'A' Grade Exam Response: Film 'Sin City'/'Fish Tank'

Here is a condensed guide of how to make use of language to approach exam questions (Film)

How typical are your three main texts of their genre?

Another convention of film noir that is evident in 'Sin City' is the constant visual iconography and noir style in the mise-en-scene. When a character appears from the shadows, wearing a trench-coat in the rain it clearly indicates conventions of the film noir genre. The use of rain in 'Sin City's mise-en-scene highlights the dark and gloomy atmosphere of the post-war American society, using pathetic fallacy as away of representing its genre. In this same way the trench-coat Hartigan is wearing also visually references film noir protagonists, making it typical of its genre.

As well as its visual references to film noir 'Sin City' also uses key visual conventions and iconography of the comic-book genre. For example the trench-coat each protagonist wears highlights their status as a comic-book hero, by referencing the long cape of a superhero. This supports the idea that 'Sin City' may be untypical of its genre, as it combines two genres to create irony: a parody of conventions, rather than being truly typical.

'Fish Tank', my third text, is more typical of its social realism genre, and unlike my other films can be defined as more typical. The film deals with real life issues and can easily recognised as typical by its themes and technical stylistics. The scene when Connor, Michael Fassbender's character, 'grooms' and then sleeps with the underage Mia in a council flat highlights a very real and controversial issue in modern day British society. This makes it highly typical of the social realist genre as previous films in the genre, such as Ken Loach's 'My Name Is Joe' have explored similar representations of how alcoholism has affected and impacted upon individuals in British society.

The use of hand held camera and depth of field in the opening sequence, when Mia is followed through the council estate in an extended tracking wide shot, reinforce the visual aesthetics of the social realist style. The style makes it appear more realistic (a typical approach), adding to the impact and sense that these types of events really occur in society: almost as if it was 'documenting' real life. This connection between the chosen style and the context make 'Fish Tank' highly typical of the social realist genre; characters portray real life social problems and the visual style gives it more 'realism': unlike 'Sin City' which is highly stylised and based on a combination (or hybrid) of film noir and comic-book genre conventions.   

Key strengths:

References to the question: Repeated reference to key words in the question show an engagement with the central issues

Use of terminology: Details of stylistic features shows an understanding of how meaning is conveyed

Develops an argument: An argument is supported by reference to key moments & issues in each film

MS4 - Text, Industry & Audience: Fish Tank (Genre/Representation)

Katie Jarvis:

In this interview in Little White Lies Fish Tank actress Katie Jarvis talks about her crazy last 12 months and her hopes for the future.

When Katie Jarvis won the Best British Performance award at Edinburgh this year, she didn’t need to thank God, or her hairdresser or any of the acceptance speech regulars. She needed to thank her boyfriend for being a pain in the arse.

Because if Katie’s boyfriend wasn’t a pain in the arse, they wouldn’t argue so much. And if they didn’t argue so much, she wouldn’t have been mouthing off at him across the platform of Tilbury Town train station in 2008. And if she hadn’t been mouthing off at him across the platform of Tilbury Town train station in 2008, the casting assistant for Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank would never have noticed her. And if the casting assistant for Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank had never noticed her, the landscape of young British actors would look subtly but vitally different. Plucked off the streets of Essex with no acting experience, Katie has seen her face plastered across billboards, her name celebrated in exalted circles and her debut film nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or.

Fish Tank is the second feature from a writer/director whose hard-bitten debut, Red Road, catapulted her into the front line of young, socially conscious British filmmakers. Fish Tank is a worthy successor, shot entirely on location in Essex, where the urban sprawl of London gives way to the wide open spaces where the Thames meets the sea.

Read the full interview here.

'A' Grade Exam Response: Section A - Text (Film)

How typical are your three main texts of their genre?

The three texts chosen are a mixture of genres. Postmodern films in today's society are growing more prominent, two of the three films are hybrids of two or more genres, these two being 'Sin City' and 'District 9'. The third is 'Fish Tank', a purely social realist film.

'Sin City' is a hybrid of film noir, comic book and horror conventions which is not only postmodern but is also typical in its use of genre conventions. 'Sin City' uses classic film noir conventions such as a cynical protagonist in the form of two main characters Hartigan and Marv, rain-soaked streets, low-key lighting and a voice-over narrative. A good example of this cynical protagonist convention is Marv who states that "Hell is waking up every goddam day and not knowing why you're here" in a voice over. This shows how much he despises himself, it also shows a typical film noir genre convention in his character portrayal and the way his thoughts are conveyed. This stems from the theme of paranoia, an aspect of all film noir characters which originates from the 1940's view of society in the wake of World War II and the possibility of a new 'cold war'.

