Age Ratings of Social Realist Films

How Does Our Teaser Trailer Conform To Social Realist Conventions?

Research into Social Realism Films

Billy Elliot (2000)

This Is England (2006)

Adulthood (2012)

Fast Girls (2012)

Dystopian Genre Investigation

Genre Advantages and Disadvantages Overview

In this blog post, I will be discussing the several genres my group and I have investigated, collating all the information together to make informed decisions on the advantages and disadvantages to each.

Historical Drama

I investigated this particular genre, and discovered that there are various advantages and disadvantages.

Disadvantages:

 > Setting could potentially be difficult to find as it has to be typical of the time period in which the film is set, and must reflect the status of the characters, and so there would be a limited potential to the locations we could realistically use, and a large amount of time would need to be sent location scouting.
> Mise en scene such as props and costumes would also have to be very specific to the time period, and so could be difficult to obtain and would most likely be fairly expensive. However, any props that were not correct for the time period would cause an inconsistency in the film, making it less believable and less realistic.
> The piece must be accurate culturally, and so a large amount of research would need to be carried out.

Advantages:

> These films generally follow Propp's Spheres of Action with a stereotypical villain and a hero/heroine, and so finding actors would be fairly easy.
> Historical dramas tend to follow the theory of equilibrium, and so we would be able to use this for our trailer.



Overall, the negatives out way the positives, and so we were able to fairly quickly rule out this as our chosen genre.

Romantic Comedies

Stacey investigated this genre, discovering multiple pros and cons to using this as our chosen genre.

Pros

> These films generally follow Todorov's theory of equilibrium, and so would be easy to recreate for our trailer.
> There is usually a male and a female character, and even though our group is comprised of girls, it would not be difficult to find a boy who might be willing to participate.
> Conventions obey Propp's spheres of action, and so there would be typical characters for us to portray, and so we could easily find inspiration from existing films
> Mise-en-scene is simple and uncomplicated, consisting of items we are likely to already possess or can be readily obtained, such as leather jackets and candles and chocolates, etc.
> Lighting is conventional

Cons

> The location tends to be well known cities, and so a large amount of travelling would need to take place, which could cause complications, particularly if someone needs to use public transport which is often unreliable. This could also prove to be expensive.
> There tends to be a large amount of characters, but we have a limited amount of actors which, if we increases, reduces the probability of everyone being free at the same time.

Due to the difficulty in logistics, we have decided not to choose this genre.

Sci  Fi

Caitlyn investigated this particular genre, looking at the positives and negatives of using it for our film.

Positives

> Propp's Spheres of Action are generally obeyed, and so our own characters would be easy to create
> Todorov's theory of equilibrium is normally used, and so our trailer would follow this convention
> This type of film can easily include moral panics as they often address issues of the future.

Negatives

> Within props there is normally forms of futuristic technology, which would be difficult to create and would need to be relatively original, and so could be time consuming and expensive
> Locations usually consist largely of outer space, and so we would have to use a green screen which could potentially look very fake and so unprofessional

This will not be our genre, as there are too many complications that could occur.

Dystopian

I also investigated the dystopian genre, which is usually coupled with sci-fi to make a hybrid genre.

Advantages

> Propp's Spheres of Action are generally obeyed, and so our own characters would be easy to create
> Todorov's theory of equilibrium is normally used, and so our trailer would follow this convention
> This film genre can easily include moral panics, especially about concerns for the future.

Disadvantages

> The disadvantages are similar to that of sci fi
> Props need to be very specific for the genre, and would be difficult to obtain
> Setting would be tricky to find, however, could be accomplished

We have also chosen to not choose this for our genre.

Social Realist

Finally, I investigated the Social Realist genre, and these are the pros and cons I found for it.

