“The word ‘genre’ is a French word meaning ‘type’. It is used within the creative industries to refer to a distinct type of product.” (Baylis & Procter. Page 92). Each TV show around today falls into specific genres which follow a set of codes and conventions to allow audiences to understand the format of the show in general. To explain this further the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer will be used to illustrate these points.
Buffy is a classified as a supernatural horror drama. This means that is will centre on supernatural elements which can include ghosts, gods and goddesses and miracles. Supernatural shows deal with the unknown questions in life. This tends to create a suspenseful atmosphere for audiences. It can also incorporate elements from religion into their plots. The horror aspect makes it a sub-genre of the supernatural genre. This genre sees demons, vampires and monsters added to the supernatural occurrence. This makes a supernatural-horror not be limited by religious elements like a religious thriller and can portray more vivid and gruesome violence (The Script Lab). Buffy contains all these aspects throughout its seven season span. Episodes in a series tend to contain a single “Big Bad” that Buffy and the Scoobies will have to face off against in the series finale. These final confrontations will use suspense to build up to the final conclusion.
For example, series five introduced the character Dawn. Dawn was Buffy’s younger sister who had never existed up until her debut at the end of the first episode of the season. She arrived in the series at the age of 14 years old and all the characters suddenly had their histories rewritten to include Dawn in their timelines. Here existence was not fully revealed until episode five of the series and how she is a key to destroying the world and allow an evil goddess known as Glorificus to return to her dimension from which she was banished. As the series progressed how Dawn could destroy the world was revealed and in the final episode Glorificus was successful in starting the ritual that caused Dawn’s blood to begin the destruction of the world. However Buffy realised her blood and Dawn’s was the same and instead of Dawn sacrificing herself Buffy could sacrifice herself instead. This series alone shows how Buffy conforms to the codes and conventions behind the supernatural-horror genre classification.
Buffy is a classified as a supernatural horror drama. This means that is will centre on supernatural elements which can include ghosts, gods and goddesses and miracles. Supernatural shows deal with the unknown questions in life. This tends to create a suspenseful atmosphere for audiences. It can also incorporate elements from religion into their plots. The horror aspect makes it a sub-genre of the supernatural genre. This genre sees demons, vampires and monsters added to the supernatural occurrence. This makes a supernatural-horror not be limited by religious elements like a religious thriller and can portray more vivid and gruesome violence (The Script Lab). Buffy contains all these aspects throughout its seven season span. Episodes in a series tend to contain a single “Big Bad” that Buffy and the Scoobies will have to face off against in the series finale. These final confrontations will use suspense to build up to the final conclusion.
For example, series five introduced the character Dawn. Dawn was Buffy’s younger sister who had never existed up until her debut at the end of the first episode of the season. She arrived in the series at the age of 14 years old and all the characters suddenly had their histories rewritten to include Dawn in their timelines. Here existence was not fully revealed until episode five of the series and how she is a key to destroying the world and allow an evil goddess known as Glorificus to return to her dimension from which she was banished. As the series progressed how Dawn could destroy the world was revealed and in the final episode Glorificus was successful in starting the ritual that caused Dawn’s blood to begin the destruction of the world. However Buffy realised her blood and Dawn’s was the same and instead of Dawn sacrificing herself Buffy could sacrifice herself instead. This series alone shows how Buffy conforms to the codes and conventions behind the supernatural-horror genre classification.
Understanding the audience being targeted is important. Age, gender, culture, social class, lifestyle, location and sexual orientation are all areas to be considered when choosing a target audience (Baylis & Procter). With the majority of the characters in Buffy being from their late teens to early 20’s throughout its seven year span, the age of the demographic was aimed at the young adult market. To the left is a table to show the age demographic of votes from IMDB’s rating system (IMDB). The table clearly shows it is a popular show from those aged 18-29 and 30-44 which suggests the targeted age demographic has been hit with these results especially when taking into account the show ending over 12 years ago.