Another example of 'cold war' paranoia can be seen through Bruce Willis's character Hartigan. One scene reflects this mood when Hartigan is shot in the back by his cop 'buddy' Bob, again this displays the typical noir convention of corruption and anxiety present in such classic films as 'Double Indemnity' and 'The Maltese Falcon'. Hartigan's heroic actions are demonstrated in his desire to save the innocent girl Nancy from the corrupt Senator's son, he clearly wishes to stop evil which is dominating the powerful leaders in the city. He cannot depend upon friends and is impelled by his conscience to oppose 'sin' as a moralistic cause which leads to his demise as females tend to do in typical noir narratives.

In terms of mise-en-scene the trench coat Hartigan wears is typical of the noir genre but it also resembles the typical comic-book convention of a 'caped super-hero', making the film somewhat of a hybrid. Applying Propp's character roles within the comic-book genre in 'Sin City' we can see how the cape has been used to represent a superhero, constantly blowing in the wind. However when Marv goes to kill or hurt somebody he removes his trench coat showing he is carrying out a good deed, his character is more complex, more of an anti-hero another typical noir convention.

Noir films typically also contain a femme-fatale and 'Sin City' contains many. Each male character has contact with a female character who could, in some way, be said to resemble this common character; for Hartigan it's Nancy, for Marv it's Wendy and for Dwight it's Shelley & Gail. Wheras Wendy and Shelley are typical femme-fatales, Nancy is also seen as an innocent young girl, displaying how the genre can be made different for a postmodern audience.

'District 9' is also a hybrid genre, mixing typical Sci-Fi conventions with documentary stylistics and narrative structure. Typical Sci-Fi conventions can be seen with the use of advanced technology, aliens, robotics and spaceships. These conventions are mixed though with a documentary style approach to the narrative structure creating a feeling that the events are 'real'. The use of 'faux' stock footage of news reports and interviews with experts and civilians makes the events seem more truthful or realistic. The use of hand-held camera also reinforces this reading as this is a typical cinematic technique of a documentary.

In the opening scenes of 'District 9' we see interviews with various 'expert' witnesses giving us clear exposition to the events which have led up to the alien landings. This is important in developing a realistic documentary approach to the narrative, something that may be seen as new to the typical Sci-Fi conventions of other films such as 'The Fly' or 'Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers'. The interaction between the main character Wikus and the cameraman, when he is unable to remove his microphone from his clothing, is playful in its approach to mixing the realistic and the fictional elements of the film. This is something not typical of the Sci-Fi genre but shows how genres repeat conventions and also make them different by mixing styles.

'Fish Tank' however is not a hybrid, it follows the codes and conventions of the social realist genre very closely. Its kitchen sink style relates to well established generic techniques and themes. It revolves around topical social issues (family dysfunction & underage sex), makes use of hand-held camera and can be viewed as gritty and realistic in terms of its representation of British social life. The mise-en-scene of a working class council estate can be seen in the opening sequence and is typical of the genre. In this scene we can instinctively conclude that this is of the social realist genre as Mia shouts "Tell your old man that I think he's a c*nt". This alone clearly shows her working class upbringing; but the use of long takes, hand-held camera and use of only diegetic urban sounds as she quickly walks through the estate can be seen as typical stylistic conventions of the social realist genre. Her brisk walking continues throughout the film and suggests a character who is going nowhere fast. Original social realist films of the 1960's such as 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' and 'A Taste of Honey' dealt with similar social issues and also contained similar techniques, but they tended to include non-diegetic music to support the action and emotional context to appeal to a mainstream audience. This shows how the genre has developed over time, as all genres do, but 'Fish Tank' has pushed the genre to new depths of realism by attempting to create more realistic representations of social situations. 

The narrative issue of 15 year old Mia's desire for a sexual relationship with Connor, her mother's boyfriend, could also be seen as a controversial topic in today's society to spark debate, a regular consequence of the generic conventions of social realism. 

In conclusion, all three texts are very typical of their genres, using many classic conventions from each different genre. In some cases these may be mixed with other genres to develop a wider audience and create difference for modern audiences.      

