Genre codes, iconography and Neale's repertoire of elements

Overview

Genre in film, steve Neale and neale's idea of a repertoire of elements.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Define genre in film.

   Model answer

   Genre is the grouping of films by shared conventions of subject, style, character and narrative, which allows an industry to plan and an audience to choose.

2. 2

   How does a film signal its genre in its first shots?

   Model answer

   Through the recurring objects, settings and visual details the genre has established, which the audience recognises before a character has spoken.

3. 3

   What does Steve Neale mean by describing genre as instances of repetition and difference?

   Model answer

   Neale argues that a genre film must repeat enough of the familiar to be recognised and vary enough to be worth watching, so genre works through both at the same time.

4. 4

   Explain Neale's idea of a repertoire of elements.

   Model answer

   A genre offers a stock of settings, characters, situations, images and sounds from which each film selects, so no film needs all of them and no single element is compulsory.

5. 5

   What does Neale mean by saying that genre is dynamic?

   Model answer

   Neale argues that genres are not fixed categories but processes that change as films, audiences and industries alter what counts as belonging to them.

6. 6

   What is generic verisimilitude?

   Model answer

   Generic verisimilitude is what an audience will accept as plausible inside a particular genre, which may be quite different from what is plausible in life.

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