Gender in Buffy has always been interesting. Considering the lead is female and the majority of the cast also female, a female viewing demographic would be expected. However results from voters on IMDB show a greater number of male viewers to the show (IMDB). This could be due to how the show did focus on a female heroine as opposed to a male heroine which is more commonly seen in the creative industries. The female characters were typically the ones to also increase in power over the course of the show. Where male characters would act more in a supporting or guiding role to the lead character. These could be factors behind more male viewers compared to female viewers and comparing to the spin-off series Angle could indicate more female viewers to male viewers where it focuses a male protagonist.
The show uses the culture and location of a small California town which is both urban and rural allowing for changes in location easily. However one type of culture constantly used in the show is that of pop culture. Pop cultural references are made throughout the entire shows run. When dealing with dialogue characters would constantly refer to pop culture references to aid in the audiences understanding of an issue in the episode and to sometimes include humour. For example in episode eight of season three, the character receive their S.A.T scores where Willow who is always the brains of the group scores surprising low. In despair over her result she refers to herself as “Cletus the slack-jawed yokel”.
The social class and lifestyle for the show is clearly middle-class as our main character is from a middle-class family but with a modern take. Buffy lives only with her mother and her father only ever appeared in two episodes early on in the franchise. However her mother is a successful art gallery owner and as such supports her daughter comfortably. Their day to day lives tend to focus on more middle-class issues. For example when Buffy is accepted to North Western University her mother states that money will be tight but if her father helps they can easily afford to send her there.
Sexual orientation for the show changed throughout the show. To begin with it explored the idea of a young woman who has her first sexual encounter with her boyfriend only for him to reject her after. This was done through metaphor with the sexual encounter resulting in Angel losing his soul and turning into the evil Angelus once again and becoming the antagonist that Buffy would face for the remainder of the series. After this point Buffy explored the rebound love during her time at college, the love of family when they introduced Dawn to the series and finally loving someone she should not in her past nemesis Spike. However in series four the show started to explore the sexual orientation of the character Willow. Willow began to explore magic more in series three and by series four met the character Tara whom Willow connected with on a magical level. Through the use of magic the pair eventually became lovers and Willow accepted the fact she was a lesbian.
Audience response to these aspects are key to any shows success. “For a media product to be successful, the audience has to respond in a positive way to the product by understanding and making sense of it.” (Baylis & Procter. Page 98). Buffy had to forms for the audience to respond to. One was the simple storyline of our protagonists dealing with a crisis set into motion by the series antagonist which is majority preferred by viewers. However metaphors are used again and again in the franchise which are trickier for audiences to recognise. For example in the season four Halloween episode titled “Fear Itself” Buffy has to face off against the demon of fear who is using the characters base fears against them to confuse and separate them. When she finally meets him face to face at the end of the episode it is revealed he is only 6 inches tall. This was purposely done to emphasise that fear is actually a very small emotion yet holds so much power over us all. These aspects of the story fall into a oppositional category for viewers as some naturally pick up on the hidden narrative of the story where others do not (Documentary Project DP).
The narrative strand for the franchise is multi-strand (Synonym). While a large part of the story is focused on Buffy, the supporting characters do also have their own side stories happening alongside. From series four up until series six the characters Xander and Anya had a continuing storyline following their relationship. From its conception to engagement to Xander fleeing from their wedding. This allowed audiences a break from the protagonist’s story to allow for a change of mood and a lot of the time humour as the pair would be dealing with the latest problem in their relationship.
The franchise was also primarily portrayed using a linear form of storytelling where events would follow a sequential order to tell the story (Synonym). However some episodes would feature flashbacks to fill in gaps for the viewers. The vampires Angel and Spike have been two characters to feature many flashback sequences in their storyline throughout Buffy as both had over 200 years of history prior to the series beginning. However episode thirteen of season six featured a nonlinear segment. Buffy experiences a series of events which are out of their linear order. The reason being due to a spell being cast on Buffy to make her believe she had killed an innocent and allow the actual murderers to get away with their crime. With the sequence of events completely jumbled it makes it fall into the nonlinear category even though it is not the norm for the entire franchise (Synonym).
