Task 2.1 Research into Existing Products

Christian Metz

Christian Mets is a French film theorist that believes that each genre has gone through genre development in order for a film to be good. This is called Mets Theory. Mets released a book called Language and Cinema in 1974. This explored development of genre film and he also suggested four phases. 

The four phases are as followed:
1.    The Experimental
2.    The Classic
3.    The Parody
4.    The Deconstruction

Bram Stoker - Dracula
(Book Cover)

The experimental stage is when cinemas needed ideas in order to produce the best films possible. In order to find inspiration for these films, the companies would turn to literature. An example of a film that was inspired by a book was Nosferatu (1922). This film was based on the book called Dracula which was written by Bram Stoker. Another film would be The Cabinet of Dr Calgari (1919). This film was based on Dr Jakyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. 

The classic stage is where the codes and conventions of a genre become seen as iconic and idealised as the guidelines for the genre. This means that this is when the classic/original films are made. They are the basis for future films. It gives future film makers structure for a narrative. An example of a film that was part of the classic stage would be Dracula which was produced at Universal Studios in 1931. This film was directed by Tod Browning and the film stared Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. As discussed in the experimental stage, this film was based on the book and the movie was the basis for the future films in this series. 


The parody stage is the stage in which the codes and conventions of the genre and then they are used as a parody. This means that people can use the and mock the genre. The parody stage is based on the fact that the audience have understood the codes and conventions from the classic stage when they watched the film. this ensures that they will find the film funny. An example of this would be Scary Movie which was released in 1998. There are This film is a parody of the horror genre. There are five films in total. This film includes parody's of classic scenes such as "Scream". The films mock the genre to entertain the audiences. 

The Sixth Sense Poster

The last stage is the deconstruction stage. this is when a genre can begin to evolve and merge with others. It results in more genres  becoming less clear cut and the rules of the genre can be broken. Film companies did this in order to keep audiences from getting bored by keeping genres fresh by mixing two genres together. An example of a film that did this was The Sixth Sense. This film was made in 1999 and it incorporates several genres. These are horror, thriller, drama, suspense and super natural. During the late 1970's, the deconstruction stage was popular. There was a lot of low budget horrors that were being made. This meant that there was a lot of films being produced which started to change the way genres were used within films.