A2: Lovefield Genre Theory Application - Ettie Greenwood

Summary synopsis:
Lovefield is a short film by Mathieu Ratthe. The film leads the audience to believe that a women has been raped and mudered (through all parts of mise en scene) and restricted narration. However in fact a women is having a baby and this is dentoed at the end when a new born babies cry is heard. This obviously shocks the viewer and is a good example of how a film can promote different thoughts and feelings through spectator positioning.

Rick Altmann - Semantic and syntatic codes

As Rick Altmann suggests, a 'semantic code' is a visual code that communicates meaning for the spectator, and sees them as building blocks for any genre. Therefore in 'Lovefield', the semantic codes are:

The blood on what seems like knickers: This may lead the audience to believe that rape has happened because it seems synchronous to the non-diagetic soundtrack -a gloomy style piece which connotes negative events-

The knife: This also hints to the audience that murder has happened and leads the audience to believe that the short film is more from a thriller genre. Also as the knife is shoved into the ground forcefully, this connotes anger to audience impying a negative event.

A crow is usually seen in horror and thriller movies therefore this may persuade the audience to think that the film belongs to one of these genres. Its dark colour also hints negativley.

The bin bag: This almost confirms to the audience that the women is dead as in conventional murder enriched films, a bin bag is usally a significant prop to hide a dead body in. This continues to lead the audience to believe that negative events have happened and that the man denoted is an antagonist.


The baby: The denotation of the new born baby is the turning point in the film as this is where the audience's guess on the plot get changed dramatically. The audiences views on the previous semantic codes become positive instead of negative and this my incline shock as they werent expecting it.


These semantic codes manipulate the audience to have certain views on what is happening. This connotes how by using restricted narration, certain perspectives on a film can be created, whether they are actually true or not.

Rick Altmann also said that specific 'syntatic codes' helped to reveal genre in a piece: Syntatic codes are typical conventions that fit into a certain genre. Therefore syntatic codes for any genre include

• typical themes
• typical character relations
• typical binary oppositions
• typical narrative endings
• typical narrative narrative disruptions

So, in the short film Lovefield, the syntatic codes include death, newborn baby, male antagonist - female protagonist, and a narritive disruption from the revealing of the baby. These codes all fit into the thriller genre at first due to all conveying typical themes, character relations etc. at first, then these codes switch through a narrative disruption to change the genre to drama with love elements (a hybrid film)

Steve Neale - Repetition and Variation

 Neale (1990) studied a range of film genres in depth and found that each genre repeats conventions of the genre formula whilst also making new variations.

For example, the first part of the short film fits into a thriller genre: it denotes, dark lighting, crescending music, a male antagonist/ female protagonist, and props to suits the genre like a knife and the presence of blood. These aspects fit into Neale's theory where he says that 'each genre repeats conventions of the genre formula'. However in the case of Lovefield, the 'new variations' part of his theory is where there is a plot twist to reveal a new born baby. Because of this event the short film changes genre to more of a drama/romantic style. By using this variation, Neale suggests that this helps films to become more unique and makes sure that the film 'will succeed in a competitive media world'.