Unit 10 Learning Aim A Assignment Brief
Unit 10 Learning Aim-A Assignment Brief
Introduction
Fictional films come in many different forms with many different purposes. Entertainment, education, to spread a message etc. Genre's are used to group different films into categories with their own codes and conventions. What is genre? Genre is a style or category of a piece of media which has its own conventional themes. The two genres of film I have chosen are dystopian and crime/drama. Genre conventions for dystopia often include a dark gritty setting, governmental threats, high tension, oppressive/ totalitarian state, human rights violations. Drama often features a lot of tension with main characters being faced with many different problems that they must overcome with plot twists, it is also more focused on characters where dystopias are focused on setting.
Mise-en-Scene
In the war film 'Schindler's List', in the scene with the girl in the red coat there is conventional use of mise-en-scene for a war film. It is in black and white and appears to be set in Germany during the second world war- German soldiers with guns are in the scene as well as the Jewish victims of the Nazi regime who are marked with a distinct armband bearing the star of David The only exception to these conventions is the red coat that the girl wears as she bears the only colour in the entire scene. The fact that the little girl is in colour is a symbol of humanity as the inhumane world around here is black and white, she is red, a colour often associated with love and compassion. It is in this scene where the protagonist, Schindler (Liam Neeson) who is a member of the Nazi party as it benefits his business, realises the wrongdoings that take place and that the Jewish people are innocent. So, it is safe to say that the girl in this scene represents innocence as she is a small amount of colour in a grey world which makes world. the audience sympathise with her as she is a character that represents good values in the world. This is only partially conventional of the genre as most war films are old and so are filmed in black and white- however this film uses some colour which is highly unconventional for a film of its time as they were either in black and white or full colour.
Similarly, in the film adaptation of George Orwell's Sci-Fi/Thriller novel '1984', a similar (although quite different) colour pallet has been used to create a similar message (See figure 1). Although the colour pallet is not black and white, it is heavily desaturated. Director of Photography Rodger Deakins managed to make the film so dark by "omitting the bleach-bath step of the print- making process, Deakins succeeded in giving the movie a haunting "50 percent black-and- white”—though not without first setting several projectors on fire during the testing phase.” This desaturation adds to the dark gritty feeling of dystopian society which further represents “The Party” as an overpowering and oppressive force as the colour has left nearly everything besides their logo, the red of which could symbolise hate and power as red is an extremely potent colour. Additionally, a lack of colour is a common convention of Dystopian films as it helps to present the setting as dark and depressed as well as creating a sense of uniformity as most dystopias tack place in a cruel twisted version of our future for example the 1973 film ‘Soylent Green' did something similar (See figure 2).
Figure 1 '1984' Big Brother Scene
Figure 2 'Soylent Green' Scene
Finally, the short thriller film 'Beholder' uses colour, or a lack thereof, to create a dark and depressing setting with the only bright aspects being clothing or accessories that distinguish certain characters. The setting is an old run-down set of apartments which can be inferred from the mise en scene, this makes the audience believe that a crime will take place in this location as the setting is conventional for crime/thriller films. Similarly to ‘Schindlers List’ this film uses colour to show characters traits by having certain clothes or accessories be a brighter white than the rest, for example the main character’s tie and the buttons on his waistcoat are exaggerated, giving off a sense of formality which suggests that he is a very stern and pragmatic individual, the set of keys he carries further suggests his stern nature but also infers that he may have secrets that he wants to keep locked away. Much like ‘1984’ there is a lack of colour to make the viewer sympathise with the audience. Thriller films often tend to be set in dark and poor areas of cities and ‘Beholder’ is no different with its grimy apartments and run down office being staple examples of the thriller genre.
It is clear to see that films of similar genres all share similar conventions which all serve to create meaning within a scene- from the setting of a scene to suggest narrative to the colour of somebodies clothes these all help to construct meanings- subversion of these conventions serves to create meanings too as it can lead to plot twists and varied interpretations of a piece of media- most films that are commentaries on society will subvert genre conventions but not always.
