The Returned: Les Revenants - Genre

Les Revenants

• 26 November 2012 on Canal+

• United Kingdom 9 June 2013 on Channel 4

• 2 series, 8 episodes each

• Based on the French film 'They came back'

• (Les Revenants) (dir. Robin Campillo 2004)

• Created by Fabrice Gobert

We have many different story arcs, so it has a unique and unconventional narrative. This entire show is based on a range of hermeneutic codes of mystery.

Intertextuality between other media products, creepy children in Les Revenants gives intertextual reference to horror movies with creepy children for example Orphan

Experimental and follows a non-linear structure.

Cult TV

Intense and passionate fanbase, a cult tv show invites the fanbase to do things with it.

It creates a separate world and fans may want to escape into this world known as escapism.

Iconography - stuff that we see or hear that essentially informs us of the genre.

The Sci-Fi Genre and Sociohistorical Context

The Sci-Fi Genre and Sociohistorical Context

• Allegory
• A media product that has a hidden meaning
• E.g Animal Farm

• Zeitgeist
• The 'spirit of the time'
• E.g Fresh Prince of Bel Air for the 90's

• Humans Sci-Fi Conventions
• Blue eyes
• Not comedy
• Robots
• Theme tune has sympathises
• Not romantic
• Themes of artificial intelligence
• Robotic speech
• Clean, blue mise-en-scene
• Stiff movement
• Realistic real world elements

• Themes
• Sexualisation
• Sexual Exploitation
• Modern Slavery
• Capitalism and the nuclear family
• Prostitution and the rights of sex workers
• Racism

Allegorical Aspect

• Sex Robots
• A robot is a depiction of a human. Desensitise to boundaries of what is real and what is not you lose reach of real life.

• Pornography
• Cultivation theory as it is making it okay to do certain things to a woman as it is normalised so often.

• Modern Slavery
• They buy Anita from a shop. Slave market represented by the synth shop.

• Modern Slavery
• The synths are programmed to do all the housework and as they are robots they don't get paid for it. 

• Modern Slavery
• It is justified to do whatever they want to the robots as they're just a 'machine'.

Key Theory - Steve Neale - Theories Around Genre

• Why does genre exist?
• Who benefits from generic classification?
• What are some advantages of genre?
• What are some disadvantages of genre?

Differences in Anita and Laura

• Anita is physically younger compared to Laura
• Anita is eastern asian and Laura is white
• Anita is on a different side of the room compared to Laura
• Anita is wearing basic factory clothing compared to Laura who is wearing everyday clothes

Key Theory - Steve Neale - Theories Around Genre

Key Theory - Steve Neale - Theories Around Genre

• Why does genre exist?
• To set categories in between media texts. 
• To know your target audience.
• To get building blocks and make the media product that the audience expects.
• 
  

• Who benefits from generic classification?
• The media product maker would be benefited from this as they would have set roles to follow so they have conventions to follow so it is easier. 

• What are the advantages of genre?
• Allows audiences to classify films.
• Allows audiences to easily find films they enjoy.
• Gives audiences expectations.
• Producer has a route to follow, it gets films and tv shows made, utopia had no set genre so not a lot of people watched it which ended up in it being cancelled. 
• Allows you to completely rule out certain genre's if you know for a fact you will not like it. 

• What are some disadvantages?
• Gives audiences expectations which could be let down due to its set genre.
• False expectations.
• People can still make terrible films and name it in a certain genre so people will still watch it but be disappointed from this poor quality.

Steve Neale's - Theory

Neale believes that genre is essentially instances of 'repetition and difference'. He suggested that texts need to conform to some generic paradigms to be identified within a certain genre - but must also subvert these conventions in order to not appear identical.

Genre and Intertextuality

Genre and Intertextuality

Genre - A type of media products... governed by implicit rules that are shared by makers of the product and the audience for it.

Music Genre Game;

• pop
• rock
• r&b
• house
• jazz
• classical
• grime
• rap
• hip hop
• indie
• occasional
• punk
• scream
• instrumental
• karaoke
• country
• electronic

Traditional genres are quite useless now as they are so broad and aren't useful as a frame of reference
The more important terms are those of sub-genre or a hybrid genre

• Hybrid Genre - contains aspects of 2 or more genre's 
• Example: Romantic Comedy (RomCom) 
• Example: The Walking Dead

• Sub Genre - Genre within a genre
• Example: Zombie (Shoot in their head / eat brains / never use the word 'Zombie')
• Example: Paranormal Activity / Vampires / Torture / Comedy. 

What makes the genre is the conventions and generic paradigms within it.

• Generic Paradigms - also known as genre conventions, are aspects of media text (for example editing, mise-en-scene, sound etc.) that demonstrate to the audience what genre a media product is. 

Iconography - The familiar signs of genre

• Western - Cowboy hat/ shocked close ups

Utopia - Trailer

Genre;

• Surrealism, the whole thing feels like its part of a dream or you're seeing it through the eyes of someone who is on drugs and the idea of a mystery.
• The generic paradigmatic features to make it seem like a mystery as there is contrapuntal music, this is when the music doesn't line up with the scene which creates confusion and mystery within the audience.

• With senses of horror and thriller from some of the images shown. 
• The generic paradigmatic features to make it seem like a thriller is the photos shown of the boy with his eyes out with some scary figure standing behind him.

• Psychological Horror
• The generic paradigmatic features to make it seem like a psychological horror is the creepy bunny on the street, the man tumbling down the stairs the fact that nobody else is seen in this trailer rather than the cast members. 

Intertextuality

• Intertextuality is the shaping of texts meaning through referencing or alluding to another text. Texts provide context within which other texts can be created or interpreted - reflecting the fluid boundaries or genre convention. 

• Intertextuality involves the audience on a level that was not previously possible and it makes the audience feel good and understand the context more to someone who perhaps wouldn't understand that type of intertextuality.

• It is also used for comedic for something serious made into something funny. 

• It also broadens the demographic and reaches a wider audience to promote their show. 

• It makes something very sexualised into a very innocent clip.

• Comedy makes it easier to deal with social problems in the world and makes it easier to understand aswell, laughing is important.