CRITICAL AND CONTEXTUAL AWARENESS

Revision: Production Elements

Cinematography Mise en Scene

Lighting Costumes & make-up

The angle of the shots Colour & quality of light Put the following under the correct production
Movement of the camera, such as panning & Colours
element.
tilting
Shadows
Duration of shots
How characters, props and setting are placed
Focus and depth of field within a frame…spatial relations within the
frame
How camera is positioned – the size of the
frame

Zoom

Focus and depth of field

Sound Editing

Diegetic sound Transitions between shots

Music Duration of shots

volume Special effects

Voice Over Manipulation of speed

Silence Placement of scenes

Non-diegetic sound Non-diegetic sound

Juxtaposition of shots

Visual rhythm
You will need to know about:

Genre
Narrative
Semiotics
By the end of the task:

1. You will gain an understanding of genre

theory.

2. You will be able to apply genre theory,

using correct terminology, during textual
analysis.

3. Gain an understanding of the importance

of genre to both producers and
audiences.
 Genre
What is genre?
Genre is a french term that was created to identify a type of something
that you watch. Genre is a type of media product such as sci-fi in the film
production.
 Starter Task
Working in pairs, identify as many different film genres as you can. Each of you must then list the film genres you
have come up with below:
Horror
Slasher Horror
Romance
Sport
Romantic horror
Police Drama
Sci-fi
Western
Thriller
Ambulance Drama
Adventure
Documentary
Action
Fantasy
Fantasy Drama
Paranormal Horror
Geographic
Spaghetti Western
Romantic Comedy
Mystery
Action Adventure
Period Drama
Zombie Horror
War
Biographic
Musical
Gangster
Marshal Arts
 Task 1
Thinking about film genres, and using the Internet,
find at least SIX images that show the types of
things you would expect to see in a Western and
paste into the worksheet.

Extension
If you finish, do the same for horror films and action.
WESTERNS
HORRORS
ACTION FILMS
What do we call the elements that make
genres recognisable to media
producers and audiences?
 CODES AND CONVENTIONS

Content Recurring icons

Subject matter Stock characters
Structures Narrative events
Themes Situations
Mood Motifs
Period Styles
Plot Props
Settings Stars
Steve Neale – Genre Theory.
“Genres are instances of repetition and difference.”

Neale writes about film genres, but his theory can also be applied to other media.

Neale believes that films of a genre, like romance or horror, should include features that are
similar, so the audience know it is a horror film or romance for example, but also include
features that are different, to keep an audience interested.

As genres become established, audiences begin to have certain expectations. These are
known as genre conventions, and audiences gain gratification from recognising them.

Audiences like genres because:

Allows them to make informed choices
Allows them to understand a text more readily
Offers familiarity and comfort

Producers like genre because:

Guarantees a degree of success
Easier to target an audience
Provides a tool box for them to experiment with
Steve Neale states that genres all contain instances of repetition and difference and that
difference is essential to the economy of the genre.

Neale states that the film and its genre is defined by two things:
1. How much it conforms to its genre’s individual conventions and stereotypes: a film
must match the genre’s conventions to be identified as part of that genre.

2. How much a film subverts the genre’s conventions and stereotypes: the film must
subvert convention enough to be considered unique and not just a clone of an
existing film.

Neale states that Hollywood’s generic regime performs two functions:

1. To guarantee pleasure and meaning for the audience.

2. To offset financial risks of film production by providing collateral against innovation

and difference.
Popular cinema relies on audiences finding pleasure in difference and repetition i.e.
recognition of familiar elements and the way those elements are linked in an unfamiliar
way or the way that unfamiliar elements might be introduced.

Genre is constituted by specific systems of expectations and hypothesis which spectators

bring with them to the cinema and which interact with the films themselves during the
course of the viewing process.

To the film’s production team (producer, director etc) genre provides a template.

To the film’s distributors genre provides assumptions about which audiences they should
be marketing to.

To the film’s audience genre identifies a liked or disliked formula and provides certain
rules of engagement in terms of anticipation of enjoyment.
GENRE AND ME
What genres of film do you like, and why do you like them?

I really like Comedy films because I can sit through the full thing and enjoy it, whereas in
like a horror film, I can’t sit down for the full film and enjoy it like a comedy one.

Find examples of two films posters, of films you haven’t seen, which appeal to you and
explain why you would want to see the film.
I also like how
These two posters for especially in the right
Comedy appeal to me poster how they are
well because of the dressed and
words they have used presented as scruffy
such as ‘drug dealer to make people want
and virgin’ which will to watch. I also like
make the audience that it is bright and
watch the film colourful to make it
because it looks stand out from the
funny and the poster rest and make it
is appealing. I also appealing to the
like how in this audience. I also like
poster it is a bright the fact of the
poster so it makes it caravan in the
stand out to the background because
audience. it represents them as
people.
 What is the genre of the film?
Task 2 Romance

List the codes and conventions that support this.

Kissing
Mood
Lighting
Situations
Themes
Narrative events
Period
Plot
big close up
Male and Female
Task 2 What is the genre of the film?
Sci-Fi

List the codes and conventions that support this.

