SciFi Cinema: Genre, Tools and Patterns
Notes, slides and examples from a presentation given at the Australian Film TV and Radio school, Nov 2009.
The presentation explors the fundementals of the SciFi genre for students of filmmaking and seeks to identify the key elements that provide access points for directors, writers, cinematographers, designers and editors to setup the construction of dynamic SciFi genre driven works.
The presentation does not attempt a comprehensive coverage of the complex topic of SciFI genre films but simply to provide a starting point for futher exploration.
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"Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible." - Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone
Vivian Sobchak has observed that the distinction between SciFi and Fantasy lies in the notion of belief. That where Fantasy film attempts to, and relies upon, our suspension of disbelief; Science Fiction seeks proactively to coerce the viewer to believe what they are viewing is possible (or could be...)(1) Sobchack cites "Science fiction film is a film genre which emphasizes actual, extrapolative, or speculative science and the empirical method, interacting in a social context with the lesser emphasized, but still present, transcendentalism of magic and religion, in an attempt to reconcile man with the unknown"(2) All this may be understood more simply by the concise comment by Rod Serling: "Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible"
No Robots. No Aliens. No Space Ships. No Hi-Technology. No Special Effects. No CGI. In fact not even any moving images. And yet Chris marker's classic La Jette (the basis for Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys) is definitive SciFi.
To understand why we need to pose the right questions, use genre as a tool not a set of constraints and dig a little deeper than the local video store shelf classifications. Understanding Genre gives you, as a filmmaker a great field to play on, solid ground to either work with or play against conventions. SciFi is a broad umbrella, often used liberally to describe anything that is set in the future, has a spaceship or involves aliens of some kind. But for SciFi as a genre is be useful to filmmakers it must be refined and made specific through observation of its consistencies and idiosyncrasies. Many films are often called SciFi but which do not adhere to core fundamentals of SciFi. The 2 prime offenders being Star Wars alien Alien - the former being fantasy and the later being horror. But to understand what these two films lack that position them outside of SciFi we need to define exactly what it takes to be true SciFi.
Here we might observe there are 4 essential building blocks of SciFi and, moreover, that these tenets shape both the Conceptualization and the Execution of a cinematic work.
At the heart of Sci Fi, the element that separates it from other genres, is the BIG QUESTION. The What If scenario that seeks to invest viewers with Wide Eyed Wonder, Seeing a Bigger Picture and asking big questions. In this regard SciFi is overtly and consistently concerned with SOCIOLOGY and DISASTER
Once triggered by a profound What If, SciFi explores the RAMIFICATIONS of that scenario, most often leading to a major change in ourselves as humans or of our pre-conceived ideas.
These conjoined twins of the WHAT IF and the RAMIFICATIONS of the What If provide us with a tangible convention of SciFi cinema - THE SYSTEM Characters are forced by the What IF, triggered by a technological or scientific change, to transgress the SYSTEM. Most often this involves characters one 'inside' the system forced 'outside' of it and in confrontation with it. Or else, the System is undermined to reveal a false reality. Metropolis, Blade Runner, Capricorn 1, WestWorld all present films where the characters are forced to question the system they once functioned within - Rick Deckard goes from hunting replicants to rescuing them and discovering he is one. Cowboy holiday makers are part of the game in Westworld until they are forced to confront the game itself as the computer malfunctions. Dark City and The Matrix both depict characters who not only must step outsde the system but who, when they do so, reveal the flase nature of the system itself. the world is not as they believed it to be and new truths are unveiled.
In Minority Report the central character shifts from being a part of the system - arresting people for pre-crime - to confronting the system when he himself is accused of a crime he has yet to commit.
What is crucially important about SciFi is that it is, at its essence, concerned with Humanity. SciFi is not about Aliens or Robots, these are merely depictions of humanity at it's most extreme and yard sticks by which we may measure and test our own humanity. This observation reveals a clear convention with SciFi films in regard to their depiction of non-humans.
If it is important that the viewer identify with the Alien(s) or Robot(s) on a humanitarian and empathetic level then the Alien/Robot is almost alwasy visually presented as Humanoid in shape and intellect. If the Alien/Robot is simply a source of fear, evil, detsruction or threat, then non-humanoid depictions are most prevalent.
Witness the visualizations of Aliens and Robots in ET, District9, Metropolis; as opposed to those in War of the Worlds, Independence Day, The Thing. In the former films our humanity is found in our ability to feel empathy beyond ourselves and our own - as viewers we journey from fear and distrust to understanding and compassion. In the later films the 'otherness' of the Alien/Robot serves as a pressure-cooker environment to test our humanity for each other in the face of in-humanity. In either case the SciFi genre relies heavily on the exploration of Humanity, what it is to be Human and what the ramifications for our humanity are when we transgress its bounds from within or our humanity is challenged from without.
A crucial concept in SciFi that helps shape our understanding of not just how to read but more importantly how to make effective and engaging SciFi films, is what Howard Suber has termed Bisociation (3) The concept is remarkably simple - the bringing together of 2 things that do not belong.
