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Sci-Fi Film Codes & Conventions

The document discusses codes and conventions in sci-fi works. Codes are used to create meaning and piece together the story, such as visual, linguistic, and aural codes. Conventions are traditional ways of presenting the story, like following certain formats, which general audiences typically expect. The document also provides a timeline of notable sci-fi films from 1902 to 2017 as an example, ranging from early films like A Trip to the Moon to more modern works like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It compares the production techniques between the early and modern films.

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97 views2 pages

Sci-Fi Film Codes & Conventions

The document discusses codes and conventions in sci-fi works. Codes are used to create meaning and piece together the story, such as visual, linguistic, and aural codes. Conventions are traditional ways of presenting the story, like following certain formats, which general audiences typically expect. The document also provides a timeline of notable sci-fi films from 1902 to 2017 as an example, ranging from early films like A Trip to the Moon to more modern works like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It compares the production techniques between the early and modern films.

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CODES AND CONVENTIONS

CODES:

 There are a couple different Codes, such as Visual, Linguistic and Aural codes.

 Codes are a way of creating a meaning, they set the scene or give us an idea on
what happens next.

 Codes piece together the story.

For example clear narrative themes, often emotive and heavily influenced by fantasy.
Outwardly planets or unrealistic or highly advanced technology which is simplified.

CONVENTIONS:

 Conventions are the traditional way of presenting the story. Which could be linked to
the format.

 General audiences like it when products follow conventions.

For example special effects film techniques; close ups of futuristic technologies/ scientific elements.
Or the future an alternative timeline / a historical past.

SCI-FI TIMELINE

1902 – Trip to the moon (George Méliès)

1977, 1980, 1983, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2015,2017 – Star Wars (George Lucas),

1979- Alien (Ridley Scott)

1982- Blade runner (Ridley Scott)

1984- Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman)

1985- Back to the future (Robert Zemeckis)

1990- Predator 2 (Stephen Hopkins)

1993- Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg)

1997- Men in black (Barry Sonnenfeld)

2004- I, Robot (Alex Proyas)


2013- Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)

2017- Guardians of the galaxy vol.2 (James Gunn)

My timeline shows just a few of the Sci-fi films released over the last century. The first film I
have featured on my timeline is ‘A trip to the moon’ ( Le voyage dans le lune) which is a
1902 French exploration surrealist silent, black and white film by master artist film pioneer
Georges Méliès. The short film is only 13 minutes in duration. The film is about a group of
astronomers that are venturing on an expedition to the moon. In the film Méliès has no
concept of what astronauts would typically look like as the idea was not explored in 1902.
Méliès dresses the actors in suits and top hats which is very different to the space suits
worn now. The moon to children is portrayed to look like a block of white cheese with holes
in, this is very unrealistic and is further unrealistic by Méliès putting a face on the moon.

When the film was produced they didn’t have a wide range of editing technology, cameras
etc. For example, for the illusion of a jump cut the substitution splice technique. The camera
would stop filming long enough for something onscreen to be altered. Also the camera
would stop recording one scene and another scene would be started and afterwards the
film from the camera would be overlaid to create a fading effect. There was no movement
of the camera and no angles at all.

Comparing this to Guardians of the galaxy vol.2 the film mainly consisted of CGI. Vol.2 was
the first film to be shot with a 8K resolution camera known as the ‘Red weapon 8K’. Gunn
had wanted to use a different camera than the Alexa 65 as it was a ‘very big and heavy’
camera. A phantom camera was used to film scenes up to 2000 frames per minute, enabling
the camera to be moved from slow motion to high-speed within a single shot.

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