With production wrapping up on our film projects, our final grade for the Cambridge Portfolio Project is drawing closer. But that final grade goes beyond just the blog and the film opening… the CCR (Creative Critical Reflection) makes up a large portion of it. This unique final cap to the project requires that we crate two videos answering questions related to the film opening that we have created, with the “creative” part lying on the kind of video we choose to make. Our answers must be in the form of some kind of interview, podcast, documentary, talk show, or something similar. With such importance placed on this section of the project, we are to dedicate some research to answering these questions. Here, I am going to start with looking at the first question that must be answered:
HOW DOES YOUR PROJECT USE OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS AND HOW DOES IT REPRESENT SOCIAL GROUPS OR ISSUES?
In my fantasy film opening, a village is shown burning down after an attack by a fire-breathing dragon, and the sole surviving man sets out to hunt and slay the creature out of revenge, as his family was killed in the fire.
In the study of film genre, conventions represent the set of ways or underlying processes of a particular action that are generally accepted. Conventions may include acceptable ways of understanding or presenting something. These generally accepted “norms” are deeply rooted in our culture and society, with different behaviors or ideas being conventional in different cultures. There are multiple different types of conventions that are followed by the specific type of media text. A genre convention is any element, including character, plot point, setting, and any other device that defines the category. Technical and formal conventions relate to how the film is put together, and ensure that the story is cohesive. Some of these conventions include cinematography and framing techniques like the Rule of Thirds, high and low angles making a character look weak or powerful, and using shot-reverse-shot during a conversation scene. Then there’s narrative conventions, which are the structural elements of the story itself. For example, the Three Act Structure and character archetypes.
Firstly, my film opening mostly uses and conforms to conventions rather than challenging them. It follows a narrative convention by having an “Inciting Incident” which serves as the catalyst for the entire story: the village burning down. In fantasies, the film rarely starts with the protagonist already on their journey; it starts with a disruption that causes them to set out on their quest. Dragons are also a very prominent trope or character archetype in fantasy stories, and can be found in almost every piece of fantasy fiction. They usually fall into two kinds of characters: a malicious villain (an intelligent antagonist who often speaks and acts human), or a force of nature (a more animalistic beast). In my film opening, by having it burn a village and then fly away, the dragon is more of a natural calamity. This sets up a sort of “Man vs. Nature” conflict, which is common in low fantasy.
However, my film opening does subvert conventions in one way. Usually, the hero’s quest involves the protagonist being called to adventure by a task that they must complete, and may be sent on their journey by another character. The hero is usually scared to go. But in my story, the protagonist’s motivation in purely personal, and he sets out by his own choice. Rather than saving the world, he wants revenge for himself.
I was initially confused as to how my film opening could possibly represent any real-world social groups or issues, not in a world where magic and mythical creatures would exist. But following the research I conducted, I was able to see some of the hidden meanings and implications behind the contents and characters of the story.
Fantasy typically portrays messages about the real world through metaphors, symbols, and allegories, as a way to simplify complex situations and ideas with magical characters and otherworldly beings. Because these things don’t exist in our world, it allows the audience to view the story with a clear and open mind, free of bias or prejudice, and draw connections between the film and the real world. It allows the reader to take a step back from the real world, which may help to diffuse the instinctual habit of separating themself from the problem, and think about the concepts of inequality and injustice in a less personally challenging way. For example, magical creatures are often used as symbolic representations of marginalized groups - especially if there is some kind of injustice in the story - such as racial minorities, LGBTQ+ community, religious groups, disabled individuals, people with mental health conditions, or immigrants / foreigners. It pushes you to think about the tough issues that exist in our reality while still engaging in some escapism. Many people see the fantasy genre as escapist. But really, it is a genre that lets us both escape reality and return to it. A great thing about fantasy is that you can take one of the world’s biggest problems, and by putting it in a different, unrealistic environment, analyze and critique the issues in a whole new way. Many stories deal with oppression, unjust systems, violence, and power imbalances. Frederic Jameson proposed the concept of “Radical Fantasy,” a hypothetical sub-genre where mainstream, positivist, empiricist views are challenged, and characters are forced to rise up against an unfair power. This is often paired with themes of class struggle and inequality. By separating those hardships from our own world, those lived experiences become cathartic. Looking at fantasy films through a cultural lens viewers can gain a deeper understanding of how the genre reflects and even reinforces society’s prejudices. Fantasy continues to comment on social injustice and injustice well into the future.
So how does the story in my own fantasy film contain hidden representations of social issues and groups? It is a seemingly simple narrative, but in fantasy stories, the “dragon” is rarely just a big monster. It usually represents a massive unstoppable force that ruins and disrupts the lives of smaller, weaker people. This directly parallels a very real scenario in our world. The dragon could represent a state or a force that inflicts violence on civilian populations, such as war, plague, natural disasters, or even corporate or political powers.
The protagonist is the lone survivor of this tragedy whose life has been broken and destroyed by it, which often represents the marginalized person crushed by a force that they cannot control. This can represent victims of natural disasters, wars, or economic collapse. The dragon is an act of God, or a systemic disaster that leaves a person with nothing, and forces them to live in a world that has suddenly become more difficult and dangerous than ever.
The theme of revenge present at the end of the opening is a classic example of how trauma can shape social behavior. When damage is inflicted on a civilian at the hands of a more powerful, corrupt entity, that civilian often obtains the desire to overpower that force. This story explores the cost of vengeance, and raises the debate about retributive justice, or punishment to the severity of the crime based on the idea that wrongdoers deserve to suffer a punishment equal to the harm they cause (the protagonist’s desire to kill the dragon that wiped out his village), vs restorative justice, or holding the offender accountable without harshly punishing them and repairing the harm that they have caused while focusing on healing the victims. It asks the question of whether the protagonist becomes a hero or becomes just as destructive as the dragon in his pursuit to kill it.
The story also touches on the ideas of grief and masculinity through the protagonist. Oftentimes, society expects men to process grief through action and violence (hunting the dragon) rather than slow emotional healing. The protagonist gives into that expectation, and his journey is a manifestation of his grief and refusal to accept his situation as it is. He cannot bring his family back, so he tries to heal himself by killing the source.The dragon is also a representation of the protagonist’s violent mindset in a time of grief, hence why it is portrayed as dangerous and “evil.” Vengeance and brutality are not a good way to conquer trauma.
In the opening itself, I subconsciously chose to draw the village as a small, rural community, where the houses are very simple in structure. Aside from the medieval architecture, this visually implies that the village is a lower working class area - they were completely defenseless against this large, disruptive force. This represents the fragility of lower class or rural communities.
Overall, I found that my film opening uses conventions to
represents victims of tragic events, and addresses social issues such as working class fragility and expectations of men in grief, while also addressing the moral debate over justice.
Sources:
Beverly Boy Productions. (2025, May 16). What are codes and conventions in film?
Falls, L. (2021, October 9). Representation in fantasy: Until there are no others. Bookish Brews.
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