Genre Theory in Uncanny Valley

The definition of genre from dictionary.com is "a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, context, technique, or the like." Although it seems that genre should be easy to define, the finer points of textual categorisation are not yet established. Genre is dependant on many factors, the storyline, the director, and the audience's expectations to name a few.

Uncanny Valley is a short film directed by Federico Heller, which gives us a glimpse into a future where First Person Shooters have become a new drug for those disillusioned with society. The film examines the consequences of this on the global society and gives us an insight into what is happened to one player in particular. 

Federico Heller is a relatively new actor and so there isn't much to suggest what his genre of movies typically are. Heller has 3 pieces of work all together: 

• Shave It (2012)
• Aliados (2013 - 2014)
• Uncanny Valley (2015)

'Shave It' is a short movie about a monkey that finds a razor lying in the jungle and shaves his body to make him look human. He then moves to the city and proceeds to try to climb society's ladder. This is an animated film and has no dialogue. In some ways this movie has some comedic value but would ultimately fall into the genre of 'fantasy' as none of what happens is true and could never happen.

'Aliados' is a series about 6 humans working together to prove that humanity has enough to survive in just 110 days. This series is a mixture of many genres; comedy, fantasy and romance.

As these are the only other two things ever produced by Federico Heller we have limited information on what genre 'Uncanny Valley' may be. Judging by the previous two movies, we may expect a fantasy piece as that is the only thing both pieces have in common. However, Uncanny Valley appears to be more of a Sci-Fi/Thriller. This shows us that we can't necessarily tell what genre a movie will be just by the director.

As genre is also determined by the time and place in which it is set, Uncanny Valley seems to fall in the 'Sci-Fi' genre bracket. This is because it is set in the future and technologies that do not yet exist, are common place in this movie. Things like virtual reality are just beginning to become popular in our world and this movie provides a glimpse of what things may be like for us in the future.

Here are some PowerPoints that I found containing some good points and quotes on genre theory.

Genre for our Short Film

Genre

Mockumentary

The definition of a mockumentary is a TV show or film that takes the form of a serious documentary and satirises its subject. This is often a very effective comedic technique and has been used in many successful television programmes throughout recent years. Shows such as 'The Office', 'Arrested Development' and 'Modern Family' all used this style of filming and were enormously successful. Shows such as these have given me the inspiration to create a mockumentary short. Before making this mockumentary short, I decided to do some research into the codes and conventions of other mockumentary shorts.

The first short I will be analysing is 'While You Were Fighting', a short film about the life of the superhero 'Thor' after his life in 'The Avengers'. Thor decides to flat-share with another guy and this short mockumentary is about Thor trying to adapt to normal life. 

This short film is filmed in the style of shows such as 'The Office'. It consists of an interview with a specific character or two followed by some 'live' shots of the characters' day-to-day lives. This makes the film feel natural and not scripted, as if a documentary.

The short film also uses titles to label each character to give them an identity and to let us know who they are, just like a documentary. 

'While You Were Fighting' also contains many different shots of 'real' footage to make it seem as though we had an insight into the lives of the characters. In this scene we can see Thor helping out at a local primary school and trying to find his place in society now that he is no longer in 'The Avengers'. 

In another scene of this film, also showing 'real' footage, we see Thor and Bruce Banner (The Hulk) out for coffee. This gives the mocumentary a semi-believable storyline whilst also increasing its comedic value.

A mockumentary, trying to look as natural as possible, often includes natural things such as natural sounds and natural lighting to make the footage look as real and unscripted as possible, making the whole 'documentary' idea a bit more believable.

Although this one does not, some documentary- style programmes may have interviews with experts to confirm information given to them by the voice-over or by an interviewee. These experts help the viewers believe what is being said.