Generic conventions
Why?
These are repeated over and over in films because an audience gets satisfaction and enjoys recognising the familiar. However, the film
maker needs to mix them with his or her own vision and new ideas so they don’t become too predictable. The ultimate goal is for the film to be a
commercial success.
Characters in SF are often stereotypical, the mad scientist, the damsel in distress or the evil alien. These characters allow audiences to feel
they know what to expect and when the narrative delivers the expected results it is satisfying and feels the way it should be.
They conform to the audience expectations about narrative. Initial disruption is followed by new satisfactory situation.
History of Fears and anxieties
‘Between the year 1815, which saw the end of a series of general European wars, and 1914, which saw the beginning of another, there was a brief period in which
humanity could afford the luxury of optimism concerning its relationship to the machine. The Industrial Revolution seemed suddenly to uplift human power and to
bring on dreams of a technological Utopia on Earth in place of the mythic one in Heaven. The good of machines seemed to far outbalance the evil and the
response of love far outbalance the response of fear.’ Isaac Asimov.
The faith in the machine which was so common in nineteenth-century utopias had begun to be replaced by a distrust or fear of the machine. By the
1930s technological advance had become so rapid that science had acquired an awesome mystery in the popular imagination. The key event in
transforming the climate of popular opinion about technology was the dropping of the atom bomb in 1945. This momentous event stimulated
considerable scepticism about the technological 'progress'. Post-holocaust stories began to flourish, with survivors who typically turned against
technology. Computers and robots were frequently interpreted as a threat to humanity in sf of the 1950s and 1960s.
The 80’s brought in the issue of cloning and genetic modification.
Most broadly in SF, we can discern a shift from a concern with adapting technology to human purposes to a concern with the more problematic
issue of human adaptation to technological environments. In such contexts, as also in critical writings, technology is no longer seen as neutral tool.
Notes from Daniel Chandler’s Imagining Futures, dramatising fears.
We treat our machines as if they had personalities. We assign them genders; often the idea of ‘intellect’ is associated with ‘male’ machines. We even
attribute intent to these machines, the recalcitrant photocopier, toaster or computer. We imagine they are conspiring to frustrate us when they fail to work for
us. The spread of computers – the most responsive of devices – has been accompanied by an inclination to treat machines as closely related to us. We talk
about out computers, phones etc as if they were family members.
Speculative fiction and films dramatise our feelings, hopes and fears about technology.
Hopes and Fears
There are two pendulums, the attitude that technology represents progress towards human happiness and that it will lead us to increasing dependence with a
damaging effect on the Earth and so on. The moral dilemmas deal with the misuse of tech. (military, political and industrial) rather than technology itself. e.g.
Metropolis, Blade Runner, District 9.
Historically man’s attitudes towards technology have changes
 Greece to Middle Ages = optimistic
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (philosopher 1712 -78) saw men enslaved to machines
 1811-1816 Luddites smashed machines that were automating their work.
 1815 to 1914 optimism regarding machine.
 Industrial revolution late 19th C, early 20th appealed to middle classes despite the misery it brought workers
 WW1 disillusionment set in – beautiful airplanes delivered bombs and poison gas.
 30’s focused on limitless power of technological advances without any social consequence
 WW2 and Hiroshima meant post –holocaust stories began
 1957 Sputnik launch ushered in the space age.
 60’s the super computer threat and deadly viruses.
 70’s rehabilitation of the robot Star Wars etc.
 80’s cloning and moral/ethical issues
 90’ virus and biological contamination
Fear of Knowing too much
The idea of being able to create life in a lab has been a complex moral issue first made widely popular through Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The film version
does not deal with the idea of responsibility in the same way as the novel does. Knowledge has its dangers.
Asimov’s laws of robotics include :
A robot may not injure a human being, or allow harm to come to a human.
Must obey orders except when conflicts with first law
Protect its own existence (not conflict with 1 or 2.
Fear of Losing control
Who serves who? Frankenstein, Pandora’s Box
Machines out of control, Computers, AI.
Fear of losing our Souls
Efficiency, accuracy, regularity and uniformity vs choice, flexibility, spontaneity, loss of freedom?? Some writers argue the benefits of social stability are worth
the price. Metropolis, Blade Runner and District 9 all deal with this idea.
Where does the role of creativity come in all of this? What purpose would be left for us in an automated society?
In an essay on the convention of exploiting fears of the unknown you must discuss the convention, what it means/does, why,
how and where it might lead in the future. You must refer to the films you have studied but DISCUSS the ideas of why these
work and what the audience feels and why they respond.
