Most students understand that genre is a type of film that can be recognised through shared typical features.
Ask students: What is your favourite type of film? What was the last film that you saw…What type of film was it? How do you know? A straightforward understanding can be constructed. Further discussions will probably be related to some of the points above. It is important here to develop students’ understanding of how the industry uses genre to attract audiences. Genre is used as a marketing strategy as audiences know what they like, they usually have a preferred genre, and marketing campaigns use this to attract audiences. Films of a certain genre have a set of particular features or shared conventions almost like a set of ingredients or a repertoire of elements. If a film is successful with audiences, then producers of media texts will be keen to create a film that can replicate that success so that genre can be understood as a creative strategy that minimises risk. Promoters of films need to attract audiences to maximise a film’s appeal so genre can be a useful marketing device, a useful way of categorising films. While certain films might be popular with audiences, they do not want the same film over and over, and so genre is also about similarity and difference. In a genre film therefore, certain character types might be recognisable, there will be a typical storyline and set of situations, but there will be enough difference to create fresh appeal. It is important for a film to have its own USP [unique selling point].