Genre, Genre Conventions and Iconography

Genre

Genres are a way of categorizing different things like movies. Different genres have their own conventions and components and are commonly known as generic signifiers Components include plotlines, locations, characters and themes some of them are only specific to one genre whilst others expand over more than one.

All images are from the Internet 

Iconography

Iconography is the way certain iconic signs can be categorized or are recognized as part of a certain genre.

Moving images are polysemic iconic signs as they represent real things but to the audience they have different meanings. This leads to an audience having various interpretations of a movie based on how they read the signs. .  

     

All images are from the Internet 

Genre Conventions 

Conventions and also codes are what both the audience and the film maker agree is typically recognized with the particular genre. The plot and story are normally linked with particular genres for example a romantic comedy will include the 2 characters meeting and end with them living their happily ever after whilst in horror there’s more supernatural creatures and death involved. Locations also show typical conventions like soaps have a typical street with most of the characters in it or situations like action movies where there are car chases and explosions. Other ways conventions are showed are by the characters, spy films have a typical secretive white male lead whilst teenager movies have a female young lead.  Lastly costumes also link with conventions and codes as they not only show the time period but emphasize objects to create a realistic impression for the set.

All images are from the Internet 

                  

Genre conventions for Horror Mystery or also known as Mystery Thriller

Pictures are from Google

Kuleshov Experiment

Lev Kuleshov was a Soviet filmmaker in the 1910s to the 1920s and he established a film editing effect called the ‘Kuleshov Experiment’. He showed how the audience gain more understanding from two continuous shots than just a single shot. The audience can watch the sequence of images and form their own opinion based on how the second shot reacts with the previous shot.

Video from Youtube

 The experiment was also studied by Alfred Hitchcock a filmmaker who adapted the effect with his own clips to show how the audience will view a person (the clip of the actor stays exactly the same) differently when different shots are added to change the overall message.

Video from Youtube

In a group we created are own version of the Kuleshov experiment by taking a clip of a female teacher saying “yummy” and placing different clips before it. The first clip is of a platter of cookies with an over voice asking “If this could be described in one word. What would it be?” then the clip of the teacher is shown. This repeats but with a young male student and also a teacher. This shows how the audience’s reaction of the female teacher changes from her supposed reaction to the  additional clips. 

Video created as a group

Mediation Theory and Verisimilitude

Mediation Theory and Verisimilitude

Mediation Theory is the idea that what you are viewing is the creator’s version, the version you are watching is want they want you to see. Following an example of a football game the people watching it live will have a view of the entire pitch and so they can focus on all the events that are occurring whilst the people watching it on the TV will have to focus on what the mediator portrays to them.  The camera may cut to a close up of the goal which is the mediator’s way of telling the audience that they should focus there. 

                 

Verisimilitude is the appearance that something is real or believable. Internal Logic is where within the world of the TV show/movie the events/conventions are real for example in the TV shows Vampire Diaries the idea of vampires is believable in that world. Reality Logic is relies heavily on realism so it relates to more contemporary and romance movies and soap shows which focus on portraying relate able events. 

  
Images are all taken from the Internet

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

For the preliminary task I had to create a short video which included the three different new media terminology that I had learned; shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule and match on action.  

For the video; 

First there’s a shot of character 1 walking towards the door, his feet walking, his head whilst walking, his hand on the door, him opening the door and him going through the door and then a behind shot of him through the door. Afterwards the scenes would be edited together to create continuity throughout the sequence. Then a shot of character 2 is shown and then its character 1 again in a shot reverse shot. All through the clip the camera is one side of the line of action to show continuity.

Screenshots of the match on action where the camera follows the action of the foot moving towards the door and the arm on the door

Screenshots of the two people speaking in a reverse shot and the camera stays on the same line of action following the 180 degree rule

Match on Action

Match on Action

Match on action is an editing technique to show continuity between actions. For example if a character was to walk through a door and then proceed to talk to a different character different shots would be taken and then edited to create a flow. 

Image from Google of Match on Action

The image on the side shows two different shots to show what match on action is. Shot 1 shows a close up of 2 hands holding each other whilst shot 2 is a long shot of 2 people holding hands. The 2 shots will then be edited together so it seems like the scene goes from holding hands straight to the two characters in a long shot without the zoom out. 

Video I created on Animaker 

180 Degree Rule

180 Degree Rule

The 180 degree shot is a rule that is used to show the left and right relationship between characters on screen. For example if two people are talking the 180 degree line would go in a line through them and then a side shot should always be taken from the same side of the line. This shows that the characters are facing the right way to be talking to each other.

Image from Google of a 180 Degree Rule 

The image at the top is a diagram of the 180 degree rule. The line of action goes straight through the two characters and the camera will have to stay on one chosen side of the line. Following the diagram the line is on the bottom half of box meaning it's on actor 1's right side and actor 2's left side. The different cameras are there to show different angles to follow the conversation between the 2 characters. However the camera on the other side is red to show that if it was used it wouldn't be following the rule and so when the scenes shot are added to it, the shots from the red camera will show that both actors are looking at the same side and not at each other.

Shot Reverse Shot

Shot Reverse Shot

Shot-Reverse-Shot is when a point of view shot or over the shoulder shot of character is shown mainly used in conversations and then a reversal of the same shot is done but from the view of the other character. 

Following the example below;

Image from Google of a Shot Reverse Shot 

The first shot follows a two shot of two female characters (A and B) sitting side by side. Then the next shot cuts to an over the shoulder mid shot of character A whilst she talks to the character B. After this the shot reverses to the opposite side similar to a conversation to show an over the shoulder shot of character B who is staring at character A.

Video I created myself on Animaker

Introduction

Introduction to my Blog

My name is Aisha and I’m an AS Media Studies student. For my coursework I will be creating a short introduction to a film and all the steps towards it will be recorded on this blog. This blog will include different media theories, planning stages for the film, the film introduction and an evaluation.