MS4 - 'A' Grade Exam Response: Text, Industry & Audience

B4. ‘Most media texts target a range of different audiences.’ How true is this for your chosen texts? 

It is true that most media texts target a range of different audiences by making themselves suitable for more than one type of person, by selecting, constructing and anchoring its meaning, spreading out to a wider population. This can be said of the three film texts that I have chosen, Neil Marshals’ ‘Dog Soldiers’, Richard Curtis’ ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’ and Edgar Wrights’ ‘Shaun of the Dead’. Whilst these three films certainly have a particular audience in mind whilst being created, they also have traits and go to certain lengths to make sure that they target a range of audiences, in a means to attract more people to the box office, resulting in a higher gross profit for the film in question.

Neil Marshal’s British horror feature film Dog Soldiers is a typical horror film. It involved werewolves, gun fire, action and gore. And yet it received strong attention at the box office from a range of audiences, including young women as well as men. The film did particularly well within the United Kingdom as well as being very well received within the United States too, something almost unheard of for a British horror film.

Dog Soldiers manages to attract its multiple audiences in a number of ways. The action is set around a group of British marines who are sent on a training exercise in a remote part of the Scottish countryside. Soon they realise that all is not what it seems and a pack of hungry mythical creatures are after them. By setting the action within Britain, with an entire British cast, enables the film to grab the attention of the aforementioned, not just British audience, but a foreign one too. British audiences wish to see this film because it has a strong, likeable British cast, whilst Americans wish to view it because the idea of a successful horror film coming out of the UK was almost unheard of in this decade at that point.

Dog Soldiers received both praise and higher audience figures because of its gritty realism, which had begun to disappear in the American horror figures, which favoured over the top gore over reality. The film touches not only on the horror genre, but of the survival, thriller genre too, gaining wider recognition from audience members who perhaps would not have normally gone to see a horror picture.

The film manages to attract a female audience by including the female character of Claire. She is the only female featured within the film, and is portrayed as sensible, strong and courageous., subverting horror stereotypes that all women must be weak, damsels in distress, which appeared to be a female audience drawing them in to watch the film. As a whole, this film works well to attract different types of audiences, both genders, as well as overseas viewers.

Bridget Jones’ Diary, which follows the title characters mishaps and triumphs within her love life was a box office hit, and managed to target a wide range of diverse audience members. The film achieved this in many ways, starting with its initial stages such as casting the film. To attract a female audience, the casting team had to select an actor that would entice to women. They found already formed British heartthrob Hugh Grant, whose success with previous box office hits such as ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ and ‘Notting Hill’, guaranteed them an audience percentage. The director and costume designers then constructed Hugh Grant to make him seem even more irisistable to a female audience, by dressing him in well tailored, expensive suits and made him look perfect on screen with the aid of clever make up and lighting. Finally, to anchor the preferred reading of the character to the audience, Hugh Grant is given, as the character of Daniel, seductive lines which he will read in his coy British accent, guaranteed to entice a female viewer. The male audience is attracted both by casting Renee Zellwegger in the lead role, already a hit with the male audience, but also by advertising the film with such slogans as ‘the perfect date film’ ensuring that men take their girlfriends to see this film.

Along with a thoughtful script that provides love and romance for a female audience, and crude innuendos and sexual imagery for men, Bridget Jones is able to target both genders as well as appealing to overseas markets. The film takes a quaint look on British life appealing to American audiences, as well as the British sense of humour that they love so much. In all Bridget Jones’ Diary, is successful in targeting different types of audiences through both script and casting.

 Finally, Edgar Wright’s zombie comedy ‘Shaun of the Dead’, released in 2004, was a worldwide hit, managing to target a vast range of audiences including men, women, horror fans, comedy fans, as well as fans of his previous television series, ‘Spaced’ broadcast several years previous on channel 4.

Whilst the script was certainly strong enough to attract a large majority of audiences on its own, the film did not just rely on the strength of its plotline. Special attention was taken to construct a strong cast of likeable personalities that would appeal to the public, as well as different audiences, gaining a higher profit at the Box Office. 

