ex machina review

ex machina review
 The film ex machine is a fantastic si-fi film directed by Alex Garland. The storyline is about Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) a programmer at a huge Internet company, wins a contest that enables him to spend a week at the private estate of Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), his firm's brilliant CEO. When he arrives, Caleb learns that he has been chosen to be the human component in a Turing test. However there is trust issues between the two and it all goes wrong. I really enjoyed this film because there wasn't A list stars so it made the movie more enjoyable as it wasn't as predicable, as some other films when you know the good guy will always do well like James bond. Also the special effects were brilliant, like Avas costumes where you could see the mechanical body parts and the scene where she puts on skin. Another reason i liked it was how the story line was so unpredictable and left me thinking what was going to happen next and then it ended with a massive surprise. The locations of the set was great as it was very different and really set the scene of the richest man in the world. 

In ex macina all the robots were girls, this i felt made it sexist and different to many other films. However i felt that if the robots were male it wouldn't of fitted the movie well. i say this because Nathan lives on his own and wouldn't want male company. 

The characters in the film like Alica Vinkander played her part extremely and kept in character all the time, she did this by moving like no human would and spoke with a small quiet voice. Then there was oscar Isaac who played Nathan, the owner of the house, i feel that he played his part very well but my thought against him were negative because he was supiscious and he came across as entrust worthy, however the story was twisted which made me feel like that. Finally there was Domhnall Gleeson, who play Caleb and he played his part really were with great acting, that made him come across as really believe able and innocent. 

The director of the movie is Alex Garland, he hasn't done many big movies but he has done really well with this one i feel because it won many awards and had a brilliant story line. Also the way he produced the film on a low budge was amazing as it came out extremely well.

However, i was slightly dissapointed with the ending as i thought all the way through there would be a he fight of the two protagonists trying to escape and a massive build up of how they would do it, but instead the end came so quick and there was barely any fighting. But it was good in away as it was well wrote and ideas that were not ordinary. 

ex machina research

1. the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice; The first issue, which is raised by media ownership, is whether the company is within a position to invest large amounts of money into the production and marketing of a film and whether they are a well-known company. If the company is a British institution then it is likely that they aren't a very successful company in comparison to American. This is because it is largely comprised of small independent producers. They are also known to be under-capitalized. This means you would not be able to fund for things like special effect, stars, the creating of the film etc. This means they won’t be able to publish the film, as people will be more interested in films with all the better stars, good special effects and story line, which is what the bigger company’s like Disney have as an advantage. Another issue raised is about “85%/90%” of the films shown in the UK are US films. This is because US have a bigger budget on making the film, which gives them an advantage as they have much more freedom when spending money on the film. Therefore US production companies certainly have the largest market share. . For Ex Machina, this seemed like an issue for them as the producers were both English companies who aren't so well known, which meant that it was hard for the film to gain publicity as it cannot be accomplished as easily as a film produced by Disney would. At first it seemed that the film would just be the same as all low budget films, as it was only released on 4 screens and therefore, they needed to do something different in order to gain the publicity they needed. The way ex machina managed to achieve such good publicity was because they managed to get universal studios to distribute their film which meant that they had access to many cinemas and could show their film on various screens. However, this wasn't the only reason they managed to make ex machine successful... Because it was a low budget film, they had to think differently about how they went about spending money and were much more careful about it. it was said that they wouldn't have done what they did with Ava if it was a low budget film. The creators of Ava were also told not to look at any robots during the production of her, this meant that Ava was extremely different and brought something new to the industry. Therefore, because the producers spent their money wisely, made the film individual and had the help of universal studios, this meant they were able to receive a total revenue of around $37 million.
2. the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing; Synergy is an important aspect because its two media companies collaborating for the purpose of generating profit. This is important in production because when two media conglomerates come together and they are very well known it will make the audience want to watch the film more because it’s done by two media conglomerates and will therefore be successful. However, because Ex machina was produced by two smaller conglomerates, it seemed a different picture. Its clear, that without the help of one another they would certainly not have been successful, as a film like ex machine needs thousands of ideas thrown at it as they were trying to be something different. And therefore by having two companies work on the film, it allowed them to proceed and come up with many ideas. Another reason it was important is because they were so low on their budget and therefore because they had the help of each other they were able to maximise the overall outcome of Ava, set the film in a stunning landscape and create amazing visual effects. Cross media convergence is where a media product is promoted across other media platforms. Ex Machina used cross media convergence a lot when marketing, in a way where it was on lots of tv advert intervals, and cropped up a lot on the side of websites online. However, this is what is expected for a film company to do now. Therefore, Ex Machina stepped it up a level and decided to market their film in yet another way by the use of Tinder... The way they did this was by creating lots of “Robot” accounts named Ava. Once in a conversation with another individual, the “Robot” would explain the story line in a very sneaky way, and eventually explain who they are and what the film is about. This gained lots of publicity over social media and helped the film generate lots of fans.
   
