Short Film: Uncanny Valley

I enjoy this short film because it shows how the reality is not what we expected. One of the assumptions of post humans says "they configure human being so that it can be seamlessly articulated with intelligent machines". In other words they configure humans to make them believe that been a machine is the greatest thing. The film shows that this people see the virtual life as their real life because is the only thing they have, they feel how they really are. These people are outsider in the society so they used them, creating a false reality. The film shows some themes we have seen through the curse, cyberpunk films are based on the use of poor and unstable people to create machines and the roll of consciousness to establish human identity in a robot.Even though we move a human mind into a robot they still have humans values that is way in the last shot we see that he shoot himself when he realize the bad things they have done. They create a life making him believe he was the good guy but it was the other way around the robots were the bad guys. 

Matrix (1999)

The Matrix is a exciting movie to watch it has great special effects and present the problematic of  how do we want to live our live by faith or follow our destiny. The movie has some common themes that represent cyberpunk like a dystopian society and bonduries between machine and humans. In the film we se that the boundary is very thin, humans seeks for more high technology (A.I) but they don't have the power yo control it so then they want to destroy it. I really like the fight scenes they use a lot of slow motion effects and shots making the scene more dramatic.

Ghost in the Shell

Throughout the entire course we have seen different types of technology, android, artificial intelligence and cyborgs that represent the cyberpunk genre. In general all of the film we watch have three things in common, the government and corporations have the power (men’s), the robots are seen has the subordinated class and the seek to know whether they have a soul. The film Ghost in the Shell is no different than the rest of film we’ve seen. I see a lot of resemblance in this film with the film Ex Machina, they both create cyborg, android or A.I with human characteristic and is this case women.  They project women as an object of seduction and pleasure to satisfied their needs and to help them seduce other people as we see in Metropolis. In Ghost in the Shell, Ex Machina and Robocop we see this internal search of whether or not they have a mind of their own. What makes them different than the humans? if they physically look a alike but underneath that artificial skin is all metal, that is why in the movie They Live the people did not know they live among aliens. All of this movie address the issue of Why were they created? To clean the humans mess? In Ghost in the Shell we see a lot of technological gadget as we see in Blade Runner and Johnny Mnemonic, but in these films having technological implants represent a risk for them in the society.

Hackers: Movie Analysis

The film Hackers 1995 represent how the hackers are treated  in our society. Hackers are perceive as criminals and the movie shows how sometimes the corporations and the people on power used them to cover their criminals acts. There is a fine line between good and evil and is the society that establish when something or someone is bad and the rest of the people could use this as an advantage. What got my attention is that they mention the “Hackers Manifesto” in the movie, because the film represent the feelings that are projected in the story. The movie show how the government and the police see the hackers as threat to our society. When they are just really intelligent people who like to spend their time behind a computer. I am not justifying some bad decisions and actions that the hackers may do, yes maybe they brake the system and take advantage of their ability. But now days they us their powers to make public some scheme made by the government, politicians and corporations that affect us. 

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” and "The Hacker's Manifesto"

Both stories "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” and "The Hacker's Manifesto" expressed they feelings of a hacker towards how the world sees them. I really enjoy reading "The Hacker's Manifesto" because it was like a testimony were the Mentor projects how the hacker's are criminalized in our society, because they just want to keep inventing and creating new stuff. Reading both story together make us understand them better. I read  "The Hacker's Manifesto" first which open my mind on what is like to be a hacker then i read "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” which emphasizes on the utility of a hacker. When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” is a story of the end of the world caused by a bioagent. Felix a computer system engineer tries to prevent more chaos by using his hacker ability. The "The Hacker's Manifesto" shows that a hacker is some one with more curiosity and we can say more intelligent in technological things. They seek knowledge and thats what help Felix save and reconstruct the chaos. 

The Stepford Wives 1975: Ideolgies

The movie The Stepford Wives 1975 presents the desire of men to have the perfect women. This movie emphasize on roles establish by the society on how women and men should act. In the film we have Stepford Men's Association which projected men’s as the provider of the family and the ones who make decision over the women’s behavior.  The women’s don’t have a free spirit or a mind of their own. Why? Because men’s think that the duty of women is to be in the house cleaning, taking care of the kids and be a trophy wife to show it to others. That is way Stepford use this real women’s to create a perfect physical copy of them (androids) but with the behavior that the men’s wants in them. In this society women’s job is to be the perfect housewives that they can be and anyone that goes beyond that norm has to be replace. There were two scene that got my attention is that when the new guys in town went to their association “initiation” they came back acting weird, it was like Diz did something to them to. The movie even show the role of racism in the society, when the old lady told Johanna and Bobbie that a black couple has arrive in town. Why she had to do that? It wasn’t a big deal when a white couple arrive in town. In addition the film show the power of a dictator over the mass, because it was one guy controlling the whole town.