The central protagonists are Shaun and Ed, played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost already fairly well known for their work on aforementioned television series ‘Spaced’ and whilst were not ultimately household names at the time, their likeable personality and ability to play off one another proved vital to attracting a young male audience, whose relationships with close male friends were not unlike that of characters Ed and Shaun. The character of Dianne is portrayed by actress Lucy Davis, acclaimed for her work as character Dawn Tinsley Ricky Gervais’ hit comedy ‘The Office’, already a great success. Her well known face helped to secure Shaun of the Dead, both a female audience as well as fans of The Office. Penelope Winton and Bill Nighy were cast to give an older perspective within the plot, and aided the film as they managed to secure the film with an older target audience, who enjoyed the more mature characters outlook on the stories zombie attack. 

The film worked well to target both fans and of the horror and comedy genres, giving equal measures to each within the film, providing light comical relief within moments of terror and vice versa. This is reflected within the films advertisements; where the film posters and trailers are both comical as well as chilling, appealing to both audiences drawing them into watch the text. The fact that one of the films tag lines was ‘a comedy with zombies’ ensures that it will receive the target audience it requires whilst including the older and female characters on advertisements too will also ensure that a larger target audience is received.

In conclusion all three film texts work well to gain a large diverse, target audience gaining both genders, different ages and different countries to create a stronger box office total.

MS4 - Text, Industry & Audience: Fish Tank (Genre/Representation)

Social Realism

Better than any other genre, social realism has shown us to ourselves, pushing the boundaries in the effort to put the experiences of real Britons on the screen, and shaping our ideas of what British cinema and British life can be.

Social realism in films is representative of real life, with all its difficulties. The stories and people portrayed are everyday characters, usually from working class backgrounds. Typically, films within the social realist genre are gritty, urban dramas about the struggle to survive the daily grind.

One of the strongest images of postwar British cinema is that of factory worker Arthur Seaton downing a pint in one at the end of another week in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960). Also in A Taste of Honey (1961) prejudices and social values were explored in British cinema for the first time.

These films dealt with prostitution, abortion, homosexuality, alienation and relationship problems; issues that were seen as controversial at the time. Here were factory workers, office underlings, dissatisfied wives, pregnant girlfriends, runaways, the marginalised, poor and depressed.

This British New Wave was symptomatic of a worldwide emergence of art cinemas challenging mainstream aesthetics and attitudes. The New Wave protagonist was usually a working-class male without bearings in a society in which traditional industries and the cultures that went with them were in decline. Directors like Ken Loach and films such as those by Mike Leigh's High Hopes (1988) and The Full Monty (1997) have addressed the erosion of regional and class identities amid a landscape rendered increasingly uniform by consumerism and social structures.

Descendants of this style at the BBC in the 1960s, Ken Loach and Mike Leigh assessed the impact of the consumer society on family life, charting the erosion of the welfare state and the consensus that built it. Looking back, Loach's work seems to reflect the shift from the collectivist mood of the war years to the individualism of the postwar decades in its very form. Loach's films went from the improvised long-take naturalism of Poor Cow and Kes (both 1969) to the 'social melodrama' of Raining Stones (1993).

In the 1980s, publisher-broadcaster Channel 4 attempted to cultivate a cinema audience for realism. Responding to the moralistic entrepreneurialism of the Thatcher years, 'Films on Four' My Beautiful Laundrette and Letter to Brezhnev (both 1985) followed characters from the margins as they attempted to stake a claim in the new order. Meanwhile, more lethal and complex representations of men and women appeared in Shane Meadows' A Room for Romeo Brass (1999) and This Is England (2006) added more diverse representations of modern culture.

'Fish Tank' can be seen as a direct descendant of this type of cinema in its portrayal of a young girl disillusioned by her lifestyle, social insignificance and prospects who seeks escape in her passion to express herself in dance.

Genre & Narrative Theory

MS3/MS4 - Genre Theory

Genre Theory

Do genres in the cinema really exist and if so, can they be defined?

“Genres isn’t a word that pops up in every conversation about films or every review – but the idea is second nature to the movies and our awareness of them. Movies belong to genres much the way people belong to families or ethnic groups. Name one of the classic, bedrock genres – Western, comedy, musical, war film, gangster picture, science fiction, horror – and even the most casual moviegoer will come up with a mental image of it, partly visual, partly conceptual” (Richard T. Jameson, They Went Thataway, 1994, p. IX).

