Science Fiction Research Activity

Science fiction, often called sci-fi, is a genre of film. It is very common in today's day and age. You most likely have seen a film that falls under the sci-fi genre. But what exactly is sci-fi?

Content

Sci-fi is a genre that has many futuristic elements and is set in a timespan far into the future, where there are many scientific and technological advancements. Most of the content shown won't be possible to reproduce in real life. Many concepts are shown, including artificial intelligence, extremely futuristic technologies, and time travel. The setting in most films are set in a dystopian world, but some films can be on the complete opposite side of the spectrum and be very utopian or feature an escape to a utopian world. It can warn us about the dangers of using technology to enhance our lives, and what could happen if it fell into the wrong hands.

Space travel is a common theme in sci-fi. One great example of this is in the Star Wars series, directed by George Lucas. In it, characters can travel from planets in spaceships that often travel multiple times faster than the speed of light. This is most often seen in space operas, a subgenre of sci-fi, but can be present in other films.

The Millennium Falcon is shown, a spaceship piloted in Star Wars.

Aliens can be in sci-fi films, most often those that are set in the present time. These aliens are often very important to the plot. Sometimes they are fully-fledged characters just like humans, where being an alien makes sense, but in other cases, they are an alien just to be an alien. A great example of this is in ET, directed by Steven Spielberg. In the film, an alien, ET, has crash-landed on Earth. Other characters have to help ET get back to his home.

ET, the alien from E.T., the Extraterrestrial.

Production Techniques

Sci-fi films use many different production techniques. One of the most obvious is the heavy use of CGI, or computer-generated imagery. Many things in sci-fi films, like futuristic buildings, aliens, and spaceships cannot plausibly be built in real life using current-day technology. Rather than try to build them, which would be extremely expensive, companies use CGI to generate the desired product for a much cheaper price. One major example of CGI used is in Star Wars. The futuristic city of Coruscant, filled with intricate architecture would have cost a large amount of money to build. Instead, Lucasfilm decided to use CGI to create Coruscant.

The ecumenopolis of Coruscant, from Star Wars, during the night.

Scenes often have a large amount of contrast, especially in a futuristic city. However, there is often one prominent color, like white or black. In more dystopian scenes, the color palette can be monotonous and cold. In the movie Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg, The Stacks is a place in Columbus, Ohio where trailer homes, RVs, and shipping containers are stacked on top of each other. Spielberg chose to make the color palette cold and monotonous to show the living conditions of those who live in The Stacks as bleak and shows the dystopian nature that the people of Columbus have to live in.

The harsh conditions of The Stacks from the film Ready Player One.

Marketing

The main audience of sci-fi film viewers are mainly boys from the ages of 15-35. However, if the film discusses more dystopian themes can be targeted toward a more mature audience. Most films have trailers that showcase the size of what's happening in the film and the technological marvels shown. For established series, the trailers can showcase notable characters or new ones that are likely to be fan favorites.

Film posters often show the main characters by showcasing them. In TRON (1982), directed by Steven Lisberger, the two main characters, Kevin Flynn and Lora Baines are showcased as the main centerpiece of the poster. Light beams are shown pointing away from Flynn as the disk in his hands rises. The black background helps emphasize the light and disk. It also lets the viewer try to fill in what is happening in the background.

The film poster for the film TRON (1982).

Star Wars

A blog post about sci-fi would not be complete without discussing the Star Wars series. The most famous film, Star Wars: A New Hope, starts out with the Death Star, a weapon the size of a moon, capable of destroying a planet, being finished. It is made by the Empire, an allegory for Nazi Germany. Princess Leia Organa gets a hold of the plants of the Death Star, to send to the Rebellion. She gets captured by Darth Vader but manages to send her plans to her droids, C3P0 and R2-D2. Robots and droids are an element of sci-fi films. With them being fully sentient, they might as well be artificial intelligence. Obi-Wan Kenobi gives the droids to Luke Skywalker, his nephew. He accidentally triggers R2-D2 to play Princess Leia's message. Obi-Wan teaches Luke the ways of the Jedi, to destroy the Death Star. Luke flies a spaceship, which is a feature of sci-fi and manages to exploit a weak point of the Death Stars architecture and makes the entire weapon explode. The film takes place mostly in space and extraterrestrial planets are a core element of sci-fi. CGI is heavily used in creating planets and adding the final touches to spaceships. Star Wars is a quintessential classic sci-fi film.

The Death Star from Star Wars: A New Hope.

Ready Player One

Ready Player One, while not a classic known by many, is still a semi-prominent sci-fi film. The film is set in a dystopian setting, with many characters living in trailer homes and RVs stacked against each other, called Stacks. The death of James Halliday, the owner of the OASIS, an escape from reality in virtual reality. Virtual reality is a sci-fi feature, as it is a futuristic technology that is currently in its infancy. With his death, he creates a contest of 3 challenges where the first one to complete all 3 gets the prize of having full control over the OASIS. Wade Watts, known in-game as Parzival decides to take part in the competition. The first challenge is a race in a futuristic Delorean car, a reference to the Delorean used in the Back to the Future franchise. This car contains futuristic technology, an aspect of modern-day sci-fi. Parzival completes this challenge with his friend, Aech and Art3mis. The company IOI uses its employees to try to complete the competition, because of the OASIS's importance in the films' society. Nolan Sorrento, the founder, tries to stop Parzival from winning, by blowing up the Stack he lives in. Parzival survives and completes the second challenge, "asking out" Hallidays' teen crush, with Art3mis. Parzival teams up with Aech, Art3mis, and 2 new players, Daito and Sho to form the High-5. Together, they take on the IOI with a planet-killing bomb, and later the final challenge, locating a treasure room from an easter egg in the Atari video game, Adventure. Anorak is waiting for him to sign the final contract that gives Parzival full ownership of the OASIS. This film is clearly a science fiction film.