   
3. the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange; This is used for the audiences to interact with the films through using digital technology to put extracts on YouTube and then to overlay new sound tracks on to them. Film studios can make films using CGI, green screens and other special effects which have only recently been able to complete due to the technology we now have compared to a few years ago. The methods of filming and editing have changed recently with the introduction of film cameras and digital cameras, editing software, laptops and digital projectors. Distributors use the latest software for designing high-concept film posters and trailers, they can do this using phone apps, online marketing and can also use Facebook. Although film companies spend so much on the productions on films, they have issues with file sharing and piracy. These are issues which are growing within our society as it is easy to get away with it and also easy to download and watch. A way in which film companies are trying to avoid piracy and file sharing is through releasing the films soon after theatrical release by selling them on video on demand, premium TV channels and downloads. The US and UK cinemas chains aren’t happy about this issue, especially as the cinema companies have invested a lot of money in to projectors and digital equipment. With people file sharing and piracy, the cinema companies aren’t able to make their money either to make their money back on the equipment which was invested in to the equipment and also, unfortunately, goes out of date fairly quickly.
   
   
4. the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences; The significance of proliferation of hardware in the film industry means there are more equipment for producers to use, for example in the filming aspect, there are thousands of cameras to use and many ways to film, like using a film camera or a digital one. However, as the new technologies are cheaper to buy and are meant to be better quality it means film companies can spend more money on better editing software and marketing, e.t.c. In the film Ex Machina the filming was done on a digital camera, instead of film, the producer may have done this because it was cheaper and they were on a smaller budget compared to some of the block buster movies. But that didn't effect the outcome for the audience as it still won awards for Best visual effects. The proliferation of hardware in media has meant that audiences in the film industry have been able to create their own home movies on a much smaller budget, by using digital cameras and editing software like adobe. Then the movie can be uploaded to the internet for the audiences. 
5. the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences; Technological convergence has become very crucial  in the changes to the film industry. Technology has allowed us to develop and improve the quality of films,make them more complex and dynamic, whilst also helping making them easier to make and also access. Convergence has been helped by the world modernizing so the film industry relies on keeping up and competing with varying array of formats. One of the key aspects of technological convergence is within the production of films. For years films have continually been film with the traditional use of film reels and very expensive large cameras, like JJ Abrams used in making his new Star Wars movie, but Ex Machina was filmed in a digital 4K resolution camera to ensure the movies visuals were at the best quality they could be, and with technology advancing, Alex Garland was able to do so. Also filming in digital means it is a lot cheaper as a traditional camera costs around £50,000 pounds whereas a professional digital one would be around £10,000. Saving money with the filming sector then allows  production companies to spend more of their budget on other aspects of the film, such as special effects. Special effects is another area in the industry that has been improved dramatically due to technology improving. As CGI and other effects have ben introduced this has meant that viewers get more of an exciting and diverse viewing experience and allowed directors to take their creations to a whole new level of film. For example, CGI was used in the making ex machina  for the visual effects on Avas clothes, to show the robotic features and  Nathan's blood after being stabbed and the interior of the artificial brains.
6. the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions; Ex machina was a film which had unexpected success earning academy awards, golden globes and BAFTA awards. Ex machina won an Oscar for the best achievement in visual effects and was also nominated for an Oscar in the best writing and original screenplay. There are many different issues which are raised by production companies aiming films at either local audiences or global audiences. With ex machina being a low budget film, they weren’t able to focus on the advertising and marketing department because they focused on the visual effects making the film interesting with all the special effects using special software. Because Ex machina was only released in the United Kingdom on January 21^st 2015, this proves how because they had a low budget, they weren’t able to make the film for other countries or advertising it in other countries as it would cost the production company more for marketing and advertising. Although, if the production company for ex machina was to have a bigger budget, focusing it more on the advertising and marketing and releasing it in other countries, the production company would have more profit than what thy received. Also, with it only being a local based film, it may only appeal to the target audiences of the United Kingdom compared to target audiences globally. This film was good at targeting the desired audiences due to the amount of profit the production company had made. The production company had an approximate budget of $15,000,000 and made approximately $30,000,000 doubling their money.
   