“The master image for genre criticism is the triangle composed of artist/film/audience. Genres may be defined as patterns/form/styles/structures which transcend individual films, and which supervise both their construction by the filmmaker, and their reading by an audience” (Tom Ryall, quoted by Stephen Neale, Genre, 1980, p. 7).

“…genre can be defined as a structural pattern which embodies a universal life pattern or myth in the materials of language… Genre is universal, basic to human perceptions of life” (John Cawelti, The Six-gun Mystique, 1975, p. 30).

As Barry Keith Grant writes in the introduction of his genre reader, “the work of defining film genres is surprisingly difficult and complex’” [1] because “…recognition of the importance of genre in the cinema is a relatively recent development….although chronologically it narrowly predates the early work of auteur criticism.” [2] Grant takes notice that until the late 1940s and early 1950s – when Robert Warshow and genre pioneer André Bazin wrote the first significant essays on film genre (about gangster movies and about the Western) – films were only distinguished by a phrase (for example, ‘a war movie’) “used as a convenient label to give one an idea of what the story was like, what to expect generally from a film.” [3] As before in literature, in painting and in other forms of art, “genre became a critical term, providing another conceptual framework for understanding movies.” [4] A genre classification can also double as a precise commercial study because it evokes certain audience expectations and therefore it allows one to establish classifications, comparisons, balance-sheets, valuations for the future and so on. Although it has been helpful for cinema studies, classifying films in accordance with their genre remains a difficult and risky endeavor because genre ‘impurity’ is by now, some twenty years after the solidification of genre study, a constant characteristic and a usual practice of the cinema as art and as industry.

Extract from: Offscreen.com

Sin City students response with Feedback.

Sin City (2005): A Grade Response

Sin City (2005)

A2. How typical are your three main texts of their genre?

My three texts studied within this industry are ‘District 9’, ‘Sin City’ and ‘Fish Tank’. All three texts use certain genre conventions and stylistic features but they are all fairly typical of their respective genres.

Sin City can quite easily be established as postmodern due to it being a clear collaboration of a number of genres, creating hybridity within the text. The opening sequence, however, conveys genre conventions that can strongly be associated with the film noir genre. An establishing shot is used to, at first, frame an unknown ‘assassin’ (The Man) on a balcony in a cityscape, this mise-en-scene highlights the urban environment commonly employed in film noir films from the 1940’s. Further film noir conventions can then be seen with the inclusion of the ‘lady in red’ who displays the characteristic features of a major noir element, the femme-fatale – with red lips, cigarette in-hand and slinky dress. This character is also lit using low-key lighting, a commonly used technique in film noir to suggest deception or deceit. Audiences familiar with the genre would therefore make assumptions about her narrative role by relating her to similar characters seen in classic noir films of the 40’s, such as The Maltese Falcon and The Big Combo.  

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Sin City, though, then breaks away from the stereotypical femme-fatale character when ‘The Man’ shoots the ‘lady in red’. This plays with the normal narrative convention and provides genre difference to the text, making it untypical. This adds a shock for the viewer and could be regarded as a way to keep the genre fresh for the audience. Further film noir conventions though can be seen later in the film when the more established noir protagonists arrive in the form of the heroic ‘flawed’ males – Hartigan, Marv and Dwight. Each of these male characters is cynical, damaged and ‘hard-boiled’ like the original noir heroes from the 40’s features I mentioned earlier. Marv, for instance, states in a voice-over narration (another typical characteristic of the genre), that “Sometimes I even wonder why I’m on this earth” - therefore expressing a cynical viewpoint on his existence and his worth in the world. As with all the scenes throughout Sin City, Marv is regularly framed at a ‘dutch tilt’ angle and in stark high contrast black and white to not only represent his skewed view on the world but also his strong moral views of what is right or wrong.

The merging of genres in Sin City, to create a hybrid, clearly makes the film untypical of the original genre though. The continuous use of comic-book conventions, such as Marv’s ‘superhuman’ strength, establishes the fact that Sin City, although displaying many opposing conventions, is in itself a text which is both noir and comic-book; a comic-noir if you like. Evidence of this can be seen with the persistent use of comic-book framing and over-exaggerated actions. Hartigan’s shooting on the docks, by Bob (his cop-buddy), clearly shows signs of both noir and comic-book features when John is shot multiple times but still manages to save Nancy and express his feelings through a voice-over; again a noir convention. Another noir/comic-book hybrid, The Spirit, was released 3 years after Sin City that merged elements of each genre showing how genres adapt and change over time.

