Dystopian Genre Research

Amber Jackson

Trailer 1

The Maze Runner, 2014

Narrative structure & themesThe maze runner starts with one frightened teenage boy, sent by elevator, to the middle of no where and there is no way back. The opening scene is gloomy with blue undertones and stark white florescent tube lights to light the lift shaft, these types of lights give the atmosphere a cold and harsh tone. We also see this young boy on his hands and knees suggesting a panicked state of mind and desperate to find answers, such as where he is? And why he is there? Perhaps what he did to deserve this torcher?

Secondly we still see him in the lift, but the camera moves away from him and onto what he sees, which is the end with red lights. Red lights at the end of a pathway generally are given as a way of warning people to stop as they can go no further, however, the lift gets closer to this brick wall with red lights and there is no sign of slowing down, which signals alarms in his head that he is possibly going to die.

The lift finally screeches to a halt and we see a group of boys standing looking down, meanwhile the leader jumps into the lift and The only way out is through this moving concrete maze and a group of people called the ‘Glazer’s’, that are already there, have assigned ‘maze runners’ to try to find a way out each day. The only problem is the maze closes before they come out, crushing the runners to pieces. Even though they plan the route they will take, as they have a miniature sculpture. (above image)

Another problem is that monsters come through the maze to where the group are living at night, and kill who ever is in sight.

The hunger games has a similar plot as the teenagers that get stuck in this ‘game’, amusement for the posh cities people, and there is no way to get out, there can only be one remaining person, but it is survival of the fittest as you have to kill one another. Likewise in The Maze Runner, the people that go though the maze, the runners, are the ones that give into peer pressure easily, as the consequences for going in are death.

CharactersThere are two main character in ‘The Maze Runner’, one a boy who comes in first, then the girl enters second. Both in the same way, through the elevator. Both of whom don’t remember how they got there, nor do they remember anything about their lives before entering the maze. The girl thinks they have been sent there for a reason as if to insinuate that they are better then the rest of the people their and they have powers to finally relive these people from being stuck behind this maze.

Then there is the rest of the group that has been assigned different jobs such as the ‘group leader’, the person who maps out routes, the cook, people who build things, people who slaughter the food and a councillor to get people through the trauma.

Both The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner have elements in the plot of a romance. In the dystopian films I have reasearched , I have found that there is always a woman behind the man in any situation. I believe film makers do this as it is a general and stereotypical relationship combination, where the relationship is a partnership and shows the help one another can give each other, as with the typical nature of a dystopian film, the characters need support and words of encouragement.

The Hunger games, Catness is the strong protagonist, who keeps the man, Peter, going with words of encouragement that if they stick together, she will look after him. We see this conveyed through the way this shot is composed (above, left) as it shows her shooting her bow and arrow, against a body formed target. She is out of focus and the body is outlined with red and in focus. This suggests she is rootless in her attacks, and she is willing to do what is needed to stay alive.

Comparing the above to the maze runner is similar in it’s plot, the girl is rootless and proactive about wanting to get out of the maze, however she gets penalised because of her controlling nature (above, right). She is the only woman, like in The Hunger Games, in this maze surrounded by bold and strong men, who feel it necessary to take it upon themselves to sort out the mess, they need to know that she will play by the rules and not on her own accord. This shows that the dominate male is stepping up as the hero, even though it teases the audience that in actual fact, she may be the hero.

CameraIn the maze runner, through out the trailer, shots that where included where: 1. Panning a 180 with a mid shot transitioning into a wide angle when the boy, Tomas, has his first glance at the maze and surrounding area. This gives the audience an idea of what the maze camp site looks like and the enormity of it in comparison to the boy size. The camera is set slightly lower the Tomas's face first of all, which would normally give the illusion of him being powerful, however in comparison to the wall it makes him look intimidated and overwhelmed. When the transition occurs the camera moves slightly up to his high, with reduces the fear feeling and instead enhances where he is, in a field, with a ball as a barrier.

