SCIENCE FICTION

1. SCIENCE FICTION 2.4 External - 3 Credits Demonstrate understanding of a media genre 2.2 Internal (Week 9) - 3 Credits Close read unfamiliar media text

3. Dystopia • dys⋅to⋅pi⋅a • –noun a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding. • DYSTOPIA (dystopic): An imagined universe (usually the future of our own world) in which a worst-case scenario is explored; the opposite of utopia. Dystopic stories have been especially influential on postmodernism, as writers and film-makers imagine the effects of various aspects of our current postmodern condition, for example, the world's take-over by machines (The Matrix); the social effects of the hyperreal (Neuromancer); a society completely run by media commercialism (The Running Man); the triumph of late capitalism (Blade Runner); bureaucratic control run amok (Brazil, 1984); and so on.

4. The Cold War • The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension, and competition that existed after World War II between the Soviet Union and the powers of the Western world under the leadership of the United States from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s. Throughout this period, the conflict was expressed through military coalitions, espionage, weapons development, invasions, propaganda, and competitive technological development, which included the space race. The conflict included costly defense spending and nucleararms race; the two superpowers never fought one another directly.

5. Definition of Science Fiction • Science Fiction Films are usually scientific, visionary, comic-strip-like, and imaginative, and usually visualized through fanciful, imaginative settings, expert film production design, advanced technology gadgets (i.e., robots and spaceships), scientific developments, or by fantastic special effects. Sci-fi films are complete with heroes, distant planets, impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and shadowy villains, futuristic technology and gizmos, and unknown and inexplicable forces. Many other SF films feature time travels or fantastic journeys, and are set either on Earth, into outer space, or (most often) into the future time. Quite a few examples of science-fiction cinema owe their origins to writers Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. • Science Fiction easily overlaps with horror films, particularly when technology or alien life forms become malevolent, as in the "Atomic Age" of sci-fi films in the 1950s. Horror films are designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time. Horror is often combined with science fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is threatened by aliens.

6. Science fiction as social commentary • This film genre has long served as a vehicle for thinly-disguised and often thoughtful social commentary. Presentation of issues that are difficult or disturbing for an audience can be made more acceptable when they are explored in a future setting or on a different, earth-like world. The altered context can allow for deeper examination and reflection of the ideas presented, with the perspective of a viewer watching remote events. • The type of commentary presented in a science fiction film often an illustrated the particular concerns of the period in which they were produced. Early sci-fi films expressed fears about automation replacing workers and the dehumanization of society through science and technology. Later films explored the fears of environmental catastrophe or technology-created disasters, and how they would impact society and individuals.

7. Science Fiction Elements • Science Fiction films commonly contain the following elements: • Low key lighting • Cold dystopic colours (red, green, black, silver) • Low angles on aliens, high angles on humans • Impressive Special Effects and technology focus (SFX) • Music – menacing, threatening • Plot - Science fiction plots often express the potential of technology to destroy humankind through Armaggedon-like events, wars between worlds, Earth-imperiling encounters or disasters. • Contain a ‘hero’ who saves the day (god/scientist/everyman)

8. History of Science Fiction • Science fiction films have led the way in special effects technology, and have also been used as a vehicle for social commentary. Science fiction films appeared very early in the silent film era. The initial attempts were short films of typically 1 to 2 minutes in duration, shot in black and white, but sometimes with colour tinting. These shorts usually had a technological theme and were often intended to be humorous. • In 1902, Georges Méliès released Le Voyage dans La Lune, the best-known early science fiction film. It portrayed a journey to the Moon in a spacecraft launched by a powerful gun. This movie's space travel plot, its fantastic vision of a Moon inhabited by frightening aliens, and its innovative special effects, influenced future sci-fi films. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZV-t3KzTpw

9. History of Science Fiction • The first science fiction feature films appeared in the 1920s after the Great War, showing increasing doubts about the destructive effects of technology gone mad. • Movies during the 1930s provided an escape from the poverty of the Great Depression, and it was during this era that film-making experienced a golden age. Movies now possessed a sound-track, and the extreme physical expression of the silent era was replaced by dialogue. Most sci-fi films focused on human drama, instead of aliens, space travel, or disasters. • With World War II dominating events during the 1940s, few science fiction films were released and several of those were mere vehicles for war propaganda. • The atomic bomb caused a renewed interest in science. The 1950s witnessed the emergence of the monster movie trend, driven by the anxieties and paranoia of the emerging cold war. With the threat of destructive rockets and the Atom Bomb looming in people's minds after World War II, mutant creature/monster films featured beasts that were released or atomically created from nuclear experiments or A-bomb accidents. • The 1950s were also the dawn of the space age as humans began to venture into outer space, and a number of films from this period reflected a fear of the consequences. Another popular theme from this period was movies about flying saucers, reflecting the prevalence of UFO sightings.

10. History of Science Fiction • 1970s - The era of manned trips to the Moon saw a resurgence of interest in the science fiction film.However, the early 1970s also saw the continued theme of paranoia, with humanity under threat from ecological or technological adversaries of its own creation.The conspiracy thriller film was a popular staple of this period, where the paranoia of plots by the national government or corporate entities had replaced the implied communist enemy of the 1950s. • The 1980s and later saw the growth of animation as a medium for science fiction films. • The 1990’s saw the emergence of the world wide web and spawned several internet-themed movies.Disaster movies remained popular, with themes updated to reflect recent influences. Advances in genetic science were also explored – E.g Jurassic Park and Armageddon. • As the decade progressed, computers played an increasingly important role in both the addition of special effects and the production of films. As the software developed in sophistication it was used to produce more complicated effects such as wave movement, explosions, and even fur-covered aliens. Also in the 90s, science-fiction films portrayed a world in which reality was unsure, unreliable, dreamlike, virtual, or non-existent. The blurring of reality with 'virtual', look-alike, or fake universes or worlds created by 'virtual reality (The Matrix) • 2000’s - Science-Fiction has returned to being a tool for political commentary in recent times with films like A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and Minority Report with the former questioning the increasing materialism of today's world and the latter questioning the political situations surrounding the world Post 9/11.

11. Alien Invasion • The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which an extraterrestrial society invades Earth with the intent to replace human life, enslave it under a colonial system, in some cases to use humans as food, or destroying the planet. • The most well-known alien invasion scenarios involve the aliens landing on Earth, destroying or abducting people, fighting and defeating Earth's military forces, and then destroying Earth's major cities. Usually, the bulk of the story follows the battles between the invaders and Earth's armies, as in The War of the Worlds. However, not all alien invasion stories follow this plot. • Alien occupation • Alien infiltration • Beneficial alien invasion

12. War of the Worlds • Producer George Pal and director Byron Haskins' landmark adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic novel that focuses on the invasion of the earth by Martian war machines.

13. Low Angle Shots • Blue filter • Low key lighting

14. Red filter • SFX • Music/Dialogue

15. Framing • Close ups