Codes and Conventions of Film

In this essay, I am going to I am going to be analysing the codes and conventions of film making. The specific things I’m going to look at are narrative structure, cinematic techniques, storytelling, narrative theory and film technology.

I’m going to start with narrative structure. Narrative structure is focused on two things. First the content of the story and the second is the way the story is told. These are most commonly known as story and plot. Story is what happens in the narrative and Plot is how things unfold within the narrative. There are four notable and important narrative theories that appear in a surprising majority of narratives. Firstly, there is the character roles theory suggested by Vladimir Propp. For some context Vladimir Propp was a literary critic who believed that within every narrative there is seven different and distinct characters. One of the most famous examples of a narrative that uses these character roles is the harry potter

Series. 

The seven character types are as follows: Hero (the protagonist) e.g. Harry Potter, the villain (antagonist who will fight the hero in some way) e.g. Voldemort, the dispatcher (the one who sends the hero off as well as making the villains presence known) e.g. Dumbledore. The Helper (assists the hero in his quest) e.g. Ron Weasley and Hermione. The princess (the end goal for the hero) e.g. Ginny Weasley. The Donor (prepares the hero for the task or quest) e.g. Hagrid. And finally, The False Hero (takes credit for the hero’s actions) e.g. Draco Malfoy.

The Second important theory is The Equilibrium theory first suggested by Tzvetan Todorov. For context Todorov was a Franco Bulgarian philosopher who wrote a multitude of books and essays centred around literary theory, thought history and culture theory. In total, he has 21 published works. Todorov suggested his own narrative theory dubbed the equilibrium theory. The theory is fairly simple. Todorov suggested that every narrative follows the same three part structure where the narrative begins with equilibrium which essentially means everything is balance. Then something happens that disrupts the established equilibrium and then at the climax of the narrative equilibrium is restored once more.

Pretty much every film every narrative uses the equilibrium theory as the structure for the narrative. With each stage of the equilibrium theory fitting into one of the three acts in a narrative which are the beginning/set up, the middle and the end/climax. Now there are nearly infinite examples of films that have used the equilibrium structure. Obviously, that’s just a little hyperbole but I think the point came across just the same. Anyway, as an example of the use of equilibrium theory in film I am going to use the film Home Alone. In the beginning of home alone the films status quo and the equilibrium is established with Kevin and his family and their situation which is that they are going away for Christmas. Then the equilibrium is disrupted over the course of the second act, first with Kevin being left home alone and then with the wet bandits attempting to break into the Macalister household. Then after towards the end of the third act after Kevin has defeated the wet bandits buy basically nearly killing them in both hilarious and ingenious ways. The equilibrium theory is used by John Hughes (the writer of home alone) as the backbone of the films narrative and is used as a sort of template for which to give the movie a structure or a frame for the story to exist within. 

The third theory was suggested by a man named Rolan Barthes. Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist, critic and semiotician. Barthes is most known for his theory on narrative codes. Barthes suggested that there will be one or more of the five codes that describe the meaning of a text or narrative. Barthes also suggested that every text may be open (unravelled in a lot of different ways) or they can be closed (there is only one obvious thread to pull on). The five narrative codes suggested by Barthes are as follows: Hermeneutic / Enigma code, Proairetic / Action code, Semantic code, Symbolic code and finally Referential code. Firstly, Enigma code refers to a mystery within the text. Multiple clues are dropped throughout the narrative but no answers are given, enigmas are used within the narrative to make the audience want to know more however unanswered enigmas tend to frustrate audience members.

Action codes contain sequential elements of action in the narrative. Proairetic elements are used to add suspense to the narrative. Semantic code refers to parts within the text that suggests or refers to additional meanings to additional meanings, this means that it has an extra layer of meaning in addition to its literal meaning. Elements of Semantic code are known as Semes, a seme has a connotative function within the text or narrative. Symbolic code is about symbolism within the text or narrative, it exercises opposites to show contrast and create greater meaning this creates tension, drama and character development. Finally, Referential code refers to anything in the text which refers to an external body of knowledge such as a scientific, historical and cultural.

The Final theory was proposed by Claude Levi Strauss. Strauss was a French anthropologist who lived in the early 1900s and believed that the way we understand certain words depends not so much on any meaning they themselves directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its opposite. Strauss called it binary opposites. Examples of binary opposition are good vs evil, young vs old and male vs female. Binary opposites are very common in film and TV. As well as being very easy to spot and are generally very simple concepts. For example, in superhero films the binary opposition of good vs evil is one of the central parts of the narrative e.g. captain America vs the red skull and Thor vs loki in their respective franchises. 

