genre essay

The film that I decided to choose is War of the Worlds (2005) which is obviously a science-fiction genre. How we can depict this film being of the genre, science-fiction is by the mise-en-scene as the lighting in the film's trailer is high-key before the disaster to denote that everything is fine before the alien invasion and sort of put the presence of reality into it, however there is also high-key lighting is some parts of the disaster which is used to emphasize to use of special effect etc... but generally during the disaster low-key lighting is used to show to darkness of the situation that the whole city is in. Next is the costume which in the film, is made to begin with normal everyday clothing which is used to make the audience relate to the characters in it- however, when everything starts to go wrong, the characters look rather dirty and over-worn looking which emphasizes the uncertainty of how the disaster will play out, which keeps the audience engaged and gets them thinking of the outcome. Along with the make-up in this film with the use of dirt,cuts and blood also follows this ideology.

From the trailer of War of the Worlds, I can see that the setting of this film is set in New York mainly due to the use of Tom Cruise's cap and that represents where he is from. The use of settings through out this trailer show a cellar, the streets of New York and Boston and also fields. These settings all signify fear and isolation which provides the audience with the Binary Opposition of Life Vs Death as these places present this and makes an audience question whether they characters will live or not.

Next, I am going to talk about the use of the camera and the editing in this trailer specifically. First is the use of close-ups, which provides the audience with the Binary Opposition of Fear Vs Safety.
We see this when we see the characters, Ray and Rachel looking scared at what is happening to their world and clearly can see by their facial expressions when they are frightened and not safe compared to the beginning of the trailer when the close-ups were the facial expressions of happiness and love. Next in this particular section of the film, the use of special effects such as the gathering of grey skies and the lightening in the "storm" and also the collapsing of the road along with the buildings and fires. These all create tension as they present to the audience with the Binary Opposition of Humanity Vs Greater Powers. This can depicted through the use of knowing the genre of the film (science-fiction) as we know that the formations of the skies in this trailer is unfamiliar to man-kind, so its obvious it would be put down to other life, such as aliens etc... Finally in this part, the use of high angle shots and low angle shots show the audience that the Binary Opposition for this is Weak Vs Power. This is shown through these shows due to the uses of them and the connotations at which in this case is weakness and power.

The characters in this film, War of the Worlds are played by Tom Cruise as Ray, Dakota Fanning as Rachel and Justin Chatwin as Robbie, who are the main characters in the film. Ray is the protagonist of the film and is a more complexed character in the narrative of the film as he is the one able to figure out what the aliens/tripods' purpose is down on planet Earth, and he's the one character that seems to have all the answers in a sense. However, on the other hand, Rachel is a less developed character as we actually see her develop through out the film, as in the beginning of this trailer in particular, we see her being a normal, casual child where as, as the trailer progressed, we see by the use of camera shots,  and her facial expressions, the film gets more tense and frightening for her character, were she has too mature a lot, in such a short space of time. With Robbie as a character type, we see him as a dynamic character along with Ray and Rachel, however, his character doesn't seem to be around much at the beginning as he drives off somewhere with Ray's car, and also as I've watched the film, Robbie goes away to try and seek revenge of the Tripods, showing he is a determined character. Another character type is Robbie and Rachel's mother, Mary-Ann (Miranda Otto) who is basically in my opinion there to set the narrative of the story, in terms of "something bad is going to happen" this is shown when in the trailer she says to Ray before leaving "Look after our kids", which creates some sort of tense atmosphere surrounding the film to the audience. Finally, the character that seems to be the villain in this film is obviously the Aliens and their tripods, as they are there to destroy the main characters city/world and kill them- revealing them to the audience as the enemy of the main characters, who we see as good and gives the audience a Binary Opposition of Man Vs Alien.

Next is the use of Music and sound, in which case the music is used to create a tense atmosphere which creates suspense, due to the build up of the diegetic sound of music in the trailer from start to finish, where an audience can depict what genre it is by this music as well as feeling sort of uncomfortable by how tense it actually is. The silent music at the beginning of the trailer is only quiet because there is only a diegetic sound of dialogue which is used to show an audience what the story's purpose is and is able to give an audience an idea of what is going to happen, with baring in mind the genre of the film. The sound effects in this trailer consist of wind and footsteps etc... which enables the audience to feel as if they're apart of the film-like they're actually there. Finally is the progress of music towards the end of the trailer which ends abruptly with a sound identical to a thud.

The story line of this film is the main-character's (Ray) struggle of being a responsible father to his two children, Robbie and Rachel when their mum drops them off with him for the weekend and from then we can feel a tension filled atmosphere, like "something bad is going to happen". However when the lightening start to strike we know that this "reality" in the film is actually coming true, which turns out to be an alien invasion and Ray must find a way to protect his children as they seek refuge. The whole film has themes of Control, Confidence and Determination as shown by the Binary Oppositions I have given in this essay and also shown by the characters.