Analysing Iconography,

Narrative and Generic

Conventions
Sci Fi and Romantic Comedy.
 To Recap
• 1) Iconography –the study of icons or
iconic images: Visual or tangible
objects or persons that signify
invisible or intangible concepts.
• 2) Generic Convention: The elements
of narrative structure that we
expect to be in a specific genre of
film; if they are there the film
doesn’t make any sense to us
because we are unable to decode it
simply.
 Tzvetan Todorov’s Five
Points
• Stage 1 A state of equilibrium is
defined.
• Stage 2 Disruption to the
equilibrium by some action or
crisis.
• Stage 3 The Character(s)
recognition that there has been a
disruption, setting goals to
resolve problem.
• Stage 4 The Character(s) attempt
to repair the disruption,
obstacles need to be overcome to
restore order.
 Why is Narrative not the
same as story?
• When you sit down to watch a film the
narrative structure help defines the
story. It needs to be structured to help
the viewer understand the message
contained within, giving the film
meaning throughout.
• However you need to keep in mind that
the narrative structure only applies to
the way in which a story is told not
the story itself.....meaning the
narrative structure is the
chronological stages or steps that
progress from one to the other
throughout the story.
• With the five stage layout the narrative
becomes more comprehensive.
• However its essential to remember films need
to be seamless as the chain of events unfold,
with all the questions raised answered and all
the loose ends tied up unless you want to
break the conventions, induce a cliff hangar,
intentionally create doubt in the minds of the
audience and leave them questioning.
• Even though these stages are presented here
as a linear structure there is no golden rule
that it has to be this way, especially if a fill
maker wishes to create a non-linear structure.
Should he or she wish to they can always
muddle up the chronological order and have
the end at the beginning. (Examples: Pulp
Fiction, Carlito’s Way, Memento)
• A film is very much like any other form of
comunication. Successful narratives need
clear goals that are communicated to the
viewer.
 Characters as generic
conventions
• There are archetypal characters in
most genres to give us an idea of
what is going on. Audiences find
too much guess work frustrating.
• Periodically the conventions of the
generic character are overturned in
order to reinvent the genre, or
when the standard view of a
specific character becomes
culturally assimilated and
uncontroversial
For Example
 The importance of the man
with no name
• When Sergio Leone made A Fist Full of
Dollars, the noble, courageous and valiant
view of the cowboy was replaced with a
more dark and mercenary character.
• Clint Eastwood plays an enigmatic bounty
hunter who is amoral and motivated only
by self interest.
• This was a far cry from the virtual
propaganda of the typical Hollywood
Studio Western.
• Since the late 60’s virtually all westerns
have contained an element of revisionism
within them. Our cultural notions of the
Why were cinema audiences so
ready to reject this
conventional view of American
masculinity and heroism?
 Screening
• The first screening we are going to
examine is the 1982 film Blade
Runner. This week we are going to
focus closely on generic
conventions and iconography.
• We need to look for archetypal
characters, heroes, villains and the
like so we look to another theorist,
Vladimir Propp.
 Propp’s Characters.
• The villain — struggles against the hero.
• The donor - prepares the hero or gives the hero
some magical object.
• The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the
quest.
• The princess and her father — gives the task to
the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the
hero, often sought for during the narrative.
• The dispatcher — character who makes the lack
known and sends the hero off.
• The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the
donor, weds the princess.
• [False hero] — takes credit for the hero’s
actions or tries to marry the princess.
 Conventions
• See which of these characters
emerge in the screening, which of
them are not present and which of
the conventional characters are
subverted in order to change the
narrative.
• Are our heroes truly heroic?
• Are our villains truly evil?
• Is our dispatcher doing what he
should?