Research : Codes and Conventions

Your brain is a clever thing and you should be able to identify whether or not you are watching a drama, a news broadcast, a game show, a reality show, etc quite easily. The reason you can do this is that you recognise the codes and conventions of each of these genres of television programme.

For example, you expect a game show to have a host, contestants, an audience, a set that is personalised for that show, a theme tune, lighting that illuminates the contestants, close up shots of contestants as they answer, shot-reverse shot between the host and contestant(s) if a conversation is taking place, etc.

 

What are codes?
Codes are elements that can be decoded by the audience to provide meaning. These can be divided most easily into 2 groups; technical codes and symbolic codes.

Technical codes include the 'technical' aspects of creating a piece of moving image media. This includes things such as camera shots, angles and movements, editing, sound, titles and lighting.

Symbolic codes include the main elements of mise-en-scene within a film. Mise-en-scene is a French term that means 'put in the scene'. This covers things such as costume, make-up, setting and props. If we see a girl in a short dress with bright red lipstick we may, as an audience, make an assumption about her. We do this because of the symbolic value attached to these items

What are conventions?
Conventions are the expected rules that, as an audience, we expect in a specific genre. For example, in a horror film we expect to see conventions such as a killer stalking a victim, a character being placed in a position of peril, a mobile phone running out of battery or losing signal at a crucial moment

 

 

Overall

An easy way to think of codes and conventions is to view them as being the necessary ingredients to create a perfect generic film recipe. If you are given the task, which you will be, of thinking of an idea for a teen horror film you can start by creating a list of essential ingredients.
You can, of course, choose to challenge conventions rather than use or develop them. This doesn't happen as often in film as it can disorientate the audience. A convention of most thriller films, for example, is that the hero always prevails. How would you react if a director chose to challenge this convention and killed off your hero letting the villain win?

Try this!!

1. Switch on the television at random: flick from channel to channel, watching each for about five to thirty seconds.
2. Note what kind of programme you think you are watching; how do you identify it as a particular type of programme? What typical elements do you recognise?

 Example

This film is clearly a horror film as you can see a faint skull on the front of the boat.This skull can be seen to represent danger and and death.The fact that it is on the boat shows that this boat could contain this death and danger.This can be justified as a part of the boat is damaged meaning their is a chance of danger on this boat. The dark misty background has connotations of death as well as it is could symbolise what happens after death.The title of this film is "sea evil" this is cleaver as the have spelt see wrong so it matches with the context of the boat as a boat travels at sea. Another give away that this is a horror film is that it includes a secluded location. As i mentioned earlier a secluded location is a common convention used in a horror film.