Generic Conventions

Genre is the category a film is placed into based on particular conventions.
These generic conventions are categorised into:

• visual conventions (what we see)
• audio conventions (what we hear)
• thematic conventions (the themes in the film and how the storyline is pieced together).

These conventions can greatly affect how the audience interpret and make sense of a film.  If something is out of place - for example, randomly having a blood-stained knife in a teenage girl's bedroom, without explanation, in the middle of a rom-com - it could work as a comedy, but most often, it will confuse the audience.


For example, conventions that could signify horror are: the audio convention of screaming; the visual convention of blood (or anything red or black which connote death) and the thematic convention of the ongoing use of the colours red or black throughout the film.


(The black background, hair and eye makeup signify that this is a horror film due to the colour's connotations of death.)



Within a Western genre film, audiences will expect to see horses, cowboys, hats and guns.  These are generic conventions that signify a Western film.  Also, the music used may be steroetypically Western-sounding of guitars or dramatic, up-tempo beats.  Gunshots are also a sound that generically signify Western - or action - films.






Action films are usually very fast-paced, even from the onset:



Obviously, gunshots and chase scenes are associated with action films.  These are key signifiers of the action genre.  A thematic convention of action films is conflict.  In order for there to be action, there needs to be some sort of disagreement between the characters.


(Mr & Mrs Smith is a perfect example of an action film with these conventions.)