Story lines of Sci-fi Films

Typical Story lines of Sci-fi Films:


- The good guys travel through time to stop a historical bad guy, usually hitler.

- The Chronocops travel through time to catch a bad guy who escaped into another realm.


- Scientist work feverishly to develop a cure for a super virus or a weapon to stop the invincible bad guys.


- The army/military struggles valiantly to destroy the enemy.



- An Alien can be stranded on earth, befriends a human or falls in love with an earth woman, pursued by shadowy malevolent Pentagon officials of national security, uses its/hers/his alien powers to defeat Pentagon officials making them look foolish with harming them and finally makes a teary farewell to earth and returns to their home planet.

Iconography of Independence Day

Iconography of Sci-fi Thriller films (Independence Day):

• Usually have a huge Mothership and lots of little spaceships that are used for attack.

- Aliens are the main threat towards human beings. 

- Military are the last hope to save the world.

The survival of a family in this case (Will Smith, his wife, his son and the dog)

Types of Characters:
- A man that thinks he can save everyone

- The stubborn teenager

- Military that is struggling to defeat the Aliens

- Powerful enemies (Aliens).

Research into a similar Sci-Fi Film

Research into a similar Sci-Fi film

Signs: (M. Night Shyamalan 2002)

The aliens in the film 'Signs' directed by M. Night Shyamalan in 2002 are designed to look like your typical alien with their green body and rather big sized eyes. Also in this film, the director chose to keep the aliens hidden throughout most of the film and we intend to do the same, in our opening scene you don't get to see what the alien looks like, all you can see is a silhouette of its body with a bright light shining behind it.

Also in the film Signs there are crop circles. This is another convention because in real life and in a lot of Sci-Fi films crop circles are always linked to extra terrestrial life forms. In our opening scene we are hoping to include crop circles. We are going to present them on the news and create some sort of panic and tension in the film.

Conventions of Sci-Fi Films e.g. Alien

Conventions of Sci-fi thriller films with an sub-genre of alien/supernatural elements:

Example film - Alien (1979):

In the film Alien Gothic representations are shown throughout the film for example, the wrecked alien spaceship and the bleak planet suggest the gloom, ruin and awful desolation of Gothic architecture and landscape. 

• Binary opposites of good vs evil

• Hero characters trying to save a planet from an invasion, spaceship, causing chaos in the streets and lots of explosions and crashes.

• Fast panning and tracking shots that follow the action - creates tension as the audience feel as though they are there, caught up in the action.

• Most hero characters wear bright colours as they connote hope, energy and makes them stand out. Villains tend to be in dark colours (Black, dark grey, navy) and blend in with the background and appear unexpectedly from nowhere. Contrast of bright and dark colours emphasise the binary opposites of the two sides.

- Set in future
- Aliens worlds
- Time travels - travelling backwards and forwards through time has always been a popular in science fiction film
- Spacecrafts and robots
- Imaginative settings
- Alien abductions
- Galactic Empires that oppress everything
- Rebel(s) going against the empire
- Conflicts between alien and human
- The concept of extraterrestrial life is a popular convention in science fiction films, where the aliens are seen as a threat to the human race

Storylines of Sci-Fi Films

The commonly used storylines for aliens films are:

Robots - usually in films with robots they start as helpful machines but the robots go sentinel and the military try to destroy them. e.g. I Robot.


Interstellar Travel - Humans communicating with ancient races or fighting for them or against them.

Time Travel - A person goes back in time then tries to make their way back to the present time. E.g. Back to the future.

Superpowers - A character gains superpowers then fights for good to stop another character who has gain power and is using it for their own personal use. e.g. Superman, Chronicle.

Bodily Transformation - A character changes parts of themselves to improve their condition but it has side effects. e.g. Robocop.

Alien Invasion - Aliens invade to control earth and enslave humanity. e.g. War of the Worlds.

My individual idea

Storyline:

A man and woman are in their house, the man has just come home from work. Suddenly the phone rings. On the other end of the line is a man who claims to be the pizza guy and is explaining that their has been a mix up with there order. The woman then proceeds to tell the man that they haven't even ordered pizza and that he has the wrong number. The phone call ends and the couple then sit down to watch TV. The phone rings again...
Its the same man who again says the same story. The woman gets rather frustrated with him and starts shouting. Whilst shouting she doesn't realise that the mans voice has changed. So she stops talking and asks who it is. All she then hears is a group of people laughing. Then the man replies with "we're coming".

Genre: Horror

Settings:

• House

( Struggled to think of any other setting for this type of scene)

Generic Conventions of Sci-Fi Films

Generic Conventions Sci-fi Films:
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginative content such as futuristic settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes and extraterrestrial life. It often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a "literature of ideas".

Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a wide range of sub-genres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying "science fiction is what we point to when we say it".

Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. It is similar to, but differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated physical laws (though some elements in a story might still be pure imaginative speculation).

The settings for science fiction are often contrary to those of consensus reality, but most science fiction relies on a considerable degree of suspension of disbelief, which is facilitated in the reader's mind by potential scientific explanations or solutions to various fictional elements. Science fiction elements include:

• A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, or in a historical past that contradicts known facts of history or the archaeological record. 

• A spatial setting or scenes in outer space (e.g. spaceflight), on other worlds, or on subterranean earth.

• Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots and other types of characters arising from a future human evolution.

• Futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers.

• Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for example time travel, wormholes, or faster-than-light travel or communication.

• New and different political or social systems, e.g. dystopian, post-scarcity, or post-apocalyptic.

• Paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation.

• Other universes or dimensions and travel between them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction

The most common conventions in sci-fi alien/supernatural: 

• Set in future (it doesn't have to be 100+ years, it can just be 5 years from now). It is often used because it gives people room to create things that currently wouldn't be possible.

• Alien Worlds or Aliens on Earth are the most common.

• Time travels- travelling backwards and forwards through time has always been popular in science fiction film because similarly it gives the impression that anything can happen in the future.

• Spacecrafts and robots are used because it conveys that soon humans will be completely dependant on them.

• Imaginative settings

• Alien abductions

• War between humans and aliens. Audiences enjoy the idea of other species and that they won't be friendly when they get to earth. (3 conventions below go into war category)

• Galactic Empires that oppress everything
• Rebel(s) going against the empire
• Conflicts between alien and human

• The concept of extraterrestrial life is a popular convention in science fiction films, where the aliens are seen as a threat to the human race.

Main focuses in Sci-Fi films:

• Political and social issues (e.g. District 9)
• Philosophical issues like the human condition (e.g. Yellow)

https://prezi.com/wmf_qtaszbgu/codes-and-conventions-of-sci-fi/

http://mustafaaomar.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/science-fiction-films-codes-and.html

Themes: xenophobia, suspense, the future,