Science Fiction Keynote

 “Genre is a class or category of work (usually in film/music/art) that has a particular form, content, technique, or look.”

Some other genre examples are:

Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Comedy, Horror, Fantasy, Romance, Thriller and more..

 In a Science Fiction Movie, you would expect to see:

 Futuristic Sets

Aliens or Unknown Creatures

Futuristic Weaponry and Clothes

Different Technology (like TimeTravel or flying cars)

Past Culture References (Like comic books or present celebrity tributes - like a statue or book)

Different Food/Drink

Typical Protagonist Characteristics:

Bold/Brave

Adventurous

Reckless/Careful (Depending on Film)

Sensitive

Different to the others (they have ‘The Force’ or are the ‘Chosen One’

Can be Humorous

 Bad

-Represents a sin/vice (greed, ambition, wrath, etc)

-Visually different to other characters (different colour scheme, looks scarier overall, battle scars)

-Deceptive

-Die iconically

Good

-Driven to fight due to 

sad back story or past engagement

Helps others

Is unique/special that 

others (super powers, etc)

Bold Personality

Well Equipped

 Stock characters are recognisable minor characters like evil minions (not just from Despicable Me) , mad professors, Bond Girls and the ‘Red Shirt’ who always dies in Star Trek.

 Examples of stock plots and situations for Science Fiction films:

Time Travel

Space Travel

Futuristic Battle Scenes between the Hero(s) and Enemy(s) in Space, etc…

Exploration of Uncharted planets/areas

Testing on Alien Species

 There are many films that are now very much related to science fiction, both old and new. Here are a few examples including the classics like Star Wars and Star Trek to more modern films like Iron Man and The Avengers.

 San Rafael Swell, Utah Vulcan, Star Trek

Chott el Jerid, Tunisia Tattoine, Star Wars

Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, The Terminator (1984)

There are more locations but many are computer generated due to the genre.

 The stock sound for a sci-fi gun is in nearly every space themed Sci-Fi film

Computer beeping and ticking is also very common in Sci-Fi films.

Teleportation/beam sounds are also used in Sci-Fi commonly. Ones that use it a lot are Star Trek and other similar films.

 The usual theme with sci-fi films is that there is a good side and a ‘dark’ side of people fighting for good and evil. The good side usually wins after many sci-fi battles between the two sides. There is also sometimes a romance between the main ‘hero’ and another of the characters (on either side). It usually ends with either a cliffhanger (for a future film[s]) or with the ‘dark’ side loosing.

 The science fiction genre is always changing for new films and stories released every year. One of the most changed things however is having new and different styles of special effects to cater for the wide imagination of the writers and story tellers. The main story themes do seem to stay fairly similar in the way of plot (good side, dark side, etc…) although some may have different plot 

twists etc…

 2046 is a 2004 Chinese Sci-fi film about a women who enter a science fiction author's life over the course of a few years and looses the women (who eventually turns out to be an android). The story is set over three films where he pursues this woman. It is called 2046 because the writer and his ‘true love’ meet in hotel rom No. 2046 which is the doorway to a futuristic land of hover trains and gravity defying buildings.

Akira is a 1988 animated film where in 1988 the, Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo. In 2019, 31 years after nuking the city, Can-ay-da, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tet-sue-o from a secret government project. He battles against anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader with Tet-sue-o’s supernatural powers. A final battle is fought in the Tokyo Olympiad exposing the Government’s experimental secrets.