They Live 1988: Ideologies Analysis

The movie They Live 1988, is a film based on the domination from one social class to the other. In the movie we see later on that the high class or the people how dominate the city are aliens. Throughout the movie we see some ideologies expressed direct and implicit. Direct ideologies, dominance and subordination for example we see the difference in class were the poor class is growing and they do not have the same human rights than the others.  We see how they are treated and attack when they expressed their feeling and thoughts over the way the society is living. An example is the scene were the priest is talking in a public place and the police came. At first I didn’t notice what we was saying but then I realize he was criticizing the way they were treated.  An implicit ideology is the way the social media play with our mind, which then becomes explicit. It becomes explicit when Nada puts one the sunglasses and see the aliens and the subliminal message throughout the whole city.  Another example of the social media but in this case to make the poor people realize the situation they were living, is when the television is interrupt and we see the guy talking.  Some quotes: “Our spirit is corrupted” “they own us“ “The poor are growing”. Another point presented is that we see what we want to see, if we do not open our mind we cannot see what is really happening around us (fight scene). We cannot move away from the social problems that affect us. This movie is a critic to the political elitist minority group, the aliens represent the high class that want to keep the rest of the people subordinates. This movie presents the extinction of the middle class and the growth of the poor.

I choose multiple images to support my point.

Blade Runner: Ideology Analysis

Slavoj Zizek shows in The Pervert’s Guide to an Ideology how a movie can have an ideology or a meaning beyond what is observed in it. Now is we apply this to a specific movie or scene we can have different ideologies. I will be analyzing some ideologies presented in the movie Blade Runner like discrimination and abuse.

The purpose of this movie is to look within our self’s and make us realize what define us as humans. Why we create such great intelligent to do our dirty job? And we say we are the human for me that’s despicable. What distinguishes us over other species is that we have the ability to reason and we use it for the wrong reasons. In this movie they create androids to do the job that no human wants to do they put them in subhuman conditions, why because they are just robots, they don’t matter. The androids are an example of what black people lived when they were slaved. Black people are the same as white people and in this movie the androids looks exactly the same as human they should have the same treatment, not used them and when we don’t need them just throw them out.  I compare it to slaves because movies tend to do social criticism and that's the ideology I see in it. Ideologies are belief and we see thing how we want to see them. This movie is much more than another sci-fi movie because maybe unconsciously it shows us the not too distant future where androids pass as human and we create them for own benefit. Is like having the slave era all over again, the first time ended bad imagine now with all of our technology and guns. Because remember we do not know if robots have conscience and emotions, their behavior can be unpredictable. What makes us human? Are we some kind of technology call human?.....

The Martian: Bring him home

I will be analyzing some scenes from the movie The Martian. It's a movie that makes us hold on to life.  Throughout the film we can see a lot of long shots and medium shot, so we can see the full scenario and understand what was happening around Watney. Every scene where we see the action from Watney helmet camera can be an example of hand held camera. I notice that every time Sander appear on a scene, his position was always on the center, or in a more powerful position than the others. We can see some nondiegetic elements like the text mentioning the days. They used ellipsis two times, the first was went to take a shower and when he comes back hi is really skinny we know a lot of time has pass but we did not see how much. The second shot is when the team rescue him we see a shot of all of them together and the next shot we see Watney on earth. Sometimes the sound that we can hear is Wantey breath, which represent his desperation and tiredness. The disco music Watney used to hear is an example of diegetic sound, disco music in the film helped eliminate the stress created by the tense situations.

Blade Runner "1982"

The  movie Blade Runner: Final Cult is a perfect representation of a sci-fi theme film, well we can say is a classic. This film shows how we feel and behave in a dystopian cybernetic world. They represent the wishes of human to create a perfect life or perfect being to do what we want, but still treat them as insignificant machines. The purpose of cyberpunk is to question our lifestyle in relation to why we create and how we use technology.

I decide to include this shot because I can see our self's

By the time the movie was made   artificial intelligence and android seem like the next
big thing, but now is our daily basis, we are walking robots, we cannot do
anything without technology

2001 Space Odyssey: Cinematography

In this analysis I will me analyzing the movie 2001 Space Odyssey in terms of his cinematography elements. Throughout the entire movie we can see different types of shot from close up to extra-long shot. But what prevails are the close up and long shot. We can see some close up when the reaction of the characters are important and long shots because is a film based on space and the planets for that reason is necessary to see shots of the entire scenario,although there are some long shot that what is happening in the background is important. 

The picture below is a close up because is extremely important that we pay attention to David reaction, when Hal doesn’t want to let him inside the ship. This shot is an example of a single character point of view because the camera shows us what David is looking at (Hal) then we see David reaction and wait for the response. Is like we are looking through David eyes. The single character doesn’t need to be human when Hal is looking at them is a single point of view because we are seen what he sees.The light in this shot has a low key lighting with fill light, the low key lighting creates the shadow but the fill light eliminates the shadow from his face creating a more dramatic look.