The primary theme for Buffy was that of the Slayer battling the vampires, demons and forces of evil. However the secondary theme changed over time. Each series would focus on a different aspect each year. The first series saw the protagonist moving to her new town and joining a new school. This allowed viewers to be like Buffy, just like her they were learning who the characters were around her, the place she is now calling home and getting used to the new surroundings. The second series explored what it means to be sixteen. The protagonist forms a deeper relationship with her boyfriend to whom she gives up her virginity to and how her two best friends begin to find relationships themselves. The third series focused on the fear of after school. This was shown with the characters having to question several times what they want to become and where they will go to achieve this. It also played to the fears of Xander who was not expected to go to college like all of his friends but instead trying to find a job. The fourth series looked at how a lot of the first year after school cannot be what you expect it to be. The issues of living outside off their parents’ houses, or in Xanders case being moved into the basement of his parent’s house. How being an adult is harder than they perceived while being at school. Series five saw the characters accepting who they were and the success from their hard work. Buffy found a new discipline behind her slaying, Willow became comfortable with her sexuality and Xander found himself with a good job, own apartment and long-term girlfriend. Series six looked at the characters facing up to their mistakes and flaws. Buffy having to deal with her return from the dead, Willow dealing with her addiction to magic and Xander how he was not ready to get married. The final series had the characters conquering their inner demons and accepting who they were and stepping up to the expectations put upon them.
Buffy did also play into some political issues throughout its run. It even had one episode pulled before airing on TV due to headline in the news. In series three the episode “Earshot” featured a character Jonathan planning to climb to the top of the school’s clock tower with a gun to prepare for a shooting. The episode was set to air on the 27th April but was pulled due to only a week earlier the massacre of Columbine High School occurring. Additionally during series three the antagonist of the series was the town’s Mayor, allowing the creators to poke fun at the idea of a corrupt government.
The show also focused on social issues in society through metaphor more than once. The best example of this was drug addiction. In Buffy magic is used as a metaphor for drugs. The character Willow becomes fuller addicted to the feeling of using magic. During episode 10 of season six Willow visits a guy called Rack who dopes Willow using his magic resulting in her being drunk from the power. This later results in Dawn being badly injured and Willow admitting to Buffy that she needs help. Willow goes cold turkey which the writers use to emulate the effects of drug addicts going cold turkey also. By episode twelve the character is jittery, fidgety and finding it difficult to take her mind off of what she wants.
The franchise featured many characters over the years but the character Buffy, Willow and Xander were the only three to be main characters from start to finish. The character Buffy was specifically modelled after the iconography of the blonde girl we see getting killed in every classic horror movie. The creator Joss Wheddon stated in a DVD feature (Interview with Joss Wheddon) that he felt sorry for that stereotypical character so wanted to make Buffy to be the girl that does not become the next victim but instead the one to beat him. The character Willow was created to portray the stereotypical geek character, this was done through her dress style and her exstensive knowledge of computers and hacking. Xander was created to be the love struck fool for the protagonist who does not have a chance of being with her. This was portrayed through his attempts to give her romantic gifts and eventually asking her to a dance only to be turned down. As the franchise progressed they all changed. Buffy ended up being a strong leader willing to make the hard choices in battle. Willow became a magical woman who had more power than Buffy. Xander become a hard working normal guy compared to his super-powered and magically inclined best friends. This allowed viewers to have a choice between a powerful and strong character, a mystical and magical character or the guy who supports but never actually becomes the centre of attention. The only downfall of the characters is a lack of ethnic diversity. All the main cast of Buffy were Caucasian. Any character of other ethnic origins were only ever guest characters and never part of the main characters.
Buffy has proven on several occasions of how certain aspect are fundamental to set an atmosphere or achieve a certain effect. Music is one such example (Arnott). While it uses very mystifying and magical sounding music for mystery, then use an increased beat and tempo for action scene, it has also featured an episode with no music. The season five episode “The Body” saw Buffy dealing with the sudden death of her mother (Whedon). Whedon purposely did not use any music in the episode to stop the audience from escaping the awkward moments of silence and for them to feel as uncomfortable as the characters of the show. The show also followed typical horror conventions of using dim lighting to obscure the view of audiences at time along with zooms, pans and tracking shots to further achieve these effects.
