Compare and contrast the codes and conventions that are used to establish genre and to market the film to its target audience in 2 contemporary film posters.
The purpose of this essay is to analyse two films with the same genre using codes and conventions to help us identify the genre. During this essay I shall compare the promotional poster for "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "The Mummy". The starting point for my analysis is the definition of genre derived from French meaning type or kind. .
Genre helps us to classify different types of a movie e.g. Romance, horror, and action adventure, and is one way of packaging, presenting and selling a film. .
Essentially Genre helps us to categorise films, develop stars by associating them with a particular genre e.g. we often associate Jim Carey with comedy. It also helps the audience to recognise a genre, Producers can use a tried and tested form and distributors can use marketing and publicity to target identified audiences however there are limitations of genre. It might limit the way we read films. For some genre may not be what they look for in a film, and it maybe the quality of acting or an absorbing plot which are more appealing to the audience. Generic formulas are no guarantee of box office success - they appear stale to audiences and genre categories that already exist might limit the development of new genre concepts.
However, identifying distinct film genres may be difficult because many films might include elements of more than one genre. The combination of different generic elements is known as a hybrid genre. Media producers (i.e. Hollywood studios) are particularly interested in hybrid genres as by combining major genres, each with a different appeal and target audience, it is likely that a range of audiences can be drawn, resulting in a mainstream audience. .
.
In this essay, I will analyse two film posters "The Mummy" and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by focusing on the generic codes and conventions.
