Codes and Conventions of Science Fiction





Narrative

Science fiction films often feature storylines about:

  • Controlling governments
  • What might happen in the future
  • What science is capable of
  • What it means to be human
  • Future disasters
  • Space travel/exploration
  • Time travel

Characters

  • Scientists
  • Robots and Artificial Intelligence
  • Protagonists who want to challenge authority/ discover truth
  • Explorers
  • Aliens
  • Antagonists who seem “inhuman” or wear armor
     

Technical Codes – are all ways that the text is constructed

  • Low key lighting
  • Artificial lighting – often in labs
  • Wide angle shots to show interesting locations
  • Close ups of eyes
  • Red lighting to show danger
  • CGI (Computer generated special effects)

Sound – Diegetic: Machinery/technology sounds, alarms

                  Non-Diegetic: Intense, Dramatic music

 

Symbolic Codes – Colours, objects, locations

  • Colours: Cool tones (white, blue, grey, silver,red)
  • Clothes: Clothes to show status, Lab coats, Space suits, Uniforms
  • Objects: Space ships, Futuristic technology, Computers, Lasers
  • Settings: Other planets, Outer space, Spaceships, Laboratories, Alternate realities, Prisons/ Traps

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