Uncanny Valley- Sci-fi short film.

UncannyValley as a Sci-fi short film.

Uncanny Valley falls into the sci-fi genre, this however, if following the theory of genre proposed by David Chandler merely is how the film is organised and is not definite, he believes that no film is clearly defined at the edges and fits totally into the genre assigned. This can be seen as appropriate however to uncanny valley as this film towards the beginning can almost be seen as a documentary as protagonists are shown to be explaining their love for virtual reality and we see the real life effect it has had on them, this is clearly shown when we seen the nurse like character coming into the house and checking on them. However from this point onwards it becomes a definite sci-fi film, the mise en scene and the general storyline convey this idea very clearly. It seems to follow the majority of the sci-fi codes and conventions, there is an intellectual informer in the form of the nurse and several anti-establishment males, represented through the men using this virtual reality to escape, as well as this it seems to be set in an abandoned, deserted house. This is another common factor of sci-fi. It also follows the mise en scene conventions as the majority of the men whilst in the "Real world" are in rugged clothing, and whilst in this virtual reality there is metallic clothing and futuristic elements, this is typical of a sci-fi film.
   Jane Feuer's theory of genre seems to be suited relatively well to Uncanny Valley, she believes that genre can be divided into three categories, Aesthetic, Ideology and ritual, In regards to the category of aesthetic it is clear the Uncanny Valley is a sci fi film, and mentioned previously the mise en scene is extremely sci-fi based and this therefore makes it clear to the audience that the aesthetic of this film is intended for it to fall into the category of sci-fi. In terms of the ideological aspect, this short film is easily accepted by the audience as a science fiction film, the titling, marketing and sound effects contribute to the film being easily perceived as a science fiction short film. When considering these factors as well as the vast amount of jump cuts and establishing shots, it is difficult to deny this as a science fiction film. Jane Feuer's final category, ritual can also be seen within Uncanny Valley, Feuer's theory is that films use their own culture to classify their genre, I believe that this is the case within Uncanny Valley as throughout the film it is quite stereotypically science fiction and does not stray from the typical codes and conventions.
   Amy J. Devitt focus on rhetorical genre and believes that viewing genre as a rhetorical device gives the author and viewer more freedom and allows for choices, this basically means that genre can be generated by everyone whether is be the writers, readers or the producers, it is open to each and every persons interpretation. This theory is relatively vague but can still be applied to Uncanny Valley however I believe due to the vast amount of science fiction stereotypes throughout the short film it would be difficult to interpret the short film as anything but science fiction but as mentioned earlier there are undertones of the genre of documentaries.