Pan's Labyrinth Reflection

Which genre conventions are you most impressed with?  

In most fantasy films we see a character under take's some kind of mythological experience. As well they need to get aid from some powerful super human force. We see this done very well in Pan's Labyrinth. As you can see from Ofelia and the faun. Ofelia is obsessed with reading fairy tales and she come's across a fairy. Her mother gets married and moves to where the captain lives. It just so happens to be next to a Labyrinth. And in that labyrinth happens to be a mythical faun that lures Ophelia into going back to her family. a broad convention in Pan's Labyrinth is  feminist theory as  it aims to understand the nature of inequality and focuses on gender politics such as power relations and sexuality. The themes consist of fertility, discrimination, stereotyping, objectification, oppression, and patriarchy
Conventions cont.

How does the director use the camera to tell a story?

Del Toro filled Pan's Labyrinth with many of his mexican filmmaker's pet themes. it was nominated for best foreign language film as it was 78% spanish and 22% mexican. he brought his own camera to spain with his personal lenses the arri 435ES. Since he was in spain he had to hand make many of the pieces of equipment such as a crane that he used for a lot of the shots. He shot during the day to create a night time feel by underexposing 3 to 4 levels. lighting was very important as most of the fantasy sets needed light that wouldn't effect the sets. Del toro specifically used Digital intermediate and high-definition dailies and his film crew had to trust him that it wouldn't ruin the shots. which it didn't in fact it made them better.