The Spirit (2008)

MS4 - Text, Industry & Audience: Television: Strengthening Exam Responses

Exam Responses: Guidance 

• Developing more thorough responses to exam questions is a key skill that needs to be developed in preparation for the exam. 
• Below are sample paragraphs of A and D grade responses to a Television/Audience question from a previous paper. 
• These highlight the contrasts in content, detail and discussion that is required to get the highest grade possible. 
• Strengthening your exam skills and technique to create better responses is not difficult if you can recognise your weaknesses and change your approach to answering questions from a more critical perspective rather than largely descriptive. 

(Section B)
Explore the different ways in which your chosen texts attract their audiences. 

'D' grade response

My second text is Mad Men, this show is aired on a cable channel AMC in America. So it is not as mainstream as programmes shown on BBC or ITV channels and therefore more niche in target audience. The target audience is males and females but may be tipped slightly more aimed at males but they didn't want to eliminate the female population, people in their late 20s to a much older generation due to the complex script involved. Mad Men is a long running narrative that invests in characters so will attract viewers that are less passive and will invest more time and thought into the series. There is a scene of promiscuity in the text I have looked at that shows the audience they want to attract is an adult audience and also implies that it is a male audience they are targeting the show at also. The series is set in the 1960s so will attract predominantly viewers that understand this decade, it uses many conventions like colour connotations and mise-en-scene to show the genre and era of this show.

Comments

Lacks detail - has a tendency to generalise - lacks confident use of audience terminology - does not relate a scene in the text to how an audience will be attracted

'A' grade response

The opening episode to Mad Men Season 4, see’s an extended conversation between Don Draper and an interviewer take place, something that a younger audience – 16-25 – may find unappealing. The younger audience would not find the topic of conversation about Ad agencies interesting or engaging as it fails to relate to their own interests, therefore it would provide no gratification and have no use for them as viewers or their peers. A younger audience would be more used to fast paced editing and simple narratives concerning gossip and relationships, such as TOWIE or Made In Chelsea, as they can personally identify with such issues or aspire to their ideals.  It is therefore clear that the target audience for Mad Men is a middle class male demographic. The highbrow nature of the show lends itself to a middle class audience, as it is often reviewed in newspapers like 'The Guardian’. 

Comments

Includes detail - does not generalise - uses appropriate audience theory/terminology - relates theory directly to the text - is confident

Strong Exam Responses:

• Include detail 
• Don't generalise 
• Use Media language 
• Apply appropriate theory 
• Are written with confidence 
• See the interaction between text and audience as a complex relationship

MS4 - Text, Industry & Audience: District 9 (Representation/Genre)

Science fiction is creeping into more mainstream films: Guardian.co.uk Anne Billson

Science fiction isn't all 'talking squids in space'. And its creep into mainstream cinema is everywhere from Never Let Me Go to Midnight in Paris

It has already been observed that Mike Cahill's Another Earth and Lars Von Trier's Melancholia share the evocative image of another heavenly body in close proximity to Earth. The most significant thing about this coincidence is that neither film would normally be classified as science fiction. And it's not as if either director is distancing himself from the term, the way Margaret Atwood seems to be. She's made increasingly baroque contortions to explain that what she writes is "speculative fiction" and not SF.

There has long been a tendency for SF themes to bleed into the mainstream and non-SF genres. What is It's a Wonderful Life if not a story set in a parallel universe? And we've come to expect a touch of SF in our action films; as far back as the 1960s, James Bond and other spy movies flirted with technology so farfetched it tipped over into futuristic, and it's rare for a Hollywood thriller now to pay much heed to the laws of physics. But more and more high-concept, big-budget action flicks – Limitless, The Adjustment Bureau, In Time are just three recent examples – are coming out of the closet as unabashedly SF, even though not one of them features what Atwood refers to as "talking squids in outer space".

These films are aimed at audiences who probably wouldn't object to talking squids, but I've written before about the way chronological jiggling, time warps and parallel universes have infiltrated mainstream drama, romcoms and sitcoms. And "SF creep" into the mainstream and arthouse is on the rise, even if the term "science fiction" is only mentioned by critics disparagingly, as if the fact that the film under question refuses to classify itself as that makes it superior to the usual genre nonsense.

