Preliminary Exercise 5: Analyzing Genre

 Introduction

      Genre is a category that a piece of literature or entertainment falls under. There are multiple genres and sub genres, which are genres tied with other genres. We have Romance, Horror, Sci-Fi and many more. Sub genre examples are Crime-Thriller, Horror-Slasher, etc. Genres are important to film production because genres helps shape up the characters, plot and setting of a movie. Giving a film a genre lets the audience know what to expect in the film. Each genres has their differences. For example, a Romance is bubbly and makes the audience feel warm hearted by the characters actions while a Horror plants fear and uneasiness in the audience. A type of film I enjoy to watch is Thriller Film. Thrillers are very captivating and addictive; the constant uneasiness and being on edge during certain scenes really makes me crave for whats going to happen next.

     The purpose of the assignment that I was given is to research and investigate the necessary codes, conventions and key components for a genre and one of its sub genres. The genre that me and my partner chose was Sci-fi and the sub-genre Sci-Fi fantasy. Sci-Fi is a genre that deals with futuristic and complex technology and adding fantasy to this genre, it adds mystical characters, creatures and setting.

     Two concepts important to film is iconography and narrative themes. Iconography is the pattern of signs we associate with a particular genre. Narrative theme is the main themes that the genre represents. 

Genre: Sci-fi- Fantasy 

Setting: the dystopian future of 2045

Iconography: futuristic vehicles, virtual reality, holographs, teleportation, striking locations, mystical magic and creatures.

Narrative themes: artificial intelligence and The future of the world.

Tone and atmosphere: exciting, captivating and adventurous.

Ready Player One(2018) Olivia Cooke

Everything Everywhere All at Once(2022) Michelle Yeoh

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi(1983)

Avatar: Way of the Water(2022)

Analyzing Genre Poster Assignment

Reflection

      The assignment objective was to a pick a certain genre and its sub genre then identify the key components, themes and concepts of that genre. As stated before, me and my partner (Angel) chose Sci-Fi Fantasy and we researched the props, the acting, lights, characters, etc. used to create that genre. We made a Bubble Diagram to organize our research and added some color and images to represent our genre. This assignment mainly took the poster and coloring utensils but we did use a computer for the research part. I learned that there are more than just genres but also sub-genres and those genres adds more to a film than just tying it down to one thing.

Work Cited

What is a genre? (no date) Wonderopolis. Available at: https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-is-a-genre (Accessed: 08 November 2023). 

Preliminary Exercise 4: Analyzing Mise en scene

 Introduction

  In Today’s assignment, we’ve analyzed an opening to a scene and Analyzed its Mise en scene. The movie we’ve picked is called Gran Turismo. The movie was released on July 30, 2023 and directed by Neill Blomkamp. This movie is a Sports drama film dealing with the true story and history of car racing. In the opening of the film, it gives us an idea of what the movie is going to be about and how a man made a race car game simulator into an opportunity for many of those game players to become actual racers. The message behind the opening film was informational and inspiring and they used Mise en scene to present the seriousness and story of how this movie idea came about.

Reflection

This assignment was a group project and I was in charge of Section C. In section C, you had to pick and screen shot specific scenes that clearly represents an element in mise en scene and as you can see, I’ve caught multiple images for setting, costume, lighting, color, etc. Doing this assignment built my understanding of mise en scene even more by giving me an example and full description of what to expect and which scene to associate to which scene. I completed the work sheet on Word document and had fun making inferences about each clip. 

Word- Cited

Gran Turismo (film) (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Turismo_(film) (Accessed: 18 October 2023). 

Preliminary Exercise 3: What is Mise en scene?

  Introduction

Mise en scene is the concept of how a director sets up their movie. Mis en scene consists of many different elements, including lighting, composition, art direction, costume, makeup and colors. The purpose of Mise en scene is for the audience to analyze and easily depict what they are seeing and if the genre fits with what they are watching. A supernatural movie named "Talk to me" is a movie that portrays the horror genre really well. The movie was edgy, bone-chilling, creepy and overall uncomfortable so, you could assume that the director of this movie did a very great job with "Mise en scene" in their movie.

Benefits

The benefits of Mise en scene are that you as a director could capture the audience that you want and get them captivated and deeply interested in your movie. Mis en scene could help the audience quickly get the meaning of the movies just by how a scene is set up, what is going to happen and what type of genre it is. 

