Week 7:

Simultaneity - Christopher Nolan's movie, Inception, uses simultaneity to show that there are multiple dream states that are occurring at the same time. In each layer of the dreams, Cobb and his team are trying to plant an idea into Robert Micheal Fischer's subconscious. In the clip, the team has to drive the van off the bridge to give themselves a "kick", which will wake them up and take them out of the dream. The scene then cuts to the team dropping down an elevator shaft to "kick" themselves awake. This is simultaneity because of the act of free falling expressed in both cuts are happening at the same time.

Parallelism - The cartoon, Bojack Horseman, uses parallelism as a transition. Todd Chavez and Princess Carolyn are in the woods. They are being attacked by clowns that are infected with rabies. The screen is covered in blood but then cuts to Todd squeezing ketchup out of a bottle. in a restaurant The squirting of blood/ketchup is parallelism.

Symbolism - The apple in Snow White is a biblical reference to the Adam and Eve story. Eve is tempted by the devil disguised as a serpent into eating a forbidden apple. Similarly, Snow White is tempted by the evil queen disguised as a hag into eating a poison apple. The apple in Snow White is a symbol of Snow White's sin of talking to strangers when she wasn't supposed to. 

Contrast - The TV series, Reign, ends its final episode with a scene of Queen Mary Stuart at the end of her life. She is old, in tears, and preparing for her execution. Just as the blade is about to come down, the scene cuts to Mary at the prime of her life. She is young and reunited with her husband, who passed away 27 years before she did. This is contrast because she goes from being old and at the end of her life to her being young and happy. 

Leitmotif -  Jaws is a classic example of leitmotif. The theme song provides continuity by acting as a recurring musical idea. The song only plays when people are in the water. The music gives the audience anxiety as the camera cuts to a first person perspective from the shark. The music is dark and threatening make the audience fear the shark. 

Master Edits: Weeks 5 and 6

Link: Master Edits

Symbolism - Lia and I chose to film a poster of a Trojan because that is the Lely mascot. The next shot is of some Lely students talking in a hallway. The Trojan is the symbol for education and scholarship. It signals the viewers that the events are taking place at a high school.

Contrast - The first scene shows a student who is diligently reading an AP Macroeconomics textbook. The next scene shows a student who is wasting class time by texting. The last shot shows both students in the same room, but they are doing completely different things. There is a contrast between the work ethics between the students.

Simultaneity - The film sequence shows Lia and I walking up the stairs at the same time. The camera switches from an aerial view of Lia, to a medium shot of me, and finally to a two shot of Lia and I bumping into each other on the stairwell.

Leitmotif - Lia and I decided to use the William Tell Overture as background music to two scenes of students running to get to class between bells. For both scenes the music is supposed to indicate a sense of frenzy and panic to the viewers.

Parallelism - The first scene is of me drinking from a water fountain. The next shot is of Lia drinking from a water bottle. Both shots are connected by the act of drinking water, but the occur during different times an places. The two shots highlight similarities between Lia and I while acting as a transition.

Assignment 3 Part 2

Review of Camera Angles from Ex Machina (2014) Dir. Alex Garland 

Last year I did my Laureate presentation on the question: Should governments encourage automation in the workforce? My research led me to the movie, Ex Machina. In essence, the movie follows a programmer, Caleb, who is invited to spend a week with his company's CEO. Caleb discovers that he is actually apart of a Turing test. His CEO designed a humanoid, Ava, that has artificial intelligence. He wants Caleb to test if Ava has independent thoughts and consciousness. 

This shot is from the beginning of the film. It is an extreme long shot where the subject, the helicopter, is in the distance. This scene is when Caleb is taken to is CEO's mansion via helicopter. The extreme long shot is used to show the audience how secluded the CEO's house is. 

This is a close-up shot of Caleb's cell phone. Again, the director chose this shot because he is trying to make a point of how secluded Caleb is from the outside world. This shot is foreshadowing that Caleb could potentially in trouble without any way of getting help.

This is another close-up. Here Caleb is exploring the CEO's house. His is aware that he will be testing the humanoid but he has not met it yet. Caleb stumbles upon the humanoid testing room. The crack in the glass is warning that there is something suspicious about how the humanoid behaves, perhaps even dangerous. 

This is an over the shoulder shot. It shows Caleb's point of view. This is his first time seeing the humanoid, Ava. An over the shoulder shot is crucial here because Caleb's first impression of Ava sets the tone for the Turing test. This shot helps the audience sympathize with Caleb's curiosity towards Ava.

This is an eye level shot of Eva. At this point in the film, she has talked to Caleb a few times. With each day she is becoming more curious about the outside world. The director most likely chose an eye level shot to convince the audience that she has human desires. The audience can see in her eyes that she longs for more.

This is an over the shoulder shot from Ava's perspective. She and Caleb are getting to know each other. The audience is clued in on the feelings that they have for each other, despite her being a humanoid. The over the shoulder shot shows how Ava percieves Caleb, which allows the audience to see Caleb from her eyes and understand why she likes him. 

This is a two-shot. It shows one of the many conversations that Caleb and Ava have during the course of the Turing test. I believe the director chose this framing to show that maybe Caleb and Ava are not so different after all. Their poses reflect each other like a mirror.

Caleb begins to go insane after a few days. He discovers that his CEO made many attempts at creating life-like humanoids. Caleb questions whether or not he is a human or a robot. He tries to cut himself to reassure himself that he is a human and a not a humanoid. This close-up shot focuses on the wound that Caleb gives himself. It makes the viewers feel horrified but forces them to suffer along with Caleb.

The movie ends with a long shot of Ava finally getting to experience the outside world. For her entire life, she was trapped inside of the CEO's house, which had no windows for her to look through. This shot is essential to the end of the movie. It makes the viewer question what she is going to do with her freedom. How far can a humanoid get in the real world? Does she actually have her own consciousness? Overall, the audience is left feeling bittersweet. We want to feel happy that she is finally free, but we also wonder about the fate of the human race if humanoids, such as Eva, could exist.