Codes and Conventions of Action Movies

Codes and Conventions of Action Movies

Camera shots & Techniques

• Quick cuts
• Close-up shots for effect
• Long shots to show the scene

Symbolic (Clothing & colours)

• Clean clothes to start, scruffy and dirty at the end
• Blood to show they are strong

Written and Audio

• Very audible impacts, diegetic sounds amplified for effect
• Fast paced score

Intro Analysis - Casino Royale (2006)

Intro Analysis - Casino Royale (2006)

Casino Royale begins with a low angle wide shot, establishing where the scene takes place, the scene is mostly static until a car drives into the frame which singles it out so that the audience focuses on it.

A medium shot at a low angle is used to show the man exiting the car so that you can easily see his face, his eyes dart around the scene showing his anxiousness, the low angle places the audience in a position below his eye level which gives a feeling that we as the audience are spying on him.

As the man is walking, a diagonal camera pan is used to subtly track him as he moves.

To create dramatic effect, an over the shoulder shot is used when Dryden turns to face Bond, it is used to give the audience the same view Dryden has in the moment.

Music has been extremely quiet from the beginning of the film, with mostly diegetic sounds being heard such as dialogue. The colour pallet is black and white with colours staying dark, adding to the sense of mystery and unknowing.

This is broken by a sudden scene change into a brutal fight in a bathroom with a loud score of trombones and resonating diegetic sounds of dividers being broken and punching impacts amplified. The colour pallet, whilst still black and white now uses much a much higher contrast white so that the scene can be differentiated from the current events.
Quick camera cuts emphasise the action by creating confusion because the audience cannot focus on one element for long.

A top down camera shot is used in the scene to show the destruction more effectively because the audience can see everything that has been destroyed.

Intro Analysis - The Woman in Black (2012)

Intro Analysis - The Woman in Black (2012)

The Woman in Black opens with an eerie and unsettling tone, caused by the lack of diegetic sound and a simple non-diegetic score.

Close-up shots are used to block the audiences view and limit what they can see, it helps make the audience feel vulnerable because they don't have a peripheral view of their surroundings.

The non-diegetic score which is simplistic and slow, gives the scene a sense of mystery and prompts the audience to expect something sinister and dramatic.

A medium long shot is used when the girls turn their heads towards whatever is behind the camera, the shot is used to focus on the three children in the centre of the shot and shows that they are vulnerable from the use of high camera angles looking down on them. The children are looking past the camera which makes the audience feel like something is behind them, unknowing of what is behind the camera keeps the scene tense through the use of an enigma.

When the girls turn to face the windows a new shot is used for dramatic pacing, the next shot slowly zooms in on the windows highlighting their significance in the scene.

As they are standing up many shots are used in a short amount of time to signify the importance of the event.

The mise-en-scene with a playful tone shifts to a more sinister tone as they walk towards the window, unaware of the toys that they were transfixed by moments before, close-up shots of the toys being crushed shows the extent to which the children are being controlled.

The children all approach the windows and grab the handles in unison, this creates an abnormal feel to their movement and tells us that they are being controlled by whoever they were looking at.

An extreme close-up shot is used on the handle when the girl opens the window which is a match-on-action shot, highlighting a significant point

Once they jump there is a pause and the music stops, leaving only the diegetic sound of the mother screaming as the camera pans out revealing the Woman in Black.

Genre Conventions in film

Film Genre Conventions

Films have general themes and conventions that define them as a certain genre, below are some examples of films and conventions

Genre	Genre conventions, narrative and characters	Genre conventions: Micro-elements (sound, mise-en scene etc)	Film examples
Action	Chase scenes, explosions, villain and hero, conflict, fight scenes, masculine characters	Guns, gadgets, iconic settings such as city areas and landmarks, score often used	James Bond, Avengers Assemble
Horror	Jump scares, build up, gore, suspense, uncertainty, scary antagonist, usually less dialogue than other films	Usually set in one location, remote places	Silence of the Lambs, Alien
Romance	Young characters, lots of dialogue	Nice looking locations. Relaxing soundtrack	The Notebook,
Comedy	Light tone to the film, laughing, funny situations, crude humor	Casual soundtracks usually not a score	Pineapple Express, 21 Jump Street
Adventure	Masculine characters,	Distant rural locations, discovery/finding something or someone, score often used	Indiana Jones, Star Wars

Intro Analysis - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the sequel to the 2011 movie 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' and follows the tribe of genetically modified apes 20 years after the simian flu spreads across the globe.