The next two pictures are a representation of a low angle camera shot. The camera is placed looking upward making then ape look powerful. The purpose of this shot is to make us see that the apes got the power and will evolve. If we look at the background and the light we can see how the sky becomes cloudy and grayish creating the mood of empowerment. The next image, is a low angle shot that represent the greatness of evolution by having a contrast of the sun and the moon and the music. The color of this shot looks like more black and white and the source of light comes from the center making the rest of the picture look darker (looks like a halloween light). 

Its all about the act "Metropolis"

I will be talking about the movie Metropolis (1927), we have to set something straight this is a SILENT!! Movie yes silent.  I like the plot of the movie but I was not a fan of the silent thing because I was trying to read their lips. I decide to take some pictures through the entire movie that represents some emotions by their acting that make me realize what was happening.

Let’s start with the workers, every time they appear on screen they were walking looking to the floor making them look inferior and tired. What make me understand most of the plot was the way Freder was acting, his emotions through the entire movie were really intense. His astonishment when he sees Maria (so beautiful)  with the workers children’s. His suffer when there was an accident in the machine and when he thought Maria was bad. The way the workers listen to Maria and act around her make us realize she was a person that had power over the workers minds.  The first time I saw Joh Fredersen I thought he was the man on power by the way he was talking to his employers and movie around in the room. The way Fredersen was acting seems like he did not care about anybody only Freder, because he was going crazy when someone told him that Freder was with the works. Is not a bad movie not having sound makes us pay extra attention to the action and emotions the characters project. 

The Effect of Sound "Terminator 1984"

I will be analyzing one of the most important part of a movie Sound!, in the movie Terminator 1984. In the shot below he is running from the police we can hear when the cops told him to don't move there was no music and when he start running we hear an exciting music that creates tension will they were running.

In the shot above we see that the cop stops because he thinks he lost him and the music stops to because they are not running anymore. 

In the next shot above, we hear a loud sound that only last seconds (maybe 2) and is when he came out of nowhere to attack the police officer. Is like they were trying to create excitement.

In this next shot, when he start running again from the police officers we hear the same music we heard in the first shot. 

In this shot above, when he is in the store hiding from the police and trying to get some clothes. We do hear a tension music on the background but we can hear his breathing to, which seems exhausting. 

In this last shot, he got away from the police there is no music only the background sound (diegetic), the siren of the police car and people walking. I notice that every time he hide from the cops the music stops but when he appear on the shot so does the music.

X File "Kill Switch" Analyzing Editing

In this post I will be analyzing some editing form the series X File season 5 episode 11. It is a good episode. 

I am going to start with the dinner scene. For me this whole scene has different kinds of editing, we have a master shot, continuity, the 80 degree rule, etc. But for me shot were the US Marshalls enter the dinner is an ellipsis. Because in this shot were we see the shooting inside the dinner but we do not see what is really happening is separate by time from the shot were we see later on when they are checking all the dead bodies.  We did not see what happened but just assumed they are all dead, because that is the purpose of the shot.  

In this two shot we can see that is an example of a Reverse shot. We have two shots from each character point of view (behind them) while they are having a conversation.The camera switches between the characters so that we can see their response.  

Although this two image are from different place, the first is were “Invisigoth” lives and the second is from the trailer were Mulder gets trap they have something in common. The length of the rhythm in this shot is a little longer than other scene, giving us time to analyze the importance of what we are seeing.

Cinematography Tron 1982

In this analysis I will be analyzing some shots from the movie Tron from 1982. I decide to take different shots of the movie and analyze them individually from camera angle, different kinds of shot and lighting.

In this shot we can see an example of a low angle camera view, because the camera is lower than the character creating the illusion of power.  He is the bad guy so they want to give him a threatening image. In my opinion the light is low key, because we have kind of a dark background and the light emphasizes Sark. 

Extreme Long Shot, were the subject or character is from a large distance almost to small to recognize. Even though we do not see the motorcycle we can recognize the characters from the colors of the line. In this shot we can see a lot of background In my opinion the purpose of this long shot, is so we can see how near the are getting to the end were one of them could die.

When the shoot  include two characters is called two-shot. This is an example of a close up because we can see the characters from their shoulders upward and the purpose of the shot is their face and emotions. But I will say is a medium close up because we can see two character and the two of them have the same amount of importance. Color is very important in the movie and in this shot we can see how the difference in color have a meaning, good vs evil.

I decide it to include this shot because for me a back shot has a lot of meaning. It create tension because we know what hi is doing, but we do not know what is going to happened being him. In this part is were hi is taken inside the program which we were not expecting. In this shot the light come from every direction.

