Sub-genres

Research: Sub-genres

A sub-genre is a subdivision of genre, for example, motor-sport films are a sub-genre of action adventure films because they share the same conventional iconography and themes, however have a definite style of their own.  Steve Neale explained this as 'the same but different';...
...the conventional iconography you would find in action adventure would be weapons, vehicles, explosions and dark colors. 
In motor-sport films such as 'rush' and 'need for speed', much of the iconography would be the same. However, the themes and locations may be different, for example, the theme of a motor-sport film would be about a race of some sort and usually there is a head to head race between two groups of people whereas in a conventional action adventure film the theme would usually be about one guy taking on the evil antagonist. Also, the main location for a motor-sport film would be at a race-track, and conventionally action adventure films are set in big cities where lots is going on. ...'the same but different'...

Rush

Released in 2013, Rush is a biographical sports drama film, based on the rivalry between F1 drivers James Hunt and Nicki Lauder, set in 1976. 

It took $90 million at the box office.

Narrative: The opening starts with the non-diagetic voice over which sounds like a race commentary- this is a very typical convention of motor-sport films- while the idents fade in and out over a bleak looking, cloudy sky. It cuts to an extreme close up of a male's eye- which is a shot which is common in motor-sport films as it connotes focus and concentration- looking up at the clouds and the quickly back to the clouds where the tile 'Rush' fades onto the screen. We then come to a close up of Nicki Lauder's F1 car and track up to his face when a voice over starts explaining how dangerous F1 is. 

While the voice over is on there is a montage of shots setting the scene; we see the crowds, the cars, the dark skies, and we see Nicki Lauder look over at James Hunt, who is shown to be surrounded by women and represented as a flirt and a bit of a show-off. Lauder explains that he has a rivalry with Hunt in his voice over, which, again is a conventional feature of the motor-sport sub-genre. There is some Dialogue about what tires he will race on and then it cuts a montage of flames and engines and diagetic sounds of engines starting- possibly the most conventional sound in motor-sport films- and the non-diagetic dramatic soundtrack before cutting to a high angled long shot looking down on the starting grid. 

You can see the conventional iconography of action adventure films with the bleak skies flames coming from the cars. Also quite often there is a voice-over at the beginning of action adventure films to give us an over-view of what is happening in the film. There is also the theme of the head to head rivalry between Lauder and Hunt as well as the location of the race track which clearly categorizes Rush into the sub-genre of motor-sport. 

Rush Opening 

Need for Speed

Released in 2014. Took $203 million at the box office. Starring Aaron Paul, this American action thriller sees street racer Tobey Marshall race cross-country to avenge his friends death at the hands of a rival racer.

Narrative: The film begins with a montage of establishing shots, including a rural, run-down garage and an old, dark office. There is the non-diagetic soundtrack which is quite slow and depressing, there is also, when we see the office the non-diagetic voice over who starts talking about 'this kid, Tobey Marshall'. While the voice over is going, we see the iconography of pictures on the wall of a little boy often playing with cars. There is also the iconography of model race cars and trophies. We then cut to the run-down garage where we see a group of young guys working on some a car, with some dialogue where they are engaging in 'banter'. They then get excited about something on a tablet, we then cut to the scene on the tablet, where an important looking man is on the phone. The person who he talks to describes someone as a 'red-neck' which in America is used to describe someone in a negative way.

Again, the conventional iconography of the vehicles, the male characters, the dark settings were all there but with the differences in locations; they were all rural locations and everything seemed very quiet and calm, especially with the slow, non-diagetic sound track. 

There was also the voice-over which is a conventional aspect of most action-adventure films, but again the iconography of the cars and the racing theme places Need for Speed in the motor-sport sub-genre.

Need for Speed Opening

Cars

Cars is a 2006 American animated motor-sport comedy film produced by Pixar. It took $462 million at the box office. Set in a world of only anthropomorphic vehicles it sees protagonist Lightening McQueen race two rivals in the Piston Cup, but not before being lost in a small run-down town with a lot of work to do. 

Narrative: The opening starts of pitch black with no sound or dialogue, then a voice over of Lightening McQueen begins of him talking to himself, there is no sound track at this point. It then cuts to a blurry mid-shot of cars racing past the camera, with the diagetic sounds of the engines before quickly cutting back to the blank screen with only the dialogue from the voice over, Then it cuts to a close up tracking the movement of Lightning's back wheel in a race. After a couple move of these cuts, the high energy, base guitar soundtrack cuts in and a lorry trailer opens outwards, we see Lightning's shiny body work and he slowly rolls out towards the flashing camera lights and the thousands of fans in the stands. We then see the montage of establishing shots of the race track and the posters that represent Lightning McQueen as an important character.The idents of Pixar and Walt Disney then cut in and out with the background of many different cars racing around the speedway. Before tracking Lightning passing other cars around the track.

