EVALUATION QUESTION 1GEORGE ROGERS

GENERIC CONVENTIONSI believe that my film is a mixture of several genres and genre types. Genre can be classified in a variety of different ways, being a thematic genre such as ‘Horror’ or ‘Sci – Fi’ or a genre linked to an era such as a ‘50’s style film’. I think that my film has elements of the 80’s action movie genre such as Robocop and the Terminator in the art style and narrative of certain sections, 80’s science fiction with references directly linked to Back to the future and again the Terminator in the time travel theme that is in those sections. Alternatively I also have sections that are directly inspired by murder mystery and film noir of the 1950’s. I read modern day detective books as a child that also reference these 1950’s media and I think that along with references to the 60’s Dr. Who run is apparent in the mise en scene and character structure of my 50’s character.

As far as my 80’s character is concerned , he very much follows tropes and conventions of the genre he fits into, as there is no dialogue from either the 80’s or 50’s character, they show their personality and emotion in different ways and the 80’s character has a very cold and ruthless feel with no fear of anything just like Robocop or the Terminator whereas the 50’s character has a more careful and logical, more human personality that is shown through the way that he moves and engages in combat.

COMPARISONS TO OTHER FILMSPlotThe plot is very similar to back to the future and the terminator as they both use time travel as a main mechanic of the story. The terminator is sent back in time from the future in order to kill Sarah Connor in the Terminator, which is a very similar role to the two time travellers in my film. In back to the future, the main focus is that time travel is unreliable and dangerous and shows this many times as the protagnanists fight to make sure everything is okay once they get back to their own time. In a similar way, when the extraction machine fails on the villain in the movie, it backfires and causes him problems too.CharactersMy 80’s killer is directly inspired by the main character of Kung Fury, named the same as the title of the film he is an unstoppable force that follows all of the conventions and typical movie tropes of an 80’s action hero. Kung fury is also in turn inspired by movies such as Rambo and the Terminator so these characters have also made their way down to my 80’s killer.

COMPARISONS TO OTHER FILMSSetting/mise-en-sceneThe setting of the train station is a classic example of the type of thing that a lot of people went on days out for in the 50’s and is often called the golden age of steam so including steam engines in my 1950’s sections is important in getting the point across of era.Cinematography/Editing The musical transition of the Retrowave music that is used in films such as Kung Fury as well as several 80’s styled videogames is modern music that emulates and exadurates the feel of music from 80’s action films. I am also using jazz or other 50’s themed music to properly set the scene for the character that resides in the 50’s which is similar to a whole variety of private investigation and murder mystery shows and films that have been produced for decades.

BARTHES CODESEnigmaI created an enigma by having an unusual narrative structure and throwing the viewer off with a red herring from the start, they believe that the two hitmen are out to kill each other but after they get captured it is unclear what is going to happen. After they come back to the scene with the intention of working together, only then is it clear that they are out to kill their kidnapper.SymbolismThe symbols on each of their wrists shows the viewer clearly that they are connected in some other way to what they previously thought. It is in fact true that they are brothers and that the villain is the father and this is shown through the markings on their wrists.ReferentialThe 80’s character is a walking 80’s reference and carries almost all of the stereotypical traits that an 80’s action hero would have, also the villain is particularly nasty and is a reference to the cray twins in a way because of his sarcastic and nasty nature.

GENRE AS A CONCEPTIs genre as a concept useful to my film?I think that genre is mostly important in the marketing and accessibility aspect of the film because it allows people to understand quickly if they will enjoy the film or not. For example if a film is quite obviously horror, and the viewer of the advert doesn’t like horror movies, they can choose to not go and see it. Genre is also useful because other movies in the same genre can be used as inspiration for your own movie.Is the genre set in stone?I believe that genre can be very subjective and can change depending on who is experiencing it. I feel as though my film could be seen as an action adventure in some people’s eyes and also as a more thoughtful science fantasy film just like Spin is. I think that this is a good thing because it allows people to form their own opinions around the film and consolidate them into a genre that they feel fits it.Audiences depend on recognition but is this as important for a short film?For any movie to become successful, popular, or even a cult following, there needs to be a certain level of recognition and identity for the film. There needs to be a space in which the film can fit in otherwise it’s going to be very hard for people to find and share the film. Even extreme and strange films fit into their own ‘this is too weird for anywhere else category’ and they have their own cult following for this very reason.