Task 2.4 (Generic Conventions)

The four different genres I have chosen to investigate the generic conventions and iconography of are, Action, War, Comedy and Horror. Generic conventions are specific features of a film that allow the film to be put in a specific genre, it is also what people expect to happen in the film. Iconorgphy is the different things you expect to see in different genres for example props, mis-en-scene, costime or even plotline.

Generic conventions of an Action genre are that there is a car chase or chase with expensive vehicles by the protagonist and the antagonist and example of this would be a james bond film whereby almost every film this occurs. This usually results in one veichle being destroyed. Explosions are also common in action films and can be invloved with the car chase or other buildings Another generic convention is fight scenes which usually involve weapons or old fashioned "punch ups".



Iconography of an Action genre are guns, fast and expensive cars and attractive women. For example the film 'Italian Job (remake)' is of the action genre, there is a long car chase with three mini coopers and a helicopter also hand guns are involved and an attractive lady played by Charlize Theron.



Generic conventions of war films are usually based on true life events which may have been altered to make the film a little bit more pleasing to the audience. Usually in a war film there is a situation where a western power intervens to solve a problem. Whilst solving that problem there is usually another sub problem which occurs an example of this would be in the film ' Black Hawk Down' where the American task force is sent in to try and overthrow the Somalian war lord whilst in the process of doing this two helicopter get shot down causing another problem.

Iconography of the war genre is pretty straight forward, people expect there to be weapons and veichles from the time of which the conflict is taking place, e.g the M16 being used in 'We Were Soldiers' in Vietnam another example would be the Hummers used in 'Black Hawk Down' which were used in Somalia.



A comedy is generally a story that tells the audience about a series of funny or comical events, intended to make the audience laugh. Some comedys can also mock other films in the way they are made an example of this would be Johnny English which is mocking James Bond. In a comedy there is generally a well known charecter who is known for being funny and has appeared in comedys before.



Generic conventions of Horror are easily distingusiable, there is usually a supernatural or non-supernatural being that is trying to murder people and the victims usually get killed one at a time. A good example of this is the Saw films, in each film there is the protagonist who has captured a group of people and then he picks them of one by one.

Iconography of Horror is also very easy to distinguis because it is very different from the other genres, blood and guts is the most obvious one. Others include attractive females 'damsel in distress', dark and creepy locations and the killer may have some abnormal physical apperance or they are disturbed.

Task 2.3 (Production Company Logo Design)

Final Logo:
I have chosen to use this logo as my final piece as i think it is simple yet effective and represents the film industry.

Logo Ideas

Task 2.2 (Production Company Background)

In this task I have decided to look at the production companies Paramount and MGM films, I have chosen these two companies as I feel they are a big part of the film industry and their logos have developed as time has gone on. In this task I will give a brief history on each company and discuss how their logos have changed.



The first production company I am going to look at is Paramount. The company consists of several film labels including Paramount Pictures, MTV film, Nikelodeon movies, Paramount Vantage and Paramount Classics.

In June 1916 The Jesse L. Lasky Company merged with the famous players to form the Famous players - Lasky Corporation, this inturn produced the 'Paramount Pictures' label. Paramount had previously been owned by Gulf +Western, however it is now currently owned by Viacom.

Over the years the logo has changed significantly. One obvious change is the use of colour, the first logo lacked colour and was black and white. It then changed to a blue colour especially from the year 1975-1987. The logo then uses natural colours which wouuld normally be associated with mountains to its present date logo.

Another change which has been made to the logo over time is the size of the writing and what the writing says. In the first logo it states 'A Paramount Picture' and the text takes up a lot of the space in the logo the text then gets smaller and from 1975-1987 the stars are more clear and the text says A Gulf -Western company. The most recent logo has the starts very small around the text and the mountain is the main feature, which everyone now recognises as the "Paramount" production company.



Founded in 1924, MGM films (Metro Goldwyn Mayer studio) is the second company I am going to look at. 1924 was when Marcus Loew gained control of Metro pictures, Goldwyn pictures corporation and Louis B. Mayer pictures which then became Metro Goldwyn Myer.

MGM has many different owners including Quadrangle Group, Sony Corporation of America and Comcast.

Throughout the years the logo has stayed almost the same however the most obvious change is the colour, the first logo is very musty in colour and then over the years becomes more vibrant and the last logo has brighter colours of gold. The lion used in the logo is also refferred to as 'Leo the Lion'.

Paramount and MGM have co produced the film Yours, Mine and ours (2005)