1. Paige Ward
How Do We Analyse Film?
There are two main types of analysis when studying film these are genre analysis and auteur theory.
Genre analysis is the codes & conventions of a filmthese include the themes, narrative, character,
setting, iconography and ideological message of a film. Applying genre analysis allows the audience
to understand and predict factors which make a film a particular genre. A good example of this is
‘Quaturn of Solace directed by Marc Forster in 2008’, the genre of the film is Action/Spy thriller when
watching this film it is predictable from the start. .Auteur Theory can be applied to unusual ideas and
challenges genre conventions by doing something different.A good example of autheur theory is
‘Leon directed by Luc Besson in 1994’, it is an example of an unconventional film therefor the director
is regarded as an auteur.
Codes and Conventions:
Codes are something which is meaningful and conventions are the accepted
ways of doing something. An example of a film which follows the
conventions of thegenre is ‘Quantum of Solace directed by Marc Forster in
2008’ the genre of this film is Action/Spy thriller. This doesn’t break any
codes and conventions because the audience knows that James Bond
(protagonist) will succeed with any task he is given and will get women
during this. In this genre of film the women are used as sex objects,
Quantum of Solace sticks to this throughout the film the camera focuses on
the female bodies quite a lot and the women aren’t always wearing
unravelling clothes. Also the film has props and settings which are used in
most films within this genre that follow the codes and conventions.The
props which are used in this film which make the genre predictable are
guns and sport cars.
Setting:
The Setting is where the film is set, this is usually a different variety of
places and can include things like different times of the day, different
weather types and buildings depends on the location. The setting also
includes the mise en scene of the film. A good example of this is ‘Kick Ass 2
directed by Jeff Wadlow in 2003’ the genre of this film is ‘Superhero Action/
Comedy’ and it doesn’t break the conformity. The setting which is mainly
seen during this film is different parts of the streets in Mississauga, Canada
and London. Another setting which is used a lot throughout the film is the
front of a High school. There is also a lot more settings than these for
example old factory, roof, hallway of school and alleys.
Characters:
Characters in any story allow the audience to engage with events in the
narrative, a variety of films have characters who are protagonists and
antagonist, a protagonist is when the character is a hero who ends up in conflict
because of the antagonist. The antagonist is a character or even a group of

2. characters which are completely opposite to the protagonist. A good example of films which includes
both of these types of characters is James Bonds films for example Sky fall, Quaturn of Solace, Casino
Royale and live and let die, in all of these films Bond is the ‘hero’ and is pitched against the ‘villain.’
These genres of films are Action/ Spy Thriller, in each of them James Bond always succeeds and gets
the girl at the end.
Themes:
The themes are things that cover different parts of life for example love, revenge, friendship,
acceptance, individuality, jealousy and longing to be accepted. In the thriller and horror genre the
themes are usually Alienation, death, contagion, demonic possession, entrapment and survival.
When considering the horror genre a good example of this is ‘Rec directed by James Balaguero in
2007’ the genre is horror. The film uses a theme of satire this is when something is mocked in a
critical way. The film starts off looking like a reality TV show but then completely changes, the film
breaks away from the conformity of reality TV and conventional horror. Another good example
which doesn’t break away from the conformity is ‘Mean girls directed
by Mark Waters in 2004’ the genre of this film is teen comedy.It has a
variety of different themessome of these are love, friendship,
acceptance (within love and friendship), Relationships (sex), Jealousy
and individuality. These themes are similar to ‘Napoleon Dynamite
directed by Jared Hess in 2004’ but are approached in a different
manner.
Narrative:
The narrative of a film is the beginning, middle and end of a film, for example ‘Leon directed by Marc
Besson in 1994’ starts off with introducing the main characters (Leon, Tony and Mathilda) and some
settings (New York City) in different scenes. Once the main characters have been introduced to the
audience theirs an inciting incident when Mathilda’s family gets killed by a
corrupt drug enforcement agency officials and Leon rescues Mathilda. There
then follows rising action which makes the audience more interested,
Mathilda discovers Leon is a hit man, he agrees to train her to become an
assassin for revenge on Stansfield. Then Leon ends up rescuing Mathilda
when Stansfield captures her, Leon kills some of Stansfield’s men. The climax
makes the audience want to know what’s going to happen, Stansfield
discovers where Leon is and after a huge battle Mathilda escapes but Leon
dies, killing Stansfield in the process. At the end of the film Tony
(donor/helper) helps Mathilda ‘find her roots’ symbolised by the planting of
the Leon’s plant in the playground. This film has a really good narrative and creates a narrative
enigma but it breaks the conformity of the Action/ Thriller genre.
