Steve NEALe Genre Theory

Stephen Neale = UK based film theorist who came up with the theory that views genre as a process rather than a collection of groups that always consist of the same elements to make them fit in the same genre.

Repertoire of elements = this is when a film contains similar attributes to all other films of its type. It is full of generic things that the audience would expect from that genre of film.

Corpus = genres evolve continually as new texts are added to the body of similar texts.

Hybridisation = fusing together two different genres to make a new genre. e.g Rom-com.

Historic Specificity = media which is associated with specific time periods.

Repetition and Sameness = when successful methods or formulas are repeated with only slight adjustments.

Variation and Change = varying the product sufficiently to make sure it is still fresh for the audience, but is also still allowing familiarity.

Narrative Image = this is using the power of image to tell a narrative and grab attention.

Expectations and Hypotheses = audiences find it interesting to have a similar and predictable story.

Suspend Belief = allow the audience to become immersed into the story and feel a connection with the characters.

Generic Regime of Verisimilitude = sticking to generally very similar formulas in order to keep the audience engaged and allow a bit of predictability.

Conventions and Rules = generally accepted

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