Adventure is a classic genre that has entertained many throughout the years. But what makes an Adventure and Adventure?
Who Wants an Adventure?
To figure this out, we must first ask who is watching this genre? The adventure genre is defined simply as a hero or protagonist going on an epic journey, learning about themselves or the world. This is why this genre can appeal to younger kids, teens, and even young adults. For example, Peter Pan is an adventure movie that targets young children. It showcases brave young children following the fun and cool Peter Pan to a mystical world called Neverland. There they learned important morals and values that all young children should learn. Meanwhile, Rango was more about the main character, Rango, learning about himself and who he is during his journey and character arc. This would be more directed towards teens and young adults who already have morals and are now just trying to figure out their path in this world.
Narrowing the target audience down even further, many adventure movies have action within them. Even sweet adventures like The Princess Bride will have intense action littered throughout its adventurous love story. Whether they are fighting, escaping, or defying the odds, there are some sort of action elements within the adventure genre. Those elements gravitate to action-seekers and fans of the thrill. They enjoy some violence within a film. That is not to say adventure enjoyers are violent, but more enjoy the thrill of watching it.
What's in an Adventure?
The adventure genre is filled with conventions and cliches, especially revolving around the Hero's Journey. This means the protagonist of the story typically goes on a journey to then face many challenges that help push their personal growth and help define the theme. Adventure films are filled with exotic locations that help give a visually appealing and dynamic setting to the story. There are usually physical challenges, rivalries, and a clear antagonist the protagonist must face within the story. The theme usually surrounds the idea of discovery and exploration.
On the production side, there is usually the use of multiple wide shots to showcase the scenery and location the characters find themselves in. There will be many dynamic camera movements to help demonstrate the protagonist's feelings towards themselves and the area they find themselves. The soundtrack will assist in making the film immersive and make the audience feel what the character is. Action scenes will be edited face-paced to represent the intensity of a scene but then go into a slower pace to help the audience and in turn the character fully take in the setting of the film.
Adventurous Marketing
Overall, the marketing of an adventure tends to be very simple. Trailers usually are action-packed to get people excited to see it, as well as showing different extreme long shots of the film to help capture the beauty of the world they are trying to show, real or not. Posters tend to be light and vibrant to help give a sense of wonder and to welcome the audience into watching it. Social Media will also have a huge key in interacting with the fans or future fans as the managers of the accounts will engagingly interact with the public while still advertising their film.
This The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe trailer showcases how the main characters are a part of the new world that they must venture through. It also shows all the challenges, actions, and dangers they will face. This trailer heavily showed off the setting/environment. These elements put together give the viewer a sense of wonder, adventure, and even some tension.
This Willow DVD cover/poster as an example. It is a very vibrant cover, highlighting the important characters while showcasing the large landscape behind them. Everything about this cover represents the idea of an Adventure.
'The Goonies' follows a group of seven kids who are searching for pirate treasure and explore a deep cave.
The Goonies fit the Adventure genre characteristics because of the evident hero's journey, the beautiful and exotic locations, and the character growth through friendship. The group of kids are all unique with differing personalities/skills. Together, they face challenges and change as people as they all follow the hero's journey. Although some weren't friends or even kind to each other they slowly became more considerate and caring with each other. adventure goes through various locations including a pirate ship, cave, and underground passageway, showing exploration and discovery. The story is key on the bonds between the group as they grow together closer, learning more about themselves and the others. All of their lives and friendships are changed through their friendship by the end.
The cinematography of the film is full of different and dynamic camera angles with many sweeping motions as the characters move through their environment. This production quality helps fully capture the excitement of this adventure. The musical is also very crucial to conveying the adventure as it sounds very upbeat, but also mysterious, showing off the different adventurous aspects of each scene. The pace of The Goonies is quick during the action scenes to highlight agency but slows as important scenes of growth appear.
At its core, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, is just like Goonies and fits into the Adventure genre and its conventions perfectly. Like The Goonies, this film follows a group on an adventure, but this time in a fantasy world and on a journey to destroy the evil power sealed within a ring.
