Today marks the final day of Exploding Genre and I must say the studio experience has been really interesting. One of the most noticeable features of this studio is the more theoretical and I guess, philosophical focus compared to some of the other studios that had a much more practical approach to studio work. Genre may seem like a rather surface-level area of study but in truth the concept is not only extremely complex, but also a little messy from an academic perspective. I guess, that is why Dan’s title, “Exploding Genre” is very appropriate, there is an attempt to break apart and conflagrate the genre system, to question it, to understand why it exists.

Though the course had a very obvious cinematic focus (as that is Dan’s area of study) but we were strongly encouraged to look at genre as a whole in other fields as well and this also aided us in understanding the ways in which genre interacts with the media itself.

If the studio were to run again I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the academic and theoretical side of media as a whole as well as anyone keen on cinema and filmmaking. It has certainly informed my practise and understanding to have consumed and analysed such a diverse selection of content over the course of the last 13 weeks.

Throughout this semester I have learned not only how the genre system came to be but also the historical and marketing precedence for a taxonomy like the one we have today and have had multiple opportunities to comment and question areas of it, not only through written work but also practical research in the form of the video/audio projects we have completed in class.

I’m really excited to see the work of the studio in the upcoming screening and hopefully get a sense of where my classmates Exploding Genre journey has led them. The class has been fantastic, a great bunch of people to share ideas with and I wish them the very best moving forward.

The following is a studio update during the semester:

A massive thank you to Dan for being a fantastic tutor and I look forward to seeing where the studios take everyone next.

The following was an exploration into the musical genre and it’s ability to tell very different kinds of stories:

All I can say after watching The Cabin in the Woods is, that was really quite strange. I love the idea of it, the concept. I was really hoping the zombies were going to be paid actors and that they were going to justify the film with some level of modern neo-realism, but, alas, the film dissented into satyr, nothing wrong with that. In talking to people afterwards, I found it really hard to describe the film to people who hadn’t seen it. What I was also amazed by was the production value of the film. For something that was so deliberately satyrical and ridiculous, the budget was astounding.

Here was the closest I got to summarising the film.

“Imagine the Truman show where the audience are actually all watching five college students on a trip to a cabin in the woods and they methodically murder them all one by one with zombies as a sacrifice to the ancient ones and then they escape and accidentally set every single monstrous thing in the universe free inside a massive subterranean complex and because the virgin girl wasn’t the last one to die, these massive God-like creatures are set free and they kill everyone. Credits.”

I think that was a great film to end on, the mother of all genre mashups. I think this film and Sukiyaki Western Django were the perfect bookends to a fantastic studio course. Thank you very much Dan. I look forward to seeing everyone’s final project briefs.