Shadows
Earth
Lights
High-key lighting
Spaceships
Bright colours
Rays of light
 Solaris - Cinema Release

November 27th 2002

The budget was £47,000,000
The Gross was £30,002,758
Satellite Awards (Best Sound) - Larry Blake
Biggest Disappointment award
6.2 / 10 rating
Filming locations was in Arizona
1hr 39 mins runtime
“Disappointing if you've read the book; baffling if you
haven't”
 Solaris - DVD Release

4.5/5 stars
Release date - September 15th 2006
“In many ways Solaris is an anti promethean work. Its a kind of opposite to the clean white antiseptic and
optimistic world portrayed in 2001:a space odyssey. At least that is how the Solaris station is described
in the original novel and in Tarkovsky's earlier attempt at bringing this modern classic to the big screen.
The newest version by Soderbergh gives us a modern 'unlived in look' solaris station with computer
screens and clean lines. In a sense the human failings are a good counterpoint to this.”
Run time : 1 hour and 34 minutes
It was more popular because it was a remake of the book
 Hybrid Genre

Solaris is an example of a film that belongs to the

hybrid genre.

Films of the hybrid genre blend themes and elements

from two or more different genres.

The Twilight films are a hybrid genre, combining

horror, fantasy, teen and romance.
 Colossal (2017) – Hybrid:
Comedy-drama, Monster Movie (Kaiju)
 Let the Right One In (2008) – Hybrid:
Horror (Vampire), Romance, Coming of age film, Nordic noir
 HYBRID FILMS: TASK 3
Using the Internet, identify THREE Hybrid films and then complete the first two
columns of the table below. If you finish, fill in the last column about audience.

Film Title Genres Evident Possible Audience? Why?

Artemis fold Crime Fantasy Fans of crime and disney films
because it is packed into one film

The nightmare Fantasy Musical Fans of musicals and kids would

before christmas watch this as it’s a cartoon and
they could learn the songs

Separation Fantasy Horror People who like this type of films

will enjoy this because it creates
suspense and resolution
 SUB-GENRES
All genres contain sub-genres which further define and
categorise the media text, like the ones shown below.
 SUB-GENRES: TASK 4
Write down three sub-genres for Radio
Programmes, TV Dramas and Magazines.

Radio Programmes TV Dramas Magazines

Crime Soap Oprha Food
Sport Police drama Sport
Breakfast Show Satirical drama Business

List as many horror film sub-genres as you can below.

Gothic Horror, Slasher Horror, Supernatural Horror, Monster Movies, Psychological

Horror, Body Horror, Splatter Films
 ANALYSIS: TASK 5
Using the Internet, choose a film trailer that you’d like to analyse in terms of genre.
Make sure that the clip you choose has lots of production elements that you can write
about.

Content Recurring icons 1. Mention as many of the codes and

Subject matter Stock characters conventions listed on the left as you can in
Structures Narrative events your analysis (if relevant).
Themes Situations
Mood Motifs 2. Remember to write about how the codes
Period Styles and conventions reinforce what genre the
Plot Props trailer is.
Settings Stars
3. Write about how the production elements
help create meaning and reinforce the genre
the film belongs to.

4. You will need to write a minimum of 500

words.
 Analysis
Grown Ups 1 - Comedy

In this film of Grown Ups 1, it is a comedy film that is published by Warner Bros and it’s about a couple of guys who have known
each other since they were young and are now meeting each other's families after not seeing each other for a long time. The
trailer starts off with a flashback on all of the lads back in high school playing basketball that shows that they have known each
other for a long time and have been through everything together, to then see a shot of them with the coach lifting a trophy. It
then moves to a crane shot of the holiday house that they are staying in with then a range of shots of seeing them all grown up
which correlates that title of the film because we see them all grown up, and living their own lives. Also in this part of the trailer,
the theme song is being played and it is upbeat so it gives the audience a better look at the movie, and with it sounding upbeat
and good to ear, it will make the audience want to go out and watch the film. We then see a clip from the film when it is the first
interaction with each other's families and it is awkward. It gives us a sense that it isn’t going to plan but the boys made it better
because we see them start laughing and one of the casts kissing his girlfriend. We then see a crucial part of the trailer as we see a
cut of the ‘columbia pictures’ so we get to see who made the film, this is also good because it brings in fans of columbia pictures
and makes them want to watch the film maven more because they are a fan of the company and likes what they do. We then see
different shots of different events in the film to make us think what they actually do and it also gives them a teaser to see what
they get up to and things they like to do and it makes the audience question what happens in that specific scene. We then see a
scene of one of the mums breastfeeding her child and it makes the other people around her feel uncomfortable, it is a sense of
humour and the lads are having banter with him because he is looking awkward and not wanting to be there at that specific
moment. As we get to the end of the trailer, there is a montage with who is playing in the film with a booklet from school, like an
end of year booklet and we see as the audience them as a kid to how they look now to see how much they have changed over the
years. At the end of the trailer, we see a list of who is in the film and the release date and this is crucial because they can get an
overview on who is in the film and is a specific person that they like is in or created the film to make them want to watch it.