However, there are a lot of complex and unusual oppositions especially in recent years. E.g. the dark knight with Harvey dent believing in a pure type of good while batman believes in a whatever it takes type of good. Another example would be marvel’s civil war with Steve rogers and tony stark being on opposite sides of the argument. Strauss also believed that our understanding of the word “villain” depends on the definition of the opposite being “hero”. Binary oppositions are commonplace in both film and TV. One genre that uses binary oppositions more frequently than others is horror. A large majority of horror movies and television shows utilise multiple sets of binary oppositions within their narratives. Typical sets of binary oppositions used in horror movies are pure vs unpure, innocent vs guilty, sane vs insane, rational vs irrational, human vs supernatural and victim vs killer.

Films tell stories in a multitude of different ways. There are several factors that go into a film telling a cohesive and intriguing story. To fully express my point, I’m going to explain how the film baby driver uses different aspects of film to tell the narrative to the audience. The reason why I have chosen baby driver is for two simple reasons, Firstly, the writer and director of the film Edgar wright uses the different aspects of filmmaking to add to the narrative and develop the characters and invest the audience in the world of the film. And secondly, the film is generally very good for analysis and explanation.

There are 3 factors that go into baby driver’s story and the world it takes place in. These are the screenplay (obviously), soundtrack/sound design, costume design and set design. Before I delve into this there are two things I want to establish. Firstly, the screenplay and soundtrack go hand in hand primarily because of the way Edgar wright wrote the screenplay around the music and secondly one set design directly links to the costume design for a character. Right back to the main point, the screenplay has very sparse dialogue which you don’t notice when you watch the film which is a testament to Edgar wright’s talent. Just as a fun anecdote the first four pages contains one line of dialogue and it isn’t even from one of the main cast. Anyway, the narrative follows the three-act structure and the equilibrium theory as well as binary oppositions with the life baby wants vs the life he is forced into as well as baby’s moral code vs the violent nature of those he associates with. The narrative similar to other Edgar wright films uses overused tropes and teqniques and makes them feel fresh and original. 

Next is the soundtrack, now the soundtrack is the heart and soul of the picture and the film revolves around the soundtrack which is a very creative and great idea and makes for a very interesting film from both a filmmaking perspective and an entertainment perspective. The soundtrack links into the story as it works within the context of the narrative and it is used to foreshadow events. For example, in the gas station scene where the crew are heading to a pickup between the second and third heist where baby, bats, darling and buddy are in baby’s car and the song that is playing on baby’s iPod features the lyrics which darling sings along to which goes as follows “nowhere to run, baby”. This foreshadows baby being unable to leave the criminal world the way he wanted to.

Next is the costume design which adds more development to the characters with the way they dress. Baby is dressed in monochrome attire for a large majority of the film, primarily the first two thirds of the film. Anyway, the way baby dresses make him stand out from the rest of the criminals who are all dressed in bright vibrant colours. His undershirt does also get darker over the course of the film to show baby’s change in character which baby starting out seeing the world in black and white but over the course the film he is exposed to a grey area and by the end he sees the world in a much different way. Deborah when she is working in the diner wears monochrome clothing as well which could be to show the connection between baby and Deborah, but when her and baby are falling in love and when she is not in work she is in florescent yellow and denim, this shows that she is brighting up his world both in a metaphorical sense and in a literal sense with baby even dawning denim in a portion of the final chase.

Next I am going to talk about the codes and conventions of genre. To illustrate this I am going to compare two films within the same genre. I will be doing this for 2 genres with arguably different audiences, I will then compare the 2 genres as a whole, then their audiences and how they cater to their audience. The first genre I will talk about is the Action Genre. The reason why I have picked the action genre is because the action genre is very popular genre for both audiences and filmmakers as it is relatively easy to both produce and market an action film. Action films are also very good at pulling in a substantially large audience because of the broad scope of people will go to see an action film because they can shut off their brains and escape into a world without consequences and just have fun for a couple hours. The 2 movies within the action genre that I will be comparing are Dawn of the planet of the apes and captain America: the winter solider.Now while neither of these films are stereotypical action movies and you cant really turn your brain off when watching either of these 2 films, in fact they are more on the borders of being action film but they still count.Anyway The reason why i have chosen these two films is because while they may seem to be distinctly different with one being a film about intelligent apes in the post apocalyptic society and the other is a superhero film about a guy who is basically the american flag in a human form.Well the two films actually have one huge similarity the arc of their protagonists.The core of the films are both the same well they have the same idea and both Matt Reeves and the Russo Brothers respectively took that idea and built both caesar and steve rogers arcs around that core idea.

