Holly Fairbairn

Analyse one of your coursework

productions in relation to genre.
Genre is a key aspect of any media text as to the audience, it creates a sense of
classification and familiarity which would appeal to them and lead them to make
decisions about what type of film they prefer watching, and to the industry it
creates a template for future creations that they can adjust to produce a new
film. The genre of my A2 production: Hey, Hayley was a teen drama which can
be defined as a dramatic narrative which focuses on the realistic themes of the
everyday lives of teenagers. To help establish my genre I looked into three main
theories by Altman, Neale and Metz.
In my production, to establish the genre, I wanted to use the main conventions of
the existing genre in Teen Dramas which in this sense, my production can be
applied to the three point approach by Altman as I looked closely at the semantic
elements of the genre such as the character types, props and setting particularly
when planning my own production. In this sense, I followed the semantic
elements as my characters were all teenagers who were using the typical props
such as alcohol and drugs whilst in a party environment and later on when
completing the bucket list, all of which are conventions to the teen drama genre.
Similarly, I also looked at the syntactic elements which were also conventional
with the theme of friendship being constant within my production which links in
with the relationship between the characters Cara and Wesley which is clearly
shown in many of the clips. However, I have to keep in mind the pragmatic
approach as genre can be interpreted differently by different people and the
relationship between Cara and Wesley was one element that received a
negotiated reading as many people assumed that there was a romantic aspect to
their relationship due to them being the main male and female characters and it
is conventional for there to be a romantic side to a relationship of their type as
well as the fact that it is clear they are very close, especially when they are seen
to be hugging or having constant physical contact. In regards to using Altmans
theory to establish my chosen genre, I can conclude that I was successful to an
extent as my audience were able to correctly identify the genre of my production
through the trigger semantics, especially the alcohol and the drugs as well as the
nature of the car crash in the narrative. The fact that my audience picked up on
these codes in my production in relation to my genre means that I can
confidently apply Altmans theory to my production. In my own evaluation, I
realised that I could have included some more conventions in terms of the
character types such as personalities more than just the age to ensure that my
audience were fully able to understand the genre, similarly in terms of the
setting as the feature of a school or college would have also ensured a clear
understanding of my desired genre.
Another theory I used to establish my genre was Neales repetition and
difference theory where genre can be identified through the repetition of

Holly Fairbairn
conventions but must also include differences to keep the audience interested. I
was mostly conventional in the creation of Hey, Hayley but I did challenge a few
as well. The main convention I challenged would be the style of filming as it is
conventional for the camera to be stable but for this production, the majority of it
was filmed hand held in the style of a vlog (video block) which is more relatable
for my target audience due to the online age that is growing. Scenes that show
this include when the characters first find the list which is the first scene in which
the technique is shown, almost as an introduction to the style that the film will
go in. The other main convention that was challenged was the lack of a romantic
theme, as teen dramas are usually considered as romantic comedies as well due
to the nature of many popular narratives. The difference I made were paired with
the conventions I followed, a key one being the characters as I repeated the use
of relatable characters in reference to their age and personalities so that it would
appeal to my target audience, this was similar to my incorporation of a party
scene which in itself includes the conventional props of alcohol and in some
cases drug abuse. By including all of these conventions, I made my product
genre identifiable to the audience in a clear way as they were able to correctly
identify it. This means that I was successful in applying Neales theory to
establish my genre for the audience as they all said they would want to watch
the rest of the film, meaning that the inclusion of repetition and differences were
in fact appealing to my target audience; however, my audience assumed that
there was a romantic relationship between the two characters when this wasnt
the case so one of the differences wasnt identified, therefore I could have made
this clearer. In my own evaluation, I could have included more differences that
were clear as the conventions were present enough that my audience could
identify the narrative and genre but my idea could also be seen as similar to
some others so the inclusion of more differences could have made my idea even
more appealing to my target audience.
The final theory I looked at to help me establish my genre was that of Metz which
includes the development of genre through four different stages: experimental,
classical, parody and deconstruction. Due to the fact that I incorporated enough
of the conventions of my intended genre that my target audience could correctly
identify it with little issue, Hey, Hayley could be read as a classic teen drama,
however due to the fact that I developed and challenged some of the main
conventions as well as the fact that Teen Drama in itself is merely a sub-genre
means that my production can mostly be classified as a being in the
deconstruction stage as I am taking elements of the drama genre such as car
crashes, friendship and substance abuse and applying them to a teenage setting
and lifestyle by including younger characters and youthful settings in a more
casual tone than if the characters were of an older age. The reason that I
incorporated these conventions in a new scenario was due to the fact that my
target audience was of the age of 15+ so they would prefer a film with more
relatable characters which in relation would make the whole narrative seem
more appealing to my intended audience. The fact that I was able to apply these
themes and the narrative to a new area in my chosen genre means that I can say
that I successfully created a deconstructed drama film but due to the genre I was

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trying to create being a Teen Drama is a sub-genre means its hard to apply Metz
theory as there is really no stage of development due to the fact that each new
idea is a deconstruction of the drama genre rather than a classic or experimental
teen drama.
In conclusion, I can confidently say that I was successful in establishing my
desired genre as my target audience could correctly identify it through the
conventions that I included. Out of the three theories I looked at, I could mostly
apply my product to Altmans three point approach as I looked closely at the
semantic and syntactic elements during the production process and kept in mind
the pragmatic approach when receiving my audience feedback as I knew that
some people would view certain elements of my production differently than
others which could change the way that they viewed the genre overall.