2. Over the shoulder shot, when one of the men are describing to Tomas where he is. This is a typical shot for any genre to include. It is a great way in showing conversation and emotional reactions of he characters. As they can change the camera to the oppositee face to capture their expressions.

3. Close up, Showing the gunk on one of the tools, describing what the monsters traces lift behind. The reasoning behind this is to describe to the audience further what the monsters are like, enabling them to build a clearer image of what they are like in their minds, without actually having to show a monster.

4. Another momentous close up is when Tomas sees the maze shut on someone’s body for the first time. Seeing this shocked face, adds emotion to the characters and the audince can then sympathise with them as they have seen what the character have seen.

PropsThe weapons and method of transport in The Maze Runner are unique and very different to anything else. Props are one of the ways in which you can tell what genre it is. Dystopian does not have to fit into reality, therefore has space ships and long, metal jousters, as you can see from the below images of The Maze Runner. Whereas a crime film, for example (images from Animal Kingdom, below, right), will have normal guns and cars which the image clearly shows. These prop choses, dependant on the genre type, is so that the audience feel that they can connect to the action and the sensations of what the characters are feeling, unlike unknown props in this dystopian film, where they will find it hard to relate.

LocationBoth in The Maze Runner and Hunger Games, there is a very similar shot type, a wide angle, to describe the hole arena, this is a secret piece of information to the audience as they know that the characters in the film can not see the view they have seen. It gives the audience the ability to feel apart of the film.

The landscape itself is very similar, in the fact that they are both blue and grey toned, with a dark cloud shadowing over the complexes and concrete goes as far as the eye can see, which is depressing and overwhelming. The one difference is that in The Hunger Games image (bottom), is a break of sun, which is a sign of hope and slight mystery. However, we later see that this is a false sign and perhaps simply means that the game makers are happy.

High angle for powerful characters & Low angle for innocents about the character or object. When Tomas enters and the elevator doors open, one boy jumps down into it and he is shown to have the power as he is leaning over the top of the new boy, Tomas. Likewise the low angle shot on Tomas when he was scared of this boy jumping on him. A similar shot happened when the girl comes in, but on a greater scale as all of the boys are looking down on her, and she is looking up. Another low angle shot was to show the size of the maze, the enormity of it.

Quentin Tarantino “inglorious basterds” shows this scene ( left below) where two men are standing under trees, looking down. Wez Ball, the director of “The maze runner” has used this shot as pastiche for his own work to enhance the power over the character who is already at the maze camp. This type of shot known as a low angle shot. Tarantino’s use of trees in the background, it makes the characters less powerful and compensates for the over indulgent self worth and power of the two. In comparison, with the maze runner, instead of trees, Ball uses people as a way of creating the same effect, however the angel is higher on the characters face which him look less daunting.

SoundThe opening scene all you hear is the metal clunking from the elevator. It starts off still, then as it moves it gets faster and faster, and in the black outs Tomas’s breath gets deeper and deeper. Then it all stops then an alarm opening sound in the black happens and we know the ride is over, so that the intensity dies down until the next panicked moment, allowing the audience to settle down, so that the film can bring them back up into that panicked state later on.

None diegetic sound is low, one pitch beat that stops occasionally to make the audience aware and listen to the words that are being said. Diegectic words such as ‘what’s out there’ then we hear monster whispers with gives the audience understanding that there are creatures out there, as well as making it a little scared of the unknown. Another example is when Tomas says ‘what happens to them (the runners)’, then it jumps to a flashing scene of dark trees and a man running, then we hear screaming

Throughout the whole trailer, the none diegetic music goes from slow to very fast, much like the visual images, that are built up in this way, to build up the adrenalin and anticipation for the audience.

EditingFrom the outset the editing in this trailer is very choppy in order to make the audience jump on occasions. Techniques such as the below list where used:

• Fade to blacks and dissolved transitions. These types of transition, usually make a piece calm and is used to enhance the anticipation and used when the film director wants to portray the characters story. An example is:

- When Tomas is looking at his surroundings and they want to show the height of the maze they dissolve 2 shots that are simiar of him slowly spinning around outside of the maze. They when they want to move onto the next scene without it being too harsh.

