POST APOCOLYPTIC GENRE
REASEARCH
Ellie Sabine-Singh
CONVENTIONS OF THE GENRE
THE BOOK OF ELI
-SETTING, ICONOGRAPHY
“The Book of Eli” has many of the classic generic conventions of a postapocalyptic genre film. Here are a few screen shots I took which display the
classic settings, derelict waste land, remains of an old road and piles of rubble.
When doing the post production work for our film trailer we will chose props
and settings to best demonstrate our knowledge, vision and representation of
the post-apocalyptic setting.
THE BOOK OF ELI
-REPRESENTATION OF CHARACTERS
This particular screen shot from “The Book of Eli” portrays the main
character played by Denzel Washington as the ‘man on a mission’ as he travels
West through America in search of asylum. There are fighting scenes
throughout which show the mental changes which can happen to a person
during such a great ordeal. These mental changes can be aggression, madness,
or depression. In this scene you can see how being alone has changed the
character of Eli to become incredibly violent in order to keep himself alive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb_9icqB1SA. This has inspired us and
we are going to use this change of mental state in our trailer, as we want our
main character to show signs of madness. We will used flash backs and dream
sequences to do so.
THE BOOK OF ELI
-NARRATIVE ENIGMA
Part of the twist of The Book of Eli is that Eli is actually blind. The audience
find this out at the end as the precious book he has been guarding throughout
the story is all in braille. In our film we are going to add narrative enigma as
our main character is mentally ill, however this will not be completely obvious
to the audience until the end of the film. Therefore all the hints and clues will
make sense at the end of the film.
THE BOOK OF ELI
-MISE EN SCENE
In the first of these three shots you can see
the huge sword used. Weaponry are typical
props used in post apocalyptic films as
there is usually a fight for survival. The
typical characters of a post apocalyptic film
are one main hero and a damsel/accomplisthat is obvious in this film as the main
characters represent this perfectly.
THE BOOK OF ELI
-EDITING
Here you can see CGI has been used to show this mans arm has been cut off.
It is typical to have severe horrendous injuries to in post apocalyptic films as
there is a constant battle between the human race or the human race, natural
disasters or pandemics. We have been inspired buy this and will use our editing
to enhance any injuries our character obtains in the fight for survival.
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW
-SETTING, ICONOGRAPHY
In ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ Abrupt global warming has hit the Western
world many natural disasters are simply demolishing cities. This film uses
typical settings to the post apocalyptic genre, buildings and listed buildings
being torn to the ground. In these screen shots you can see this. ‘The Day
After Tomorrow’ also uses the idea of a new habitat after the disaster which
the human race is not designed to live in and how they manage to survive.
They also use flash backs of news reports from the times of the disasters, this
inspired us to use flashbacks of before the pandemic happens in our film
trailer.
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW
-REPRESENTATION OF CHARACTERS
The Day After Tomorrow uses typical post apocalyptic conventions to
represent characters. One of the main characters is Jack Hall a climatologist,
has to figure out a way to save the world from abrupt global warming. He
plays the typical ‘Man on a mission’ role as he makes it his mission to rescue
his son Sam from Ney York, Manhattan. Throughout the film and trailer they
both face numerous life threatening situations and show heroic characteristics.
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW
-MISE EN SCENE
The lighting used in The Day After Tomorrow is naturalistic as the directors
will want it to look completely natural- the whole film is about the power of
nature. Bright lighting is used for the vast landscapes of snow and ice where
as dark lighting is used for scenes with huge clouds and storms. When Jack is
treking through America to find his son he uses the latest equipment and
survival tools, this is classic props for a film of this genre.
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW
-EDITING
In these screen shots we can see how fast paced the
editing is as the tsunami hits the city. This fast paced
editing is typical to the post apocalyptic genre as it
adds suspense and shows the seriousness of the
events about to take place.