Genre

Genre is the category or type of content or product the client requires. It tells you what kind of thing is being made: a disaster movie, a puzzle platformer game, a motoring magazine or a sea shanty. Genre is one of the client requirements you check for in a brief, alongside the product type, purpose and audience. A brief may name it directly, as in "a five-minute comedy sketch for our school radio show".

Genres differ across media forms

Genres differ between media forms, and the same genre can be built in different ways in each. A ghost story on screen builds tension with dark corners and sudden sounds, while a ghost story in print builds it by letting the reader imagine the shape standing in the doorway. The table gives a few examples.

Why genre matters

Naming the genre helps the producer pick suitable conventions: the familiar features an audience expects from that category. Someone making a cookery video knows to use close-ups of each step, spoken measurements and a shot of the finished dish; someone making a racing game knows to include laps, a timer and a leaderboard. Genre also helps the audience recognise what they are getting, so they can choose it or avoid it.

Genre is not the same as style, which is how the product looks or sounds, or theme, which is a recurring idea. Two cookery videos can share a genre but use very different styles.