Thursday 25 February 2016

Sci-Fi and Media Language

Genre Conventions

What does convention mean?
A convention is a key ingredient in a specific genre of media text. They are the things that we expect to see in particular types of films. Examples of Sci-Fi genre conventions include:

Narrative (storyline)- 
  • robots/aliens vs man 
  • saving the world 
  • discovering a new world/race of creature 
  • intergalactic space war
  • time travel 
  • rise of AI
Characters- 
  • aliens 
  • robots 
  • mutated humans 
  • male (tends to be human) protagonist 
  • wise, older character 
  • other worldly antagonist
  • hero team
Mise en scene (setting, props, costume etc)- 
  • futuristic/new worlds
  •  dystopian cities 
  • space
  • space ships 
  • hi-tech vehicles/weapons (e.g. lasers)
  •  futuristic technology (lots of computers)
  •  colourful and strange costumes
  • uniform (human team) 
  • make-up kept basic for protagonist characters 
  • green, silver/metallic, black, neon
Themes- 
  • the future 
  • end of the world 
  • good overcoming evil 
  • victory of human ideologies over others 
  • safeguarding the human race
  • loyalty and teamwork
  • negative impact of technological advancement 
  • humans destroying their own planet 
  • the idea of a small few against a large enemy
Other- 
  • innovative special effects 
  • CGI 
  • modern/metallic looking font and graphics 
  • intense/dramatic music 
  • directors such as James Cameron, George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, Steven Spielberg

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