Genre Task


In todays lesson, my teacher assigned a task to use DISTICT when describing four film trailers that we watched in class together and took notes on them. We had tp apply the DISTINCT technique to four different film trailers and how that genre was portrayed throughtout the clip. The four films that we studied was:

. Oculus
. Guardians of the Galaxy
. Vow
. Dan Stevens

Some of the trailers contained two types of genres. This is called a Hybrid genre, this is where two genres overlap each other and become one genre. For instant, Guardians of the Galaxy is a Sci-Fi/Comedy. Some other Hybrid are: Romanic/Comdey and Action/Thriller.

Oculus: This film trailer is categorised as a Horror. I know this because of the use of sound that was played throughtout the whole clip, it indicated that something bad and life changing was about to happen to these people experiencing this horrific nightmare they are in. It created an eerie atmosphere. The film was set in an old fashion house whcih would be typically seen as being scary, this immediately illustrates to us that this is a house where no one living should be. It is mostly set in the evening and night time to demonstrate how scary the atmosphere is, the lighting of the film also shows how you will need to use of lights to see and illustrates that this is a place where it is dark and mysterious. During the trailer, the change of lighting in some scenes demonstrated how tense and on edge the film is.The small cast almost makes us empathise with them as you build a relationship with main characters as when they get scared, you also get scared for them.

Guardians of the Galaxy: This film trailer is categorised into the genre of Sci-Fi/Comedy. This particular film is a Hybrid genre. It is extremely unusually for this type of film to be comedy because naturally you would expect this film to be categorised as just a Sci/Fi or even a Sci-Fi/Comedy, this film is satire because it does almost makes fun of all other Sci-Fi films. The character are key to making this film a comedy because naturally you would believe that the smallest character would be the weakest and the scary looking 'bad guys' would be nasty but this film flips that on its head and brings all the mifits of the galaxy and makes them into one big crime fighting 'super group'. This film is set in space with various high tech weapons and machinery, these props are all shown to illustate that this is a Sci-Fi film. Throughout the whole trailer, there is non stop action happening in every shot with combat taking place. Comedy is conveyed in this film because there is an upbeat clip if music placed with a combat scene which constrates nicely because it does not go together at all, it somehow works and makes the trailer be seen as more of a comedy film where you can take your children to.

 

 

 

The Vow: This film trailer is categorised into the genre of Romance. The film is set in a city where it is always shining and happy, a typically Romantic film. The trailer shows the whole skyline of New York then goes into the city and then to the characters lives. The music starts off as a light hearted, upbeat song to reflect the mood and feelings of the main characters which are that they love life and each other. The lighting also reflects the mood of the characters which are bright and cheery. This makes the audience feel happy and relaxed. It all changes and the music quickly changes to a more sad, slow song which lets the audience know that something life chaning has happen to one of the characters and lighting dim showing us that there love is lost and forgotten which contrasts the first part of the trailer and reflexs her mind. There is only two characters which imply that their love was sacred and theirs but that soon changes because it shows that there is a divide between them.

Dan Stevens: This film trailer is categorised into the genre of Action/Thriller, this film is a Hybrid genre. The film begins off with a sound of a doorbell and a random man saying he was with this mothers son when he died. Instantly the audience is aware that the film has a big influence of war and death and makes us feel on edge and weary of this man because he is a complete stranger entering your life. The use of music in this trialer is key into making the audience feel on edge because it is a non stop flurry of loud and impacting noises with the music contantly being loud throughout the whole piece, with no lyrics to it which could illustrates the death there is no life in the music in the sense of a singer singing along to the music. The genre is shown as thriller also when the 'good guy' is being portrayed as being sleezy going into strip clubs and nasty when he shoots his gun which completely changes how you view this man. This shows the man is different to everyone else and does not really belong with that family. He has the most focus throughout the trailer which also tells us that he is the most important one out of all the characters.

AS Media


Mise En Scene

In todays lesson we studied Mise en Scene. This roughly translates in English to 'What's in the scene'. So going from the definition, we mostly spent the whole lesson discussing in groups and individually about the various sections of a scene and how that impacted of how it comes across the audience and how it visually looks. There are 5 basic categories which can all be changed to make the viewer feel or think differently about the scene. These 5 categories are:

.Setting and Props
.Lighting and Colour
.Positioning of the Character
.Facial Expressions and Body Language
Costumes, Hair and Make-Up 
All of these features are compressed into making a scene and manipulating the viewer in thinking in different ways. When the features are not collaborated correctly, the results can be catastrophic as they make a whole new scene which might not even make any sense. The smallest details can make the biggest differences throughout any scenes in the film.

Genre Task

Genre - Comedy
In this shot my group tried to show the comedy genre by using props which would normally be seen as being comical looking on a male. I believe that the blonde wig and silver tinsel implys that the person in the shot has had a party which he cannot remember well; his facial expressions also illustates this. We thought the audience would find it humerous that he is looking at himself in the mirror because he doesnt really know what has happend to him let alone the audience so this also shows that there will be a lot of surpirses throughout the film.

Genre - Comedy 
In this shot my group tried to show the comedy genre by using a black afro wig which would be seen as humerous for the audience because the wig does not suit him what so ever. We thought it would also be good because the shot shows his head in a toliet which implys that he has had a good night.



Genre - Action Thriller
In this shot we illustrated the genre of thriller by James maintaing a serious face and looking straight at the camera, i believed that this would make the audience feel scared and the briefcase implys there is something in there that he doesnt want anyone to get as he is clutching it tightly.



Genre - Thriller
To create an eery and tense atmosphere my group decided to turn out the lights and we used a torch on the camera to make some light as typically light coming from underneath you is seen as being scary. We only used this light for the person in the foreground to highlight his facial features and to also darken out the fact there was somebody watching him without him actually knowing. We also only keep the light on the person in the foreground because the genre was horror and typically that how most horror movie posters look like.

Semiotics