This is me- genre- Megan

In the first couple of shots of 'this is me' we expect it to have a serious tone to it as we are shown a man in a hospital bed through the use of restricted narration to show his pump to help him breath and his foot covered by a hospital blanket.


Rick Altman's theory suggests that we can or we try to associate a particular object with a meaning and this meaning can then suggest to us a particular genre. In this case the first couple of shots may suggest to us that this some sort of drama.
However, when the voiceover begins we can automatically assume that this is a hybrid genre which is mixed with a comedy touch to it that makes his injury seem more like a joke than a serious matter.
Along with the colloquial voiceover, the woman's facial expression as she sits down next to her paralytic husband also suggests the idea of comedy. The timer in the corner suggests that she doesn't have much time for him. She seems very into her fashion and uptight which is a binary opposition to her husband- a rather large, jolly fellow- which shows comedy in their differences from each other.

Steve Neale proposed that each genre of film repeats the conventions of that particular genre of film while also making new variations to make the film individual. The conventions of a normal comedy genre film that are shown in this short film is the idea of binary oppositions, voiceovers to make it seem more funny and the accident that occurs to make him paralytic which is seen as funny because this is a thing that happens to barley anyone- rather than the usual convention of a comedy genre i.e. someone tripping over a banana as an accident.