Reseach Into Existing Products 2.1 - Genre

Where did genres come from?

In the 1920’s there were 5 major Hollywood film studios; 20^th Century Fox, Warner Bros, Paramount pictures, RKO Pictures, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. At the very beginning of the film industry directors and these film studios experimented film until they established the types of film popular with audiences. They then reproduced these same types of films over and over giving the audience what they wanted. For example, Film-Noir and Romance were two popular types of films and as they were produced over and over it genres were formed.

How did the 'Golden Age of Hollywood' re-inforce genre?

Once popular genres were established, the film studios knew they were guaranteed to generate money from the films they produced, therefore during the ‘golden age of Hollywood’ film studios began to invest more and more money into producing these popular films because they knew they were guaranteed to make a profit. This reinforced genre as the film studios rarely ventured far away from the traditional popular narratives and so the films produced remained within the genres.

Which genres became popular in Hollywood?

Naturally the most popular genres in Hollywood were the ones that returned the most money. Westerns were always very popular films at the beginning of Hollywood for example Vera Cruz starring Gary Cooper. The horror-thriller genre has also always been popular and the majority of the films produced as part of this genre have followed the same conventions and narrative. Romance and film-noir are also popular genres however these genres have evolved with Hollywood with many of the films produced breaking away from the traditional narratives.

Why do audience like genre films?

Audiences like genre films for the familiarity, most people have their favourite films and their least favourite films and so by having genres they can identify the likely narrative of a film and identify if they are going to enjoy it or not. If the audience does not know what the film is going to be about they are less likely to watch it. Films such as James Bond have continued on for now over 30 installments because audiences have always enjoyed them and so continue to watch the next one and the next one and the next one.