The Concept of Genre

                                   Genre: is it helpful for film makers or does it restrict them?

                        Helpful:                                                         Restrictions:

                        - Blueprint                                                      - Lacks originality 

                        - Codes and Convention                                 - Lose audience expectations

                        - Technical stuff

                        - Setting, themes etc 

                        - Genre evolution

                                             Reputation/Familiarity/Originality 

                                           Genre is a way of predicting RISK 

Going to see an action thriller: what do I expect to see?

- Good/bad guy

- Fast pace scene

- Guns

- Fight scenes

- Chase scenes 

Mise en Scene

Diegesis: World inside a film            

Non Digetic: Sound that is not within the frame

Digetic: Sound that is within the film

Mise en Scene:

-         French term ~ what is put into a scene or frame

-         Communicates essential information to the audience

-         Made up of six elements:

-         Setting and props

-         Costumers, hair and make up

-         Facial expressions and body language

-         Lighting

-         Colour

-         Positioning of characters/objects within a frame

Setting and Props:

-         Setting/locations play an important role in films and are not just backgrounds

-         Sets are either built from scratch or a great deal of time is spent finding a suitable setting that currently exists

Costumes, Hair and Make Up:

-         They act as an instant indicator of a characters personality, status, and job

-         Tells us immediately whether the film is set in the present etc

Facial Expressions and Body Language:

-         Clear indicator of how someone is feeling

-         How a character feels towards another character, may reflect the state of their relationship

Image One:

-         Presents that they have an intimate relationship

-         Hand gesture ~ cares for the character

Image Two:

-         Looks angry

Positioning of Characters/Objects within a frame:

-         Can draw attention to an important character or object

-         A film make can use positioning to highlight/reveal feelings between characters

Image One:

-         Physical anger, body language is closed

-         Male is perhaps more open

Lighting and Colour:

-         To highlight important characters or objects within a frame

-         Make characters look mysterious by shading sections of the body and face

-         Reflect a characters mental/hidden emotions

Types of Lighting:

Low Key Lighting:

-         Created using key and back lights

-         Produces sharp contrasts of light and dark areas

-         Deep distinct silhouettes

High Key Lighting:

-         More filler lights are used

-         More natural and realistic to our eyes

-         Produces lightly lit sets

VERISMILITUDE:

The appearance of being true or real

Camera Shots

Aerial Shot:

An Aerial Movement is when the camera moves at a higher angle.

Tracking shot:

Is where the camera moves to follow the movement of a character or an object.

Tilt shot:

Is where the camera is stationary but it moves up and down.

Pan shot:

Is where the camera is stationary but moves left or right.

Fast and Furious:

Tracking shot of the cars ~ effect: emphasizing the speed of the train, audience think there could possibly be a collision between the cars and train, it builds suspense.

Tilt shot of the traffic lights: from red to green. It’s an action film; it builds up tension and drama.

Tracking shot: To follow the chase, creates tension.

Extreme close up:

-         Shows emotion

-         Shows the intimacy and details

Extreme long shot:

-         Setting/image fills the frame

Long shot:

- We see the subject in relation to their surrounding ~ the setting dominates

Medium long shot:

- Where the setting and the subject are in equal proportion

Medium shot:

-         Subject is cut off at the waist

-         You can still see their costume but also some of their emotions

Over the shoulder shots:

-         More involved in what’s going on

-         Follows the conversation and subjects response

-         Become apart of the conversation

-         Mostly in soaps

High angle:

- Shots can make the subject appear weak and more vulnerable

Low angle:

- Shots where the camera is looking up at the subject can make them appear more powerful and menacing 

Discuss the ways in which Cameron has used binary opposition to create meaning in Titanic

In this extract from Titanic, Cameron uses binary opposition to convey the differences between the rich and poor. In the opening scene, the Titanic establishes a class division by its colour compatibility. The top half of the ship is white, this connotes purity and cleanliness. The white is also located on the top; this relates to social classes, white is more associated with people of a wealthy status whereas the bottom half of the ship is a dark brown/black colour which represents anonymity and sadness. This has intentionally been filmed this particular way because then the audience gets an intelligible understanding that the lower class characters were not considered important in comparison to the upper class characters.