The film begins with a close-up shot of Caeser the leader of the apes, the type of shot chosen establishes him as one of the main characters and shows the look of anger on his face to show how he has changed since the first movie.

A low shot looking up at the apes in the canopies of the forest shows that they hold power and places the audience in a position below the ape species, signifying their rapid evolution over the past 20 years.

Digetic sounds such as the ape's roar resonating throughout the forest portrays the apes as fearsome hunters.

The camera then pans into a position in the herd of deer and follows them through their panicked flee, once again placing the audience or the human species as a whole below the apes in status.

Depth of field is used when the camera is looking at Caeser's son so that you can't see the bear before it strikes, this is used for dramatic effect and helps to give the audience the same reaction that Caeser's son would have had.

Caeser's son's body language towards his father establishes the conflicted relationship they have, it is important to use medium shots for this encounter so that their hands can be seen and emotions can be read. Their faces are shown in separate shots which symbolises their conflicted relationship because they are never seen in the same frame.

A long shot is used to fully capture the tribe of apes travelling back to the base, some are riding on horseback and some on foot, this tells us there is a hierarchy system in the tribe and highlights how evolved they have become.

An abandoned and mossy petrol station is seen as they are travelling which introduces the post-apocalyptic setting.

A long shot pan shows a birds eye view of the base with the apes visible below giving a sense of scale to the structure.

Overall I think the opening does an excellent job of presenting the world that is left and establishes some important relationships and characters whilst also showing us the lifestyle the apes have adapted to.

Intro Analysis - Apocalypse Now (1979)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

The introduction to Apocalypse Now is a very well constructed sequence, it shows imagery to symbolise the impact of the Vietnam war on soldiers in a calm but moving way.

The film opens on a backdrop of a Vietnam jungle, instead of an immediate cut to the shot it fades in from black into a silent and calm image of the palm trees blowing in the wind.

A helicopter passes with a low sound of the propeller, it is the first sign of disruption on the calm backdrop. The music starts quietly with breaks in between a quiet guitar and a tambourine.

The singer begins singing at the moment the jungle is firebombed symbolising the intervention of the military/man. The sound of flames is non-existent and the feeling of the sequence is still calm, this is done to show how the war normalises this image for the soldiers. The camera also starts panning, showing the extent and the scale of the damage.

The scene is faded with a shot of a man's face, filmed upside down and a ceiling fan spinning around implying that the man is looking up at the ceiling fan, which is juxtaposed against the helicopters flying past. It shows us that he has been changed by the war and cannot forget the things he has seen in everyday life. His face is filmed upside down because it is a metaphor for how his view on the world has been flipped.

The camera cuts to a new position and is moving across his room, starting at the possessions on his bedside table and panning across his face to the other table, revealing the bottles of alcohol and cigarettes and the gun on his bed.

The scene closes on the same shot of his face and the ceiling fan, the propeller noises that have quietly played throughout the sequence now increase in volume leading to a single shot of the fan as the only thing in the frame.

The final shot shows how throughout the sequence he has been trying to distract himself from the visions of the war and now that he has, it still shows up in everyday objects, showing us that he cannot escape what he has seen.

Trailer Analysis - Alien (1979)

Alien (1979)

Alien is one of my favorite movies of all time, the sense of mystery shown in the trailer pulls you in straight away.

The low rumble sound and emptiness of space immediately gives a sense of loneliness.

The establishing shot of the planet and the egg shows us what the danger is right away, whilst also slowly revealing the movie title.

As quick cuts are made alternating from a pan of the planets surface to close ups of the egg the alarm sound gets ever more prominent, the egg hatches revealing a bright light indicating a sense of mystery.

The hatching of the egg leads to shots of the ships discovery which shows that the hatching of the egg is an important event in the movie.

The shots switch back and forth alternating between Ripley running and the ships discovery, linking the discovery of the ship as the reason why Ripley is running.

The quick cuts and rising volume of the alarm build up to the climax of the trailer with a tsunami of noise and violent images in total chaos, its an overwhelming attack on the senses which is abruptly stopped by a cut to the Nostromo, silently drifting through space.

The final shot shows us how far from anyones help they are, backed up by the famous line.

"In space no one can hear you scream"