With a father who obsessed over the Star Wars and Star Treks films, science fiction has grown to the genre of my childhood, and the one I admire the most. With such a large variety of subgenres, each with their own conventions, it was interesting to analyze the genre as a whole, seeing if this is what I want to base my film on. The research also helped me realize what made science fiction films so successful and loved by huge fandoms. This is what I found:
Conventions
Popular themes of the science fiction genre in film include good versus evil, supernatural, paranormal abilities, time travel, alien races/invasions, etc. With the genre also comes the ideas of the setting being a futuristic place of innovations, with technologies that do not exist in the present world, like hoverboards. These ideas often lead to the audience inquiring about what the future holds, few may even work to make these technologies realities. The setting, however, is not always clear cut as the director may choose to play with time, often seen in time travel films like Back to the Future. Also in Back to the Future, the narrative follows the main character, Marty McFly, throughout the different time periods, another convention of the genre. The most common theme, good versus evil, often leads to the film focusing on the main protagonist and the main antagonist. The Star Wars franchise focuses on Luke Skywalker, the protagonist, working to fight the evil that is Darth Vader, the antagonist. The protagonists are often underdogs, expressing the ideas of a revolution or rebellion and often leading them; for example, Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and Tris Prior in Divergent. The narratives tend to focus on the development the protagonist goes through in order to be “strong enough” to defeat the antagonist.
The science fiction genre in film uses similar techniques to the horror genre, except they are used to incite different responses. For example, establishing shots used in both genres often show a large expanse of area. In science fiction, the camera shot usually sets the setting as an area that is unfamiliar to the audience: futuristic cities, different planets, etc. On the other hand, horror typically uses the same, expansive establishing shots to emphasize the loneliness of a character or characters. When the setting of a science fiction film is set in an unworldly, all of the sound used in non-diegetic. By definition, it is nearly impossible to have a diegetic sound of an extraterrestrial landscape or creature. Another convention that correlates with the strange setting popular in sci-fi films is the iconography and mise-en-scene that goes along with it. Typically, prop designers emphasize the creation of a weapon or object of great power, that enhances the futuristic quality of the film. However, the science fiction genre also includes dystopian films, in which the film may be set in a more regressed era. For those cases, prop designers often look to the past for inspiration on the “object of power”.
Marketing
Currently, the craze of marketing heavily relies on social media. Alex Garland’s 2015 Ex-Machina tells the story of Ava, an artificially intelligent humanoid played by Alicia Vikander. A programmer, Caleb is sent to test Ava and becomes infatuated with the machine. The marketing campaign relied on dating apps, such as Tinder. Tinder users in the Austin area were matched with a user called Ava during the SXSW Festival in the city. With a profile picture of Vikander and using lines from the show, the bot began to woo users across the city before redirecting them to the film’s Instagram page. Additionally, Marvel created a 90s style website to promote the nostalgiac aspect of their new film Captain Marvel, 2019.
Embodiment of Sci-Fi
Back to the Future, the 1985 film directed by Robert Zemeckis follows the protagonist, Marty McFly, and his old, eccentric, scientist friend, Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown through time travel to the future. The leads use Doc's time-traveling car, the Delorean, to go to the future, where they encounter new technologies, like hoverboards, flying cars, self-adjusting shoes, etc. The film becomes iconic for its time period and the car. Establishing shots often establish the time period the characters are in and shows how different the world is in the futuristic 2015. As fans look back in the current times, years passed 2015, they see how hopeful the directors were on which technologies would exist in the coming years, and some go as far as to recreate iconic props: the Delorean and the self-adjusting shoes.
Another classic Sci-Fi film is any of the Star Wars films. The original trilogy follows Luke Skywalker, representing the Rebellion, on his journey to becoming a Jedi, strong enough to defeat the Empire. Skywalker is not the creator of the Rebel Alliance, but he becomes the face of the movement for the audience as he is needed for one of the "plot twists" of the trilogy, he is the son of Darth Vader, the leader of the Empire. The series represents a questioning of the tyrannical governing body, an idea that can be a comment on any society, past, present, or future. The series also takes place in a futuristic time period, with large spaceships, all with the ability to travel lightyears in the span of seconds with hyperspeed. Contemporarily, the series has grown to have a new face: Ray. Ray represents the same ideals as Luke Skywalker, however, she is the new face for a new generation of Star Wars fans. The fandom, at it's origin, consisted of teenagers mainly. As the franchise grew older, the fans stayed, but the target audiences expanded. In order to intrigue new possible teenage Star Wars fans, and keep the existing ones, Star Wars expanded the series with a new face, but similar issues, allowing the marketing to be extremely simple due to its current fame.
Sci-Fi Watchlist Musts