Bibliography
Baylis, P & Procter, N. “Creative Media Production Level 2” 2010. Pearson Education Limited.
Documentary Project DP. Hall, S. “Preferred/Oppositional/Negotiated” [Online] Available From: https://documentaryprojectdp.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/preferrednegotiatedoppositional-readings-stuart-hall/ [Accessed:23rd May 2015]
Entertainment Weekly. Bonin, L. “Why the Controversial Finale of ‘Buffy’ Didn’t Air Last Night” [Online] Available From: http://www.ew.com/article/1999/05/25/why-controversial-finale-buffy-didnt-air-last-night [Accessed: 23rd May 2015]
IMDB. (Unknown) “User ratings for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” [Online] Available From: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/ratings [Accessed: 23rd May 2015]
Moviepilot. Arnott, C. “How Crucial is Music to a Movie?” [Online] Available From: http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/04/18/how-crucial-is-music-to-a-movie-2868935?lt_source=external,manual [Accessed:23rd May 2015]
The Script Lab. (Unknown) Supernatural [Online] Available From: http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/supernatural# [Accessed: 23rd May 2015]
Synonym. Morgan, K. “The Literary Term ‘Nonlinear Narrative’” [Online] Available From: http://classroom.synonym.com/narrative-strands-3175.html [Accessed 23rd May 2015]
Synonym. Shore, J. “What are narrative Strands?” [Online] Available From: http://classroom.synonym.com/narrative-strands-3175.html [Accessed 23rd May 2015]
Synonym. Wroblewski, M. “What is a Linear Narrative?” [Online] Available From: http://classroom.synonym.com/linear-narrative-1805.html [Accessed 23rd May 2015]
Whedon, J. (2011) Interview with Joss Whedon [Online] Available From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMB6tKMXsc8 [Accessed 23rd May 2015]
Whedon, J. (2014) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Natural Causes Episode 5x16 Body [Online] Available From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVtv9M6kCvs [Accessed 23rd May 2015]
The show uses the culture and location of a small California town which is both urban and rural allowing for changes in location easily. However one type of culture constantly used in the show is that of pop culture. Pop cultural references are made throughout the entire shows run. When dealing with dialogue characters would constantly refer to pop culture references to aid in the audiences understanding of an issue in the episode and to sometimes include humour. For example in episode eight of season three, the character receive their S.A.T scores where Willow who is always the brains of the group scores surprising low. In despair over her result she refers to herself as “Cletus the slack-jawed yokel”.
The social class and lifestyle for the show is clearly middle-class as our main character is from a middle-class family but with a modern take. Buffy lives only with her mother and her father only ever appeared in two episodes early on in the franchise. However her mother is a successful art gallery owner and as such supports her daughter comfortably. Their day to day lives tend to focus on more middle-class issues. For example when Buffy is accepted to North Western University her mother states that money will be tight but if her father helps they can easily afford to send her there.
Sexual orientation for the show changed throughout the show. To begin with it explored the idea of a young woman who has her first sexual encounter with her boyfriend only for him to reject her after. This was done through metaphor with the sexual encounter resulting in Angel losing his soul and turning into the evil Angelus once again and becoming the antagonist that Buffy would face for the remainder of the series. After this point Buffy explored the rebound love during her time at college, the love of family when they introduced Dawn to the series and finally loving someone she should not in her past nemesis Spike. However in series four the show started to explore the sexual orientation of the character Willow. Willow began to explore magic more in series three and by series four met the character Tara whom Willow connected with on a magical level. Through the use of magic the pair eventually became lovers and Willow accepted the fact she was a lesbian.
