250-word statement of intent –
I initially chose this studio because the description grabbed my attention the most out of the studio options. After the first week I am excited to continue this semester. I have always been naïve about genre, not analysing it but thinking about it as a something to categorise films, books and TV shows, not thinking it had any impact on how movies were made or how it affected our opinion of them. After the first two weeks of the studio I realise there is a lot more to it, from how satisfied you are with the narrative, how you categorise films; which film belongs in which genre, to the limitations it has on filmmakers.

For Exploding Genre this semester I would like to gain a more thorough and substantial understanding of what genre is and how you can utilise it to satisfy your audience to improve my creative skills. I would like to come to a conclusion on how genre impacts films, if genre is a state of mind or if it is a real thing that movies adhere to or simply the audience making up their own mind.

I would also like to use this semester to improve my skills, particularly in editing. In the past I have simply relied on iMovie because it is free and convenient but I would like to become proficient at Premiere because I think that being able to use professional programs is imperative for future careers in the media field.

300-word case study –
According to Marcel Danesi (2009), the horror genre was one of the first genre’s to become popular in Hollywood, and it remains popular today. There aren’t many other genres’ that polarise their audiences as much as horror. You either love them or you hate them, and although I am not a lover of horror films, I find it a fascinating because it is one of the most unambiguous genres.

There are countless conventions used in this genre that make horror films so distinguishable and recognisable, whether it be narrative elements such as no cell phone signal, a car breaking down in middle of nowhere, a mirror scare, a character searching through the dark, or camera techniques such as a long shot of a girl in her house as though we are looking in through the window.

One of the conventions of this genre that makes a film recognisable, as a horror is the ‘new house’ setup. This is a trope used in an infinite amount of horror films, a family moves to a new old house, which the kids are unhappy about. One of the kids then starts wandering the house discovering something creepy, but the parents don’t believe the kid. Although filmmakers play around with this setup, defining their films as their own, adding a ‘someone died here’ plot line, or the family moved to try to escape their problems, the idea is generally always the same.

In the week one reading from Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro (2015), they discuss boundaries, and the relationship between boundaries and plot. Whether the audience puts this pressure on the filmmakers or they put it on themselves, I think they should not let the norms for a genre restrict them. Experimenting and ‘remixing’ the genres brings something new to the industry and adds excitement for audiences.

REFERENCES:

Danesi, M 2009, Dictionary Of Media And Communications, Armonk, N.Y.: Routledge, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost, viewed 29 July 2016.

Neil Gaiman & Kazuo Ishiguro (2015, June 4), Let’s talk about genre, New Statesman.