Textual Analysis of John Tucker Must Die

Genre Analysis

Before I create my short film clip I will need to select a genre. This is very important as the genre will affect my target audience and how I will need to produce my film. Genre is a tool used to categorise a number of different media texts throughout all industries. In order for an audience or media student to identify a genre being used there are usually generic conventions within the film, magazine etc. A successful media text will be able to target an audience depending on the generic conventions and therefore genre chosen. It is key that I choose a clear genre or sub-genre before beginning my production stage as this will allow an audience to understand my film more clearly. As I have chosen the film brief I will need to learn how genre is used within the film industry; sub-genre and generic conventions.

The Notebook is part of the romance genre, it becomes obvious once the story develops of the love between Ally and Noah progresses. Romance is a well-known genre in the film industry and is a popular choice at the cinema, at Odeon for example there are nine romance films to choose from at the moment therefore proving that they are an often made film genre. Moreover, the Notebook can be further categorised into the sub-genre of historical romance. A sub-genre further breaks down a genre that may be of a broad nature. Other films are also of the historical romance genre: The titanic, Dear John and pride and prejudice. Below shows a screenshot of the notebook’s trailer and it shows Ally and Noah dancing in the street in a slow movement way, in recent years this would not occur unless in a bar etc. However in historic times like during the world wars for example this became a normal thing. Further generic conventions occur in films especially the notebook including things which are associated with romance in the 1900's: dancing, old cinemas, long walks and the opening of a woman’s car door; all which are shown during the film.

A further film that I have looked into is Grown Ups 2 which is part of the comedy genre. Comedy is a genre which is particularly difficult to complete and to be successful as there are many different people with different senses of humour. However there are some film companies which attempt a comedy film and one of these was Happy Madison Production; Adam Sandlers film company. Grown Ups 2 can be separated into the cringe comedy sub-genre as it is a comedy of embarrassment through certain words and actions. The screenshot below of the trailer for Grown Ups 2 shows the four best friends about to jump off of the cliff face. This is a generic convention for cringe comedy because it is using actions in order to produce a comical effect. The men’s relationship is based on not being too serious with each other and pointing out each other’s flaws in order to achieve a laugh; this further illustrated the cringe comedy sub-genre. Many generic conventions are used throughout films like this and the Proposal or the Inbetweeners movie such as: slang, jumping off objects and stripping.

As I continue my research and planning task I will need to think carefully about the genre I will select. It may be that I choose a hybrid-genre which combines to larger genres for example Shawn of the Dead. I will use sub-genre or hybrid-genre in order to clearly target an audience through the use of generic conventions for that particular genre. 

Action Plan: next 6 weeks

Week	Research Task
1	Target audience profile + Genre analysis
2	Quantitative + Qualitative audience research  Evaluation of audience research
3	Institutions research + Regulations research
4	Historical background + Narrative structure research
5	Analysis of current market + existing media texts
6	Representation Research

Rationale

I have chosen to tackle the film brief as I think it will develop my skills in film making and editing as in the present I have a limited understanding of the editing process. It seems as though it will take a lot of time and hard work as I will be completing the project on my own, where as in my preliminary task I had the assistance of another classmate. By doing this previous task I have introduced myself to the film cameras and other equipment which I will need to use throughout my film task; Final Cut Pro, dolly, tracker etc. However in this previous task I did not complete a research and planning task and so I have not located an audience for that film, this will be a new skill that may take some time as it is ideal I am targeting the correct audience group; this will need to be completed before I begin my filming.  The film industry is one I know little about, but I intend to find out through the research & planning tasks. I have looked into the different tools the media uses in order to communicate a particular message and I intend to use the same tools when I begin the filming.

Research and planning seems to be an important pre-production process before filming begins as it allows you to locate your target audience through questionnaires for example. I will need to look at previous films, especially the beginning scenes in order to get inspiration and an idea of how I will film my introductory scenes. 

My initial ideas in terms of the genre that the film will be either of the horror or romance genre as I think these will be the best for a first film making project but I will need to identify a sub-genre within horror or romance: teen, male or female. Comedy would be too hard to get an entire audience to laugh and other genres do not particularly interest me therefore why I will either produce a short film in the horror or romance genre. Apart from this I do not have any other ideas but after my research and planning task I will have a better understanding of representation and the audience that I will be targeting.