Science Fiction Genre example essay topic

I have chosen to do a sequence from back to the future part two, because I felt that there was far more writing around science fiction. Genre is a specific type of media product / commodity. This seven-minute section has a predictable pleasure because the audience has come to expect certain things from a comedy / science fiction genre. They are in the future (stock setting and location) the iconography, hover boards self drying jackets and flying cars, are a visible symbol that identifies this genre. The stock situation (time travel) is another recognisable convention that has been used. The music is very upbeat and modern to make the genre more conventional.

Aspects of the genres and generic code are not always clear, and have in this case developed into sub-genres the comedy of the almost caricature doctor who shouts 'Great Scott!' creates a whole new genre in this section. Audiences expect new methods and development and this section, I think, shows a new type of sci-fi due to the comedy and the characters used. Hodges, 1959- "science fiction involves extrapolated or fictitious science, or fictitious of scientific possibilities, or it may be simply fiction that takes place in the future or introduces some radical assumption about the present or the past". The quote clearly shows that the sequence I have chosen is a science fiction genre. Being based in the future and having fictitious science-in it hover boards and flying cars. It generates response and creates meaning because the audience has certain expectations like the 'hero'; Marty McFly will get away from the 'bully', Griff.

This sequence shows the pattern of generic concerns that audiences expect from a science friction comedy, they include science, technology, social and communal organisation. A large characteristic in all Science fiction films and especially this sequence, is to use the unfamiliar and non-existent, such as flying cars, self-drying clothes, hover boards, holograms to advertise, and to do it with a verisimilitude which is at times documentary in style. This is why this section is easily recognisable by an audience to be Science Fiction. The narrative affects immensely the way the viewer perceives the story. In this section the cause and effect logic is very obvious. Marty meets the man trying to save the clock tower, who gives him the idea to win money by gambling and buy the magazine.

Marty's son comes out of caf'e, which makes Biff realise what is going on, which makes him steal the gambling magazine and the time machine for himself. This is all relevant because of action and event, because narrative is a series of events related to one another in terms of cause and effect logic. The needs and wishes of the characters motivate the cause and effect logic. Marty wants to get money causing him to buy the magazine, the doctor doesn't think it is moral and disapproves, causing him to take the magazine away and thus giving it to Biff.

The doctor also wanted to knock Jennifer out as well as Marty's son, which causes his son to wake up and allow Biff to realise what is happening. The narrative of this sequence is structured in terms of, the beginning where Marty is just about to be chased by Griff, but hasn't yet begun the fight (the initial state of equilibrium.) The middle where he is being chased (disruption of the equilibrium), and the end where he has got away and is talking to the man who is trying to save the clock tower (restoration of equilibrium). The voice of the narrative is Marty, the story told is Marty's from his perspective. This affects the narrative a great deal, because if we saw it in, say a time line, the story would be very mixed up and confusing, also if we saw this section from the doctor's point of view the audience would miss out on information. The narrative organises time and space in a compressed form in this section because no time is spent watching Marty getting out of the water we just know he does. This also links into narrative plot, everything audibly and visible present is selected, we don't need to the police taking Griff in the police car to the station we just know it happens.

The narrative strands are the one of gambling, which is the events inferred, and the other strand is one of the hover board chase and getting away from Griff, which explicitly present. Narrative is constructed through camerawork; lighting and mise-en-scene in this sequence because they have created this world and made it tell the narrative. The mise-en-scene especially, with the bright colours and strange clothes, the bright lighting which creates a very different place to what the present is like. Meaning is constructed to achieve audience understanding by the narrative being told in an understandable order, the chain of cause and effect clearly shown (an audience wouldn't understand of Marty was one second being chased and the next buying a sports magazine.) I love this section of the film due to the relationship between the strange and familiar and it's also a large turning point a real climax where things get complicated. This sequence meets audience expectations because of genre, which equals enjoyment, and that's why it did so well financially. I really liked the way they created the future become a real world, and made all the rules to go with it in this sequence. the cinema book by pam cook (second edition).