Frodo, the main character, has a fulfilling and long hero's journey even continuing into the other movies (books). Frodo starts off as a normal day hobbit with no real urge to be a hero, but eventually, the challenges he and the fellowship he face, do indeed make him grow into a courageous hero stopping at nothing to destroy the ring's power and help save the world, but more importantly the world. The film is set in a fantasy landscape, so the gorgeous world is shown off and helps elevate the story. The journey the fellowship takes is very long, so many different locations are shown off to show the passage of time and the change both the characters and the world go through. Finally, the film's themes are full of sacrifice and friendship, showing how the characters support and sacrifice for each other.
The shots are similar to The Goonies, with sweeping wide shots and dynamic movements throughout the entire film. The music feels powerful to show off the power within the characters and their actions, as well as the powerful settings they enter. Also like The Goonies, the editing is fast with the intense action, but slows for the character reflection and growth that the movie truly relies on.
Overall, action is about growth and a journey. It will rely on its characters and its beautiful locations to showcase the themes and morals of the growth and change that takes effect.
Sonic Adventure 2 is one of many Sonic games, and it is one of many that try to represent different groups of Western culture. Sega was very selective with this game only wanting to highlight the good parts of Western ideals within both the game's imagery and characters. Even when something negative about Western culture is shown it is covered up by the cooler and better aspects of it.
Despite Sega being a Japanese video game company, they wanted to represent Western culture because they believed it to be "cool"; after all, Sonic is supposed to be the coolest blue being known to man. This idea of Westerners being cool and full of action, gave Sega a creator basis as they wrote the story of Sonic Adventure 2. Sega began to provide characters and even settings traits of Western civilization, especially the United States of America. The game focuses on community representation, with the main characters being cool, snarky teenagers or old mad scientists. Even as they tackle topics of military sabotage and an unhelpful president, each aspect of Western culture is highlighted in a relatively good and obviously cool light. The most obvious aspect is Sonic jumping out of a helicopter, escaping the police, and landing on the ground with a piece of debris as his skateboard. He then "skates" down the streets of a city very clearly based off of San Francisco, California. Although Sonic is trying to evade the police and military who are actively chasing him down the beautifully designed San Francisco, the music is light-hearted and fun and even Sonic himself is shouting "yeah!" and "cool" to show how exciting his situation is. It appears that Sega was exoticizing Westerners to those outside of that society. On top of all of that, Sonic Adventure 2 exhibits many of the hero's story archetypes typically seen in Western society, such as the brave hero and the more complex anti-hero.
Stage 01 in Sonic Adventure 2: "Escape from the City"
Sonic, like most of his games, is depicted as a brave hero ready to save the day anytime. Beneath that, he is shown to be a rebellious, sassy, and carefree teenager. His construction is simple but effective. He is mostly blue except for a tanned arms, belly, and muzzle. He has large white gloves and large red shoes. The most notable thing however is his spikey blue quills that could be compared to a mohawk. This gives him the edge that Sega was looking for to represent the Western, and mostly American, stereotype of a spunky rebellious teenager. However, Sega uses the power of selection to show only the cool and fun parts of that stereotype to keep his character good-hearted and well-rounded. He is unafraid of any fight and will always help out his friends. He even has his own gang or team known as Team Sonic. It is comprised of his closest friends which also helps shove him into another stereotype of a ring leader of a strong cliche, gang, friend group, or simply just team that is seen in a lot of media about teens in the West. Although he has the spunk and energy of the rebellious youth of Western society, he has the ideals of a very American self-made hero. He works with others to rise against oppression, while valuing freedom and justice. Sega was able to keep his character interesting by combining the fun and cool side of the rebellious teenager and the adventurous, action-packed, good-hearted, side of the freedom fighter stereotype commonly found when depicting Western society. Sonic is running around, doing tricks, escaping capture, making quips with his rivals, saving the day, and all while having fun with his friends. It is all very exciting to watch, and all very exciting to him. He can give the image of a young snarky skater a cooler and better look.
