Sorry, you got that error because we didn't include the namespace in your viewmodel.  Below is what your viewmodel should finally look like.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using Component2.Models;

namespace Component2.ViewModels {

  public class IndexViewModel {
    public List<Genre> Genres { get; set; }
    public List<Artist> Directors { get; set; }

    public IndexViewModel(List<Genre> _genres, List<Director> _directors) {
      Genres = _genres;
      Directors = _directors;
    }
  }
}

Lastly, @model ViewModels.IndexViewModel should be @model Component2.ViewModels.IndexViewModel

I should start copying and pasting code from VS instead of going off memory :P