Action Conventions ☮ ☮ ☮

Clichés

When turning on an action movie you can gather some of the things you are going to see, due to everyone action classed film containing the majority of what's on my list. Typically in an action film you can expect to see at least 5 explosions, it's whats expected when watching, it has been classed as a standard must have in an action film, but the explosion wouldn't be complete without our protagonist "scaring" the audience by thinking they have died in a huge explosive bomb attack, when we see them emerge without a scratch on them with only a smokey dirty body. We also have the antagonist of the film think he has become victorious over the hero and tell him his entire plan before leaving the hero ,to their misfortune, escape with the knowledge needed to claim success. We sometimes also have our antagonist save our villain at the last minute, for some reason the hero cannot bring themselves to kill them, trying to show the audience that even though the hero has killed people in order to find the villain, it's bad morals to kill the evil character. We also have the antagonists love interest captured at some point by the villain, leaving the hero having to follow orders and almost always sets them back on their plan.

Conventions

Character and Location Conventions

The main protagonist usually has a high set of skills, which always at some stage are used in his favour. They usually always have some Witt swell, by using cheesy,cringey line before they kill their rival. Usually in very good shape showing their bodies off in some scene where they have to rip their shirt off due to an injury. They usually have a bitter view towards society and are rude to people they interact with due to a past experience possibly a heart break as to men this is seen as humiliating and isn't shown as an masculine quality, This usually makes their love interest in the film start off as them not getting long well, then learn to open their heart again. The whereabouts of the film is usually set in large cities like New York and London, this is usually to make the audience familiar and to also show the film on a large scale to show a compact crowed environment. Though usually at some point the characters we'll have to go abroad in search for a particular person or object(s) and will usually pick an exotic country in an attempt to make the audience experience the country for the first time with the character and make the culture look as different as possible to the main audience which depends on the language spoken.

Shot types/Camera angles and Effects

In majority of action films we see a lot of long and wide shots to show the "action" which is taking place, due to the amount of running, car chases and explosions we need to see the full of each and need a wider view of it. We also see a lot of slow motion, which is usually during an explosion where the protagonist has to make a leap in order to stop being blown to pieces,which they almost always succeed with. We also frequently see birds eye views, mostly of car chases to show a long line of police cars or vans in a high speed race with our protagonist, Films like the fast and furious franchise we see a lot of car chases and see frequent birds-eye views throughout the films.

Theme and Narrative Conventions

We usually follow themes like an old timers last mission before their retirement, who because of their age struggle a bit but seem to make a bloody victory, we also see a group of protagonists such as policemen, go out in order to bring down a large operation together and also the made protagonist of finding out he/she has to go out and save the day rather than be prepared for it, showing weakness throughout the film but eventually discover a major piece of evidence to bring down the criminal. The Narrative is almost always our main protagonist speaking ahead of time and telling the story as it goes along with sometimes beginning at the end and saying the typical line "how did i get here, right?" and then flashing the audience back to the beginning of their story and telling us how they got to that position and when reaching it say one more cringe line then ends the narrative. When there is narrative used we usually have key information known during the beginning of the first scene.