Shadow the Hedgehog, introduced in this game, is a very popular Western archetype of the anti-hero. His construction is nearly all black with red stripes on his quills and white fluff on his chest. This can help the viewer identify through his look alone that he is a very deep, dark, complex, broody type with a soft spot. His dark aesthetic and design represent the Western stereotype of an "emo" or just a deeply edgy and hurt person. Shadow was created in space and was made to help save a young girl named Maria. He and her were best friends until their space station was raided by the military and Maria was shot in the process. Many of Shadow's memories were then lost, and even though he didn't remember everything, he knew he wanted to take revenge on the Earth for Maria. His amnesia is prevalent but very poorly represented, only really having it as background knowledge, nearly de-centering it. His memories are able to be altered/manipulated because of it and when he gains the original ones back, he changes immediately. It gives the viewer a poor understanding of how amnesia can be fixed and how it can affect you. Despite his anemia, he proves to be a powerful and great rival to Sonic, which eventually leads to another stereotype of Western society. Shadow joins Team Dark (Shadow, Rouge, and Eggman) which goes head-to-head with Team Sonic (Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails). This could be interpreted as the stereotype of two gangs fighting with each other. Throughout the game, Shadow has an existential struggle with himself about who he is, what he wants, and what to make of the world and the other characters around him. He's a constant ominous figure with a dark past but a secret soft spot. He is a perfect rival for the main character and has a misinterpreted mental condition. The perfect Western anti-hero.
The way women are represented in this game is limited. Rouge is the main female character and despite being very strong, she is also very sexualized and shoved into a very flirty stereotype. She is part of the flirty morally grey female stereotype. She is still a very interesting a complex character but doesn't really move outside the box of her stereotype. The two supporting female characters Amy and Maria are nearly identical. They were so identical that Amy reminded Shadow of Maria and made him realize the errors of his ways. On the one hand, Amy's sweet and caring personality was able to help save the world. On the other, Amy's and Maria's personalities are copied and pasted from each other for the sweet, nurturing, feminine stereotype. Both are still good characters, just very basic. Alongside that, all Amy is obsessed with is marrying Sonic, who has no interest in doing so. It is a fun character devise but it also continues to represent the idea that all women care about is getting with a man. Overall, these female characters are very enjoyable but are very limited through their stereotypes compared to the male characters who explore outside of theirs.
Amy reminded Shadow of Maria
(Please give it grace. It was made in 2001)
Good or bad, representation in media is everywhere, whether it be based on stereotypes or exoticizing cultures, it can be seen everywhere, even in video games created in 2001.
Before this project, my class was taught different sound techniques. We learned how simple things such as music can change the direction of a film. The art of foley was also taught, with the class learning all about the different sound effects compiled into a film since the majority of non-dialogue sounds are added during post. These extra sounds may be found through a database with copyright-free sounds or they will be produced on the foley stage through the use of props to create the desired sound.
After this lesson, my class was given the challenge to make a 1-2 minute film made of purely sound, without the assistance of video. Only seven clearly stated words were allowed and an effective use of both sound techniques and audio layering was required. To start off the project, we had to clearly outline a story that could hypothetically happen within that time, listing each scene and the multitude of sounds that would've been heard for each. Then each pair of partners came together to scour different copyright-free audio databases to find the just right sounds to fit our scenes. The twist was that four of our sound effects were supposed to be actual foley created by us through the props we had at home and put into our film. We recorded ourselves making the sounds and then submitted a video compilation of our foley creation alongside the completed sound-only film. The final thing that needed to be turned in was a screenshot of the editing timeline we made as more proof of our hard work.
At first, brainstorming was difficult, especially since I didn't know my partner well. We both found it difficult with ideas that appealed to the both of us until I mentioned a carnival. Then he mentioned a clown. And soon we built a story blending both of our ideas seamlessly. Finally, we had a story to aim for and so we moved on creating our outline. This outline became our best friend later in the project because we put every noise we planned on having in a very clear and understandable way. At first, our outline was very barren and lacked much of its details and sounds, but after the suggestion of adding more from our teacher, we worked hard together to make that outline extensive, specifying every part of the story and the different sounds/audio layered over each other at a time. Finally, when it was time to edit, we split the work up evenly with me doing the first four scenes and my partner doing the last four scenes. We used Adobe Premier Pro to edit because we were both comfortable with the platform and found it easy to mix the sound and later combine our work. We did the same to combine our foley videos and then uploaded both to the submission, proud of what we made.
For the work I did, I was very happy with how much sound I had going on and the feeling of something not being right. I also was proud of the urgency I made when everything became scary and hectic. If I were to do this project again, I would work harder on blending the sounds better together alongside working on my foley skills because most of the sounds I created did not sound the way I wanted them to. I would also make it a little bit longer, making hints of the upcoming danger more obvious. Overall though, I'm happy with how it came out.
