Genre Conventions - dystopia

1. Immediately when analysing set from dystopian films such as The Hunger Games I
can see that there is a wide open space establishing surroundings such as The Glade
in Maze Runner and in contrast a small space where the focus is directly on the
characters such as the cage in Maze Runner. I can use this contrast of set in my film
opening to establish setting then to focus on establishing my characters.
Another feature I will consider in my opening is establishing the futuristic society, in
these images they have an ordinary surrounding yet place futuristic abnormal objects
within it, for example The Glade is surrounded by The Maze, and the field of workers
in underground, although this will be difficult for me to achieve I can use smaller
objects or dialogue to establish the futuristic surroundings.

2. Within the sci-fi genre the producers have ways to
establish to the audience that certain characters
are not a human such as Lucy and The Host. One
way to do so is contact lenses, this will be a prop I
may use as it will allow me to have human actors
but make them appear super natural.
Some movies use markings/tattoos to indicate that they
are super natural, this may be something I consider to link
my characters to each other. However Having a tattoo or
symbol may be used to symbolise the main character to
make them recognisable to the audience but also to have
that as a marketing strategy, for example Katniss in The
Hunger Games processes the symbol of the mocking jay
pin.
Costume within the genre includes simplistic/dull
coloured clothing that is not weather specific or
job specific but can be easily lives in and washed.
Such as Maze Runner, ‘The Gladers’ must live in
there costume the whole time so it looks dirty
and worn, I may use this same affect to indicate
their living conditions.
Another idea for costume in the
dystopian genre is futuristic, with simple
block colours that are extremely clean
indicating their advance in living
conditions, I may not use this type of
costume as my characters are not so
advanced.

3. This title forms on screen from metal and ‘transforms’ into the wording. This is effective as it is in keeping with
the theme of the movie and se5ts up the audience for what they are expected to see. I may use this idea of
linking the wording to the theme to create and effective, bold introduction to my opening scene.
Similarly in ‘Divergent’ the wording is simple and bold yet it there is a cut through the wording so the words
don’t quit align which is symbolic of the idea of ‘divergent’ this simple design is effective as it gives a direct
message to the audience and links with the science fiction genre as the bright light contrasts with the metallic
colour of the wording and the bold, shark font.
‘The Maze Runner’ the style of font is similar to the first two as it sharp and straight with no curves and
futuristic because of this. They also use a metallic colour and the wording is in capital adding to how bold it
appears. This use of the font colour reoccurs through many of the films within this genre especially if the film
narrative links to a futuristic society that is dominated by technology as the colour gives connotations of this. I
feel this may not fit with my film opening as there is no link to advanced technology.
‘Twilight’ takes a different approach as the narrative does not involve an advance in technology so they do not
use a metallic colour or futuristic font style, instead they have a delicate font with no capitals over a scenery.
This is effective as it establishes the locations and theme of the forest within the movie. The swirl under the ‘g’
and the shark fading lines out from the title add to the detail and create a style that can be associated with the
film. The choice of harsh lines and then curved effectively links with aspects of the film such as the dangerous
vampires in contrasts to and innocent, beautiful girl. I may use this idea of designing the font within mine as it
gives it individuality and links cleverly to the themes of the movie.