Project: Research for #1 question of CCR post

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? 

This is the first question of the CCR. 

Genre conventions

My film is of the sci-fi genre, specifically space. The sci-fi genre is usually set in a futuristic setting, usually interpretations of what civilization look like years ahead. Usually this follows with a concept of aliens, space travel, Ai, or unworldly abilities like telekinesis or mind control. 

Talking specifically about space films, they are usually set in space are usually placed beyond Earth, like distant planets or space stations or other galaxies. This genre is usually followed by advanced technology, aliens, and artificial intelligence. The greatest movies that define this movie genre is 2001 A Space Odyssey and Interstellar. These films usually show the vast expanse of space and the uncertain fate that comes with the unknown.  

Staying within the realm of conventions

My film opening mostly secedes to the usual conventions of sci-fi (space). Space, outer world travel, spacecrafts, planets, etc. Even most of the shots I am using are shots from a plethora of sci-fi movies. 

I think the main similarity my film has to other space films, other than being in space, is how quiet some scenes are. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey. In my case, all my scenes are met with no dialogue. Even for movies like Interstellar, where a lot of important dialogue is spoken, still has a bunch of scenes that are necessarily silent to build up tension and give the audience room to analyze and take in the visuals. 

Representation

Sci-fi are usually represented by complex philosophical ideas. Like how intelligent does a being need to be to count as human, or if our view of reality is not reality at all? Questions like these come from movies like Bladerunner and The Matrix. The big fascination with using such complex concepts into futuristic worlds is usually film directors wanting to retell a classic old story into a new digital one (Again like The Matrix), bringing back an old legend into the modern age. 

Space movies take this a step further by meeting simple philosophical ideas, and twist them to make them more complicated. Like for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Despite most viewers who watch the movie for the first time don't get it, but Stanley Kubrick, the director of 2001, said in a phone call interview with Jun'ichi Yaoi the simple narrative of 2001. 

"The idea was supposed to be that he is taken in by god-like entities, creatures of pure energy and intelligence with no shape or form. They put him in what I suppose you could describe as a human zoo to study him, and his whole life passes from that point on in that room. And he has no sense of time. It just seems to happen as it does in the film. They choose this room, which is a very inaccurate replica of French architecture (deliberately so, inaccurate) because one was suggesting that they had some idea of something that he might think was pretty, but wasn’t quite sure. Just as we’re not quite sure what do in zoos with animals to try to give them what we think is their natural environment. Anyway, when they get finished with him, as happens in so many myths of all cultures in the world, he is transformed into some kind of super being and sent back to Earth, transformed and made into some sort of superman. We have to only guess what happens when he goes back."

Although 2001 looks very confusing, the plot is actually a lot simpler than it looks. It is just complicated because there is no dialogue, leaving the viewers to interpret the meaning of the film by themselves. 

And Kubrick explains this simple premise as what happened, not delving deep into what the meaning of it all actually is.