 The first character that we meet is Rose, this already exhibits her status and importance because there already is a crowd of people around, but we

see her first. In the first establishing shot of Rose, the setting around her was bright. This connotes that Rose is almost being ‘glorified’ because she is appearing more elevated than the other characters. When Rose is arriving, there is lots of beeping of cars and the crowd starts to proceed away from herself and her family. This reinforces Rose’s wealth and status; during that period of time, it was much of a luxury to be able to own a car, let alone someone chauffer you around in one. The Gold plating of the car is symbolic of wealth; Gold is considered a very uncommon and expensive piece of metal which connotes that Rose’s family live a luxurious and wealthy lifestyle. The first aspect of Rose we see is her hand; this is significant because Rose carefully reaches her hand out of the car to be escorted from the car. This denotes that people of wealth rely on other people to help and take care of even the little things in life, they lack independence. Rose’s outfit is predominantly white, including her glove that see first, this has connotations of purity, she looks very pristine. Once Rose has stepped out of the car, we get a very close up camera shot of her purple hat before we see her face. The colour purple has connotations of royalty and status. This establishes Rose’s wealth and status one last time before we get to see her face; it’s almost a reminder for the audience about what type of character Rose is. Rose’s ruby red lips connote passion and feistiness. Her lips contrast with her pure white skin which also has connotations of wealth and status because in that time period, people who had more olive skin were seen to be of lower class, suggesting that they worked outside and did a lot of labour work in comparison to people with white, porcelain skin, they were regarded of a higher status.

When the audience is first introduced to Jack, he unveils that he is gambling away all of his possessions, including a pocket watch and his last handful of change – this reinforces the difference between both of the characters, Rose’s money influences others and she has it in the form of notes, giving it out where and when she pleases. Whereas that is all the money that Jack has left, and he has decided to gamble it away. The sound of the pocket watch in the background connotes that time is quickly evaporating away for Jack and this could be his last ever chance of having freedom. The fact that we see Jack after Rose connotes that wealth; status and power are seen more positively rather than poverty and desperation. Jack’s desperation is evident when he presents that he is willing to let go of all his belongings for a chance to board the ship. This denotes that he has no worries and has nothing more to lose in life. Jacks grey and dirty clothes denote that he is living a poor life of poverty. The colours for each character have been carefully selected by the director to show to an audience how the people with status dress compared to how people who are poor.

Cameron also uses binary opposition to establish the differences between the male and female characters. It is evident to the audience that when Rose lays eyes on the ship for the first time, she has an unimpressed emotion on her face, she portrays herself as reluctant; this is an indexical sign denoting that she does not want to board the ship at all. This contrasts with Jack’s arrival onto the ship. When he finds out he is gets to board the ship, his face lights up and he screams with excitement. The sound in the background plays a significant part in this specific scene, when Jack starts running towards the ship as fast as he can, the music is very upbeat and enthusiastic which reinforces Jacks eagerness and anticipation to board the ship. Before they could board the ship, the lower class people had to have a health check in case they had lice or bad hygiene. There is a particular scene in the extract which shows a middle aged man receiving a health check; this presents to the audience what a health check is and how it works. However, the people of a higher status did not have to go through having a health check because the member’s staff just assumed that they were clean. When Rose starts to board the ship, in contrast to Jack she carefully walks up towards the ship, connoting that she is going to the higher quarters of the ship, denoting that Rose and her family have power. The classical music in the background reinforces Rose’s unenthusiastic tone about boarding the ship. Whilst Rose is walking up a bridge to board the ship, Jack is recklessly running towards the ship but passes under the bridge. Before entering the ship, Jack has to literally jump to board it because there is a gap whereas Rose gets guided onto the ship by a member of staff, making sure she is safely boarded.

Word count: 1012

Film Language

This week we got put into groups to work in to produce a story board of a Horror film.
My group: Megan, Lily, Matt B, Matt

Styles of editing:
- Straight cut, one to the other
- Fade
- Dissolve

Horror Codes ~ Technical 
- Editing
- Use of the camera
- Close up (CU)
- Extreme Close Up (ECU)
- Establishing Shot
- Sound ~ certain types of music

Do generic conventions help or restrict film makers?

Do generic conventions help or restrict film makers?

I think that filmmakers have a specific template which restricts them depending on what genre the film is, this causes the same narrative and theme to be repeated multiple times. Filmmakers would repeatedly create more films using the same template and over a period of time, this would result in an audience becoming extremely bored. Eventually, they would stop going to watch films as they already know what to expect which means that the film industry would then plummet into the ground. Having a specific template restricts filmmakers when producing a new film because it averts them from adding in any original and new ideas. They are scared to push boundaries and include new, exciting twists because in general, an audience does not like change. This limits filmmakers completely because they will not make as much money if they ignore including any generic conventions however they aspire to make a brand new film that will shock and engage their audience.

 In contrast to this, I also think that generic conventions help filmmakers. Films that usually follow generic conventions earn a lot more money because an audience feels comfortable knowing what to expect from a film. I think that filmmakers should use generic conventions with a specific genre that they know they cannot change around. For example, hundreds of Horror films stick to the same template: remote area, dark environments, young vulnerable women and many more. An audience knows exactly what to expect when they go to see a new Horror film, the genre has only increased its popularity and revenue since the first one came out in the 1930’s. Using the Horror template seems to work as seeing blood and deaths engages an audience more than watching a new film that has a deep and fascinating story line.

