Research : Codes and Conventions

During our lesson we used some slides to explain codes and conventions to us.

Just by looking at this we can see that it's a horror film, you can tell this by the dark colouring the skull and the font of the writing.

This film is a kids film, showed by the bright colours, the font and the picture.

This is a comedy, shown by the face expression used.

Your brain is a clever thing it allows you to identify whether or not you are watching a drama, a news broadcast, a game show, a reality show, etc quite easily. The reason you can do this is that you recognise the codes and conventions of each of these genres of television programme. 

For example, you expect a game show to have a host, contestants, an audience, a set that is personalised for that show, a theme tune, lighting that illuminates the contestants, close up shots of contestants as they answer, shot-reverse shot between the host and contestant(s) if a conversation is taking place, etc.

The same applies to genres of film. Every genre of film has its own codes and conventions which help us to identify it. 

What are codes?

Codes are elements that can be decoded by the audience to provide meaning. These can be divided most easily into 2 groups; technical codes and symbolic codes.

Technical codes include the 'technical' aspects of creating a piece of moving image media. This includes things such as camera shots, angles and movements, editing, sound, titles and lighting. 

Symbolic codes include the main elements of mise-en-scene within a film. Mise-en-scene is a French term that means 'put in the scene'. This covers things such as costume, make-up, setting and props. If we see a girl in a short dress with bright red lipstick we may, as an audience, make an assumption about her. We do this because of the symbolic value attached to these items.

What are conventions?

Conventions are the expected rules that, as an audience, we expect in a specific genre. For example, in a horror film we expect to see conventions such as a killer stalking a victim, a character being placed in a position of peril, a mobile phone running out of battery or losing signal at a crucial moment.

Summary

An easy way to think of codes and conventions is to view them as being the necessary ingredients to create a perfect generic film recipe. If you are given the task, which you will be, of thinking of an idea for a teen horror film you can start by creating a list of essential ingredients.