Zombies, Genre and Steve Neale!

KEY THEORIST Steve Neale

Neale argues that genre works through presenting a series of easily identifiable generic paradigms in order to ensure an audience. However, in order to maintain audiences over time, there is also a requirement for the producer to vary genre conventions. Thus, all media products exist as a combination of the repetition and difference of genre conventions.

How can we apply this to Les Revenants? 

My response: We can apply this to Les Revenants, as it combines a variety of conventions from particular genres such as 'supernatural', 'zombies' and 'drama' to create a new, progressive version of the horror genre which interests an audience. 

Paradigmatic features of the zombie genre:

• Morality
• Rising from the dead
• Pale faces
• Creepy child
• Moving on mass
• Cinematography - dusk shooting
• Shock jump scares
• Enigma 
• Narrative fragmented 

Les Revenant does have elements of the 'zombie' genre, HOWEVER, it could be argued that they are highly atypical, unconventional and subversive in comparison to traditional, generic features.

French 'Poetic Realism' tradition

Some 1930's French films were categorised by their 'poetic realism', as they has a lyrical style aimed at highlighting the poetry within reality. Shots were simply constructed but with an otherworldly purity from the lighting and camera techniques used. They often dealt with characters who were disillusioned and had one final chance at achieving happiness. They were fatalistic in tone and had a sense of impending doom and bittersweet irony of human existence.

Words to include: negotiation, ideology, polysemy, intertextuality, hegemony.

^ using these words will give you a better opportunity to gain marks.

What are the genre conventions of Les Revenants, how do they work, and how have they been developed?

How would you define genre?

My own definition task: 

In media, genre is the product of combining particular media language techniques which have conventional connotations that relate to a specific theme. For example; the horror genre would be created through the use of mise-en-scene such as blood, editing such as jump scares, and lighting such as low-light and visibility.

Real definition: "Genre is essential for both audiences and producers alike. It is a way of categorising media texts. This allows the audience to identify what type of media products to select based on their own expectations and prior knowledge. Genre is also important to producers, as it allows them to specifically target audiences, and thus ensure profit. Conventions are the building blocks of genre, acting as a crucial signpost."

Les revenants takes a more challenging, subversive approach to genre convention. Rather than being categorised into one or two genres, it's a text that encompasses many - a fluid, post-modern drama that embodies genre hybridity, polysemy and the complexity of modern day media. 

Task "point (evidence!)

Cinematography 

• The use of a high-angle camera shot over the bus, creates the narrative that the travellers inside the vehicle are vulnerable, as something is looking down over them. This also helps to position the audience as the predator, introducing the emotion of fear, as the audience worry what 'their' actions will cause. This links into horror genre conventions.
• This high-angle camera shot also focalises on the water which surrounds the bus, as deep water is associated with drowning and therefore death, this similarly contributes to the horror genre conventions.
• The camera then pans upwards, providing a focus on the mountains. Mountains have connotations of being isolated and inhabited by supernatural and scary creatures such as Yeti's, allowing the use of cinematography to pay tribute to a sense of supernaturalism and the fear of the unknown.

Mise-en-scene

• Mise-en-scene of costume, all very regular looking outfits - appropriate scarves and clothing for the weather, stereotypical working-class costumes. Creates a sense of familiarity for the target, working-class audience, once again fuelling fear, as the likelihood of the events occurring in the episode seem more and more realistic to the audience.
• Mise-en-scene of setting - isolated mountains, increase in fog and mist, low-visibility. Makes the audience fearful as they cannot see the surroundings fully.
• Binary opposition between the live butterflies and dead introduces supernatural

Editing

• Editing is very normal, stereotypical of drama genres etc, contributes to this idea of realism which is similarly shared through the performances of the actors. 
• There is a purposeful lack of quick-cut after the bus goes over the edge of the mountain, arguably to focus on the tragedy and allow the audience time to process. This is subversive of the horror genre as it not quick paced.

Sound 

• Calming piano music binary opposes the isolated setting, which is linked to horror due to the unavailability to contact any other humans. This sense of calmness is conventionally used within horror before a jump scare, so this immediately introduces the emotion of being on-edge and fearful from the beginning.
• Diegetic sounds of screams and the bus crashing

Semiotic Code

• The use of the deep green colour throughout the opening, has connotations of grossness, and is a colour commonly linked to zombies. This binary opposes the consistent use of 'white', which could be symbolically representative of the children, and foreshadow their eventual transition into zombie-like creatures. 
• Symbolic coding - snow melts and eventually turns green. Snow is white and has symbolic connotations of purity alike an innocent child, whereas green is gross and is stereotypically associated with zombies. This could foreshadow the change of children into zombies.