I have written a few paras to give you an idea of what your discussion might look like. You need to develop you
understanding by writing your own paragraphs.
Fear and hope are essential emotions for the genre of Sci Fi. Without them we would not return again and again to watch the narrative developed
around the world of possibilities, negative and positive. It is the questions that dog us about what out future holds and how we will be affected by the
growing power of technology in our lives that film makers thrive on. Each time there is anew development in technology we instanty wonder what
effect will this have on my life. Since Fritz Lang’s expressionist Metropolis explored the effects of industrialisation to Neil Blompk?? District 9 with it’s
move into that most disturbing areas of sci-fi known as "body horror", the experience by which a man is transformed into another kind of being, first
explored by Kafka in Metamorphosis, Sci Fi film is constantly appealing to, and exploiting our fear and insecurity about the future.
The threat of social divides and the disillusionment with the machine were fears that were prevalent in the early 1900’s. The events of the first world
war, when the beautiful airplane became a carrier of bombs and destruction, changed the social landscape. The political instability of Europe, with
the Russian Revolution and the post WWI hardships, made people question what was happening and where the future was going. It was in this
climate of fear of the machine and concern regarding political stability that Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece Metropolis was made. While the
expressionist film was set in two worlds, that of the rich, and that of the slave like worker, it’s message was focussed on the need for unity. The
coming together of the two classes and an age of understanding. The Machine Man in the film is associated with evil and magic as at this point in
history the audience would not have believed the idea of an actual robot made soley by science. They would have been shocked by this idea of life
being created by humans and the idea might have caused great concern in many. This robot was the early version of the Star Wars one. The fear of
technology running amok was planted in the audience of this time, along with other films like Frankenstein.
In Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner the ideas are updated to appeal to the fears of the 80’s audience. The setting of two worlds developed the
growing concern of the a class divide and the setting in a dystopic, polluted and exiled earth, home for the medically inflicted, racially
varied, exiled remnants of society appeals to the very real fears of global warming and the effects of global immigaration. The Off World is
the home for the wealthy and healthy. The plight of the replicants introduces the more modern and relevant idea of what it is to be human.
To the audience this idea is more relevant because of the huge advances of modern science. In the 80’s the first cloning of the first sheep
occurred so the idea of cloning humans was becoming more widely accepted. The possiblity that this could happen in a test tube, without
a birth and childhood and education is alarming.
When a replicant, played by Rutger Hauer, is being pursued by Harrison Ford’s detective, Rick Deckard we go on to learn that the group
of replicants are actually trying to avoid dismantlement, which was ordered by the company that produced them, because they valued their
own lives. Would we not do the same to continue living? The film’s climatic chase scene ends with Roy actually saving Deckard’s life and
imparting his own fear of death. He talks of all the things he has seen and done and how those memories and experiences will be lost,
“Like tears, in the rain.” These fears could easily be that of any human when contemplating death and their own mortality. This scene
moves audiences to contemplate what it is to be human and they feel that Roy is indeed a human at this point
BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!
NARRATIVE
Stuart Kaminsky, the author of the book American Film Genres (published by Nelson Hall: Chicago 1985)
has described the science fiction film as being like
"A shared dream ...a mythic representation of universal concerns and fears."
By this he is suggesting that it appeals to everyone because the narratives of many science fiction films
follow patterns that we are all familiar with. These are based on the ancient myths and legends that are
found in cultures and societies all over the world. The concerns arid fears he talks about, for example,
that humankind will destroy itself through the search for more powerful weapons, are fears shared by
everyone. On a simpler level, sci-fi narratives offer us an all-enveloping escape from the problems and
realities of everyday life.
TDTESS
Builds a dark image of the world
to come if we allow
industrialisation to dominate.
Builds a negative view of
capitalism if humanity is not part
of the equation.
Washington DC- Centre of power and
decision making. Space craft lands in the
centre of Washington.
The reaction of the people is of fear and
suspicion. The shots of them scattering
make them appear like insects. The
humans are presented as simple and
assume it must be something to do with
the Russians., as the Cold War is what
dominated the news in the 50’s.
Above ground -Bright natural
light, inviting. Futuristic city
with skyscrapers and freeways
suspended amongst the urban
landscape. The playground of the The other world that the aliens comes
from is presented as peaceful and a
sons of corporate bosses, the
elite.
place of serenity and higher thinking.
The fact that this is gained through
Below ground -Industrial, bleak, threats of annihilation is amusing but
also gets us to think what other
workers move like robots in a
mechanised setting to power the motivation would humans respond to.
world of the rich. There is little
The location of such a real setting in the
freedom, they are ruled by the
50’s would definitely have got the
clock. The machine is based on
audience thinking of the impact of such
Mayan temple building the idea
of slavery and sacrifice.
an occurrence on them and their lives.
