1. THE IMPORTANCE OF GENRE &
CLASSIFICATION
By Taylor Cockley

2. WHY IS GENRE IMPORTANT
Genre is a way of categorizing something due to similarities between them.
For example: Horror, comedy, romance, western etc.
• Genre is important in the film industry as it makes it easy to categorize films.
• It helps makes marketing of the film easier as they would know whether there
is a gap in the market for the specific genre.
• It is important for the audience as they will have an idea of what to expect
with specific genres.

3. CONVENTIONS
• Each genre will have specific convention
Horror conventions
• Dark
• Old house
• Death
• Blood
• Screaming
• Dolls
• Clowns
Romance conventions
• Flowers
• Couples
• Love letters
• Bright light
• Up beat music
Action convention
• Car chase
• Running
• Fast cars
• Crime
• guns
Western conventions
• Horses
• Guns
• Cowboys
• Saloon
• Dry land

4. • May contain strong language (e.g.***), but it must be infrequent
• Sex may be briefly and discreetly portrayed
• There may be moderate language (e.g. uses of terms such as
‘bitch’ and ‘twat’)
• Moderate violence
• Use of weapons that are not easily accessible
• Dangerous behavior may be present (e.g. hanging, suicide and
self-harming)

5. •
No theme prohibited
•
strong violence
•
frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
•
Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest terms (eg 'c***')
•
portrayals of sexual activity
•
strong verbal references to sex
•
sexual nudity
•
brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
•
discriminatory language or behavior
•
drug taking

6. •
very strong violence
•
frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***') and/or very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’)
•
strong portrayals of sexual activity
•
scenes of sexual violence
•
strong horror
•
strong blood and gore
•
real sex (in some circumstances)
•
discriminatory language and behavior
•
may cover difficult and strong subjects and themes