• The editing was also very jaulty in places and this was done with a cut or L cut transition, an L cut is when a diegetic sound is heard before the image is on screen and a cut is when one image directly goes straight to the next one. Used to enhance the unexpected factor and make the audience jump. For example:

- Flashing from an image to black when the scary scenes come. They do this to not give everything away and to add spookiness.

Titles

All of the titles are made too resemble rocks then they transition to the actual word as you can see to the left.

The titles are placed all on black backgrounds with light shinning through the middle of them. This gives a dramatic and eerie feeling about them. Like an angry face, but that has a last minute smile for some unknown reason. The light is mysterious and unknown.

Examples of how ‘The Maze Runner’ relates to post modern theory through the use of a Meta narrative, hyperreality, pashtice

• Meta Narrative – the way that this film trailer challenges the conventional narratives in the dystopian genre is that there is a female antihero and she is shown to be more fears and stronger willed then the boy, Tomas.

• Hyperreality is conveyed though the monsters in the film as in reality they are not real. The film uses them to make the audience aware that they are just watching a film, rather then a movie they can get wrapped up in and really think that they are watching reality.

• Examples of pastiche in this trailer, is from the film ‘I Am Number 4’. It is like ‘The Maze Runner’ is the film that is meant to come before, as a follow on film to ‘I Am Number 4’ as that film is about monsters chasing after these people in the open world and it is like ‘The Maze Runner’ people have escaped the maze. Scenes that are similar are when the main leader is running through the woods in ‘I Am Number 4’ and through the maze in ‘The Maze Runner’. Images shown below.

Trailer 2

Children of Men, 2006

Narrative structure & themesChildren Of Men, is about a world where women are infertile because of a flu that has broken out and all children die. The whole world’s civilisation is a thing of the past. People are angry and in rage throw bombs and shooting one another. Then Theo the main character is chosen by an ex lover to help with the first sign of hope, but must keep it a secret otherwise people apart of the hope could all died.

The hope is a baby. A immigrant is pregnant and is in hiding, only a selected group of people know, including a wise old man, who knows the mother bearer is special and a blessing to the world, as she could restart a hole new era.

The group try and get her on this ‘Human Project’ boat to let her escape. But before they get there the world find out who she is and what she is doing. They try and catch her, bit it is a case of too little, too late.

CharactersThere are 3 main characters in this film:

1) Theo the anti hero, unintentionally falling into helping the pregnant woman.

2) Julian the ex lover who set out to help Kee, with Theo’s help.

3) Kee the pregnant woman, who doesn't do anything in particular in the film, however it is biased around her so that’s why she is apart of the main characters.

4) The rest of the people are extras acting as the rest of the world, in rage at the news that there will be no more life after 50 years or so.

Camera The majority of the trailer shows scenes that have been filmed handheld, so you get that slightly shaky nerve wracking type of shot.

One type of shot that is not handheld, is a mid to close up moving shot.This is used when Theo is sitting down in a train and they zoom into his face then he looks out of the window, the audience following his eyes and then there is attention

on the men throwing bricks as the moving train window.

Other example of a different shot used is a mid pan.This was used when the group are escaping with Zee to the boat, but the world finds out

what they are doing. You see a shot of the scared face from the group, then the camera moves to show the people running after the group in car, again this is another way that the camera has directed the audience where to look.

SoundThe music through out this trailer is a roller-coaster with happy, sad and scary sounds.

The opening scene starts with no music, then we see Theo and in his mind says ‘I don’t remember when I last had any hope’ as he carries on the music starts when he says ‘women cant have babies’, ‘what’s left to hope for?’ to draw attention to those words, they are important and don’t want the audience to miss it.

Then Theo's voice is interrupted with diegetic sound that is stronger and harsher then him to show arguing of the people to show corruption then straight after the kayos, posh violin, none diegetic sound, come in to differentiate between good and bad, the violins become quitter when somthing needs attention (TV news, bomb) and louder when the action is not so important.