Audience response to these aspects are key to any shows success. “For a media product to be successful, the audience has to respond in a positive way to the product by understanding and making sense of it.” (Baylis & Procter. Page 98). Buffy had to forms for the audience to respond to. One was the simple storyline of our protagonists dealing with a crisis set into motion by the series antagonist which is majority preferred by viewers. However metaphors are used again and again in the franchise which are trickier for audiences to recognise. For example in the season four Halloween episode titled “Fear Itself” Buffy has to face off against the demon of fear who is using the characters base fears against them to confuse and separate them. When she finally meets him face to face at the end of the episode it is revealed he is only 6 inches tall. This was purposely done to emphasise that fear is actually a very small emotion yet holds so much power over us all. These aspects of the story fall into a oppositional category for viewers as some naturally pick up on the hidden narrative of the story where others do not (Documentary Project DP).
The narrative strand for the franchise is multi-strand (Synonym). While a large part of the story is focused on Buffy, the supporting characters do also have their own side stories happening alongside. From series four up until series six the characters Xander and Anya had a continuing storyline following their relationship. From its conception to engagement to Xander fleeing from their wedding. This allowed audiences a break from the protagonist’s story to allow for a change of mood and a lot of the time humour as the pair would be dealing with the latest problem in their relationship.
The franchise was also primarily portrayed using a linear form of storytelling where events would follow a sequential order to tell the story (Synonym). However some episodes would feature flashbacks to fill in gaps for the viewers. The vampires Angel and Spike have been two characters to feature many flashback sequences in their storyline throughout Buffy as both had over 200 years of history prior to the series beginning. However episode thirteen of season six featured a nonlinear segment. Buffy experiences a series of events which are out of their linear order. The reason being due to a spell being cast on Buffy to make her believe she had killed an innocent and allow the actual murderers to get away with their crime. With the sequence of events completely jumbled it makes it fall into the nonlinear category even though it is not the norm for the entire franchise (Synonym).
The primary theme for Buffy was that of the Slayer battling the vampires, demons and forces of evil. However the secondary theme changed over time. Each series would focus on a different aspect each year. The first series saw the protagonist moving to her new town and joining a new school. This allowed viewers to be like Buffy, just like her they were learning who the characters were around her, the place she is now calling home and getting used to the new surroundings. The second series explored what it means to be sixteen. The protagonist forms a deeper relationship with her boyfriend to whom she gives up her virginity to and how her two best friends begin to find relationships themselves. The third series focused on the fear of after school. This was shown with the characters having to question several times what they want to become and where they will go to achieve this. It also played to the fears of Xander who was not expected to go to college like all of his friends but instead trying to find a job. The fourth series looked at how a lot of the first year after school cannot be what you expect it to be. The issues of living outside off their parents’ houses, or in Xanders case being moved into the basement of his parent’s house. How being an adult is harder than they perceived while being at school. Series five saw the characters accepting who they were and the success from their hard work. Buffy found a new discipline behind her slaying, Willow became comfortable with her sexuality and Xander found himself with a good job, own apartment and long-term girlfriend. Series six looked at the characters facing up to their mistakes and flaws. Buffy having to deal with her return from the dead, Willow dealing with her addiction to magic and Xander how he was not ready to get married. The final series had the characters conquering their inner demons and accepting who they were and stepping up to the expectations put upon them.
Buffy did also play into some political issues throughout its run. It even had one episode pulled before airing on TV due to headline in the news. In series three the episode “Earshot” featured a character Jonathan planning to climb to the top of the school’s clock tower with a gun to prepare for a shooting. The episode was set to air on the 27th April but was pulled due to only a week earlier the massacre of Columbine High School occurring. Additionally during series three the antagonist of the series was the town’s Mayor, allowing the creators to poke fun at the idea of a corrupt government.
The show also focused on social issues in society through metaphor more than once. The best example of this was drug addiction. In Buffy magic is used as a metaphor for drugs. The character Willow becomes fuller addicted to the feeling of using magic. During episode 10 of season six Willow visits a guy called Rack who dopes Willow using his magic resulting in her being drunk from the power. This later results in Dawn being badly injured and Willow admitting to Buffy that she needs help. Willow goes cold turkey which the writers use to emulate the effects of drug addicts going cold turkey also. By episode twelve the character is jittery, fidgety and finding it difficult to take her mind off of what she wants.
