Stephen Neale: a prominent UK-based film theorist who made an enormous contribution to genre studies

Repertoire of elements: a group of conventions that the genre includes

Corpus: new texts that are added to the body of similar texts

Hybridisation: the merging of elements of different genres in order to create newer and more of a variety of genres

Historic specificity: the genre is associated with different time periods

Repetition and sameness: regular ideas of the genre not changing or being altered to become a new product within the genre

Variation and change: the change of specific conventions in genres to create new conventions

Narrative image: how the audience sees the genre due to the way it’s presented or spoke about

Expectations and hypotheses: the audiences assumption of what the product contains from what’s used in marketing

Suspend disbelief: make the audience believe the events occuring within a movie

Generic regime of verisimilitude:

Conventions and rules: the key ideas of what the genre itself should contain

Sub-genre:

Hybridity:

Genres of order and integration:

Genre as cultural category:

repertoire of elements- Repeated/shared features of movies that belong to a specific genre (Horror and night time setting, jump scares, zombies

corpus- The general body of similar texts of a genre

hybridization- when a movie includes conventions from another genre

historic specificity- When a genre is related to a specific time period (e.g. western movies)

repetition and sameness- When a genre maintains similar conventions throughout

variation and change- when a genre changes its conventions over time and changes its overall identity

narrative image- the use of visual representations in order to inflict emotions/thoughts

expectation and hypotheses- a proposed explanation for a phenomenon

suspend disbelief– when an audience is engaged within a narrative image, giving up realism in order to receive the gift of enjoyment from a narrative image

generic regime of verisimilitude- the true representation of something ( mise en scene)

Repertoire of elements – the certain features that are expected in a genre which are often described as the ‘repertoire of elements’.

Corpus – the ‘body’, there has to be enough texts in a genre for ir to be recognised as a genre 

Hybridisation – the joining of multiple genres

Historic specificity – genres are associated with specific time periods/ may have been popular then due to cultural, economic or historical factors 

Repetition and sameness/Variation and change – means there is a fine line between media creators changing too little and the text becoming boring and changing too much where it becomes unfamiliar 

Narrative image – the way the text is organised to tell a story 

Expectations and hypotheses – the audiences previous experiences of the genre  

Suspended disbelief – when the audience buy in to the film/characters/tv narrative

Generic regime of verisimilitude – what is likely in the text 

Stephen Neale – A British philosopher and specialist in the philosophy of language who has written extensively about meaning, information, interpretation, and communication, and more generally about issues at the intersection of philosophy and linguistics.

Repertoire of Elements – The theory that a certain genre of film will have similar characters e.g. in a crime film there will often be the Italian mobster.

Hybridisation – A term used to describe a type of media convergence whereby a new mode emerges containing elements of combined media.

Corpus –  A large and structured set of texts.

Historic Specificity – The suggestion that social movements should be treated as self-conscious and successful attempts to introduce innovations into a social system raises the question of whether they are historically specific, in the sense in which modern, scientific and technological innovations are historically specific: namely, that there have been historical periods when they have been favoured and powerful and others in which they have been ignored and weak.

Repetition and Sameness – The simple repeating of a word, within a short space of words, with no particular placement of the words to secure emphasis.

Variation and Change – A change or slight difference in condition, amount, or level, typically within certain limits.

Narrative Image – Narrative is to tell a story using the power of the visual image to ignite imaginations, evoke emotions and capture universal cultural truths and aspirations.

Expectations and Hypothesis – A proposed explanation for a phenomenon.

Suspend Disbelief – Willingness to suspend one’s critical faculties and believe something surreal; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment

Generic Regime of Verisimilitude – The appearance of being true or real. Mise-en-Scene.

CATEGORY	SIMILARITIES	DIFFERENCES	THEORY
CHARACTERS	the detective who has a ‘natural’ instinct for law and order	The Killing, The mising has the main detective as female	PROPP
NARRATIVE	the first episode often introduces a lot of different characters	The Missing – The missing girl comes back The Killing – The missing girl dies	TODOROV
THEMES	the use of binary oppostions around familiar themes: family, community, law and order, justice.	The Missing – Theme of hope The Killing – Theme of death	LEVI-STRAUSS
REPRESENTATION	reactionary representations of police, family, law and order, urban/rural	The Killing: Radical – detectives are females in the show whereas detectives are normally seen as males.	SEMIOTICS
TECHNICAL CODES / LANGUAGE OF MOVING IMAGE (music, setting, props, lighting, use of camera, editing etc)	opening montage sequence that often gives clues as to the whole series – themes, locations, characters, events etc.	The Killing – Uses upbeat music The Missing – Uses dark and low music