The document provides an analysis of the opening scene of a science fiction film. It summarizes that the genre is established through iconography showing space and Earth from the perspective of space. Technical dialogue and tense music that builds drama further confirms the sci-fi thriller genre. Contextual details like a reference to Facebook also suggest the film is set in modern times rather than in the past.

1. AS MEDIA
STUDIES
GENRE
____________
Science - Fiction
By
Sam, Tom,
Matt and
Becky.

3. Theme/ Topic
The opening shot shows the earth from a space
perspective which instantly gives away the genre. The
genre iconography within this shot shows space and
Earth, which are common factors for a sci-fi film.
Later on in the shot, it shows a bit of debris (satellite =
technology) coming towards the camera at a fast speed
which suggests the theme will have a sense of danger
and survival.
What stops this film from being a documentary instead
of a sci-fi is that this is fictional, all the elements of this
film relate to science, but it’s fictional as it hasn’t
happened, and would rarely happen.

4. Dialogue
The dialogue present in the opening scene are very technical and
scientific. But they are natural, but may have been edited to make
the sound of the dialogue sound muffled. In space there is no
sound, and if the speech sounds like you're hearing it as if they
are in the same room as you then it doesn’t give that feel to it.

5. Time Period
It’s safe to say that it’s not set in the past as one of
the lines George Clooney says is “Half of North
America just lost their Facebook” so to bring in
something that is commonly used helps to identify
the time period, and with the technology in the
opening scene you can clearly say it’s not during the
moon landing.

6. Sound - Music
As the opening scene starts to become more
dramatic, the music becomes more tense,
again helping to identify the hybrid genre.
Science Fiction is the dominant genre but
thriller can come into it and survival.
Sound
The only sounds are the speech and the
music, it gives the feeling of danger as no one
can hear you shout for help, it’s pure silence in
space which can cause you to go a bit mad.
Again limited sound to relate to the
conventions of sci-fi.

7. Costumes
Due to the lack of locations, there isn’t much availability on
costumes. The main one are spacesuits which support the
genre conventions of the film being a science fiction film.
Character Types
Again there aren’t a range of characters, they have the two
genders which is good as it shows that gender equality can
occur anywhere, and in a sci-fi film it’s necessary to have
gender equality. They all have scientific backgrounds, as they
are astronauts they must have some link to science.

8. Camera Work
It’s all filmed in one shot, ranging from a mid shot,
master shot, tracking shot etc. It helps to show the
ideology within sci-fi, the conventions are things like
space, planets, debris, technology and science.

9. Thank you for
listening