The fear would have been all the more
real with the Cold War happening and
the threat of nuclear weapons.
Blade Runner
World of advanced capitalism –political
repression and dehumanisation. A polluted
overpopulated city in a society controlled by
corporations.
The opening images of flaring smokestacks
and hazy pollution signify a world of total
industrialisation. Gaudy advertising
dominates the skyline, evoking a reference
to Hell. The constant rain also builds the
idea of pollution and a damaged ecosystem,
while also building image of washing away
the dirt.
On Earth (below) crowds of people evoke
fears of overpopulation and immigration,
asian food stalls etc. Traders are all Asian
and European while the execs are North
Americans.
The world of the healthy and wealthy is
Off World, above, on a planet that has
obviously not been polluted and exploited.
Tyrell’s corporation and home arespacious.
Opulent and above the city like an upper
world. The police station is also above the
city.
The gap between the poor and the rich is
highlighted through the location and the
control we see of the lower world.
District 9
The location of the slum dwelling in District 9
builds the ‘prawns’ as marginalised and isolated.
The location of Johannesburg is interesting
because of Apartheid and the racist history of
the country. We can identify with the location
and it makes the reality more possible, more
believable.
The reality for the aliens is they are stranded
in an increasingly hostile society. They are in
the process of being evicted to a
concentration-like facility (historical reference
to the holocaust) Their spaceship hovering
above the city is a daily reminder of their
plight.
This idea of foreigners living amongst us is one
that stirs fear in many. The coloured of Africa
were marginalised and persecuted by the
Afrikaner govt., as were the Jews in Germany
and as many other races, tribes and minorities
are in the world today. This is a possible
scenario for aliens if they are not the gun
toting aggressive type.
This locqtion is geographically real and the
audience can wonder about the possiblility far
more that some off Earth planet. The fact
that the aliens are disorganised and rather
pathetic, that they are contained in a slum as
humans live in third world countries adds a
whole new dimension to the usual SF locations.
Location – The use of location allows us to relate to a film more, in that we often associate with the location therefore it allows us to bring our expectation, values
and beliefs to viewing the film. In Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece Metropolis the setting of an upper world and under world triggered the fear of industrialisation
and class division that was around in Europe at the time. The upper world is one of wealth and ease of life. We see the sons of the rich running around chasing
women for their entertainment. The lower world is dystopic and one of suffering and slavery, The workers move like robots and the audience clearly see the
divide and feel for the inhabitants of the lower world. The presentation of evil through Rotwang also would have made the audience uneasy as creating life, as he
does with The Machine Man, was linked supernatural forces. The setting is not natural and has a very artistic expressionist style to it which is later recreated in
Blade Runner. This feel allows the viewer to feel that it is a tale that has links to their world but that it is also other worldly, a possibility which creates less of a
sense of unease.
The location also lets us look at ourselves when it is a setting that is every day. In TDTESS, the setting is very realistic, downtown Washington, with a domestic
element of mother and child. The conversation sets the tone of the 50’s and the fears that people had. Setting in the centre of politics in the one of the countries
that was a main player in the Cold War develops the message that the audience need to be part of the solution. The audience is able to think about the ideas of the
film, which were controversial for the day, and their views and are therefore interested, wanting to see what the outcome is. We see the film locations that deal
with social issues more real and easy to identify with.
The location of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is our worst fears realised and the concept of a damaged Earth and an off world for the wealthy strikes fear into those
who are concerned about environmental issues and globalisation. The opening images of flaring smokestacks and hazy pollution signify a world of total
industrialisation and clearly set out all the excesses of the modern world, advertising, pollution, corporate greed and exploitation. The replicants are trapped in a
life that allows them no freedom, they are effectively slaves.
This idea of corporate greed is developed in District 9 with the location being Johannesburg, South Africa. This setting is a change from the usual centre of trade.
It still has a large population but included are strong references to history as we still all remember the Black South Africans struggle against apartheid. This
location allows the audience to bring all sorts of values and beliefs to the film and then use that knowledge to build a strong reaction to the plight of the outcast, in
this case a race of aliens, derogatorally called ‘prawns. The mass slum they live in is like the shanty towns the blacks lived in the 50’s and 60’s but the racism
they suffer is meted out by both black and white Africans. This change of a familiar situation is interesting as it so real for the audience and mixes in the
possibility of it happening again but with non humans. By using something that is in our historical conscious and changing it it brings the idea closer to us than it
has been before. This idea of linking our experience of history to new locations and races is used again in James Cameron’s Avatar, with the Navi’s similarity in
to the Native Americans and the idea of imperialism which has palyed such a strong part in your history. This idea or using familiar location and elements is
growing as the SF genre looks to engage us in a meaningful dialogue about what is our world holds for us.
