500 Words of Extra Reading on Genre in Animation

I read the article on Genre in Animation and the point of it I got from it was that the definition of genre is what makes a film a type of film. So, for example a film is defined as a western because it might contain certain traits that are associated with the western genre. For example; gun fights, cowboys and desert waste lands and a Sci-Fi film is defined as Sci-fi because it contains traits such as spaceships, over worldly settings and ufos for example. The article also contained a list of genres, for example, horror, sci-fi, comedy etc. and underneath each category, examples of films which fit that category so films such as Ghost in the Shell, Akira and Superman fitted under Sci-Fi.

But, film categorisation is not always this clean cut, there are many films that contain traits that can be associated with multiple genres. For example, I've seen many action films, but many of these action films that I've seen have been very comedic, therefore to title these films as simple action films I feel is doing the film a disservice and ill-advising the viewer. That is where sub-genres come into play. That is why on a website such as wikipedia, you will find films that are listed under actionSci-Fi thriller for example. The article asks the question of whether than can be a 'pure' definition of genre if there are so many exclusions to the rule.

I feel the idea of genre is something no film fan can be without, this to is the case for the film makers producing a film. Not every film needs to fit inside the margins of a genre but I feel it acts as a good, reliable, rough guideline as to what type of film you are watching/making. For example if a studio is going to make a film, there is no indication as to what kind of budget their going to need, unless they are given the rough guideline that it is going to be in the action genre. Chances are it is going to be a bigger budget film that will require more funding. There are traits in the action genre that give filmmakers/ fans the idea of what they are going to see in a film, for example a helicopter or a police chase, therefore more money to produce the film is required. Conversely, if the film is going to be a romantic-comedy, technically a sub-genre, then it is likely to be made for a far smaller sum of money. This is not for definite, but we know, due to our knowledge of other films we've seen that follow traits of a certain type of genre that we are probably not going to see any police chases in this film.

In conclusion genre is an incredibly important part of film categorisation but it is not the definitive categorisation for all individual films made.