Pros

> It could very easily be adapted to central on a moral panic theme - in fact, most social realist films depict issues within the media
> These films usually only use a small cast, and so finding actors should be fairly simple
> Mise-en-scene such as props, costumes and locations are all typically very generic, consisting of every day items in an every day setting, and so the logistics of filming should be fairly simple
> Propp's Spheres of Action and Todorov's theory of Equilibrium are both obeyed

Cons

> These films address very current issues, and are often at the risk of offending the audience at any point
> There is potentially a limited amount of films from which we can in inspiration

Evaluation

After some discussion, we decided that our chosen film genre will be Social Realist, as this appears to have the least problematic disadvantages.

Genre Investigation: Sci-Fi

I have looked at four Sci-Fi film trailers and with them I will investigate what makes them a Sci-Fi film. This investigation will include, props, colour palettes and narrative.

Total Recall (2012)

During the trailer, a lot of props are used that we would associate with the Sci-Fi genre. Needles were shown in shots when the main protagonist was being connected up to the machine, advanced computers and hover cars which gives the idea of advanced technology which falls into the Sci-Fi genre. The locations shown in the trailer were a futuristic city packed full of blocks of flats, a bar and recall. These places could show the close connection between dystopian films and Sci-Fi films as the locations show a grim futuristic America. The colour palette conforms a lot to what we would expect of a Sci-Fi film because most of the main colours used are different shades of blue, shades that I'd describe as electrical and clinical blues. The narrative idea of this film is based on manipulation of memories and dreams vs. reality. This could be triggered by the moral panic that technology is advancing so rapidly that in the future, memory manipulation happen and how this could be bad for society. 

Tron Legacy (2010)

The narrative of this trailer could have been triggered by the growing gamer nation of this time and the worry of the impact of games on people. Many of the colours used are luminous blue, orange and blacks which the audience would connote with video games. During the first two minutes of the trailer, advanced technology is shown, however it looks all dusty and old which would suggest that this film is set in the future, or that they were able to create technology which was definitely advanced for it's time. During the trailer also, there is an interesting contrast between the game world and the real world. The main protagonist drives a normal motorbike in the beginning but then is also shown to be driving an advanced hover motorbike in the game world.

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

The first couple of shots of the trailer places the film straight into the Sci-Fi genre, because of the shots of space and planets. Futuristic space ships are also seen which again places this film as a Sci-Fi film because the use of futuristic machinery and transport is a convention of Sci-Fi films. Again this film could be classed as a Sci-Fi/dystopian hybrid because of the shots of the contrast between the city landscapes of earth and the shots of the beautiful landscapes of the different planets, which would be the contrast between utopian and dystopian ideals. Again, in this film, blue is a very prominent colour in the colours used, which is a convention of Sci-Fi films because of the connotations of blue as being with machinery and computers, which play a major role in Sci-Fi films. The narrative of the film is particularly conventional of Sci-Fi films and dystopian films. The main protagonist, Jupiter, finds out that she is the re-incarnation of a Queen from another planet, and therefore tries to get her property back, Earth. The saving of Earth is on her shoulders, which is conventional of a dystopian film and also Sci-Fi because the characters cross different planets and civilisations to save Earth. 

Gravity (2013)

Gravity is a very traditional Sci-Fi film in that it is mostly set in space and the narrative being that the main protagonist's mission in space goes horribly wrong and she tries to get back to earth, Which could be classed also as an adventure film because the film documents the protagonist's adventure home. The costumes used, the astronaut suits, instantly places this film as a Sci-Fi film, because the audience knows that it is set in space, which is also the same for the shots of the space station. The main colour palette of the film is whites and blues, which is very clean and clinical which is a palette that conforms to the genre of Sci-Fi. 

In conclusion, the research I have conducted has been very interesting as it has allowed me to understand the Sci-Fi genre more. I have learnt that:

• Colour palettes are usually different shades of blue
• Futuristic technologies are a convention
• Most of the time, Sci-Fi films are paired with another genre, i.e adventure and dystopian. 
• Sci-Fi films generally play on the public's moral panic for the future. 

Genre Deconstruction- Romantic Comedies Research