The franchise featured many characters over the years but the character Buffy, Willow and Xander were the only three to be main characters from start to finish. The character Buffy was specifically modelled after the iconography of the blonde girl we see getting killed in every classic horror movie. The creator Joss Wheddon stated in a DVD feature (Interview with Joss Wheddon) that he felt sorry for that stereotypical character so wanted to make Buffy to be the girl that does not become the next victim but instead the one to beat him. The character Willow was created to portray the stereotypical geek character, this was done through her dress style and her exstensive knowledge of computers and hacking. Xander was created to be the love struck fool for the protagonist who does not have a chance of being with her. This was portrayed through his attempts to give her romantic gifts and eventually asking her to a dance only to be turned down. As the franchise progressed they all changed. Buffy ended up being a strong leader willing to make the hard choices in battle. Willow became a magical woman who had more power than Buffy. Xander become a hard working normal guy compared to his super-powered and magically inclined best friends. This allowed viewers to have a choice between a powerful and strong character, a mystical and magical character or the guy who supports but never actually becomes the centre of attention. The only downfall of the characters is a lack of ethnic diversity. All the main cast of Buffy were Caucasian. Any character of other ethnic origins were only ever guest characters and never part of the main characters.
Buffy has proven on several occasions of how certain aspect are fundamental to set an atmosphere or achieve a certain effect. Music is one such example (Arnott). While it uses very mystifying and magical sounding music for mystery, then use an increased beat and tempo for action scene, it has also featured an episode with no music. The season five episode “The Body” saw Buffy dealing with the sudden death of her mother (Whedon). Whedon purposely did not use any music in the episode to stop the audience from escaping the awkward moments of silence and for them to feel as uncomfortable as the characters of the show. The show also followed typical horror conventions of using dim lighting to obscure the view of audiences at time along with zooms, pans and tracking shots to further achieve these effects.
Bibliography
Baylis, P & Procter, N. “Creative Media Production Level 2” 2010. Pearson Education Limited.
Documentary Project DP. Hall, S. “Preferred/Oppositional/Negotiated” [Online] Available From: https://documentaryprojectdp.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/preferrednegotiatedoppositional-readings-stuart-hall/ [Accessed:23rd May 2015]
Entertainment Weekly. Bonin, L. “Why the Controversial Finale of ‘Buffy’ Didn’t Air Last Night” [Online] Available From: http://www.ew.com/article/1999/05/25/why-controversial-finale-buffy-didnt-air-last-night [Accessed: 23rd May 2015]
IMDB. (Unknown) “User ratings for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” [Online] Available From: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/ratings [Accessed: 23rd May 2015]
Moviepilot. Arnott, C. “How Crucial is Music to a Movie?” [Online] Available From: http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/04/18/how-crucial-is-music-to-a-movie-2868935?lt_source=external,manual [Accessed:23rd May 2015]
The Script Lab. (Unknown) Supernatural [Online] Available From: http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/supernatural# [Accessed: 23rd May 2015]
Synonym. Morgan, K. “The Literary Term ‘Nonlinear Narrative’” [Online] Available From: http://classroom.synonym.com/narrative-strands-3175.html [Accessed 23rd May 2015]
Synonym. Shore, J. “What are narrative Strands?” [Online] Available From: http://classroom.synonym.com/narrative-strands-3175.html [Accessed 23rd May 2015]
Synonym. Wroblewski, M. “What is a Linear Narrative?” [Online] Available From: http://classroom.synonym.com/linear-narrative-1805.html [Accessed 23rd May 2015]
Whedon, J. (2011) Interview with Joss Whedon [Online] Available From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMB6tKMXsc8 [Accessed 23rd May 2015]
Whedon, J. (2014) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Natural Causes Episode 5x16 Body [Online] Available From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVtv9M6kCvs [Accessed 23rd May 2015]