   
7. the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behavior My own experience of how the media has changed is very dramatic as i have grown up in the 21st century, meaning i have been able to watch movies on Video tapes, where the screen used to flicker and now i'm able to watch movies in HD, but that has now been outdated by blue ray which almost an immaculate picture. But much before this, back in the 1970s when DVD first came out, people could only see a movie at the cinema on and they made a special trip out of it as it was such a big thing. As times have changed, we no longer have to do that, we can sit at home and watch almost anymore by streaming it on our mobile phones of other devices. Due to this film has to attract its viewers again by issuing deals for example orange Wednesdays and student Thursdays. Now media companies are buying rights to show films on their television channels for example Netflix and sky movies. All of this takes away people visiting cinemas and can place them in the same cinema situations at home. 

common stereotypes - representation in Luther

common stereotypes - Luther

The Tv drama Luther on BBC is a good example of stereotype in gender as it shows the main male character as more dominated by using low angled shots, this shows his power compared to the women who has high camera shots. Also in this clip the man is looking down at the women like she's scum, showing his dominance.

Camerawork


The two characters in this clip of  Luther are male and female. There are many stereotypes which are used alot on each of these types of gender, alot of these are used within this clip through the camera, sound, mise en scene and editing. The camera work used within the clip indicates straight away where the two characters stand within the hierarchy. This is portrayed by the low angle shots consistently used on the male, and high angle shots used on the woman. The reason for this is because a low angle shot represents a character as being in power, and near the top of the hierarchy, whereas a high angle shot indicates that the character has some sort of weakness in comparison to other characters, this is typical of a common stereotype as men will usually have more power over women. However the establishing shot of the woman may indicate that she has more to offer, and that she is more important than you think.


Sound track

There is a sound track throughout the whole clip which slowly increases the tension between the two characters. We expect an argument to occur soon due to the woman and the man having a clash in personality. The occurrence of a sound track in TV series are common and progressively builds up to be a dramatic scene in the series but in this case, we believe it will be an argument.

Mise en scene

in this clip the women is trying to throw herself out to the protagonist, she does this by wearing red lipstick, talking slowly and making her self sound sexy and also by going close and personal to him. Also in this clip she talks about his sex life and tries to make him feel uncomfortable. I believe she does this because she is a single women in a room alone with the man, and wants to make love.

Doc Martin

Through out the Doc Martin clip, regional identity is constructed through the setting of a small rural town in cornwall, where the community is close together and very friendly. Everyone knows each other and are very welcoming. This is in contrast to the main protagonist who is binary opposite. 

From the establishing scene we see that Doc martin represents the city as he's well spoken, intelligent and walks around with a high posture in a suit with a brief case; and the other two men represent the cornish identity as they speak slowly with a strong farmers accent, this suggests that they are less intelligent. Also as one of the characters ends up braking the tap instead of fixing the tap, this shows that he doesn't know what he's doing and is more interested in the conversation and eating his sandwich. Then, standing in the doorway, Doc Matins assistant is stood there with crossed hands not willing to help because she's wearing the wrong clothes, this could show that she is also slow minded like the other two people from the village in the scene.