Hero – Freder -He is ignorant of
the reality of the workers. The
son of Joh Frederson, the mind of
the city. His role as the mediator
is initiated by a chance meeting
with Maria. He then goes onto
realise the error of his fathers
ways and acts to bring things back
into balance.
Rotwang’s robot
The robot, in Maria’s likeness runs
amok and causes havoc in the city.
She is depicted as uncontrollable
and this is coupled with the sexual
aspect of her character to show us
the evil impact of promiscuity.
Maria, on the other hand is a
moral and revolutionary character
who preaches patience and
tolerance. She becomes the
damsel in distress, allowing Freder
to play the hero.
VILLAIN– while the corporate
world, led by Joh Freder, is
initially the villain, their ability to
accept the need for change
eventually allows them to be part
of the solution.
Rotwang with his obsessive
fixation on Joh’s dead wife, Hel,
and his machine man plays the
villain as his threat nearly
destroys the city. His wild hair and
manic facial features make him the
stereotypical mad scientist that
we see in Frankenstein.
Klaatu – Depicted as infinitely
more intelligent than humans with
a message of peace (of a sort).
Klaatu is a gentleman, rational and
considered in contrast to the
slightly hysterical humans in the
film.
Gort – 8 ft tall android
(prototypical terminator)
Follows instructions of Klaatu
loyally.
HELEN– needs rescuing from her
own boyfriend. However, she is
potentially a mate for Klaatu, as
she is intelligent and does not
react with fear and suspicion to
the aliens. This is a
transformation of the convention
especially as female of the time
was depicted as hysterical and
irrational, usually in the face of an
attacking alien.
Dr Barhardt is depicted as a
rational man of science who works
diligently to unlock physics
problems. He is not at all mad.
This view of scientists replaced
the earlier mad scientist because
of the number o f scientific
experiment made in this period.
Science was the way of progress
and a growing number of the
community chose this profession.
HERO -Deckard – Anti hero – he has flaws, is
disenchanted with the world. Typical
Film noir detective – trenchcoat, doesn’t like
orders, alone, driven. Seems somewhat
dispirited with life, heavy drinker,
disenchanted.
His developing sympathy for the ‘alien’ is
challenging for him personally and leads him to
abandon his previous beliefs.
ALIEN– replicant. Roy – Poet warrior with
inhuman chiselled Aryan looks. Designed for
human use, four year life cycle. Meets his
maker and kills him. Chooses pity and
compassion over killing at the end, thus
becomes human. Raises the question of aliens
being able to feel emotion, wanting family and a
life of stability and freedom.
FEMALE
Rachael – Femme Fatale with fur, red lipstick,
tailored suits and padded shoulders. She has no
idea she is a replicant and is hurt when
Deckard reveals it. Compliant and submissive.
She kills a replicant to save Deckhard.
VILLAIN – Tyrell. Presented as God. Lives in
tower (like Toltec pyramids) above the city.
His room is white, he wears a white robe and
calls Roy his ‘prodigal son’ further building his
status as creator.
SCIENTIST – J F Sebastian. Innocent and
isolated. His only friends are toys. His
‘accelerated decreptitude’ does not allow him
to live Off World.
He is linked to the replicants through his
innocence and condition.
A character of sympathy, he represents a
victim of the corporate world he lives in not
an evil or threatening scientist.
Hero – Wikus. Starts out as a gormless
pen pusher thrust into a postion of
power due to nepotism. He is a hapless
hero with few redeeming features at the
start. He takes delight in ‘aborting ‘the
prawns’ and runs around shouting orders
like an excited child. It is only after he
is infected with the alien fuel that he
begins to gain empathy for the aliens. It
is the transition to alien that is shocking
and follows in the tradition of Kafka’s
Metamorphisis, known as ‘body horror’.
FEMALE – Tania has no control of her
life. She has a dominating father and
has escaped him to build a loving
relationship with Wikus, the complete
opposite. As soon as Wikus is out of the
picture she comes back under her
father’s control.
VILLAIN Kobus- A Nigerian warlord
operating out of District 9, preying on
the aliens by swapping their advanced
weapons for cat food. He believes if he
eats alien body parts he will gain their
strength – voodoo, superstitions
MNU, a global arms corporation are
the real villains in the piece and follow
the convention set out in Lang’s early
film Metropolis of the greedy, immoral
corporation.Their experiments on the
‘prawns’ are horrific and show the moral
depths they will sink to to unlock the
aliens’ biological weapons. It is their
depravity that spurs Christopher on to
escape and help his race.
