Genre and Narrative

Genre

The term, Genre is how we sort out media related products into different groups which have similar features (different genres). There are many different film genres and some of these include

·         Action

·         Comedy

·         Drama

·         Thriller

·         Horror

·         Cartoon

·         Western

·         And more.

All these different film genres have similar features which make a film fall into one of these genre categories.

For example, from the picture above, you can instantly tell that this film is a film of the western genre. This is because you can see that it takes place in a desert and the man is wearing a cowboy hat. These two elements are usually key in a common western film which is why you can tell the genre of the film just by looking at this picture.

Narrative

The narrative is the way that the story of a film gets told to the audience. The narrative could also be called the storyline or the plot. There are different ways that the narrative can presented to the audience. These two ways are Linear and Non-Linear.

Linear – If a film is presented in a linear style, it means that is presented with a clear beginning that happens at the start of the film and a clear end that happens at the end of the film. It also means that everything happens in place with each other and that it is usually easy to understand.

Non – Linear – If a film is presented in a non-linear style, it means that the film isn’t presented with a clear beginning that happens at the start of the film. It means that the storyline can be hard to follow as some bits can happen out of place. A good example of a non-linear narrative is the film ‘Pulp Fiction’ as the actual end of the film is in the same place as the actual beginning of the film and they link together.