Sci-Fi

Science Fiction (or sci-fi) deals with the impact of science and technological improvements on individuals and overall society. These movies can range from E.T. to Alien, providing a wide variety of subjects and subgenres to choose from within the umbrella of science fiction. The audience for these movies are typically teens and adults as the reoccurring themes found in the genre are mainly for older and more mature audiences. I believe science fiction is popular with audiences, including myself, since it gives viewers an escape from their own reality and lets them enter into the world the film creates, more so than any other genre. This is clearly seen with some of the best-grossing movies and franchises of all time being sci-fi, such as Avatar ($2.9 billion) or the Star Wars franchise (a total of $10.3 billion).

Content

Sci-fi movies almost always have advanced technology that is the drive or creates the setting of the story. This can include spaceships and space travel, robots, time travel, etc. This is really the base of the entire genre and is set up around the idea of what this technology could do to us as a society. This produces pieces like Star Trek, which show the exploration of space and how advancement can better our society, and also films like Blade Runner: 2049 that show that technology does not always lead to good.

Dystopia is another common theme seen in science fiction films. I just mentioned Blade Runner: 2049 which is set in a dystopian world where wretched cities are covered in smog, cities are made into massive wastelands, and one must find what makes someone human, what makes someone alive. Dystopia is a state or society where there is great suffering and injustice. This is a popular convention in sci-fi as it can allow for commentary on the real world.

Alien encounters are also popular in science fiction. Many times, when people think of space, they think of aliens or about what else could be out there. Science fiction movies featuring or about aliens feed that hunger. For the most part, these movies are mainly horror, depicting aliens as horrifying creatures that are a threat to us and have come to murder us all, such as "Alien" or "Killer Klowns from Outer Space". But there are some rare exceptions, such as everyone's favorite alien E.T., which shine a different light on extraterrestrials.

Production Techniques

Props and set design typically play a big part in selling the movie since the audience has to believe that the story is truly taking place in a world different from ours. This is where production design comes in. They must make props, sets, costumes, make-up, and lighting that all work to create the world and help tell the story visually. Even the color of the environment or what the characters are wearing is important. The color white is typically used in futuristic productions to indicate cleanliness and advancement.

Visual effects are a HUGE part of science fiction. Without it, I do not think the genre would be the same or as successful as it is today. Since the genre is so focused on what is not real or does not exist yet, many rely heavily upon VFX to show the viewer futuristic or alien technology or creatures, without having future technology that does not exist or real aliens on set. Avatar is a movie based on entire characters that are created with CGI and special effects, and as stated before, it is the most successful science fiction movie ever made. VFX mixed with practical production design leads to the best of both worlds, creating the best product you can get.

Marketing

Since sci-fi is a genre about aliens, robots, and all of the above, you can get pretty creative with marketing. Neill Blomkamp’s 2009 film District 9, a story about a segregated alien race, had benches around that would say "Bench for humans only", creating curiosity in the person that sees the bench and eventually calling the number posted on the bench. Sony claims to have received 33,000 calls from the ad.

Another interesting marketing campaign was for the movie Ex Machina, which tells the story of a programmer falling in love with a machine. A Tinder account of the robot was set up and users could interact and text her. She would say lines from the movie before eventually directing them to the film's website.

Samples:

Star Wars is the perfect example of the science fiction movies I have been talking about. There are technological advancements with space travel, lightsabers, and droids. There is a dystopian factor to it with the empire controlling the entire galaxy and Luke and the others being the ones to fight back and repel against the system. There are aliens found throughout the entire movie. The cantina scene alone shows you all you need to know. The set design of the movie is fantastic, particularly in the Millennium Falcon and the Death Star, which both have a futuristic look to them. Visual effects are also present with the lightsabers and scenes in space, as they mainly used miniatures to establish settings, spaceships, and scale. Marketing for Star Wars is also extremely present, with not only iconic items, moments, and characters, but even sound effects like Vader's breathing and the sound of an activating lightsaber. However, the cherry on top is Star Wars having its own designated day, May the 4th.

The Matrix is another great example. The movie has more of a focus on the dystopian world that the characters live in, as they are forced into the Matrix to live a false life. There are technological advancements found throughout the movie, such as the robots that are present in the real world and the ships that they travel around in. The contrasting production designs in the Matrix and in the real world help establish how different each one is to one another. The real world is dark and dirty while the matrix is very sterile and clean looking. Special effects are used heavily in the movie as Neo, the main character, has powers such as flight that are used in the movie. The movie used a simple marketing campaign to spark curiosity in people while also connecting to the movie, what is the matrix? The viewers would be asking the same question Neo asks at the beginning of the movie, and they would have to watch it to find out.