This document discusses how films can be analyzed by examining their use of codes and conventions, and how some directors challenge conventions to create unconventional films. It provides examples of conventional films like James Bond that follow typical codes through heroic protagonists and predictable narratives. Unconventional films like Pulp Fiction and Leon break conventions by developing unexpected characters and using nonlinear narratives that prevent audience from predicting the story. The document analyzes how these films use techniques like mise-en-scene, editing, and character development to conform or break from standard genre conventions.

1. Christian Owens
10/10/2013
How Do We Analyze a Film?
There are many ways that a film can be analyzed but the main way that a film can be looked
into in the greatest detail is analyzing the Codes and Conventions. Codes and Conventions
are the rules that govern how a piece of media is shot or written. Techniques such as
Iconography, Mise-en-Scene and Narrative are used that go into the making of a piece but
you probably don’t think about this when you watch a movie.
Looking into these certain techniques breaks the movie down into its key aspects and allows
the person watching to see that across a lot of films that the same techniques and conventions
are used but certain directors like to challenge the typical conventions.
A conventional narrative that is used in a film starts with a Beginning, middle and end. This
can also be known as a Conventional Linear Narrative. In a conventional film for example
James Bond you know that Bond is the hero and as the story progresses you then already that
he will get the girl and ride off into the sunset. This is typical for an action/thriller such as
this to have a set story because it is seen as a corporated project with alots of money being
thrown into it. So the movie must be made to have specific features so that the audience
know what will be coming.
Directors who contest the conventional codes and conventions are commonly known as
Auteurs this is French for author. “Any filmmaker who has unconventional ideas or
challenges towards the accepted genre conventions and tries to break away from them.”
Leon is a great example that breaks conformity to the
action thriller genre. You can clearly see this in the way
the characters are formed throughout the movie. Leon is
the male protagonist in this film but is seen as the
unconventional hero, as he hides behind his glasses and
hats and does not look like your typical hero being very
tall and skinny. This is compared to your conventional
hero James Bond, who always wears a suit, never hides
his face and he has a sense of aura that makes him seem
powerful. The director chooses to use these techniques
and go against the conventional methods because it
creates an interesting film when the audience
cannotpredict the way the main protagonists thinks and
what his next moves will be.

2. Christian Owens
10/10/2013
The biggest difference between these two films that go for and against the codes and
conventions is the way that women’s representation in their role throughout the entirety of
the film. In James Bonds ‘Quantum of Solace’ women are sexually objectified to the
audience as they end up with the hero (Bond) at the end of the film every time. Whereas the
female representation in the film Leon as seen much differently to the typical codes and
conventions.
Although there is still some sexually objectification towards some of the older women who
are seen as quite weak and helpless. Whereas the character Mathilda shows characteristics of
an older strong women as she is stubborn and fights back against the antagonist and the
protagonist Leon. This is unconventional representation of a typical female character by the
director because the audience would not expect such authority and retaliation from a 12 year
old girl who fights to be at Leon’s side bymaintaining an
awkward and solid love interest between the duos. Luke Besson
went against the conventions to see how the audience would
react to this weird relationship and if they would have the same
emotion towards the main characters compared to the typical
relationship like James Bond.
Conventional and Unconventional techniques can fit into every
type of genre such as Action, Comedy and War. A conventional
War film that sticks to these conventions is the Green Berets
which was produced in 1968 by director Ray Kellogg and John
Wayne. Which are about two highly trained Green Beret teams
that are sent in for a mission in South Vietnam to fight against
the war towards America to save innocent people. This is a
conventional film as it’s about American hero’s saving lives and
showing that they are the good guys that always win and only
fight people who oppose them. This is shown in the Mise-enScene by how the guns are held and how much gore is shown to the
audience.
An auteur film like Apocalypse Now is a good example for
unconventional techniques. Francis Ford Coppola the director of the
film shows this in the editing as he uses cross cut to show the
helicopters flying in ready to attack using music to scare the enemy and
say that they are coming. This would be raw footage of what the
American Soldiers actually did in the war. That they actually killed
women and children. This is compared to the clean look of the green
berets. The Mise-en-Scene plays a big part of this with the many

3. Christian Owens
10/10/2013
helicopter roaming over the villages and The way that the Americans are setting up their gear
preparing for war knowing what they need to do and what they are heading for.
Pulp Fiction is a crime/thriller film made
in 1994 by Director Quentin Tarantino.
Till this day Pulp Fiction is still the most
invigorating film experience a filmgoer
can ever hope for. The reason this movie
was so success over the years is the way
that it breaks conformity and
conventions of a typical Crime/Thriller
film. The way that the Quentin does this
by using character development of
secondary characters that you would not
likely see in a typical crime film.
The characters Vincent Vega (John
Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel Jackson) are hired hitmen. In films such as James
Bond you would only see the bad guy for certain periods of time usually as they commit the
crime and the time they get captured or killed. In this film they take the bad guy and give
them a background and allowing the audience to get to know them better.
Vladimir Propp defined that there were several types of character sets such as: The Hero,
The Helper, and The Princess/Damsel in distress. If Pulp Fiction
followed typical conventions then the hitmen would be seen as
anti-hero that looked like they wanted to help but ended betraying
the hero in the end because the film breaks conventions and
characters are developed we see them as the protagonists of the
movie as we are laughing at their jokes and rooting for them to
come out on top.
The main reason that Quentin Tarantino is seen as an auteur
director because of the way he lays out the narrative. This is
known as a non-linear narrative where there isn’t a defined start,
middle and end. In Pulp Fiction they use the scene of the movie at
the start of the film and then return to that exact scene at the end
but at a different perspective. Also the change in narrative can be
seen as they tell the same story from different perspectives. So if a
character dies in one scene of the movie, they may return in the

4. Christian Owens
10/10/2013
next scene as it might be someone else’s perspective. The audience would not be able to
piece the film together till the end.