This is Me- Genre

Altman and “Semantic and Syntactic codes

In the film ‘This is Me’ the genre mostly being portrayed through codes is comedy. Although small codes of drama are introduced throughout the film making it a hybrid film.

Rick Altman suggests that-Film Genres have typical visual codes that communicate meaning for the spectator.Thinking of them like building blocks for any genre. These are called semantic codes

Sematic codes –

The women- The ladies body language becomes a sematic code as it allows the audience to see the film as a comedy genre , she represents comedy by the way the man narrates that she sets a timer for her visit which is represented as comedic by her lack of concern for her husband.

The titling-The titling of ‘This Is Me’ is rounded which connotes the typical comedy code which is used often in the expected genre of the short film.

The Man- The man in the back of his garden again creates a comedy aspect to the film as he is being a stereotypical older man sunbathing on a chair right in the middle of his garden.

Film genres also have conventions of narrative structure and theme, which Altman says work together with semantic codes to define a genre. Altman calls these narrative and theme conventions syntactic codes

Syntactic Codes for any genre include things like:

· Typical themes

· Typical character relations

· Typical binary oppositions

· Typical narrative endings

· Typical narrative disruptions

Syntactic codes-

Sarcasm in the short film also represents comedy in the film as this is a stereotypical feature of a comedy.

Drama is introduced with codes such as heavy breathing in the hospital ward which in itself is another code used to convey drama.

Neale’s and “Repetition and Variation

Steve Neale suggests that, each genre film repeats conventions of the genre formula,whilst also making new variations.

The short film included typical codes which are easily related to comedy but the director of the film seems to have wanted to create a different side to comedy by introducing a darker side and drama feel to the short film. This makes the audience feel more at edge while watching the film as they aren’t sure where it will lead too.  The film included the stereotypical conventions of a comedy but then also had the variation of a more serious story line included in the film. This short film also includes a cartoon which isnt common but works really well.