Stephen Cleary has contributed a lot of clear thinking to the Australian industry’s long meditation on genre, which is such a profound tool in inderstanding projects, their structure and the contract with the audience. Andrew Einspruch reports on his Genre Bootcamp for ScreenACT.
Why do we like genre? Because we enjoy familiar stories told in an unfamiliar way – which is the heart of creating a good genre film. “Genre turns sameness into a virtue,” said Stephen Cleary. “The audience enjoys more than the individual film when they watch a genre film.” That’s because they are familiar with the genre, and bring that background of their understanding of the genre to their experience of watching the film.