Location: The location is a typical american speedway, which is a conventional setting for the sub-genre, the stands are full of thousands of people (or in this case cars) all taking pictures which represents the event as being important. 

Iconography: All the posters and billboards had Lightning McQueen on them which pinpoints him as the protagonist in the film. The bodywork in this film is the equivalent to the costumes of others, and Lightning's bodywork was shiny and new, we had a lot of close-ups which drew our attention to this which represents him as successful and wealthy.

Lightning's character is represented as being very confident as when he is racing he is casually rolling past the other racers, he is also, throughout the whole first 2 minutes, smiling whereas every other racer looks very concentrated and angry. This self-confidence is a conventional trait most protagonists have in the action-adventure genre but having fans and admirers is something you only really see in the motor-sport sub genre.

Cars Opening 

Looking at these openings has been useful, as when I come to film my own 2 minute opening to a motor-sport film I will understand what conventional iconography and sounds to use to make it seem professional and be understood as the specific sub-genre.

Analysis of action adventure poster

Research: Analysis of Action Adventure Poster.

SlideShare Analysis of Taken Poster

Genre presentation

Research: Genre Presentation on slide share

Genre Presentation

Genre, media hw from harrysquire

I Robot opening analysis

Research: I Robot opening analysis

Information

I Robot is an American action, sci-fi film, starring Will Smith. Released in 2004, I Robot is about what could potentially happen in the future with advancements in AI machines. It took $347.2 million at the box office. It starts with the ident of 20th century fox and MediaStream, common conventions of openings. Then the title I Robot fades in with non-diagetic dramatic music. Which dissolves into what appears to be tiny organisms that floats away. Then, in fades a law about robots titled 'law 1'. It then cuts to a short mid-shot of a car under-water and someone banging on the window. Then cuts back to 'law 2' and again cuts to two people now trying to escape from the car, then law 3, back to car and we see a robot saving the man in the car (Will Smith) before the non-diagetic sound cuts out with the picture and we cut to a close up shot of Will Smith waking up to the diagetic sound of his alarm clock- a clock is a conventional piece of iconography in action films as it connotes that the protagonist is racing against time.

Character Analysis

The opening introduces us only very briefly to three characters. The first is of a woman in the car struggling to free herself, we assume she is important as she is the first character we see. However we never see a close-up of her, which we do when we meet the second character who is Will Smith. He is seen in the car to start with and is saved by the third character (the robot), which suggests he is the main character, also this is assumed as he is the one the character cuts to after the car underwater scene. These tense action scenes in the openings which are usually flashbacks are conventional aspects on quite a few action sci-fi films as it creates fear among the audience and a sense of sympathy towards the protagonist to whom the camera usually cuts to at the end of the opening

So we don't learn much about the characters which makes them mysterious- this is a convention of openings to most films as it makes the audience want to know more.

Thinking about the different characters, settings and iconography used in different genres has been interested and will make me consider in more detail who, where and what will feature in the 2 minute opening I will soon be planning.

8 Mile opening analysis

Research: 8 Mile Opening Sequence Analysis

8 Mile is an American rap film released in 2002, starring Eminem who plays the character Jimmy "B-Rabbit". It is about a young white-rapper living in a trailer park in Detroit trying to launch a rap career.
It took almost $243 million at the box office.
The opening starts with the ident of Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment and then the title, with the non-diagetic sound of a rap song. From the black screen, the camera zooms out to an over-the-shoulder shot of Eminem looking into a mirror and jogging. The name of the actor (Eminem) comes up on screen. He then starts rapping to himself in
the mirror; there are a lot of close-ups of him. The first diagetic sound is a bang on the door to which Jimmy tells them to 'hold on a minute'.
He then throws up in the toilets and walk out of the bathrooms.

Character Analysis

Jimmy is dressed in a hoodie and baggie clothes, stereo-typically this is what a 'chav' would wear and is conventional iconography of this sub-genre of film. The first place we see him is in some grotty old toilets with the mise en scene of the cracked mirror, which are conventional features of this type of film., which suggests he is poor and a bit of a 'low-life'. We can guess that he has a big passion for rap music because of the way he is rapping to himself in the mirror and the non-diagetic music. They have put a greyish green filter on the camera to make it look dirtier and less appealing.

