Auteur theory is the theory that, despite everyone involved in the film making process, it is the Director that mostly leaves their mark on the final product. This is because it's the Director's overall vision which is being created. Because Directors leave their mark, you can often see running themes throughout their work.
A very good but obvious example of a Directors specific style is Wes Anderson. Anderson is known for his stylistic choices more than most directors and his style is much more obvious to spot than others too.
In the follow clip from Wes Anderson's film 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' we see several of the Director's trademarks such as symmetrical framing and tracking shots.
This kind of symmetry and framing is seen throughout Anderson's films too:
In this shot from 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' we once again have a character centre frame with symmetrical surroundings. While not perfectly symmetrical or even as symmetrical as the previous shot there is still a strong use; The fly trap light is in the middle of the frame while either side of the shot in the top corners there are 2 identical lights as if reflected.
This shot too contains symmetry but less obvious than the others. This time it isn't the background containing it but the subjects of the scene. The smaller actor has purposefully been put in the middle of the two taller actors for the effect.
Another example of the Auteur theory that people might use is Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino is, like Wes Anderson, a Director who's name is very valued on their films. Rather than identifying a film as a genre, many film audiences just identify his films as 'Tarantino movies'. He is as much of a draw to the film as the actors are.
Tarantino demonstrates Auteur theory slightly differently to Anderson. Anderson's camera angles and techniques are what make him stand out while Tarantino uses lots over gore and over the top violence.
However, Tarantino films can be identified by their camera angles too. He has a recurring theme of using a similar shot in all of his work. The shot I'm talking about is the 'trunk shot':
Tarantino also tends to intertwine his films, having them all take part in the same continuity (except for Kill Bill). He does this by making links such as Vincent in Pulp Fiction is the brother of Vic in Reservoir Dogs.
Genre Theory
Genre relates to a range of media forms. However, genre in film is the style or category the film fits into. There are all kinds of genres such as drama, horror, comedy, romance, sci-fi etc. And sometimes films fall into more than one category, creating a genre like Rom-com. There are also all kinds of sub-genres, for example; super heroes, sports, fantasy or disaster.
Genre can relate the 3 'phases' in the film industry. For producers the genre can be used as the template for the film before it is made. Distributors use the genre of a film to figure out who the best audience is and how they should market and advertise the film. And, finally, as the audience, a film genre helps us label different films whether we would enjoy them or not, meaning we can filter films by our individual tastes.
Over time genres become classics because of their influence over all aspects of cinema. These genres have been tried and tested over a long period of time allowing them to be 'perfected' or at least for the film makers to completely understand what is needed from a film or script for it to fit into the chosen genre.
Genre has many rules or conventions it needs to follow. Having these rules makes a kind of promise between the distributor and the audience because they are knowing (vaguely) what to expect.
One of these conventions can be symbolic, for example using the colour red in a horror movie fits because it represents danger to the audience. You could also use green to represent a sci-fi movie. A good example of colour used in film is in Edgar Wright's 'Cornetto trilogy'. The 3 films have different themes and a colour corresponding to each of them.
Another is technical. Like how in different genres of movies the use of shot types, lighting etc. will be different as certain technical conventions fit with some genres more than they do with others. For example, fast paced 'shaky cam' style that might be used in action movies for a fight scene almost definitely wouldn't be seen in a rom-com.
The third convention is historical. This is about setting the scene correctly for the film to fit into the right time period and make sense to the audience. So, if the film was set in the middle ages everything from the props to what the actors were doing would have to make sense in that period.
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