Take three other 2011 high-profile releases. Never Let Me Go was sold as Brit-lit (tagline: "Based on the best selling novel"), whereas it was really The Island for People Who Don't Like Explosions, with Keira Knightley instead of Scarlett Johansson. Hanna was sold as a junior Bourne Identity ("Adapt or die"), whereas it was essentially a junior Universal Soldier ("Robots run amok"). Midnight in Paris was basically a time travel yarn, but was sold as a Woody Allen film, which is permissible since he's a genre unto himself and has already flirted with SF in Sleeper, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex … and – in the most memorable bit of Stardust Memories – aliens. ("We enjoy your movies. Particularly the early, funny ones.")

It's tempting to dismiss such films as SF for People Who Don't Like Science Fiction, since mainstream pontifications on the genre still yield blinkered pronouncements from folk who wouldn't be caught dead at a Star Trek movie. Conversely, a lot of people who might have enjoyed Monsters were probably put off by it being marketed as a variation on District 9 ("After six years, they're no longer aliens. They're residents") when it was really the sort of thing that plays better at Sundance than at a fantasy festival – a low-budget relationship movie that happened to have tentacled aliens as walk-on extras.

But it's more likely a symptom of the way boundaries between traditional genres are dissolving. So maybe it's time to redefine genres, or even nominate new ones. Since barely a week goes by without another set of actors doing give-me-my-Oscar-now acting in overwrought drama triggered by a traffic accident (Another Earth, Margaret, Rabbit Hole etc) I propose "roadkill" as a new genre. Remakes, sequels and prequels can be lumped together under "recycling". Then there's the "girls in fetishwear" genre typified by Sucker Punch and Colombiana. This Year's Leslie Mann Movie would take care of all those bromances involving her husband, Judd Apatow. And we mustn't forget The Tom Cruise Running Very Fast film.

MS4 - Text, Industry & Audience: Film

'A' Grade Exam Response

Section A: Text

To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre? [30]

The three chosen texts that I have analysed are 'Sin City', 'District 9' and 'Fish Tank'. All of which use different genre codes and conventions to create an interesting text that communicates a unique message to its audience.

'Sin City' is a product of postmodernism and is a hybrid of comic book and film noir conventions. This film focuses and is influenced mainly by the film noir genre and takes the feelings and attitudes felt at the time of the cold war, post WW2. These feelings include mistrust, paranoia, corruption and depression. This could also be linked to how film noir protagonists are cynical. For example, Marv says “I don’t even know why I’m on this Earth”. This is clearly a sign of depression that adds to the cynical attitude that Marv has throughout the film. A good example of the corruption within the film is the scene where Bob (John Hartigans partner) shoots John in the back because he wants to stop the senator’s son from hurting Nancy (a young girl).

Another convention of film noir that is present in 'Sin City' is the use of voice over narration. These are used only for the main protagonists to allow the audience to gain a deeper insight into that they are feeling at that moment in time. An example of this is when Dwight is talking about how he misheard his girlfriend saying, “Stop” when she actually said, “Cop” after the women in Old Town had just killed him. With this narration it helps guide the audience into what is happening with each interweaving storyline within the film and is typical of classic film noir from the 40's.

Other typical conventions of the film noir genre is the consumption of alcohol, prostitution and smoking. This is shown throughout the whole film. For example, the scene where Marv gets kidnapped in the bar, when he is drinking. The scene whereby Dwight has just fought off the cops with the women, he is clearly shown to smoke. Finally the scene whereby JackieBoy is trying to pick up one of the girls in old town hints at the idea at prostitution and perverse sexuality, clear indications of noir conventions.

All of the above are typical conventions of the film noir genre, however 'Sin City' also includes comic book conventions to create a more modern and interesting film that would appeal to a wider modern audience. For example, the protagonists have superhero powers often found in comic book/films. A scene which shows this well is when Bob shoots John in the back 5-7 times after he tries to save Nancy from the senator’s son. After getting shot this many times he still doesn’t die, instead he falls to the floor and continues talking - a reference to superhuman abilities, typical of the comic book genre.

Within 'Sin City' there are clear hero/villain roles, a convention often seen in comic book/films. The character of Marv, Dwight and John are seen as heroes by saving the princesses (regarding Propp's character theory) i.e. Nancy and Goldie. The most obvious villains within the film are Kevin, the villian who ate many prostitutes and the ‘Yellow Bastard’, the person who kidnaps Nancy near the end of the film who finds sexual pleasure in his victims screaming so then he can rape them.

