the conventions of a drama so that it reaches the expectations of our target audience. However over time sub genres have been created because people want to expand on genres and challenge conventions. Drama is a very wide genre which makes it very hard to apply specific elements which is why many sub genres have been applied within the drama genre. Therefore we also believe that ‘Jeté’ is also a sub genre of a dance film which has become increasingly popular to due to the number of dance films released over the past few years. Steve Neal says “All genres are instances of repetition and difference.” This suggests that all genres copy each other through iconography and conventions so that the genre is also categorised and this applies to my piece through the realistic issues and montage shots of Faye dancing as this is fast paced and makes the audience feel a part of the dance.

One of the main conventions of a drama is the audience being able to identify with the characters on a more personal level. During a TV a drama, they are usually shown over a number of episodes which enables to audience to understand each character fully over a longer period of time. As my media production was a short film, we had to find a way of allowing the audience to identify with the characters over a shorter amount of time which was challenging the conventions. We decided that having one main character allowed the audience to focus on her only and the issues that she suffers from on a personal level. This is shown in the opening sequence where we have a montage of shots showing her possessions in her room. This is personal to the character and by allowing the audience to see her possessions at the beginning of the film; they are already able to understand what kind of person she is and how they expect her to be represented in the rest of the film.

 Another iconic feature which I have applied to ‘Jeté’ is the cliff hanger at the end of the film. We filmed this by having a medium shot of Faye opening a letter, having little to know reaction and ending the film with the audience asking whether she got into the dance school or not. This iconic element that has been used repeatedly by TV drama’s such as ‘Eastenders’ which makes the audience what to watch the next show. We decided to apply this iconography to Jeté because it enables the audience to draw their own conclusion from the ending therefore feeling closer to the narrative and the character because they are actively deciding how they want the piece to end. We made this apply to our sub genre of dance due the fact the majority of dance films show a big change taking place for the protagonist and by having an opening ending succeeds in making the audience want to know more.

Realism is key throughout the drama genre because it enables the audience to feel that the issues and character representation are as close to reality as possible. Our main issue of Faye trying to get into dance school with the pressure of her mum wanting her to go to university is something that our target audience can relate to as they are experiences the same pressures in their life. This links to Douglas Pye’s theory saying that films have to conform to audience expectations about narrative. From this films must follow what audience expect to see from that genre. For example the audience expect the genre of Drama to have the narratives that the audience can relate because they are current issues. By understanding our target audience we knew that Faye would be a character that they could understand to and relate to on a personal level. This is shown when Faye meets up with her friends and has to turn them down because she has dance rehearsals. We kept the camera at neutral level with the girls so that the audience feel that they can relate to them all whether it is Faye or her friends. We also achieved this by dressing them in casual clothes and having them discussing a party as this is the stereotype of teenagers as Tom Ryall suggests.

In conclusion I felt we were successful in portraying the Drama genre and dance sub genre through genre conventions such as montage shots of her dancing as it is fast paced with quick cuts. We also wanted to represent Faye as your average teenager as the target audience would be able to associate with her on a personal level.