Genre History Research

The genre we are doing is Sci-Fi/post apocalyptic. Firstly, on to Sci-Fi:

Sci-Fi first started to gain main stream popularity in the 1950's largely due to the invention of Technicolor allowing things such as the aliens and monsters of the genre to be seen in their glorious colours which stood out from many of the Westerns and Noir films at the time which were usually in black and white or had very muted colours. However, before the 50's Sci-Fi films did have a fair bit of popularity, in particular the 1927 film Metropolis. Another main reason for the influx of creatures, aliens and monsters in these 50's films is due to the contemporary films at the times. These fears were things such as communists invading the US, and blending in to normal society un detected, much like lots of the aliens in the films at the time.

In the coming years up to the 1980's, not that many Sci-Fi movies were made, however, the ones that were often became very iconic. These include movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, Close Encounters of The Third Kind and TV shows such as Westworld, which is actually being re made today and is very well received by critics and fans.

The 80's saw a huge resurgence of Sci-Fi movies however, with such hits as Back To The Future, Alien and Blade Runner being made and adored by fans and critics, only increasing the popularity of Sci-Fi films for years to come. Lots of things inspired these films but it could be most argued that with the 80's, it truly seemed like the future was here, with inventions such as VHS and coloured TV becoming increasingly popular. This may have led to lots of Sci-Fi films being made as a result of future inspiration.

Lots of this success continued into the 90's with hits such as Terminator 2: Judgement Day,
Gattaca and Independence day being released.

The 2000's saw the large popularity of the internet being adopted by many and large technological breakthroughs in things such as cloning and artificial intelligence which were the direct inspirations behind many films such as The Island, Ex Machina and Matrix Reloaded.