1) Nick Lacey proposes 5 elements for analyzing genre: visual imagery/iconography, style, characters, setting, and narrative development. When applied to Leon: The Professional, the elements include guns, drugs, violence as visuals and a slow pace with low lighting as style. 2) Mean Girls and Napoleon Dynamite both use common high school film conventions like cafeterias and social groups, but have different protagonists. Mean Girls' protagonist becomes popular while Napoleon Dynamite's remains peculiar. 3) An auteur theory examines what makes a filmmaker's style unique. Directors like Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino put their own stamp on films within genres through elements like mixing humor and

1. Intro:
How Do We Analyse Film?
Genre Theory, is used by media analysts to identify the conventions of the content in any media.
There are many different way’s film can be analyzed. So for example in James Bond the main
character is a protagonist that has a goal to achieve such as taking down a villain. But also within
the bond films there is always a theme of romance and this is a conventional feature within the
content, so this type of genre filmfollows the rules of having these features.
A Genre theorist Nick Lacey believes there is a repertoire of 5 elements when analyzing genre. He
suggests that films always have Visual imagery/iconography, Style (technical/audio codes),
Character/ Stars, Setting, Narrative development. For example, in Leon the visual imagery,
iconography contains Guns, Drugs, Violence, In the mise en scene and the Action is very fast paced
within the edit, and this helps put the film in a category or genre.
Leon: The Professional, this filmchallenges genre. For example, with Matilda and Leon it is a very
uncomfortable and awkward situation the
viewer is put in as she is being portrayed
as a sex symbol but is
only very young. With the usual genre of
this type of film it is mainly older women
that play this role, like in the bond films,
but instead it is played by a 12-year-old
which caused a lot of controversy.

2. Part 1:
Nick Lacey’s repertoire of 5 elements substituted into Leon looks like this. The Visual
imagery and iconography is Guns, Drugs, Violence and action so there is a lot of fighting and
drug’s and death. The style and Audio codes are low key lighting within old run down hotel
room’s which has a slow paced editing. Within the film there are a lot of wide shot’s and
establishing shot’s as Leon is always travelling and it show’s where Leon and Matilda are at
all time so the viewer is not confused. The character’s in this genre of film are Protagonist
which in this case is Jean Reno and also a villain who is against the Protagonist. The Setting
within the film is old run down hotel’s as this is all Leon has known his whole life and as he is
a murderer he needs to always be on the move. Also police station’s the streets and
restaurants are usually used in these types of films. The narrative development of Leon is
fast paced action with a lot of fighting and fight action music.
The filmLeon: The Professional has a very similar genre style as the 007 films, but at the
same time they are very different film’s with features that the other filmwould not include.
In Leon: The Professional the main female character is 12 years old and is basically Leon’s
side kick, though out the film the girl suggests and says that she loves Leon, which is very
strange and unethical as the girl is 12 and Leon is mid 40’s. In James Bond films there is also
a main female character who is seen as a sex figure but is usually in there 20’s and James
bond is 48 so it is not really too bad like Leon is.
Part 2:
The film‘mean girls’ is a teen comedy directed by Mark Waters, produced in 2004. The film
is set within an American High School. At the beginning of the film we are shown all of the
different characters, it shows us a scene inside the cafeteria and intro with all of the
different groups of people. The groups of people in the film are all very basic and generic for
example there is always a nerd group in every filmlike this.
The iconography is canteen’s, jock jackets, class rooms and prom. There are also the
different groups of people such as the popular people, nerd and etc... We see these things
in both Mean Girls and Napoleon Dynamite, so in both of the films they have their
similarities but are also completely different.
The style and audio codes in mean girls are very Indi guitar cheesy music and at the prom
some popular music from the time of creating the film, also the lighting is very bright apart
from the house party and prom scenes, there are also many wide shots to show where the
characters are and where they are based. The differences of these films are they both have
different music for example within Napoleon Dynamite he has more techno dance music
which from the crowd’s reaction seems to be very unpopular music yet he still likes. A
similarity within the films are the camera shots as in both films they both use a lot of mid

3. shots as they are very effective at showing the audience the location of the cast and what
they are doing. In both films the lighting is very the same as it has no need to be dark and
they are only dark in certain scenes for e.g. prom and house parties.
The characters in both of the films are very similar as there are both protagonists and
antagonists in the 2 films yet the protagonists are very different. This is Steve Neale’s theory
of repetition and shows that even though they are the same genre they can be very
different films. The main characters in Mean girls are the very popular girls and a group of
outcasts which these two groups are very common within this filmgenre. The big difference
with Mean Girls and Napoleon Dynamite is that the protagonist in Mean Girls ‘Cady’ finally
ends up being the popular one and looks very normal and acts as a normal person would,
but with Napoleon Dynamite the protagonist is very peculiar and almost weird and in the
end does not turn out to be popular yet they both win in their own ways showing that they
do in fact have similarities.
The setting in both films are the exact same as they are both set in High school. There are
the usual canteens and classrooms and corridors. They are both the same and don’t have
many differences here as they would not be the same genre if they were not both set in a
high school.
The narrative Development in both films are both pretty similar as they both have a
beginning middle and end, but they are more detailed than that as they have a problem to
solve then build up to the climax then to solve the problem and then the climax followed by
the end. This is very similar with this type of genre.
Part 3:
The phrase Auteur in the terms of film making mean’s what the film maker does differently
within the production of their own film which gives it their own unique stamp.
For example, Tim Burton has his own way that he makes and creates his films, and is a film
maker who demonstrates a particular style, we can see this as in the films he creates it
usually is made for a younger audience yet he still tries to incorporate a horror theme. A
very successful filmby Tim Burton for example is Beetle Juice which is a PG 13 so for a
younger audience but within this filmthere are some very gruesome and explicit things that
happen even within the horror genre.

4. Another good person to use for example of Auteur theory is
Tarantino who is the creator of many successful films such as
Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained and
Reservoir Dogs, the thing that makes his films stand out from
others and makes his films distinct is that majority of his films
include a mixture of humour, violence and complete madness
which is a very rare mixture amongst filmmakers. Tarantino
makes all of this work as he comes up with the script, directs
and even acts in his own films which make them stand out
amongst film makers as I said earlier.
The Director of Napoleon Dynamite, Jared Hess is an Auteur
director as in his filmNapoleon Dynamite he uses the regular
genre of a High School film but with his own twist. The film
still has all the original features and concepts of a typical High School film but in Napoleon
Dynamite that is all thrown out the window as the main character ‘Uncle Rico’ is very
unusual and not the usually Protagonist as the looks and personality of him are very strange
and weird.