Media Studies Portfolio: Genre Case Study: Science Fiction

Science Fiction Genre Study

Genre conventions:

Content-

- Different world either in the future or in a distant place.

- Deals with a wide range of conflicts and characters, but the futuristic element still remains at least as the background.

- Can have inhuman characters, unseen technologies, and occasionally blend with ystopiaqn elements.

- Combines human and inhuman elements.

Production Techniques-

- Lots of special effects or computer-generated images

- More modern sci-fi movies use shallow depth of field or low key lighting or both

- Complex set design and costume design to create a futuristic world

Institutional/Marketing-

- Uses big name actors to sell a lot of movies

- Can have very large budgets allocated not only to the costly computer generated images, but also for marketing

- Many were first comics and piggyback off the success and audience of the comics

- Use flashy marketing to make the CGI advances more pronounced.

Sample 1 - Star Wars:
Star wars is an adventure movie playing on old western storylines and archetypes, but placing the characters in a futuristic world in space and different planets. It embodies the genre because of it's heavy use of special effects and its inclusion of inhuman and human characters using technology that does not exist yet.

Sample 2 - Back to the Future:
Back to the future is a science fiction movie because the character of McFly travels back in time, in a time travel machine, which is a technology that does not exist yet. There is also an inclusion of the archetype of the mad scientist, exemplified by Doc Brown.