The Core of these 2 character arcs are the protagonists world being flipped on its head as everything they believed comes into question and their morals and beliefs will be tested.Now for caesar this is 2 things: The survival of the humans and Koba's betrayal/revolution.With Steve Rogers (Captain America) this is also 2 key things: the return of Bucky Barnes and the resurgence of Hydra.There are a couple similarities between the two stories.In both stories/character arcs both events that bring the protagonists world into question are a returning threat that the protagonist didn't believe possible and the other is a personal threat in one of the protagonists close friends changing sides. Ironically both Dawn of The Planet of The Apes and Captain America: The Winter Solider released theatrically in 2014.Another similarity between Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and Captain America: The Winter Solider is in the the beliefs of Caesar and Steve Rogers.What i mean by this is that both share the idea that everyone has the potential to be good.Caeser believes this about the humans and Steve Rogers believes this about The Winter Solider/Bucky Barnes.Both characters share the same reasoning behind their beliefs which is that they have both seen the good side of both the humans and Bucky respectively.

The Movies also share the similarity of having a "split third act",what i mean by this is in the final battle of the film is cut between two confrontations.In Dawn of The Planet Of The Apes the 2 confrontations are the fight between Caesar and Koba a top the unfinished tower in the middle of they human base.The other confrontation is between Malcolm and Dreyfus at the base of the tower with after an intense argument Dreyfus triggers a bomb which blows up the base of the tower in turn killing him with Malcolm surviving just barely.In Captain America: The Winter Solider the 2 confrontations shown at the climax of the film are the fight between Steve Rogers/Captain America and Bucky Barnes/The Winter Solider on a helicarrier and Nick Fury confronting Alexander Pierce in Shield/Hydra headquarters.Another similarity between Dawn of The Planet Of The Apes and Captain America: The Winter Solider is the betrayal story well to an extent the betrayals in the films are from different character types in the narrative and at different levels but both films do involve both a betrayal plot and a revolution plot.In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Koba betrays Caesar and starts an ape revolution with the end goal of making the humans extinct and enforcing ape surperiority.In Captain America:The Winter Solider the betrayal comes from Alexander Pierce and Shield which leads to the discovery that hydra still exists 

and is stronger than ever.The Revolution is Steve Rogers and his group who's mission is to take out hydra and irradicate them once and for all.

The Movies obviously have their differences also which is to be expected since they are two separate intellectual properties.My point is that the movies have similarities not just between the two but between other action movies and in fact i would go as far to say that at least one element featured in both of these movies is used in every film in the action genre.Both Dawn for the Planet of the Apes and Captain America: The Winter Solider deal with an internal struggle within the Protagonist of the film  which is spurred on by what they have witnessed and with a the resurgence of something from the heroes past and the unexpected betrayal from within the heroes circle leaving them vulnerable and putting their beliefs into question. This will be their darkest hour and will define who they are going forward.

The other genre i will be using to compare genres is the horror genre. The reason i picked the horror genre is because it is the opposite of the action genre in the tone, as well as pacing and atmosphere. Now the two films i will be comparing within the horror genre to explore the codes and conventions of the genre as a whole are the Conjuring 2 and Evil Dead 2.The reason why i am picking these two movies is because the two movies two ends of the horror genre. One being a full on horror while the other is a horror comedy. Firstly the biggest similarity between the Conjuring 2 and Evil Dead 2 is that they are both sequels that in multiple ways outshine the original. Another big similarity between the two films is the technical side especially in the scarier sequences. Both films feature both humour and terror and utilise practical effects all be it in varying degrees.

In conclusion i think that the horror genre and the action genre both share an audience but don’t just focus on that audience. Either intentionally or unintentionally, Both the horror genre and the action genre appeal to a similar audience, well their Share a portion of each other’s audience with both genres typically being enjoyed by people between the ages of 15 and 25. Now whereas action films also market to people over the age of 40 as well, the horror genre tends to stay within the bubble of people between the ages of 15 and 25. The codes and conventions of the two genres are quite different and while they do share similar codes and conventions they are few and far between. The two genres share a couple of broad similarities in audience and conventions. But the two genres in the grand scheme of things are at either ends of the spectrum. However, this doesn’t mean that the two genres don’t blend together sometimes, like most genres they will blend elements and conventions of the other. The two genres are both very popular as well as over saturated as they are the most commonly produced films, this is due to their simple and easily achievable codes and conventions. These two genres of film are also the two most common types of film that are produced and distributed because of the cheapness of the productions. To conclude my essay I will make one final point and that is while the horror genre and the action genre are on the two opposite ends of the genre types they are very much alike in ways that are more attributed to the business side of film making than the creative side.