2. What is the post apocalyptic
genre?
The post apocalyptic genre is a very modern genre in film and
hasn’t been around for all that long. However the concept of it
has been around for quite a while and frequently used
throughout history. The genre mainly came from popular
literature such as the successful more recent film ‘I am legend’
which was based on a book. The term post-apocalyptic literally
refers to the end of the world as we know it. This is typically
shown in films/books through huge disasters which could
include the effects of a virus, war or even the failure of modern
technology. It could even be the opposite of that and it could be
the end of the world due to advances in technology, such as in
the film Terminator where robots take over the world of humans.
The post-apocalyptic genre is a sub-genre of sci-fi, the post
apocalyptic world itself breaks down the idea of normality and
breaks conventions of reality.
3. Some influential films in the
genre
George A Romero’s dead series
Night of the living dead
Dawn of the dead
Day of the dead
28 days later
28 weeks later
Quiet earth
The terminator
I am legend
Survival of the dead
Planet of the apes
Mad max
4. What kind of target audience
does this genre have?
Generally speaking it tends to target older teens and
young adults. So from around 16-30. this is because the
content in this type of film is more appealing, and excites
this demographic. This specific genres style of dark
themes and violence also is targeted more to the male
gender thus these types of films use these themes and
conventions to make it more appealing. Due to scenes of
violence, post-apocalyptic films such as 28 days later are
quite clearly not meant for the younger audience to watch,
they would be scared more than actually enjoy the film.
Films like 28 days later are targeted towards a more
sophisticated audience due to the fact they combine ideas
such as the end of the world with another theme alongside
that such as Zombies.
5. What are some of the
conventions behind the
genre?
There is generally a tight knit community of protagonists. (The
Walking Dead)
There are bound to be some survivors, otherwise the film is
going to be extremely boring. (any post-apocalyptic film pretty
much)
Abandoned and isolated locations. Because it’s the end of the
world nothing is going to be running, there is evidently going to
be litter scattered everywhere, and limited electricity and
resources. (I am Legend)
Deadly and dangerous environment. (28 days later)
Deadly, dangerous antagonists, there is always one guy who
wants to put a spanner in the works. (The Walking Dead is
definitely the worst one for this, 100%)
6. Conventions of narrative
theory
All 5 stages of Todorov’s equilibrium theory can be applied to a
post-apocalyptic film, lets take the walking dead for example,
equilibrium is when there wasn’t any zombies and everyone could
just carry on with their day to day lives, then there is the
disequilibrium which is where the zombies enter the world and
loads of people have been killed, the recognition stage is where
Rick wakes up from his coma and realises that there isn't anyone
around and the hospital has been trashed, Rick then wakes up
and tries to go out and find somewhere for refuge which is the
repair stage, we haven’t had the ending for walking dead yet but
the new equilibrium could be that they find a cure for the disease.
Propp’s Character types:
• Hero.
• Villain.
• The Princess.
• The False Hero (as it’s all about survival there's
usually a betrayal somewhere along the line).
7. More conventions of the
genre
Survival , this is obviously going to be at the crux of any
end of the world situation, staying alive! (again pretty
much any film)
Death, well someone has to die…don’t they? (Starship
Troopers enjoyed killing off a ‘couple’ of people)
Living in constant fear. (I think anyone lives in fear if they
know that it is the end of the world)
8. Are we going to follow these
conventions?
For the first one, yes we are, we want to have the married
couple as the only two people in the film and we want to portray
a sense of gratefulness as they both know that this is all they’ve
got now.
Well yeah same as the first one. We will have survivors,
obviously.
This is probably our biggest one and will 100% definitely be
following it, we need to give the impression that it actually is the
end of the world and not an ever growing modern society which
is what we are actually living in.
Yes we will be following this one as our characters will be
wearing hazmat suits when they want to go outside. With the
hazmat suits and the use of flares we are entering a postmodern
9. Continued…
We wont really be following this convention because there isn't
anyone else in the film other than the two scientists (who are the
protagonists) to be an antagonist.
We really want people to understand that this genuinely is the end
of the world, there is barely any hope for any survivor. Obviously
because the male protagonist is going to be killed off by the virus,
and give the implication that it was his wife that killed him at the
end of the film, which shows that it is survival of the fittest.
Pretty much just follows on from the last point, yes someone is
going to die.
This is quite a hard one because in many ways we are going to
show the couple without fear and that this is their life now and they
just have to accept that and get on with it, so no I think we are
going to go against this convention but of course after talking to our
audience we can always change this idea.
