Here you'll find a Prezi I created and presented to my media class, explaining the genre I've chosen to base my short film on: Sci-Fi. Since my aspiration is to be a screenwriter it's important for me to gain this initial experience creating and documenting my own progress solely working by myself to create a short movie, fabricated by myself.
Now, you might have a fairly reasonable pre-conception of what Science-Fiction is. Chances are the moment you read that, an image of a robot or shiny, aeronautical vessel popped into your head, possibly followed by the presence of a few men with strange guns, death rays and weapons that boggle the minds of any fanatic. But you'd be wrong; not entirely, but not as right as you would have thought. In truth, Sci-Fi films, just like dystopian novels, base their stories in the future.
History of Genre
Science Fiction films have branched out to encompass many themes whilst still upholding the genre of a future dystopia. If you go back even to a time when film was first created you'll find that through the years the general theme found is based on supernatural, or magical elements, thus these films side with a form of religion. Whereas there are also films that look at the scientific and technological side of things. Moreover many of the classic films incorporate robots; however unrealistic they may have seemed 20 years ago, they are still an important element of Science Fiction we use in the films we watch today e.g. Iron Man, Transformers, Star Wars.
The 1927 film, Metropolis, was the first Sci-Fi feature length film. Before even that, the silent era of film existed, bringing forth films such as an adaptation of Mary Shelley's acclaimed book, Frankenstein (1910), which paved the way for Sci-Fi as an ever more shocking and dauntingly exciting genre for the Edwardian audience. Soon 1950s films such as The War of the Worlds and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) were released (later re-made), followed by Planet of the Apes (1968), Star Wars (1977), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Alien, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Terminator, The Matrix and many more famous names which to this day, are surrounded by ceaseless hype for how they've helped to re-invent societies, providing audiences with an escape from reality. It is also the case that most of the Sci-Fi films we see today are based on major book series and critically acclaimed dystopian novels e.g. Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid's Tale, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Divergent etc.
Finance
As you can read in the Prezi, I've mentioned how this is a challenging genre to even begin considering basing my short film on. Crucially Sci-Fi movies are all about using strange, new and advanced technology which just isn't going to be possible with the budget I have. A lot of the elements of these films have been created using CGI and many scenes use explosions to stimulate the audiences' attention. Immediately it is understandable why low budget companies choose to focus on making films using a social realism genre rather than Sci-Fi films because you need LOTS of capital to fund them. If the case were different and I had to make a trailer for a feature length film then I wouldn't have been able to construct a film implementing this genre. Fortunately, making a short lasting only 5 minutes gives me enough leeway to just about avoid using high-calibre technology but at the same time giving me the opportunity to use the resources I have, to make a film that can easily be considered dystopian.
N.B. My thoughts for my own film so far follow a similar plot to the 2007 film, I Am Legend- but without needing the creation of CGI 'creatures'.
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