The none diegetic music changes again from posh to rowdy bass when Theo is kidnaped then Julian says ‘how have you been’ and it turns to action music then changes again to be more sombre bass when they talk about the love they used to have. They do this to take the audience on an emotional journey and fall in love with the couple they see on their screens.

One of the last none diegetic change in the trailer is when the baby is shown and the music is mysterious and sounds as if ‘bad things are going to happen’ then someone says ‘now you know what is at stake’ and the music turns to be soft but has a sense of hope to it that it will all be okay, this is done to get the audience excited and intrigued that there might be a way out, then the happy music is mixed with bombs being heard and it is like the hope when everyone sees death as the future, but the happy music persists until the end, keeping the audience on their feet in anticipation that Kee will escape.

EditingAll of the transitions through out this trailer are either

• dissolved transition

• fade to black transitions

• dissolved into yellow and red colours.

both to enhance softness but add a mysterious nature. The transitions where put in when the scene changed. when there was the same scene going on, just a different shot a simple cut was used.

Example of when this happen is:

when the police are putting people in prison, the transition colour is red to represent fierce and worrying feelings.

other times when the dissolving transitions occur are when Zee is escaping to represent gentleness that she will be okay, as she is the one the audience are most attached too as she is the person that could change the whole narrative to be a happy or sad ending.

Titles

The titles in this trailer are simple, that are very minimal for the majority. The most transition that any of them have is a ‘dissolve in’ as shown above. They have kept it simple so that the titles don’t distract away from the flashing imagery in the scenes.

They have also overlaid colour, which all have a flush of red to symbolise blood, and the death of so many, in this case to go with the words. All of the titles have words on them that say the same message as what is being said through the characters. They are just there to force that message across to the audience.

Examples of how ‘Children Of Men’ relates to post modern theory through the use of a Meta narrative, hyperreality,

pashtice

• Meta Narrative - Julian is seen to be in charge as her gang is the one that have kidnapped Theo and have started to interrogating him, and that the message that the film is saying is that maybe our 20th century has started to go too far in scientific tests and one day there might just be a disease that kills all of our young people and the world would be in devastation.

• Hyperreality – the hyperreality in this film is that there not a county nor been a time where babies where none existent so people know that it is not real.

• Pashtice – 28 days later is a similar concept where an infection breaks out but instead of all the young people dieing, it affects everyone and the only hope left is one man that was left in a coma but woke up and found a small group of people in hiding.

Trailer 3

The Matrix, 1999

Narrative structure & themesThe Matrix’s (1999) is set in a dystopian setting. Where in reality, people believe they are living a live through a simulation machine called ‘The Matrix’. What the community use as a source of energy and power is through their body heat and electrical devises.

Neo a character within the film, who plays the role of a computer programmer finds out about the world he is living in because the leader, Morpheus, of this hyper reality is bought to attention that Neo is questioning if he is ‘living life’ and if ‘reality is at it is meant to be’ and Morpheus ‘wake up’ Neo from this false perception. Automatically goes against all of the technology and tries to defeat it by giving others the same freedom that he has, by living through oxygen, not machinery and removing them from this ‘dream’ like state.

The film takes metanarratives by referencing philosophical and religious ideas and takes pastiche from creators such as Plato - Allegory Of the Cave (2006). Japanese artistic films inspire the action scenes from ‘The Matrix’ and the film mentioned above, and the choreographed movements within the fight scenes, come from Hong Kong.

CharactersThe four main characters who drive the film forward are:

1) Neo (Keanu Reeves) who is the protagonist, and as a job is a computer programmer, who had his suspicions if he was actually living in the ‘real’ world. He finally decides to start searching for Morpheus, the leader of this movement, to try and experience freedom. What is interesting, is that 4 actors, including Brad Pitt, declined this role as they felt it a ‘difficult’ and ‘would have messed it up’. Reeves took the job as he, at the time, won a role in ‘The Wachowskis’ over Johnny Depp, which implies he was the actor of the moment, which in turn would make the film more sellable as the distributors could sell the ancillary products and tickets for the film because of the actors they have employed, not because of its content. Image of him above left hand side.

2) Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) leader of this worldly movement of technology ‘charging’ humans up and is wanted by the police for being a terrorist. Before, he was the leader, he too was caught up in this technological world, however he was freed by Trinity (described below). The character was based on Morpheus in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics this is also called taking pastiche or paying homage. The actor doubted the reality of this film being made as it was ‘very smart’. Image of him above right hand side.

Characters3) Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). She is a crew member on the hovercraft that charges the human bodies. Neo sees her in a romantic light, yet she freed Morpheus into the real world, which causes confusion with who likes who. For this role the actress, Moss, had to undergo a 3 hour long physical test as there are a lot of physical demands with this character.

4) Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). The final main character. Smiths job is to ensure that no humans escape the Matrix and destroy the town they are in, Zion. The twist being, he wants to free himself.

Camera, Editing & SoundThe most popular camera and editing scene from ‘The Matrix’ is the ‘bullet time’ (see clip HERE & skip to 0.10s and HERE is how it was made). This is also featured in the trailer, which is unusual as traditionally all of the best long shots of the camera work and editing is saved until the movie, with only snip-its shown in the trailer to entice an audience. This shot is where every movement is put into slow motion in particular a bullet that is shot and where you can almost see the air splitting as the bullet races towards this character, meanwhile the camera appears to be moving through time at a faster pace.

The sound changes throughout the trailer to heighten certain parts to add drama or atmosphere. To transition from the harp to to a computerised soundtrack, they use a sound that we typically recognised as a computer calculating data. The beginning of the disequilibrium (middle section) deep eery music is subtly played underneath and where the plot is unraveled through a

voice over.

When the peak of the trailer hits, the music crescendos and drops off bluntly into a moment of slow mo, silence, but swiftly changing the genre of film to an action. We understand it is action as the soundtrack is intense and fast pace, plus the characters within the shot are in a fight scene.

Editing: at the beginning, to get a sense that a long period of time has passed in The Matrix trailer, and to inform the audience of what has previously happened, they use fade in and outs to give us glimpses of what we have missed. Once we have an understanding through the use of video and titles, they have edited a montage together with shocking images, this creates a sense of needing to know more and understand why a certain situation has occurred, therefore spurring on an incentive why people need to watch the film - they need to put their thoughts to rest.

TitlesThe titles explain the imagery we are seeing, as I have shown to the left. ‘You do your job’ - that title is followed by the image I have placed below it, and so on until the end of this sequence when it says ‘you live’ an image of Neo in a chair, waking up harshly, than the title ‘as a slave’ comes up. This is a clear way of explaining and showing what has happened prior to the film continuing.

The titles are edited with a fade in and out transition, as you can see from above, this is a fade in. It is evident that the opacity changes as the words get clearer to read on the screen. This is done so that the titles, flow and are apart of the trailer, to create a more natural transition.

Props & LocationOver all ‘The Matrix’ was filmed in over 22 different states, predominantly in Australia on the north, south and west side of the county. As Well as a few scenes in Tennessee and California (USA). The film is based in a bustling city. The opening scene from the trailer is of a helicopter flying over skyscrapers (below, left) that softly transitions through the use of a fade from the editing process and a pan camera shot.This gives us a sense of time passing and a calm atmosphere. It also describes to the audience, that the film is based in a wealthy city and gives us an idea of what type of people will be in it, which ultimately is posh because a city is so expensive to live in.

Props within The Matrix give mixed signals and time era because in the shot above, right, you can see a computer, which in the 21st century, looks very dated. However

This is a typical theme in a dystopian film, the change in time difference, as you see ‘normal’ reality and props that fit into that era, but the technology that is included in the disequilibrium part of the film that shows the futuristic time travel, is much more modernised and machinery or actions that could happen that we could see in 2300, like making a mirror liquidised or jelly to electrocute someone (images from The Matrix below).