In conclusion, I think that generic conventions both help and restrict filmmakers because using a specific template for a genre allows filmmakers to have complete control during the process of making their film and will overall make a lot of money. However, using the same template repeatedly means that filmmakers can never make their own new film original or how they want to because people love familiarity and in order to stay in the film industry, you must always meet the requirements of an audience.

The Horror Cycle

The Horror Cycle: The impact of social and psychological forces'

1930's: Monsters ~ Nosferatu/Frankenstein (Monster)
                                Wolves/Werewolves (Animal)
Predictability - Genre MUST evolve
Audience becomes desensitised

1940's: Dracula
1950's: Sci-fi ~ UFO's
1960's: Psycho ~ ICONIC
1970's: Driller Killer, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Slashers
1980's: Sleep ~ Nightmare on Elm Street: start of a franchise 
1990's: Teen Horror ~ Scream, Prom Night, I know what you did last Summer
2000's: Halloween

Titanic Essay Notes

Titanic Essay Notes

Opening scene with Rose:

- Bright lighting

- Lots of beeping of cars, important people, and crowd has to move for them

- See her purple hat first ~ royal colour connotes wealth and power

- Walking up onto the Ship (upper class)

- People move out of the way for Rose and her family

- Gold plating of the car, symbolic of wealth

- Having car during that time period connotes wealth and power

- Outfit is predominantly white ~ connotations of purity, very pristine

- Red lips ~ feisty, passionate – contrasts with her pure white skin ~ connoted wealth and status

- Unimpressed by the appearance of the ship, reluctant

- Contrasts with Jack, he desperately wants to go onto the Ship

- Her money influences others, tips for helping etc

- Moving upwards, going to the higher quarters of the ship presents they have power ~ they will be looking down on the others…literally

- High key lighting ~ makes them stand out, colours stand out increasingly more

First scene of Jack:

-         He runs under the bridge whereas Rose walks up a bridge ~ binary opposite

-         Wealth status and power are seen more positively rather than poverty and desperation

Also shown first / more popular actress

Genre - Theorists

Theorists Schatz and Wright believed that Genre's build upon each other: COMPARTMENTALISED = Genre Evolves 

Hybrids: Combination of codes and conventions
- Characterisation
- Themes and Issues
- Narrative Structure
- Iconography
- Settings
- Sound/Soundtrack
- Stars

Regenrification: Process of Hyrbridisation

Binary Opposition

Structuralism - Claude Levis Strauss and Roland Barthes takes Semiotics one step further 

They realised that meaning can never reside entirely within a thing in itself, but only from a complete appreciation of a thing opposite ~ called its BINARY OPPOSITE

Binary Pairs:

- Strong/Weak

- Tall/Small

- Good/Bad

- Wealthy/Poor

- Happy/Sad

- Male/Female

- Black/White

- Life/Death

Semiotics

Semiotics

Representation: The way people, groups, cultures and ideas are shown by the Media

Re: Again

Mediation: Is the process where Media institutions are the go - between ~ they select and organise material for their audience 

Denote: literal meaning of the 'sign'

Connote: the interpreted meaning of a sign/signs

Sign are POLYSEMIC

Iconic: work through resemblance 

Symbolic: which are learned 

Indexical: which work through a casual link

What is Genre?

                                                          What I have learnt about Genre
This week in class, our main topic we have been focusing on is Genre. I have previously heard this word being used many times before in context of Film/TV, however, I did not actually know what the word specifically meant. I found out that it was two words that explained Genre in a simple term: Type or/and Kind. As a class, we then went into more depth about Genre and how we determine which films slot into which Genre(s) - We discussed how Genre is both a description and a form of classification. To actually be able to place a film within a specific genre, we have to be able to describe the individual film. Most importantly, explain the principles on which we can associate and link with other films of that Genre.
                                                                     Conventions 
Before being able to discuss which films are associated with a Genre, we learnt about Conventions -which are a set of expectations and rules. I have learnt that conventions play a very important role when it comes to audiences and their expectations when they go to see a new film. Audiences always know what they are expecting from a film but in order for a film in any genre to be successful, it needs to have a special twist to keep their audiences interested, fully engaged and gripped throughout the film. If a film does not meet the expectations an audience has, the film would receive negative ratings. It is important to ALWAYS meet the demands of every audience.

                             Why is it important that films meet the expectations from audiences?
It is important that films meet the expectations because films represent a type of reality - they send out the correct message of what is morally right or wrong. For example, if a character in a film has broken the Law of some kind, audiences want that film to present that 'bad' people should get punished for what they have done wrong because it is morally right. I personally think that Media, especially films, have a huge influence on how we think about certain situations. If a film showed that a character has gone against the Law and had gotten away with it, it could portray an incorrect message to society. It makes society think twice about what is right and what is wrong - it suggests that if the character in the film got away with it, then a human being can in real life too.