In my opinion this image represent a Birds eye view, because we can see Sark from top to bottom.

"Robocop" Mise-en-Scene

I will be analyzing every detail of this scene from the movie Robocop 1987. I decide to take this scene because for me represents the whole point of the movie. Let’s start by using the Rule of Third, if we divide the scene in three columns and three rows, we can see that what occupied the whole scene is the robot. The bottom of the robot occupied all the right side and his shadow is divided between the left side and the center of the scene which make pretty clear that the main character is the robot.  Now from the camera point of view we have the robot and his shadow that make him look bigger than how he actually is and the background people more smaller. This make him look powerful and threatening over the citizens. But let’s not forget he is threatening only for the bad people. If we watch the whole scene we can see his purpose in that city. For me this scene represent everything, we have the sign in an abandoned alley which say “Delta City, The future has a silver lining” with a futuristic city. Which could mean the city is experimenting with technology to have control of everything. The big robot represent advance in technology and power to make things right in the city and defend the innocent over the criminals that are attacking the women.I think the lighting is really great because emphasizes what is important in that scene the robot, the people and the sign.Even though there is a little action in the background what take our attention is how they make the robot look like the most big and powerful invention.  

"Brazil " 1985

When we think of science fiction movies, we have a widespread stereotype that they are about science and technology gadgets. But at the beginning these films proposed something more important, they were a reaction to the social and economic changes due to the Industrial Revolution, as shown in the book Looking at Movies 3th. In the movie Brazil by Terry Gilliam from 1985 we can see all the basic elements of a Sci-fi movie. First we have a world where the technology is the basic of human been, all of these weird ducts passing through the house. Second we have all of this exaggerated behavior, scene and costume.  Third we have this kind of hero, which in all the movies we have seen so far is not so clear but the all have a motive. In this film we have our protagonist, Sam Lowry trying to fix the problem made by a jammed printer that cost a person’s live. So we can say that he is our hero.  Last and for me most important, we have the corrupt of a society by a totalitarian government, which is the main criticism in the movie. I think is a good movie because is a science fiction movie that represent what we have lived for years. It has a lot of unrealistic and ridiculous event but if we think about it is not so far from what we are becoming, the obsession with plastic surgery, a government trying to control everything and we cannot imagine a life without technology and all kinds of gadgets. 

"12 Monkeys" A journey through time

I will be analyzing some of the content and form of the movie Twelve Monkeys by Terry Gilliam. In my own perception is a movie that require the viewer to pay attention to every detail. At first I was really lost because all of the different images that were going on, if you do not know what is the movie about you could get lost.  Even the smallest detail or the quickest word is important to understand the movie. I think the movie doesn't have different scene most of the time the shots where in the same place, the Psychiatric Clinic or the Travel Instituted. We see some landscape but through the entire movie what we see most are close screen shots (close-ups). Most of the time we are looking directly to the characters face. If the camera spent 1 minute static throughout the film was much. Most of the shots and the scene sequence were really fast. For example in one scene when they were at the Psychiatric Clinic I felt the camera was all over the place, it seems like it was in fast forward, I had to pay attention because the scenes were passing so fast. Most of the movie scenes did not had sequence but I think it was part of the story because it was time travel, one minute James Cole (Bruce Willis) was in some place and then he appear at the travel Institute and then in another place.

P.D. I like Brat Pitt character I think it was great, I enjoy the movie. 

Johnny Mnemonic Film vs Story

I will begin by saying that the movie Johnny Mnemonic did not meet the expectations of the short story written by William Gibson but I have to highlight that were both positive and negative. The movie is not exactly what you see in the story but we must understand that not everything written may become a great movie. The book managed to capture my attention more than the film, the reason is because the movie does not have the element of surprise which is presents in the book as a first person view. The story presents more detailed characteristics and thoughts of the characters that we do not see in the movie because we are watching it from the outside not like in the story were Johnny’s thoughts have to be written so that we could understand.

One of the similarities is that they both started with the main part of the story Johnny the tech guy who has the ability to store a big amount of information in his brain. The only difference is that the book is much more explicit, since writing is the tool we use to develop our imagination. Unlike in the movie were they choose to delete or ad details that have the ability to make us see what we were imagining. Like the first scene of the movie is different to how the story starts, for one moment I thought I was watching the wrong movie. I was not surprise that they manage to create this very technical guy in a dark mechanic world that we expected from the story because that was the whole point of it. 

About Me!

Hey! Everybody I am a Psychology student at the University of Puerto Rico Campus of Mayaguez. I took this career because I like to understand and analyze human behavior and emotions. My motto is "Always look straight because the best is yet to come". I like to watch any kind of movies but more specific action and romance movies. This is a little bit about my I hope you enjoy it.