1. How Do We Analyse Film?
There are many different ways and analyse a film such as, mise-en-scene,
cinematography, editing, sound, genre and auteur theory. In this essay I will be using
genre analysis and auteur theory as two contrasting examples. Auteur is French for
‘author’ as in the author of a film, auteurs are recognised by their individual
distinctive style, and they break away from the genre codes and conventions and
create new ideas. For example Quentin Tarantino is known as an auteur that created
films such as Pulp Fiction, kill bill and reservoir dogs. Genre analysis consists of 7
key areas, which are genre code and conventions, location, character, iconography,
recurring themes, ideological message and narrative.
Below I am going to explain the 7 key areas of genre analysis in a teen horror film. I
will be using the film Ginger snaps, which is about two teenage sisters, Ginger and
Brigitte Fitzgerald, who have a fascination with death, this film uses werewolfism as
a metaphor for puberty. One of the Fitzgerald sisters, suburban Goth girl outcasts,
gets bitten by something in the woods.
Location- The traditional place for a teen horror to be set in is usually at a school, or
a prom, therefore many of the different high school cliques can be shown on screen.
In this case most of Ginger Snaps is taken place in a school.
Characters- Usually in a teen horror the killer is a male preying on women. The
main cliques would usually consist of popular females, jocks and geeks.
Iconography- In teen horrors adults such as parents and teachers are unhelpful,
which can be said about the adults in gingersnaps. Ginger Snaps moves away from
the traditional codes and conventions of the killer being male, in this film the killer is
a teen preying upon men luring them in, and then killing them.
Narrative- The killer in this film is just an ordinary teen geek, up until she gets
bitten in the woods by a werewolf, after this she become very attracts and gets more
attentions off the males from her high school, after luring them in with her sex
appeal, se kills them.
Themes- The themes in Ginger Snaps are love, family, friendship and death.
Ideological message- Sex is seen as a bad thing.

2. The film ‘Leon’ (directed by Luc Besson in 1994) follows some of the conventions of a
crime thriller but yet in other parts of the film breaks these traditional convention
codes. A crime thriller film is usually set in a big city, in this case the location of the
film Leon is set in New York City’s Little Italy. Another way
the film is conventional are the characters, usually in crime
thrillers there is a good guy, which in this film is Leon, he is
very smart and talented at his job, other characters in this
kind of genre would be the villain, Norman stansfield, he is
evil and kills innocent people and at some points in the film
he may seem psychotic. Throughout the film there are two
main action scenes, which involve shooting guns and drugs
etc just like a traditional thriller film. However, usually in
this genre the main character would be very attractive and
get lots of attention from females. Contrary to this, in this
film Leon is not a stereotypical good looking man and he
does not get attention from women, apart from what
becomes Leon’s sidekick, a 12 year old girl named Mathilda
who falls in love with Leon after working with him. The
main reason that Luc Besson is known as an auteur is that
unlike conventional crime thrillers, this film has an
emotional twist as the 12 year old girl is taken in by Leon after her family is
murdered by Norman Stansfield, Leon cares for Mathilda and looks after her as she
is left on her own with no family, but she misreads his attention as a parent figure
and falls in love with Leon, as this storyline went ahead the BBFC prevented the film
from being release until many parts of the film were removed as they thought the
strange love attraction would be uncomfortable for viewers to watch.
Many action thrillers are set in an exotic location, which can be said about Quantum
of Solace (directed by Marc Forster) just by the opening sequence which is quite
similar to the opening sequence of Leon. The opening sequence shows a very intense
car chase, this follows the convention of an action thriller. Other aspects of this film
makes it very clear of the film genre by using all the codes and conventions such as
the fast cars, sharp suits, guns, car chases, cars being destroyed, close up of guns and
many more. As I have explained Quantum of solace is a conventional action thriller.
The Director of the films A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, Wes Craven is well
known as an auteur mainly focusing on teen horror. In every single horror film there
is a haunted house, which is now used as a metaphor which would mean where all
the bad things happen, for example, in the film A Nightmare on Elm Street the
haunted house would be the nightmares that the teens have in those nightmares the
character, Freddy, attacks or kills them and whatever injuries they have will appear
in real life. In the other Wes Craven film, Scream, is basically a parody of a

3. conventional horror film, as the actors during the film refer to what would usually
happen in a horror film. In the film Last House on the Left, Wez Craven again
secures his place as a horror auteur by going against the traditional conventions of a
horror film. In this film he flips the story on its head by turning the hunted into
hunters themselves.
The 2011 Science fiction western film, cowboys and aliens, was directed by Jon
favreau. The main plot revolves around an amnesiac outlaw, a wealthy cattleman,
and a mysterious traveller, who must ally to save a group of townspeople abducted by
aliens. This film follows the traditional codes and conventions of a western film, such
as, cow boy boots, hats, waistcoats, horses, guns tumble weeds etc. But Jon favreau
has mixed sci-fi into the film and it involves things such as spaceships, aliens and
technology that is futuristic all these conventions would usually be seen in a science
fiction film. Some people may argue that Jon favreau was an auteur by mixing the
two genres together and creating a unique film. However people may suggest that he
is not as his inspiration for the film was from a book with the same title.