Metz believed that they are always certain structures that go into the constitution and pleasure of the cinematic spectator.
Christian Metz (December 12 1931 - September 7 1993) was a french film theorist.
Metz believed that there's a strucure which people must follow in order for teh audience to enjoy the film.
These 4 stages where:
- Stage 1: Experimentation
the early stages - setting up buildint blocks for future texts of the genre. This is when the generic genre. This is when the generic codes + conventions are being developedStage 2: Classic
Text which become seen as ironic of the set codes and conventions
Stage 3: Parody
Media texts which mock the codes and conventions of the genre, becoming farical
Stage 4: Deconstruction
Text which begin to unpick the well established codes and conventions to form hybrids and often 'unconventional' texts from the genre
Stage One.
An example of this stage would be Frankenstein in 1937. In this stage the generic codes and convention are developed. From this trailer of the movie you can see how certain conventions are used till this day. Firstly the use of the Scream from the woman automatically suggests to the audience danger and therefore suggests the genre Horror. This has been used in recent films E.G Final Destination. Also although this movie is produced in black and white (binary oppersites) the use of white font of black background showing good and evil is still used in our films today. Within all this in mind Frankenstein can be shown as an example of Stage one.
Stage Two: Classsic- Texts which become seen as iconic of the set codes and conventions An example of this is in relation to a film genre is Saw (2004)
1. Experimentation - Early stages- setting up for future texts of genre.
An example of this is in relation to a film genre is Scary Movie 1,2,3 and 4.
Media texts mocks codes and conventions of genre become farcial.
An example of this is in relation to a film genre is Scary Movie 1,2,3 and 4
Within this short clip of scary movie trailer you are able to see what this film is about. This film is known to be a parody and takes the fun out of several horror films. As a result it shows how this film supports Christain Metz view as this is stage three in his theory. One movie which they use to do this is Saw. Saw was created in 2001 and this movie had later come out in 2004. This also supports the view as it shows how with the use of stage two and one had to be completed in order for them to make this parody. This has been used to entertaining purposes
Stage Four.
4. Deconstruction- Texts which begin to unpick the will established codes and conventions to form hybrids and often 'unconventional' text forms the genre.
An example of this is in relation to a film genre is I am legend (2007)
This is example of stage four. From this clip you can able to see how the genre has advanced so much to create more variety. In this case it combines both action and Horror together to create this film. You can see that the use of props and make up (mise en scene) can suggest its from a horror movie however the actual narrative to save the world is a narrative you are likely to find in a action movie.
This supports stage Two. As seen in stage 1, conventions and codes are created and so stage two follows these. In this case along with frankenstein there is a killer named Jigsaw showing how the narratives are along the same line. Also the use of the name Jigsaw and Frankenstein is also a convention as their real name doesn't tend to be referred to in Horror Movies. Also as stated in Stage 1, the use of white text on black writing for the titles has also been used again.
