Intro:How Do We Analyse Film?

Genre Theory, is used by media analysts to identify the conventions of the content in any media.

There are many different way’s film can be analyzed. So for example in James Bond the main

character is a protagonist that has a goal to achieve such as taking down a villain. But also within

the bond films there is always a theme of romance and this is a conventional feature within the

content, so this type of genre film follows the rules of having these features.

A Genre theorist Nick Lacey believes there is a repertoire of 5 elements when analyzing genre. He

suggests that films always have Visual imagery/iconography, Style (technical/audio codes),

Character/ Stars, Setting, Narrative development. For example, in Leon the visual imagery,

iconography contains Guns, Drugs, Violence, In the mise en scene and the Action is very fast paced

within the edit, and this helps put the film in a category or genre.

Leon: The Professional, this film challenges genre. For example, with Matilda and Leon it is a very

uncomfortable and awkward situation the

viewer is put in as she is being portrayed

as a sex symbol but is

only very young. With the usual genre of

this type of film it is mainly older women

that play this role, like in the bond films,

but instead it is played by a 12-year-old

which caused a lot of controversy.

Part 1:

Nick Lacey’s repertoire of 5 elements substituted into Leon looks like this. The Visual imagery and iconography is Guns, Drugs, Violence and action so there is a lot of fighting and drug’s and death. The style and Audio codes are low key lighting within old run down hotel room’s which has a slow paced editing. Within the film there are a lot of wide shot’s and establishing shot’s as Leon is always travelling and it show’s where Leon and Matilda are at all time so the viewer is not confused. The character’s in this genre of film are Protagonist which in this case is Jean Reno and also a villain who is against the Protagonist. The Setting within the film is old run down hotel’s as this is all Leon has known his whole life and as he is a murderer he needs to always be on the move. Also police station’s the streets and restaurants are usually used in these types of films. The narrative development of Leon is fast paced action with a lot of fighting and fight action music.

The film Leon: The Professional has a very similar genre style as the 007 films, but at the same time they are very different film’s with features that the other film would not include. In Leon: The Professional the main female character is 12 years old and is basically Leon’s side kick, though out the film the girl suggests and says that she loves Leon, which is very strange and unethical as the girl is 12 and Leon is mid 40’s. In James Bond films there is also a main female character who is seen as a sex figure but is usually in there 20’s and James bond is 48 so it is not really too bad like Leon is.

Part 2:

The film ‘mean girls’ is a teen comedy directed by Mark Waters, produced in 2004. The film is set within an American High School. At the beginning of the film we are shown all of the different characters, it shows us a scene inside the cafeteria and intro with all of the different groups of people. The groups of people in the film are all very basic and generic for example there is always a nerd group in every film like this.

The iconography is canteen’s, jock jackets, class rooms and prom. There are also the different groups of people such as the popular people, nerd and etc... We see these things in both Mean Girls and Napoleon Dynamite, so in both of the films they have their similarities but are also completely different.

The style and audio codes in mean girls are very Indi guitar cheesy music and at the prom some popular music from the time of creating the film, also the lighting is very bright apart from the house party and prom scenes, there are also many wide shots to show where the characters are and where they are based. The differences of these films are they both have different music for example within Napoleon Dynamite he has more techno dance music which from the crowd’s reaction seems to be very unpopular music yet he still likes. A similarity within the films are the camera shots as in both films they both use a lot of mid

shots as they are very effective at showing the audience the location of the cast and what they are doing. In both films the lighting is very the same as it has no need to be dark and they are only dark in certain scenes for e.g. prom and house parties.

The characters in both of the films are very similar as there are both protagonists and antagonists in the 2 films yet the protagonists are very different. This is Steve Neale’s theory of repetition and shows that even though they are the same genre they can be very different films. The main characters in Mean girls are the very popular girls and a group of outcasts which these two groups are very common within this film genre. The big difference with Mean Girls and Napoleon Dynamite is that the protagonist in Mean Girls ‘Cady’ finally ends up being the popular one and looks very normal and acts as a normal person would, but with Napoleon Dynamite the protagonist is very peculiar and almost weird and in the end does not turn out to be popular yet they both win in their own ways showing that they do in fact have similarities.

The setting in both films are the exact same as they are both set in High school. There are the usual canteens and classrooms and corridors. They are both the same and don’t have many differences here as they would not be the same genre if they were not both set in a high school.

The narrative Development in both films are both pretty similar as they both have a beginning middle and end, but they are more detailed than that as they have a problem to solve then build up to the climax then to solve the problem and then the climax followed by the end. This is very similar with this type of genre.

Part 3:

The phrase Auteur in the terms of film making mean’s what the film maker does differently within the production of their own film which gives it their own unique stamp.

For example, Tim Burton has his own way that he makes and creates his films, and is a film maker who demonstrates a particular style, we can see this as in the films he creates it usually is made for a younger audience yet he still tries to incorporate a horror theme. A very successful film by Tim Burton for example is Beetle Juice which is a PG 13 so for a younger audience but within this film there are some very gruesome and explicit things that happen even within the horror genre.

Another good person to use for example of Auteur theory is Tarantino who is the creator of many successful films such as Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained and Reservoir Dogs, the thing that makes his films stand out from others and makes his films distinct is that majority of his films include a mixture of humour, violence and complete madness

which is a very rare mixture amongst film makers. Tarantino makes all of this work as he comes up with the script, directs and even acts in his own films which make them stand out amongst film makers as I said earlier.

The Director of Napoleon Dynamite, Jared Hess is an Auteur director as in his film Napoleon Dynamite he uses the regular genre of a High School film but with his own twist. The film still has all the original features and concepts of a typical High School film but in Napoleon Dynamite that is all thrown out the window as the main character ‘Uncle Rico’ is very unusual and not the usually Protagonist as the looks and personality of him are very strange and weird.