Genre & Narrative

What is a genre?

A genre is a way people classify different types of films, for example, horror, comedy. romcom, musical etc. For a film to be categorised it has to have specific characteristics which would relate to the type of genre, an example of this would be the characteristics of a horror. These characteristics may include elements like, a scary house, blood, ghosts, weapons and the woods. All of these would give people the idea that the film being described would be a horror. The picture below would show the pictures that people may link to the genre horror.

This picture would relate to the genre horror, as it displays
the elements which would be shown in a horror.

What is a narrative?

A narrative is split into two sections, story and narrative structure. A story is a sequence of events often referred to as the plot of the film and this is what the people viewing the film follow. on the other hand, narrative structure is also split into two different types, these being linear and non-linear. Linear is when the sequence of events are shown in the order in which they took place in - beginning, middle, end. this is usually the most popular form of narrative structure. Non-linear is basically the opposite, where the sequence of events are revealed out of thee expected order e.g. pulp fiction or memento, which both show the order in an unusual and quite confusing way which is good as it keeps the audience guessing and working it out through out the film.