Aleksandr Rodchenko, At the Telephone, 1928 — name the camera position; then name what it does to you

Lesson 04: Genre and Camera

Media Studies · Unit 2 · Lesson 04 of 16 · ← L03 | L05 →

At a glance

Days	3 — Mon single, Tue single, Wed double (no Friday class: Mid-Autumn Festival)
Dates	Mon 2026-09-21 · Tue 09-22 · Wed 09-23
Band/Unit	U2 Media Language (S1 Unit 2)
AO focus	AO2
Deliverable	CS4 genre and camera analytical paragraph — direct practice for A1
Feeds	A1
Homework	None set (holiday week)

Goal

You cover genre theory and camera vocabulary in the same lesson because A1 asks for both in the same paragraph. Altman and Neale treat genre not as a box of tropes but as an agreement between industry and audience — the version that earns marks. You learn camera work as verbs before adjectives: what the camera does, then what it does to you. In the Wednesday double you prove the whole lesson in one CS4 paragraph.

How it runs

D1 — Mon 09-21: genre is a contract

• Starter (5 min) — two paintings of skulls and candles, three centuries apart, side by side. Different painters, different pictures — and you know instantly they belong together. That recognition is genre working.

B. Schaak, Vanitas Still Life, 1675–1700 — skull, lantern, hourglass, book: the genre's repertoire

Aelbert van der Schoor, Vanitas Still Life, c. 1660 — the same codes, a different picture: repetition and difference

• Input (15 min) — the exam-usable core: Neale — repetition and difference (“difference in repetition”); Altman — genre as the deal: the industry gets a pre-sold, budgetable product; the audience gets a promise of pleasure with room for surprise. Further reading from the coursebook: Lacey’s repertoire of elements, Buckingham (genres negotiate and change), Fiske (structure and convenience).
• Mapping (20 min) — map one genre you actually know (C-drama, xianxia, horror, idol variety, documentary) onto the contract: what repeats / what varies / who profits from the repetition / what the audience is promised.
• Exit (5 min) — one sentence: why does the industry need genre more than we do?

D2 — Tue 09-22: the camera as verbs

• Retrieval (5 min) — restate the contract in one sentence, cold.
• Input (10 min) — the shot ladder (ECU → CU → MS → LS → ELS), angles (high, low, eye, canted), movement (pan, tilt, track, dolly, zoom, handheld) — each named as a verb: the camera looks up at, creeps toward, refuses to follow.
• Rapid naming (15 min) — a shot montage, paired call-outs at speed: name the move. Second pass, harder: name the move, then name what it does to you — “low angle: he towers; I am small.”
• Exit ticket (10 min) — three shots, three effects, written. The remaining WS 2.2/2.3 terms close tonight — everything is now in your lexicon for A1.

D3 — Wed 09-23 (double): CS4, the dress rehearsal

• Set-up (10 min) — the A1 criteria on the board in the official rubric’s words (concepts · terminology · analysis of how meaning is created · examples). CS4 is A1 with the stakes off.
• The unlabeled menu (20 min) — six 30–60-second clips with titles and credits stripped. For each: attribute the genre from codes alone, and note two pieces of evidence.
• The paragraph (35 min) — choose one clip and write one analytical paragraph in exam register: genre claim → technical evidence (camera verbs) → symbolic evidence → what the audience is being promised. Sentence frames are available; terminology is required.
• Peer check (20 min) — swap paragraphs and check against the A1 criteria, one warm and one hard comment each; then hand in as CS4.
• Close (5 min) — Mid-Autumn break: nothing set, keep your glossaries with you.

Assessment

Item	Date	What	AO
CS4	Wed 2026-09-23	Genre and camera analytical paragraph from an unlabeled clip; direct practice for A1	AO2

See the full register.