Genre is a way of categorizing different media forms, which are made up of different conventions that they may fall under. The media form such as film may come under multiple types of categorizes as the convention of some genres over lap.
Genre is important in media because it allows us to put what we are watching in a category, which helps us have more of understanding of the film and creates a short cut for us to describe the film. It also makes it easier to set our self a target audience for whatever we are producing, for example we may be targeting people who enjoy suspense, a bit of action, scary, blood etc so we could put all that in to the horror category and aim at everyone who enjoys things in that categories rather than setting different target audiences. It also gives the audience a chance to identify what they want and what they are looking for.
There are different types of genres, horror, comedy; Thriller etc each of these genres have different rules so it gives directors and producers a template to follow when making a film, having this template to follow is very important as it has a big influence on what the final thing looks like. For example the template for horror, the location would have to be somewhere that can create a scary atmosphere, the costume, props and lighting, make up all have to create some kind suspense and actually look scary, the edit has to be fast when it’s expected and music used is very important; it is guidance for creating the final product.