The ability for SciFi to work distinctly from fantasy films lies in its plausibility. Through a a connection (deep or thin) with logic, science and technology the SciFi film seeks to make itself plausible and possible (no matter how improbable) in the mind of the viewer. The seminal building block that allows that to take place is the the bringing together and fusion of the Foreign with the Familiar. That within the frame the SciFi world is depicted with elements that are both familiar to contemporary understanding of the world whilst also beign infused with foreign 'otherness'. This bisociation is prevalent Not just in concept but in design and production of SciFi films.
In 12 Monkeys the past looks more High-Tech than the future. The decrepit future is antiquated, almost steam-powered. The world of the future is both familiar yet foreign and so bridges the gap between improbability and plausibility. Similarly, but more simplistically, Westworld by premise brings together the well familiar Cowboy/WildWest genre and motifs with the unfamiliar robots. Likewise District 9 deliberately juxtaposes the unknown with the known by surplanting an Alien spacecraft onto a South African slum
In perhaps the best known example of SciFi Bisociation we bring together the foreign and unfamiliar images of space ships orbiting planets with the known and familiar music of Strauss. the far-fetched is brought closer to familiarity by proximity to something we know.
We can perhaps embed a stoic understanding of the building blocks of SciFi by addressing 4 key questions about the story we are telling and the world it is being told in.
Here we can take three disparate examples: In Blade Runner the 'desire' is to Legally murder (an immoral desire put in place by the System) In Minority Report the 'desire' is to be able to arrest people before they commit a crime rather than after (an illegal desire made legal by the System) In La Jette the desire is simply to Travel back in time (an impossible desire driven at by the System)
The Desire requires a Catalyst, a mechanism that enables the desire. In SciFi the Catalyst is entwined with Science and Technology which, more broadly expressed, is simply the ability to do or access that which was previously impossible. In Blade Runner the catalyst is the development of Robots who look just like humans In Minority Report the catalyst is Psychics who can see future crimes. In La Jette, the catalyst is very simply a mechanism to allow Time-Travel
The Inversion is the event or realization that inverts the character or viewers perspective and which transgresses the System - often revealing the system itself to be flawed. In Blade Runner, the Inversion is the realization that at least one robot has memories and does not know she is a robot. In Minority Report the person arresting people is accused of a crime themselves, one they haven't committed yet. With La Jette the inversion comes with the person traveling back in time seeing their own death.
Lastly the Bisociation provides filmmakers with a set of mechanics by which to depict the world the SciFi narrative takes place within. In Blade Runner the dominant Bisociation is a 1950's Film Noir visual style fused with Hi-tech design objects and spaces. This familiar and unfamiliar brought together also extends to the sound design where, old-fashioned Noir styling are set against a Vangelis score entirely produced with electronic synthesizers. With Minority Report the Bisociation is simpler; the Domestic, Suburban and ordinary intertwined and infused with the ultra-hi-tech. Suburban homes exactly as they are today are fitted, invaded and hybridized with future technology. In La Jette we see antiquated design, primitive technology and dystopian survivor aesthetics which enable futuristic advances (the past looks more advanced than the future)
What lastly sets SciFi apart from other genre's, in particular it's sibling Fantasy, is its preeminent reliance on the digetic world of its setting. Arguably in SciFi the WORLD IS THE STORY. We might understand this better when we consider films like Star Wars and Alien which as I commented earlier do not truly fit within the parameters of SciFi. If we took Star Wars and replaced all the light sabers with swords, all the guns with crossbows and the alien creatures with dragons and orcs we would have exactly the same film. A different world, different setting but the story, its themes, ideas and meanings, would not alter at all.
Likewise with Alien and Aliens if we re-set the films to the real-world, to the present day and made the Alien simply a 'Monster' the story again would remain largely unchanged - it would remain a Horror story with all the hallmarks of the Horror genre. In both cases niether Star Wars nor Alien rely upon science, technology, a critical question of What If or the specifics of their depicted world for the story to be viable.
The same cannot be said for true SciFi films. Blade Runner for example simply doesn't work without its specific setting of a run-down future where animals are rare and robotics supplicate life. For filmmakers this delivers a crucial concept for developing a viable SciFi film - that the World is the Story and the depiction and specificty of that world is crucial to the story's telling. Here again Bisociation provides a way to inform and articulate choices of Editing, Cinematography, Production Design and Sound design. Each arm of production is aware of their role in shaping and conjoining both Familiar and Foreign in the service of shaping Plausibility in the Improbable.
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1. Sobchack, V. 'Science Fiction' in Wes D. Gehring, ed., Handbook of American Film genres, Wesport, CN: Greenwood Press 1988
2. Sobchack, Vivian Carol (1997). Screening space: the American science fiction film. Rutgers University Press. p. 63
3. Suber H. (2006) The Power of Film. Michael Wiese Productions
