In our last contextual studies lesson, we went over genre. Studying genre means that you can analyse films more effectively. Genre influences how objects are designed, including costumes and environments. It also helps to show the connotations and meanings generated through the design of these elements.
We looked at a lot of remakes during the lesson, where we watched all of the trailers for every Alien film that has been released so far. We were asked to consider how it has evolved politically and globally, and how time changes influence how the genre has grown. For example, sci-fi that was make in the 1950's isn't the same a sci-fi today.
Genres are set patterns that film makers follow, to give the audience something they want with their movies. It also conveys different messages about society depending on how the plot of the story pans out. For example, we watched the trailer for When Worlds Collide (1951), and looked at the happy ending of the film. During the time this film was made the US was in a great depression and was in the Cold War. The message from this film is telling society that it's all going to be ok: it's giving people what they want to see and hear. This pattern is reflected through a lot of movies, both recent and old.
One interesting thing that we noticed when going through all of the Alien trailers was that they are all the same but with different characters each time. This creates certain expectations of what the film will be like and how it'll end, which conditions the response the audience will give. I found this really interesting, because although it's essentially the same film re-recorded over and over again, where the character fights the alien and survives in the end, it's still hugely popular today. Genre can offer solutions and reinforce social values by offering imaginary responses to real problems.
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