As well as that, in the opening scene there is natural lighting and boxes everywhere in a run down doctors surgery, this suggests that the country side isn't modernised.

When the water bursts out Doc Martin starts shouting to everyone and is seen to be higher in the shot,  this shows he is more important than everyone else; especially when he turns to the dog and the camera zooms in. As doc martin is the only one shouting about the dog, this shows that only village people are use to a dog running around as it may be normal for them unlike Doc Martins old life.

Through the use of of mine en scene we see that the main protagonist isn't good with handling dogs as he holds the lead with a towel, this could be because he is from the city. 

Ethnicity Textual Analysis: Hotel Babylon

Hotel Babylon

Hotel Babylon is a British TV drama series on BBC from 2006-2009 set in a five-star hotel that has many mysteries about it.

in the TV series Hotel Babylon, there are many examples of ethnicity and stereotypes. For example, in this scene of the blonde women at the front desk, it shows a young white British women working at a desk. This is a stereotype because normally young people can't get the big jobs.

In this scene it shows a young Asian women working behind a computer on her own, this may show that she is a strong independent woman as she is working behind a computer. Also when the immigration officers come in, she is the one that people alert to go round up all the immigrants and hides them, this shows she is intelligent just like a stereotype of a young Asian women.

In this next scene of three immigrants in the store room, we see three different ethnicities, the older looking man to the left looks like a traditional Italian, as he has a long moustache, fat and a chef. Also there is a woman in the middle who looks to be from Hungary as she is short, speaks with a different accent. As well as that we see a younger black man stood to the right of the women, this man looks to be from Africa as he has a strong accent and is very dark skinned. However, he brakes the stereotype of an African immigrant because he is the one to save the women who falls to the floor because she faints due to her diabetes.

Sound

whilst Jacky is rounding up the civilians, there is intense music and people shouting in the back ground, this creates tension and keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat while they wait to see what happens. The soundtrack could also suggest that the scene is dramatic and that something is about to happen to one of the immigrants as it shows him cleaning with head phones in.

camera work  

Firstly, we see a wide shot of the lobby just to set scene and let the viewers know where they are. We then see the migrant officers walking towards the front desk, there are a lot of close up shots, this is to show his emotions. Also when all the migrants are into the store room the camera zooms into all their faces. This shows their emotion and makes the audience know how they are feeling and could also make them feel the same.

Editing
The editing starts of slow when the officers walk in, but when the man runs of to make warn Jacki to round up the migrants the editing becomes more fast pace and continues to stay like this as he is running and it also makes the viewers feel tense because they don’t know if they are going to hide them all.

48 questions on star wars

1.       Who owns Lucas film? Walt Disney

2.       Who formed Lucas film? George Lucas

3.       What year was Lucas film formed? 1971

4.       Who is the president of Lucas film? Kathleen Kennedy

5.       What other major films have they worked on? Indiana Jones, the Pixar story, the land before time

6.       How much was Lucas film sold for? $4.05 billion

7.       Who wrote Star Wars: The Force Awakens? JJ Abrams

8.       Who directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens? JJ Abrams

9.       What other major films is the director responsible for? Star trek, mission impossible

How many Star Wars films have there been so far (list them)? 

1977: Episode IV: A New Hope

1980: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

1983: Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi

1999: Episode I: The Phantom Menace

2002: Episode II: Attack Of The Clones

2005: Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith

2015: Episode VII: The Force Awakens

10.   How much money have they all made at the global box office? $2.066 billion

11.   When was the first Star Wars film released? December 27 1997

12.   What does ILM stand for?  industrial Light & Magic

13.   What do ILM do? people send movie scenes to the company for CG effects

14.   Who created ILM? George Lucas

15.   Why did they create ILM? George Lucas wanted special effects that know has ever seen in films before but the 20th century fox special effects department wasn't operating so Lucas and a small team set up ILM.

16.   What do casting directors do? these organize and facilitate the casting of actors for all the roles in a film. This involves working closely with the director and producer to understand their requirements, and suggesting ideal artists for each role, as well as arranging and conducting interviews and auditions.

