Genre, Representation and repsonse to question 1

Genre: One of my films which is the hunger games which is in the science fiction genre. The story of the hunger games portrays a feminist hero trapped in a dystopian capitalist nightmare. But its message of rebellion and revolution has gone round the world and grossed billions. As its fans explain, the odds were ever in its favour. The hunger games have two sub genres including Sci-Fi and Adventure and The film fits the sub genres The hunger game is a hybrid as I stated above. Sci-fi and adventure. The film is set in a dystopian world which means it’s a sci-fi film, chases and fights from adventure genre . I think the genre of the film plays an important role when making a film and you have to consider whether will my film sell ? statistics show that the most popular films are science fiction and romance so based on this statistic I think that the hunger games will sell quite well in its opening weekend it made£…… and broke the box office records not just here in the united kingdom but in the united states too In a dystopian future, the totalitarian nation of Panem is divided into 12 districts and the Capitol. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal retribution for a past rebellion, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors while the citizens of Panem are required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss' young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. Personally, I think that the hunger games has a good plot because the audience will watch the trailer which is a marketing strategy to make people to watch a film and the plot plays a massive role when making a film successful. The hunger games does have a gripping and an intriguing opening to the film as Katniss’ sister prim has been selected to join district 12 but Katniss runs to her safety and promotes herself instead. The equilibrium = everything goes to plan at the beginning of the story A disruption = prim being elected to join district 12 A recognition of the disruption= katniss realizes she has to save her sister prim An attempt to repair= she tries to overcome the threat A resolution= a new equilibrium is established The plot is linear because its quite straight forward, although there is a few threats along the way The binary opposites of the hunger games katniss the main character is portrayed as a female heroine and she is quite dominant.


Representation: Katniss evrdeen is the hero , is 16 years old and has straight black hair, grey eyes, and olive skin. Her father died in a mine explosion when she is 11. Since then, to keep her family from starving in the Seam, she has had to provide for her mother and sister, using the hunting and gathering knowledge that her father taught her. Katniss doesn’t wear a costume she wears a casual army clothing. The villan is Coriolanus Snow who is a native of the Capitol and is the tyrannical and ruthless President of Panem. He is dressed likea rich, posh and snobby person would wear and this shows the social class of people in the dystopian world. There was quite a clear difference between the male and female characters in the film including their role in the narrative, their body size and shape, costumes they wear, props they carry/use, and their facial expressions they show. The film suggests certain ways of looking or dressing or behaving are normal and quite right no one really misbehaved and was quite villainous. The film does rely on old fashioned ideas of feminine and masculine qualities in the human beings, and there are quite a mixture of black, white and foreign people. The film does promote an impossible body image through katniss and peeta she is thin and beautiful and he is muscular and strong, No not all good looking , young, heterosexual people feature in the film they have some gay, lesbian and bisexual actors who feature in the film. The representation of the film appeals to the audience because lots of the audience may have the qualities that the characters have and can relate to them, Also I think the representations make the film more successful because as I stated earlier lots of people can relate to the characters because they maybe like them. avatar is a science fiction film never to forget . James Cameron’s film features many scientific possibilities that many wished were real. The main scientific element of the film was the scientific development that enabled the creation of the Avatars . the conventions included in the film is the element of space travel, an alien race, robot – like machinery advanced technology and futuristic technology and a few others. Avatar is a hybrid film and it has many subgenres such as action and adventure it has fight scenes special effects from fantasy genre and romantic gestures between characters in the film which also makes it a romance movie too. The genre helps to make the film successful by having an audience who will talk about the film a lot and some maybe science fiction fanatics. I think that avatar’s plot is very intriguing and gripping because of the special effects used throughout the film when a character goes on a mission on the distant world of Pandora. Todorov’s theory in avatar format An equilibrium- Jake before he flies to Pandora, he receives the news of his brother’s death a disruption- Jake experiences his Avatar for the first time. A recognition of the disruption- Jake realises he must save the Na’vi An attempt to repair- Jake tries to tell the Colonel that he will not spy on the Na’vi anymore A resolution- After a battle for the their home, Jake and the Na’vi must try to rebuild their society. The plot is linear because it shows all the events in chronological order. However, towards the beginning, there is a small flashback of when Jake found out that his brother died. There are some binary oppositions featured in Avatar. The main ones are: Good vs. Evil and the Population vs. Business. The story of my film will be quite successful because as I have chosen a good genre and sub genres also you have to make it appealing to your audience . Representations: are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspectives. Bias: is the bias or perceived bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. Stereotype : one that is regarded as embodying or conforming to a set image or type. Countertype: is a positive stereotype and emphasizes the positive features about a person. An example of a countertype is that all religious people are kind. Ideology: is a world view, a system of values, attitudes and beliefs which an individual, group or society holds to be true or important; these are shared by a culture or society about how that society should function Cultivation theory: examines the long-term effects of television. "The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television." Reinforcement theory: is a limited effects media model applicable within the realm of communication. The theory generally states that people seek out and remember information that provides cognitive support for their pre-existing attitudes and beliefs.


response to Question 1:


Dear Mr Epstein,


Science Fiction films are based on space or time travel and life on other planets such as dystopian worlds a film that would represent this would be the hunger games. In order to create a successful science fiction film there needs stereotyping because the audience who are watching the film can relate to the characters although some people think stereotyping is bad. For example George Lucas who was the director of star wars film and it was released in 1977 and has the use of todrov’s theory equilibrium = when Luke and his  family are sitting at the dinner table at the beginning of the story . disequilibrium= is when lukes town is destroyed and his family are killed. concept of sci-fi films is Propps theory of characters I have set them out in a star wars format so the hro is Luke sky walker, false hero is Hans solo, helper c3p0, prize is princess leia, and the villai is darth vader. Films that follow this theory are successful because they are easy for the audience to understand and follow by using a wide variety of characters without making it too complicated.