Setting analysis

The only setting we see in the opening is the grotty old toilets of what appears to be some kind of club as it has lots of graffiti on the walls. It is most likely in a city somewhere. The mise-en-scene includes a smashed mirror suggesting that the town or city we are in is a rough area- this assumption is made as we can tell so far what genre of film it is by the iconography and non-diagetic soundtrack and a conventional setting for this genre would be a rough area.

Shaun of the dead opening analysis

Research: Shaun of the dead opening sequence analysis.

Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British comedy film starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It is a 'zombie apocalypse' film where the main set of characters get trapped and surrounded by zombies in a pub.

It received $30 million at the box office.

The narrative of the opening is a montage of people acting 'zombie-like' with a fairly up-beat non-diagetic soundtrack. It then fades into a high-angled shot looking down towards a pair of feet stumbling forward in a 'zombie-like' manor, with the diagetic grunt of what is thought at first to be a zombie however the camera tracks up a man's body to a medium close- up and we see that it is just an average man yawning (This is mainly for comical effect). Then the camera cuts ta a wide shot of the same man walking into a messy living-room where there is an over-weight man playing video games. He looks like the stereo-typical 'low-life slob'. The first man then joins in without any dialog.

Character Analysis

The first main character we meet in this the opening sequence is Shaun. We know straight away he is the main character as he is the first character we get a close-up of. He is represented in a negative way; at first the audience think he is a zombie as he is walking like one and makes a grunting sound. However we know he isn't as we then see his face and he has clearly just woken up and is yawning. It is still a negative representation as this is the first thing we see in the film so we have nothing else to go on. Secondly, he walks expressionless into the next room and ignores the obvious mess and- still expressionless- joins in with a video game. This is negative because it connotes what we stereo-typically think of as a 'slob'. Most people would get up and straight away get ready for work but we assume he has nothing better to do than play video games.
The only other main character we meet is Shaun's friend, Ed; he is represented in a similar way to Shaun. He too is expressionless and just sitting their playing video games. Ed is represented as even more of a slob though because we don't even see him leave the sofa or move for that matter.

Settings Analysis

In this opening sequence there are only really two settings; there is the montage of different areas in a slightly run down area of a town, and there is the down-stairs in what appears to be a shared house.

In the montage, there are a range of wide shots which track zombie-like characters. These are here to show us that this is a fairly run-down area which is a convention of zombie-apocalypse films however not usually comedy films, there is not much going on, the colors are dull, connoting a dull area. 

Inside the house, the dull color theme continues, there are the denotations of litter and beer bottles surrounding Ed, representing the 'low-life' attitude he has through-out the film.

Titles

The titles come up at the bottom of the screen while the montage of wide shots are shown; they the idents for companies are involved such as Universal Pictures, WT Productions and Big Talk Productions. It then comes up with the title 'Shaun of the Dead'. This is conventional for all genres of film.

Finding Nemo opening

Finding Nemo Opening

Director: Andrew Stanton

Year Of Film: 2003

Opening Overview

Marlin and Coral are looking at their hundreds of eggs and light-heatedly arguing over what to call them- Marlin wants to call them Marlin and Coral Jr. but Coral likes 'Nemo'. So they decide to call one of them Nemo.  

They are messing around when they come face to face with a shark/big scary fish! Coral tries to protect the eggs so Marlin hopelessly attempts to fight off the 'big scary fish shark' and gets knocked out by it's tail. 

Marlin wakes to find Coral gone along with all but one egg. He names it Nemo.

Effective?

This is an effective opening as it makes you feel sorry for Marlin, and Nemo is already an important character in the film even though we have not yet met him. We the audience, like Marlin, want Nemo to be protected. 

This sets up the rest of the story well because when Nemo gets taken we can understand Marlin's fear of losing him. Marlin's personality comes across as caring because he wants to protect Coral. He also is a worrier because he is worried that none of his kids will like him, which  only makes us feel more sorry for him when Nemo is taken.

The non-diagetic sounds at the start of the opening are calming which relaxes the viewer, however when the 'big scary fish shark' enters, it is more panicky and builds tension. 

I thought this was a good opening because you feel sorry for the two main characters straight away and have a good understanding of why Marlin is so overprotective and very scared when Nemo is taken. So this sets the rest of the film up brilliantly.