17.   Where were the first scenes for Star Wars: The Force Awakens filmed? Abu Dhabi

18.   What format was Star Wars: The Force Awakens shot on? Film

19.   What types of camera were used to film Star Wars: The Force Awakens? A lot of the movie was filmed using a film camera not digital

20.   What studio was used to film a large portion of the film? Pinewood studios (England)

21.   Where is the studio? Skellig Michael, County Kerry, Iceland 

22.   What major franchise is famously filmed at this studio? Harry Potter

23.   How does said franchise link to Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

24.   Who was the inspiration for the character Maz Kanata? JJ Abrams old school teacher

25.   What technology was used to create Maz Kanata? CGI

26.   Who played Maz Kanata & what other roles is she famous for? Lupita Nyong'o, famous for being the first Mexican and Kenyan actress

27.   Who played General Snoke? Andy Serkis

28.   What is he renowned for in the movie business? An actor and director

29.   Where was the final scene filmed? Ahch - To, lonely island

30.   Who composed the film score? John Williams was the composer for all of the movies

31.   How many Star Wars films have he composed the music for? He has composed for all the films, which at the moment is 7 films

32.   What other famous films has he created the music for? Harry Potter, Jaws, Home Alone

33.   How many times did John Boyega audition for the film (according to JJ Abrams)? John Boyega auditioned for the film 9 times

34.   Over what period of time did these auditions occur? The auditions process lasted 7 months’ long

35.   How many people operated B-B8? There was 1 person controlling him manually on one model, then in other remote control models there was 3 people operating the different parts.

36.   What type of technology was the main version of B-B8? there was a manual version which is the main version, then there was another model controlled by a man with a remote. 

37.   What colour suit did the B-B8 operator wear? Blue

38.   Why did he have to wear such a suit? As it is like a green screen, they use this suit so you can’t see the person controlling the droid

39.   What type of special effects (SFX) were employed on Star Wars: The Force Awakens? CGI was used a bit but most of it was real props or sets because JJ Abrams wanted to keep the effects like the original films.

40.   How many people were behind the monitor watching the scene when Han and Chewie returned to the Millennium Falcon? 100-200 people were watching because it was such a monumental moment.

41.   Why was Simon Pegg thanked in the credits for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Simon Pegg helped the film in general by being part of the cast, helping with the screenplay and for some of the reasons below:

42.   JJ Abrams shot part of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in IMAX. What is IMAX? IMAX a technique of widescreen cinematography which produces an image approximately ten times larger than that from standard 35 mm film. JJ Abrams most likely used this because it is a most prestige way of filming a film and he thought Star Wars was the right film to do it on as Star Wars is so popular in western and now global culture.

43.   How many IMAX screens was the film available on? Loads

44.   What was the age rating of the film in the UK? The certificate for the film was a 12

45.   How much money did the UK government contribute to the production of Star Wars: The Force Awakens? (Express this figure as a percentage of the total cost and as a figure in pounds). £31.6 million out of the £235 million which was in total spent. This is around 7% of the total figure.

46.   How much was Harrison Ford paid to reprise his role of Han Solo? $20 million

47.   How much were Daisy Ridley and John Boyega paid? £300,000 each, 76 times less than Harrison ford

Gender stereotype - Georgie in Our Girl 

stereotype is a set idea that people have about what someone or something is like, especially an idea that is wrong; for example, saying that all Blacks are good at sports is a stereotype, because it’s grouping the race together to indicate that everyone of that race is a good athlete.

In the TV series Georgie doesn't fit the typical stereotype for a women because women are seen to be house wife's that should be cleaning, cooking and raising the family, while the men are out working and earning the money to support the family at home. However, Georgie is working out in a war zone as a  medic surrounded by gunfire and explosions. This doesn't fit the stereotype on women because she is out in a war zone where they seen to be out of place, also the stereotype on men is that they should be looking after the women, in this case that doesn't happen as she is putting her life in danger ever day and ends up getting kidnapped .