A Scanner Darkly is an animated sci-fi mystery drama (Warner Bros), heavily influenced by identity and Drug influences. This is similar to what we wish to achieve with our film, influences of Drugs and its misuse in relation to ones greed. This film is an animation aimed towards adults as evident by its use of drugs, violence, language and sexual content. This is typical of the genre as its "a typical" delivery of content through the mehod of animation is unusual and an interesting idea and as a result allows for the engagement of the audience. The attractive part of this movie for the audience is its uniqueness and use of the future and the possibilities of technology and such (agrees with the codes and conventions of this genre). This movie is distributed by Warner Bros, this is very typical of a Sci-fi movie as it is attempting to reach a larger audience. Various social groups have been represented here, such as the middle aged, law enforcement officers, drug addicts and suppliers as well as lower to middle class groups, this although may or may not be relate-able to the entire target audience it still makes for an extremely interesting plot as all of these represented social groups interact with each other and anyone who has experienced the effects of hallucinogens etc. this aspect will be relate-able. The use of well renowned actors such as Keanu Reaves and Robert Downey jr. is also a method this film used to target its selected audience.
A Scanner Darkly appears to adhere to the many codes and conventions of the Sci-fi genre: it is set in the near future, its misé en scene is representative of the codes and conventions as well such as the scramble suit and the drug Substance D, both having Sci-fi influences. The bright vibrant colour scheme and detailed animation is also communicative of the Sci-fi genre as it is a representation of technology and its use makes the film very unique and unmistakably Sci-fi. The titles and text style used is also very unique and has a "techy"quality surrounding them. Sound is used to much great effect in this film, ranging from the string introduction to the movie, unique sound effects throughout for emphasise at certain points, exaggerated sounds are also used as well, very typical of Sci-fi as these exaggerated noised are quite engaging due to their uniqueness. The voice acting is outstanding in this movie, as due to the nature of the film (being an animation) this is an extremely effective method of delivery. The various cuts (jump cuts/ shot reverse shot/ two shot) used while being effective and fairly typical of a Sci-fi movie are not strictly Sci-fi genre specific, they appear to be more representative of the action/drama genre, which is reflective in the hybrid nature of this genre and its use of multiple genre codes and conventions.
The typewriter texts style, font, colour and method of presentation to the audience also appears much more appealing and in turn makes the audience more likely to pay attention to the information displayed. We hope to use this style in the future in our film as its attractive style make it a dynamic display of text; as the words are slowly typed onto screen.
At the moment we hope that any text displayed before the opening title such as cast and opening credits will be communicated artistically in an attractive manner, we hope to capture some leaves falling towards the camera and add a slow motion effect at certain points, as it slows down we want the text to flicker on and off screen similar to the text in A Scanner Darkly. We also hope to use a similar effect from the colour scheme of having a black background with a contrasting light coloured font in the foreground.
During this opening scene the character on screen appears to be hallucinating, this is a side effect from the drug Substance D, he is hallucinating that he is plagued by aphids as his mind convinces him that these insects are swarming over him, his home and his dog. This will hopefully further inform the premise of our plot in our film as we hop to include a drug inspired by that of Substance D and that it results in some similar side effects such as hallucinations and so on.
We also hope to take inspiration from the mirror scene in this opening, we wish to communicate a similar atmosphere of panic and uneasiness, at the moment we intend to be influenced by this scene and a similar scene from Donnie Darko, both have the similar action of the character staring into a mirror and the expression on their face is communicative of the scenes atmosphere as a result, this will hopefully inform our final plot.
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