Iconography:
The iconography can be aspects that come to mind when you’re watching a
film, it represents something as soon as you think of it. A good example of
the use of Iconography in a film is ‘Rec directed by Jaume Balaguero in 2007’
the genre of this film is horror. A crucifix is used in the film this shows the
audience it has something to do with hell which shows the audience the film
is a horror. It does break the conformity with the Iconography for example

3. they use reality TV in the horror film, this is obvious because of the microphone and the interviews.
Also the female main character introduces her TV a variety of times. Reality TV isn’t part of the horror
genre. An example of a film which doesn’t break the conformity is ‘Quaturn of solace’ they use Aston
Martin cars in the film which represents British power and the British military. Also yellow taxis and
world trade centre is used as being iconography of NYC.
Ideological message :
The ideological message in films are the ideas and beliefs that certain people share and believe to be
right and true, they are usually meaningful. Every film has one or more ideological messages, some
films have the same or similar. For example ‘Kick Ass 2 directed by Jeff Wadlow’ and ‘Quaturn of
Solace directed by Marc Forster’ has two ideological messages which are the same these are ‘all will
end well’ and ‘Goodness will triumph over evil.’ Both of these films have the genre of Action and
there are some other conventions which are similar.
James Bonds films always consist of attractive women in beautiful
clothes capturing the attention of mainly men but definitely of all of
those around her. The women in Bond’s films always fit the criteria of
a ‘perfect’ body, beautiful hair, and ‘stunning’ features and wear
hardly any clothes this is in all of the James Bonds films from the past
to the newer sequels. This sexual objectification of women is a generic
convention of character in action thriller and can be seen as negative
representation of women. The women add a sexual context to the
film. The films have changed over the years, the women have taken a
more active role in the film, for example working with the lead male to combat the antagonist and
help succeed but Bond still ends up sleeping with these females and they still fit the criteria. The
women aren’t as ‘simple’ as they use to be they’re now smart and feisty characters. These
representations have been moved with the times, women now are more valued than they were
previously and this has reflected in the James Bonds films.
In other genres such as crime thriller, the women are represented differently because there is often
‘femme fetale’ who is a woman. The women are usually rich and attractive and can be quite
dangerous. This occurs in ‘Pulp Fiction directed by Quentin Tarantino in 1994’ with Uma Thurman’s
portrayal of Mia Wallace as the ‘femme fetale.’
One of my favourite film genres is Fantasy because I like the way how some of the
films are edited. The genre is obvious in some films because fantasy films should
involve magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures or monsters
e.g. vampires, fairies and dragons, or exotic fantasy worlds. There is a
variety of typical conventions of this genre of films for example the
trailers are all very ‘dream alike’ in the sense that the plots do not
appear realistic. One of my favourite film directors/ producers/ writer is
Tim Burton, ‘he is known for his dark, gothic, macabre and quirky horror
and fantasy films’ some of his well-known fantasy films are Edward
Scissorhands (1990), The nightmare before Christmas (1993), Alice in
Wonderland (2010), and etc… The genre is obvious in Tim Burton’s
fantasy films because of the make-belief creatures for example ‘Alice in

4. Wonderland’ not only does this film have make-belief creatures the setting of the film isn’t realistic,
he created this film using anexotic fantasy world with over-grown mushrooms. Even though a lot of
fantasy films are usually for children and teenagers some of these films have themes which not many
people take notice of for example the themes of Alice in Wonderland are the tragic and inevitable
loss of childhood innocence, life is a meaningless puzzle, death as a constant and underlying menace.
There are also films that have different ways of showing the fantasy genre for example the Harry
Potter films, it is mainly filmed at a school but it also includes train stations and the streets. The
characters in these films make the genre obvious for example wizards and witches.
‘Quantum of Solace directed by Marc Forster in 2008 ’ and ‘Leon directed
by Luc Besson in 1994’ are both the same genre of film but ‘Leon’ breaks
conformity to this specific genre. In ‘Quantum of Solace’ theirs a
protagonist (James Bond) who is smartly dressed and good looking and
there’s an antagonist (Mr White) who is feeble and the complete opposite
to Bond, in Action film theirs always these types of characters. The film
doesn’t use women as strong characters they’re used as sex objects which
makes the film conform to the genre. The props also make the genre of
the film obvious for example guns, sport cars and etc... Sometimes certain genre of films can break
the conventions for example ‘Leon directed by Luc Bresson in 1994.’The film establishes the serve of
action thriller but it breaks the conventions. Action films usually use women as sex objects, ‘Leon’
doesn’t one of the main characters is a strong independent young female ‘Mathilda’. An action film
like ‘James Bond’ doesn’t have any young children as their characters but in ‘Leon’ Mathila is only 12.
