In relation to the film industry, Thomas and Vivian Sobchack offer us a useful theory when it comes to the classifcatiction of a films genre. They have made basic distinctions, on a level between that of fiction and of non-fiction, between the differences of comedy and melodrama.
The main genres of comedy are:
- Slapstick Comedy
- Romantic Comedy (Rom-Com, Including Musical Comedy)
- Musical Biography
- Fairy Tale
The main genres of melodrama are:
- Adventure Films (Including Survival Films, War Films and Disaster Films)
- The Western
- "Fantastic Genres" - Fantasy, Horror, and Sci-Fi
- "Antisocial Genres" - Crime, Gang, Detective and Film Noir
The Sobchack's theory is extremely useful when outlining the textual features of a film within these genres.
Propps Narrative:
Vladimir Propp developed a character theory that can be used within many of the AAA movies still today. Propp split the characters within a media piece into seven different groups. These groups are:
The villain (struggles against the hero)
The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
Her father (usually dies during or before the film/book)
The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess
Claude Levi-Strauss
Clause Levi-Strauss looked at the narrative of media in terms of binary opposites. Binary opposites are groups of completely opposite values that help to reveal the structure of a media text. A very notable example of this would be Good and Evil - everybody can understand the concept of Good being the opposite of Evil. From this Strauss was not interested in the order of events in a media piece he was more interested in the opposites that where used to reveal the media's texts.
Richard Dyer's Star Theory
Richard Dyer's Star Theory believes that 'stars' are being constructed for the use of media. The theory believes that they are artificial images even though they are being represented as real people experiencing real emotions. The Star Theory also states that is is beneficial if the 'stars' image can be designed for a certain audience so that traits can be easily copied to the interest of that audience. Dyer believes that pop-stars have a huge advantage over film-stars as they are able to build their image over a more consistent period of time whereas film stars are dependent on the films that they choose to star in. Dyer proposes that "A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed out of a range of materials."
Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory
Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory is the simple theory that explains how women can be seen within many different forms of media. For this theory Mulvey believes that all viewers of media see women from the view of the heterosexual males point of view. This is because Mulvey believes that woman can become over objectified within media to the point in which they are being over sexualised in situations where this has nothing to do with the product.