Camerawork
In '1984' camerawork is used to draw emphasis on the pain that the main characters suffering. The close up shot with Winston (John Smith) as the central focus draws the viewers focus to the character which allows them to empathise with him as he is suffering, additionally by placing O'Brien (Richard Burton) to the left it presents him as the antagonist, in Propp’s character functions he would serve as the villain where Winston would be our hero, as conventionally antagonists are placed on the left side of the screen due to historical superstitions linking the left to evil (right hand of god is Jesus, left hand is Satan). This plays into the binary opposites theory as the antagonist and protagonist are on different sides in the narrative and in the scene.
The long shot in this scene frames the people to look small and the screen to be large and imposing and in central focus which emphasises the disparities in power between the people and big brother, once which this use of camerawork is largely conventional for this genre. This might be more conventional if it was also a low angle shot as that helps to portray the power of a character in a scene which is conventional of the thriller genre as it helps to strengthen the narrative.
This long shot in the drama short film ‘Utopia’ is conventional of the drama genre as it helps to show the audience the world that the characters live in which is in poor condition- something that is conventional of dystopian dramas. A more conventional shot might be an establishing shot as this would allow the audience to experience the full extent of the setting however establishing shots are conventionally placed towards the start of the film (hence 'establishing') whereas this shot is taken from around the midpoint of the film so does largely apply to genre conventions- this also helps present a below). problem which would be the 'rising action' or 'crisis' section of Todorov's narrative arc (see below).
This shot from ‘Beholder’ is unconventional as (although hard to see) it is a POV shot from the main character’s perspective as he is looking through a keyhole to spy on one of his tenants. Although largely unconventional, similar shots have been used within the same genre but they are usually an extreme/close-up or an over the shoulder shot of the character that is looking through the keyhole, obscuring what is going on within to create suspense.
Editing
Shots in ‘Schindler’s List’ linger on for a while, the camera cuts between low angles from the jewish man’s perspective and high angles from Schindler’s perspective which shows the power dynamic of the scene as he has more power than they do. The long drawn out suffering of the jewish people- this is conventional of war films as it creates tension and gives the audience time to reflect upon and digest what is happening in the scene to make it all the more emotional.
Use of editing is highly conventional in Kosta Nikas' 'Utopia'. There are few cuts between shots the most of the time, often helping draw out the monotony of the oppressive world that they live in (again with Todorov as this is the beginning it makes sense for there to be less tension created through camerawork). However, in this scene (see below) the camera quickly cuts between the two characters as the tension in the scene rises and the characters begin to argue. Once again this is highly conventional of this genre as the majority of films use quick camerawork to create tension in a scene as the fast movement of the camera is reflective of characters emotions and situation.
Sound
In this scene the main character is swearing but he lives in a society where you are fined for bad language, sound has been used here to censor his swearing but they have made use of diegetic sound to cover it up as the loud alarm sound from the screen obscures his rude language which is unconventional for a film of this genre. Something similar was done in the film 'Demolition Man' (1993) where characters were fined for swearing, however the noise made did not obscure the word itself hence why this is very unconventional of films.
In the short Thriller film ‘Beholder’ there is a lack of diegetic sound. The majority of the sound is non diegetic and is music which serves to set the tone as life drones on just like the music. This is highly unconventional for a film of this genre, and it is highly unconventional for most films as there is usually a similar level of diegetic and non-diegetic sound throughout the film, rather than mostly non-diegetic. But in this case the sound helps the narrative by adding to the dull, depressing tone.
Conclusion
Most films use conventional means as the best way to convey a message is with codes and conventions that the audience is familiar with as they understand these. It seems that the majority of films follow or go against genre conventions to serve the narrative, whether it be the setting of a scene to create emotion or use of editing to build tension, genre conventions often serve the narrative as a way to engage the audience by using familiarity to provide foreshadowing or surprising the viewer by breaking conventions and codes. Whether a film follows or breaks conventions it is always done for effect.
Comments
Post a Comment