This is the first slide showing the hair and makeup, costume, acting and setting

This slide shows the color, composition, set design, and lighting

Reflection

In this activity I had to create a PowerPoint presentation on Mis en Scene and choose a movie that would fit all of the elements of Mis en Scene. For the movie I chose "Talk to Me", a supernatural horror movie made in 2022. The reason I chose this movie is because I felt like this Movie would portray the concept of Mise en Scene really well. Showing the designs and the way that is set, you could easily tell how unsettling it is. I've learned that Mise en Scene is one of the a major ways in telling how to properly portray a type of genre and what things you should use/ do to fit your genre or the feeling you are going for. 

Work-Cited

Team, N. (2023) Mise-en-scène - everything you need to know, NFI. Available at: https://www.nfi.edu/mise-en-scene/ (Accessed: 06 October 2023).

Preliminary Exercise 2: Roland Barthes' Theory of Semiotics Analysis

 Introduction

   Ronald Barthes was also a an who created a theory and added on to Saussure's theory. He analyzed significations and studied the concepts of myths, denotations and connotations. Denotations are the literal meanings of a sign and connotations adds on to those literal meanings by linking multiple other meanings. This theory benefits signs by creating an open mind on what the film is trying to portray and take consideration of all the other meanings that could be linked to that one sign.

    I've watched a video clip of the hunger games, Mockingjay part 2 and that clip portrayed multiple meanings and signs to it. Just by looking at the audience and characters and listening to the dialogue and the sounds, it showed the suspenseful and the chaotic side of that movie and you could tell that clip was probably the climax of the whole movie. During watching this clip, me and my partner had to select 4 codes. Three visual codes( the theater, the dress, and an emotion) and one audio code (the loud crowd). Down below I've created a table with each of these code denotation and connotation.

Reflection

As a class, we had to partner up with someone and create a PowerPoint presentation table that describe Barthes theory. We then watch a Mockingjay part 2 clip from YouTube and decode the characters actions, their costumes and their personality to determine the theme and their denotations and connotations. I was already an expert with using a computer and PowerPoint with this assignment since I already had experience from Preliminary Exercise 1. So, the assignment was easy and fun. I've learned that one thing could have way more than just one meaning to it, depending on experience and surroundings and the Mockingjay connected multiple meanings to the clip. This assignment really helped my understandings.

Word-Cited

    Roland Barthes (no date) Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Roland-Gerard-Barthes (Accessed: 29 September 2023).

Preliminary Exercise 1: Ferdinand de Saussure's Semiotics Theory Analysis

 Introduction

  Semiotics is the study of determining signs in our culture. It includes theories and analysis of signs in movies, films, tv shows and more. Ferdinand de Saussure was a Linguist that created a theory that a sign has a signifier and a signified. A signifier is a sign's appearance/ physical form. For example, an object, gesture or an action. Signified is the idea/ meaning of that signifier. For example, "A Red Rose means passion, intimacy, love and connection. This theory that Saussure has made impacted films by giving it a better understanding of how people want to convey their movies and what objects, gestures or action, would best represent what they are trying to demonstrate. 

    My objective was to find different signs and convey each sign with their signifier and the signified, as you can see on the table below.

slide 1

                          

                           
                                                                       slide 2

    As you can see, in slide 2 we used the signifier black cat, wine, and the sun. Next to each image, it has their message/ meaning behind each sign.

Reflection

    Me and my partner (Evan) had to create a presentation with two of the slides that dealt with Saussure's theory, one being an analysis of Saussure's theory and the meaning of signifier and signified and the other had to demonstrate our understanding of the topic by using different signs and describing what is it (signifier) and what is meant to us (signified). 

    We used a computer for this assignment since, we had to create a PowerPoint presentation. And I could say that I was intermediate with all the tools given in PowerPoint, I was quick to learn how to use those tools to get this assignment done. I've learned a lot during this assignment and the vocabulary to describe how to convey a sign and what two parts a sign is made of. I've learned that every sign has a message behind it, whether it is big and well known or not. They also have different words to describe/ label what each sign is. It was a fun activity to learn. Especially when you had to choose your own simple signs and let your imagination and experience determine what those particular signs meant to you and possibly other people too.

Work-Cited

Ferdinand de Saussure (2023) Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdinand-de-Saussure (Accessed: 28 September 2023).