Also this genre of film creates a narrative enigma within 20 minutes of the film starting usually this
doesn’t usually appear early. Even though ‘Leon’ breaks the conventions in a variety of ways the
genre is still clear because it still has some codes and conventions for this specific genre for example
the props, there are guns, knives, drugs, money and etc... Some of the themes and ideological
message in both of these films are the same for example revenge and good triumphing over evil. Luc
Besson is an ‘auteur’ because he made his own individual styles and broke away from the conformity
of a specific genre.
‘Mean girls directed by Marc Waters in 2004’ and ‘Napoleon Dynamite
directed by Jared Hess in 2004’ they’re both the same genre ‘teen comedy’.
Both of these films are obvious in what genre they are, especially ‘mean girls’
because it sticks to the conformity of the specific genre whereas ‘Napoleon
Dynamite’ doesn’t. Both of these use some of the same themes these are love,
friendship, acceptance, relationships, Jealousy and individuality. In both of
these films there is the same type of characters for example Pedro and Cady
they’re new students, summer and Regina both the popular girls and etc… The characters are used
different in each film in Mean girls the characters are how a ‘teen comedy’ film usually is for example
Cady (new girl) has no friends when she first starts school, she becomes friends with the ‘geeks’ Janis
and Damien and they decide to ruin Regina’s life (Queen Bee.) The ‘Queen Bees’ notice her and ask
her to eat lunch with them every day. As the film goes on Cady will do
anything to be part of the ‘Queen bees’ and slowly forgets about Janis
and Damien. The main characters in this film are the popular girls
(Queen Bee’s) and the new girl. Whereas Napoleon Dynamite is

5. completely different and breaks away from the conformity with the characters, the film is about
Napoleon ‘geek’ usually the ‘geeky kids’ aren’t the main characters, also Pedro is a central character
and he hardly speaks. Usually in this genre of film the main characters are the ‘popular kids’ but in
this film the ‘popular girl’ Summer is hardly seen in the film and isn’t the main character.
In my opinion Quentin Tarantino is an auteur, he has directed 11 films and has acted in 9 of these
some of these films have their own distinctive style. He often includes parts of other director’s work
as a way to show he has been influenced, these influences are clear in a variety of his work for
example in his film ‘Reservoir dogs in 1992’ has obvious reference to ‘City on Fire directed by Ringo
Lam’ it also has reference to ‘The killing directed by Stanley Kubrick.’ Also ‘Kill Bill’ obviously pays
attention to the ‘1970s Kung Fu exploitation films and his latest release Django Unchained’. He also
has introduced a variety of his own stylish creations to some of his films, his films are instantly
recognisable by their mixture of humour, violence and madness, this mixture is rare with most
directors. He writes dialog which is just as entertaining as the visuals, in reality no one would ever
talk the way his characters do. The dialog he uses is old fashioned and racist. For example in Pulp
Fiction ‘Colonel Hans Lana’ uses ‘Inglorious Basterds’ , this character speaks in riddles and uses
different languages at the same time. In every one of his films he
introduces a new entertaining character for example in ‘Reservois dogs’
theirs Mr Blond, who Quentin plays, as an ear removingpsychopath. In
‘Pulp Fiction’ their Jules, a murderous gangster preparing to embark on a
religious journey and there are many other characters. In my opinion
Quentin Tarantino is an auteur director because in all of his movies he uses
the same fundamental themes and techniques that put signature to his
work.
An example of Tarantino’s work is pulp fiction this film includes the theme
of racism and over use of the ‘n-word’. A technique that he uses in this film
is violence, he uses it to add to the narrative for example the protagonists
are retrieving a briefcase for their employer during this they kill three of the
four people in the apartment on purpose. They end up killing the last by
accident on the way back from the job. The reasoning behind the violence is to show more of the
character than just listening to a long monologue by them and it is also sometimes used for comedy
and entertainment. This also positions the audience in an unconventional manner, Tarantino
develops the characters throughout the film so the audience end up liking them all, but then they
commit acts of violence or are racist challenges the audience. Unlike most films Pulp Fiction doesn’t
have any disliked characters by the audience. The narrative of this film isn’t clear because it is time
disordered this creates a narrative enigma, for example the film starts with two lovers discussing
whether they can rob the restaurant and make money from itwhich having their breakfast there. This
is the scene which conflicts the expectations of the audience and they can’t make connection with the
film until the end. As they decide to rob the restaurant the scene breaks off and the movie title credits
roll. Once the title credits end the films goes straight to the scene where the two protagonists are
retrieving a briefcase.