Research: Genre, Subgenre and audiences

In today's lesson we looked at the definition of genre and how films fit into the specific genres by looking at the key signifiers. A GENRE is a way of categorizing films e.g. Thriller, Action, Romance, Comedy, Horror etc. Genres are useful for Institiutions because it gives a set of tools and conventions for the film makers. It also helps them to market the film. Genre helps audiences so it is easier for them to decide and watch a film of their genre choice. Thriller audiences overall are male from the age of 25 to 45 however it does depend on the subgenre. A SUBGENRE is a subcategory within a particular genre e.g. Psychological thriller, Romantic comedies, Action adventure etc. Today we focused on Thrillers as that is the genre we will be categorizing our films in. 

We looked at:

• Action Thrillers
• Supernatural Thrillers
• Psychological Thrillers
• Romance Thrillers

We looked at the film 'The Others' as it was a Supernatural Thriller.The poster is very dark and the character's facial expression shows that she is hiding or scared of something. At first i thought it was a horror film but the typical conventions of a horror film poster would be bloody.  The target audience of this film is young adults from the age of 15 to 25. Supernatural Thrillers are mainly watched by females as males tend to go for Action.  

This film is an example of an Action/Crime Thriller. The title of the film which is 'Fair Game' shows that it is an action and the word 'spy' is also written underneath the title. The target audience of this subgenre would be males from the age of 25 to 45 . This is a film that needs to be concentrated on in order to understand the plot.







This film is an example of a Romantic Thriller. We watched the opening of this film in order to see the key aspects that make this a romantic thriller. However there wasn't anything that signifies it is also a thriller. The Target audience for films like this would be females from the age of 18 to 25.

'Memento' is a Psychological thriller. This subgenre has a target audience of both females and males from the age of 18 to 30. We looked at the opening of this film and the camera shots and editing gave the subgenre away. The close ups of the characters face, the photo in  his hand, the slow editing and the fact that the film was going backwards showed us that it is a Psychological thriller.