How do your chosen texts use genre conventions?

How does Sin City portray genre conventions?

Sin City is a neo-noir action crime thriller targeted at a wide audience, and is designed to entertain he audience through its unique hybridity of the superhero genre and the film noir genre. Both genres have their own conventions and features respectively and they are blended together to create a film based strongly around action and crime, but also with a strong influence of film noir.

Film Noir Conventions

• Displayed thoughout the film are prominet Film Noir elements which help shape the viewers perception and thoughts, and add a depth and style to the film. Film noir is strongly based around lighting, props and character conventions. In Sin City, particularly the scene involving Shellies new boyfriend, there are various genre conventions displayed. The running common lighting technique throughout is the Black and White theme and lack of colour. This is the most well known convention of all, and applied to Sin City, represents the gritiness and crime revolving around the films plot, the black and white also alludes to the whole Good (cop)/Bad (cop) theme running through the story line. This scene also presents a few of the accepted character roles featured in film noir. There is clear protagonist, Dwight, who portrays cynical and violent tendencies, and Jackie Boy, who we later discover is the generic Corrupt Cop. The undercurrent of mistrust and hostility is also important to notice as this is an overwhelming atmosphere convention that is common in film noir.

Coursework Question: Research Links

Construction of the Program + Interview with Character

http://www.studentjournals.co.uk/blogs/109-features/interviews/2003-what-it-s-like-to-go-on-bbc-three-s-sun,-sex-and-suspicious-parents-an-interview-with-the-4-10-student

Representation of young adults on Shoplife

http://uktvreviewer.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/shoplife-bbc3-review/

Shoplife example episode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HekIGbj01Y

Sun sex and suspicious parents example episode?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlKoOEkRijk

• BBC 3 target demographic is 16-24.
• Sun sex and suspicious parents shows us a much more detrimental representation of young people, however shoplife is not the complete opposite but represents them in a much more empathic way ie. looking for work/promotions/daily struggles.
• Young people have become so accustomed to seeing bad representations of their age group, and by copying a program such as sun sex and suspicious parents they are copying the HYPER-REAL. Also links the Laura Mulvey male gaze theory, however it is not the male gaze, we are accustomed to seeing bad representations of teens so we associate ourselves with them.
• Things to talk about:
• Audience
• Representation eg. non diegetic sound, camera shots, shots of the lazing in bed/ getting drunk. Contrasted with more serious interviews of them sharing their ambition in work.
•   Coded scenes.
• Male/Female stereotypes , teenager stereotypes reinforced mainly.
• Materialistc, self obsession stereotypes are reinforced (First character in shoplift episode)
• editing
• He’s drinking again!' she wailed. Oh, for goodness sake, give it a rest, love - he’s on holiday. That’s what lads on holiday do.
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2263599/Sun-Sex-And-Suspicious-Parents-review.html
• luara mulvely fetishism is what the mums of sun sex and suspicioua parents reference.
• article proving sun sex as right and that young peopl eare all lk ethat h

Fish Tank Scene Commentaries

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoofjmU6RW4

• This scene is very useful as it demonstrates many features associated with the 'Social Realism' genre. The tinny/echoey sound coming from the obviously cheap CD player is completely dietetic  hence the poor sound quality, and this adds to the realism that the audience is meant to grasp from the film. The further diegetic sound of children coming from outside furthermore reinforces that the director has aimed to make the film as realistic as possible, and by keeping these element of natural diegetic sound you keep the feeling of realism and immerse the audience as much into the natural realness and credibility of the film. The scene also exposes the main actor, an unknown actress making her debut in a full length film, presumably hired on a low budget. This keeps the trend of making the film as down to earth as possible, and fitting into the accepted conventions of the 'Social Realism' genre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoofjmU6RW4 (0:00-0:44)

• Narrative is demonstrated very cleverly in this scene. The mise-en-scene of the dogs and the broken scooter near the metal railings tell the reader that this is meant to be as realistic as possible. Furthermore by looking at the location, a run-down, impoverished council estate, we can tell a lot about the characters and how poor their living conditions are. The dialogue in this scene, littered in swearing it may be, represents how uneducated and poorly disciplined the teenagers are. Camera shots of Mia's face show the anger and ill discipline, something we associate with council estates. The boys looking at the girls dancing shows objectification, conforming to one of the accepted stereotypes in cinema. The look of the boy and the appearance of the girls is not as glamorous as high budget cinema, but the stereotype of women being sexual objects is still noticeable. Moving onto appearance we can guess by their tracksuits that they are not wealthy whatsoever, Mia in her case comes from an underclass family. We do not have to directly relate to the characters, but we associate them as Chavs, and most people are aware of these stereotypically violent individuals. The headbutt is also unusual and shows the undercurrent of violence and hatred, as a head butt from a girl is not something we expect, and it certainly isn't a stereotype of young girls/women.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoofjmU6RW4 (0:44-1:36)

• In the same clip we see representation displayed. It is evident from the dirty messy kitchen that they are represented as an uncaring unclean family, a stereotype of most council flats. The mum smoking at the table also reinforces the uncleanliness that is being portrayed, as smoking is often viewed as dirty and is unhealthy. Simple things like the beer cans lying in the work top show that the mum, who we assume  is stereo typically in charge of cleaning, doesn't care and has no consideration for taking pride in her belongings. The animosity between Mia and her mum when they conversate also conforms with our accepted idea that council flats are home to hostility,and not a very welcoming place to be. It also shows domestic problems between the family and the lack of dynamic, something we think of as belonging in a place like that. At the end we hear the make shift father tell the girl to go and get dresses, and she obliges. This represents the man as having power over women, as she previously doesn't listen to the mother. Living i a male dominated society we are led to believe that males have power and it is a stereotype we accept.