Another film that could be considered postmodern for its experimentation with genre conventions is the sci-fi film ‘District 9’. The film contains conventions of the science fiction genre and a documentary approach to many of its stylistics, in effect it takes a similar approach to ‘Sin City’ in adopting new conventions. The film could be seen as science fiction, for its use of intertextuality within the genre. The scene in which Wikus begins to transform, biting off his own nails in the mirror, is a visual reference to David Cronenberg’s film ‘The Fly’. This is postmodern for its use of intertextuality and therefore makes it typical of the sci-fi genre. However, there are also more blatant science fiction conventions that could also be mentioned. For instance during the final scenes of the film, Wikus fights the MNU soldiers in a giant robotic suit, displaying his ability to use new alien technology. The use of new and futuristic technology here is a key element of science fiction, a genre that is heavily influenced by the realities of modern scientific discoveries. This action sequence is also reminiscent (and a convention) of many other science fiction films, most notably ‘Aliens’ when Ripley fights the alien creature in a similar way. The genre also lends itself to long futuristic action sequences, something that a sci-fi audience would expect. As well as this, District 9 features a completely new social and cultural way of living. The scene that depicts a street sign saying ‘No non-human loitering’, is an example of how the social way of living has adapted itself to alien life. This convention is typical of the science fiction genre, as it takes a futuristic way of life and combines it with reality. It is reminiscent of the science fiction film ‘Serenity’ which combines a futuristic setting with genre conventions of a western.

Despite its heavy science fiction influence, ‘District 9’ also takes conventions of the documentary format, thus making it less typical of the science fiction genre. As with ‘Sin City’, the film’s exploration in convention dilutes it from being considered one genre alone, making it postmodern. For example, its use of on- screen graphics and news montage is a convention of documentary, applied to a fictional text to give it the illusion of reality. In the opening sequence, an on screen newsreel reading ‘Aliens riot in the streets of Johannesburg’, accompanies news footage of rioting aliens. Blomkamp is using irony here, to reflect the reality of the themes and representations: the aliens represent the black people during the apartheid in South Africa. By giving something so obviously fictional a realistic documentary convention, it makes it postmodern, again making it impossible to identify it as one genre. Another example of documentary conventions.

'Fish Tank' is more typical in its use of social realism conventions and could also be considered very much a 'kitchen sink drama'. Social realism conventions include the use of predominantly diegetic sound, hand held camera work, a narrow depth of field, working class lifestyles and social problems, but it also presents a linear narrative for the audience making it appear more realistic. Hand held camera work can be seen throughout the film, it helps to show to the audiences Mia’s point of view, it helps to track her movements and constantly follows her round in the film. At the start of the film the audience sees Mia walking around on her own, the use of a wide angle shows that she is comfortable in the environment she is in and shows that she is in touch with the environment. This stylistic quality clearly makes 'Fish Tank' appear the most realistic representation of the texts I have studied and sets it apart from the other films discussed as it has more relevance to 'real life' than the fantasy aspects of both 'Sin City' and 'District 9'.

The locations and regional accents also help to reinforce social realism conventions, it helps the audience recognize that Mia's from London, this can be identified through the accent and the language they use “tell her that her old mans a c**t”. The mise-en-scene helps to establish the location of the film; working class council flats, which are also a regular convention of the genre.

Fundamentally when analysing to what extent a film is typical of its genre, it is important to look at the codes and conventions used within the text. With this in mind, many films can experiment with conventions, creating a hybrid of genres showing that many modern films are now considered postmodern. Both 'Sin City' and 'District 9' mix elements of genres and style whilst 'Fish Tank' could be said to be more typical of its use of classic conventions.

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Read an interview with Andrea Arnold, the director of 'Fish Tank', here @ filmmakermagazine.com. Filmmaker spoke with Arnold about her faith in cinema, the simple act of observing everyday life, and why her New Year’s resolution is to dance every day. Watch an interview with Michael Fassbender below.

MS4 - Text, Industry & Audience: Fish Tank (Genre/Representation)

Andrea Arnold's acclaimed story of forbidden love in Essex is a powerful film in a bleak landscape, powered by fizzing performances from Michael Fassbender and newcomer Katie Jarvis. Read this review from The Guardian for a critical perspective of the film.

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