You need to take one or two stock characters e.g villain/ hero/female and discuss the convention, history, how it has developed and why,
audience involvement and appeal, what it likely in the future based on what we’ve seen to date.
For e.g. the heroes deal with problems, have flaws, have to overcome obstacles. All these allow the audience to identify with them. We have
obstacles, tests, and trials in our lives, usually not to do with battling 7ft aggressive species but they are battles none the less. The audience
can identify more with a hero who has issues. If we have a swash buckling hero that does everything by the book we have a formulaic
character that does not extend our interest so it is the development of this character that allows the genre following.
In most cases it is a male who is the hero as this genre is most popular with young males. This opportunity to go on an adventure that focuses
on fears and imaginings, of the battle of good over evil, is the type of story that has appealed to males for an age, from The Hobbit to Avatar.
The idea of the hero succeeding is also a necessary part of the story although as the genre has developed the level of resolution can vary.
From Metropolis we have Freder and Maria happy together in a unified world: In BR, although Deckard gets the girl, in the Final Cut there is no
nice drive in the country, their future is not as golden as earlier predicted in the first version of the film. It is this recognition that life is not
always ‘like a box of chocolates’ that modern director’s employ as the audience are not as innocent or maybe more cynical, wanting art to
represent life.
Discuss elements of film noir in characters etc etc etc
Villains have developed greatly since the early Frankenstein and Rotwang from Metropolis. Instead of being in league with the devil and
obsessed with creating robots, as Rotwang was, villains more and more have a human side, one that develops the complexities of being a
feeling, thinking being.
An interesting film in the 50’s was TDTESS. In this film the good guys are made out to be the heroes, at the beginning, and the aliens are the
bad guys. But this quickly changes and Klaatu the alien turns out to be a good guy. This is very unusual in terms of the conventions of the
genre and is a result of the influences at work in America when the film was created; space flight technology and biological scientific advances,
and war and weapons. The cold war and the nuclear weapons being developed practically scared America into science fiction films, where one
enemy invades another. During the breakfast scene where the lady says ‘I know it’s them’, the ‘them’ she refers to is not the aliens but the
Russians and ‘its’ is suggesting that it is the Russians who are the aliens that are invading America or gaining the intelligence their army might
need. Given this was also at the height of McCarthyism, it is no wonder that the alien and the communist are presented as the same type of
‘threat’. This would have resonated with the audience of the time and the fact that they were seen as part of the problem meant the film was
making a real statement by going against the convention of the alien as the villain.
Villians in Sci Fi are often aliens but many that have been classified villains have had heroic aspects e.g. Roy in Blade Runner. As an escaped
replicant he is the villain, he kills humans but only for the self preservation of his kind. His killing of Tyrell is likened to killing his father or Maker
and raises all sorts of issues for the audience as we feel empathy for his situation and also view Tyrell as a villain. This idea of the maker being
the truly evil one is reminiscent of the novel Frankenstein where the monster becomes uncontrollable and malignant when the maker is
egotistical and irresponsible, unlike the Hollywood film version which does not lay the blame at the Doctor’s feet. Roy’s final acceptance of his
mortality is extremely moving and when he saves Deckhard we realise he is essentially human. This development of shades of grey where the
villain is concerned has developed as film makers have engaged the audience in the consequences of technological advances, of mocking ‘the
stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the World (M Shelley). The themes of creation, responsibility, neglect and its consequence are
developed in villainous character in Sci Fi.
Etc etc etc
You need to be able to discuss
 shared features

Demonstrate understanding of common features (conventions).
 films: female victims, monstrous villains, religious iconography, location/settings,
Demonstrate understanding means to provide a description of the characteristics of a
 specific media genre. This includes:
 commonly shared features of the genre
 changes in the genre – eg development of sub-genre, changes to use of features
 audience expectations and response to the genre
 commercial considerations of the genre.
Demonstrate in-depth understanding means to provide a detailed description of the
 characteristics of a specific media genre. This includes:
 how and/or why the features are used
 reasons for changes in the genre
 reasons for audience expectations and response to the genre
 reasons why commercial considerations are important to the genre.
5 Demonstrate critical understanding means provide a detailed examination of the
 characteristics of a specific media genre. This includes:
 implications of the use of features in the genre
 implications of the changes in the genre
 implications of audience expectations and response to the genre
 implications of commercial considerations for the genre.
6 Implications are likely consequences and/or conclusions that can be drawn from evidence.