Ramon Dhillon Year 12 NEA

My key sequence starts off with the teenager walking home through a park where he encounters bullies who claim the park to be their territory. The bullies spark off an argument which results with the teen getting beaten up. A transition occurs after the teen gets punched which starts the next scene. In this scene the father receives a message from his co-worker saying that he called the police on him. The father is not sure why and wonders about what he could have done. An influence Ex-Machina has on this is that technology is ruining people’s lives.

My section uses cinematography to connote a character’s status and mood. An example of this is when one bully is looking down at the teen. Because the teen is shorter than the bully, it makes him look weaker in comparison. This sort of positioning can be seen in Ex-Machina when Nathan is sitting on a table looking down at Caleb while he signs a confidentiality agreement. In the second scene of my sequence, the camera goes further away from the father to show that he is feeling helpless. To further this, the seats around him are empty and there are not many people around him.

The lighting in this section is always bright which counters the fact that the characters are being troubled. The light used is both natural and artificial which are also both used in Ex-Machina. In Ex-Machina, the different lighting is used to contrast technology and nature. The lights inside the building are everywhere and make everything look high-tech while the light outside is only the sun and makes the scenery look beautiful. My section does not use these types of lighting for the same effect but they are used to separate both scenes and show that technology is taking over their lives.

My section doesn’t use music and focuses mainly on dialogue to create tension for the audience. However, the second scene uses an ominous sound when the father receives the message to make the scene tenser. Ex-Machina does this too by using the sound of an electronic bass increasing in volume to create the feeling of discomfort.

The costumes worn by my characters are in modern day fashion to help the viewer understand that the film is set in the current era. Ex-Machina also does this. Even though there is a lot of futuristic technology, we can still tell when the film is based due to their clothing. The clothing in Ex-Machina however doesn’t say a whole lot about the characters while my sequence does. An example of how clothing is used is that the teenager has a formal getup along with a backpack which denotes the fact that he is a student.

The editing in my section consists of transitions such as jump cuts, fades and fades in and out of colour. The jump cuts and fades are used to keep a certain pace for each scene for example, the first scene has a steady pace as the jump cuts are seen frequently and no other transitions are used while the pace of the second scene changes when the fade transitions start to be used. In Ex-Machina, the majority of the transitions are jump cuts which gives the movie a steady pace throughout the entire movie. Another editing technique I used in my section was the text box which showed the audience what a character is texting with ought having to look at the phone. I wasn’t influenced by Ex-Machina to use this technique but was influenced by other movies such as “Non Stop.”

My sequence fits in the middle of the story which is the developement climax. The narrative device I have used in this sequence is restricted narrative as the audience are only following things from a single perspective and are learning while the characters are experiencing the events of the story. While there are two characters that we follow in this sequence, the audience still only learns as much as the characters do as we do not see any key moments happening outside of the characters view.

My sequence follows a linear structure as the occurring events happen in order without flashbacks or flash forwards. The section follows Todorov’s narrative theory which states that stories are told with an equilibrium, a disequilibrium and ends with an re-equilibrium. My sequence is placed in the disequilibrium (the middle) where things start to go wrong for the characters.

The story of both the father and the teen are told in the first scene. The bullies talk about how they have been texting the teen and that they have warned him before which lets the audience know the history and relationship. Between the teen and the bullies. One bully also says “Who’s at home? Your adopted parents? They don’t love you, they don’t even love each other. I’ve seen your dad out doing stuff with a tonne of women.” It is here that we learn that the teen is adopted and that his father is cheating on his wife.

The binary opposition of this entire sequence is humanity vs technology. While it is not demonstrated very clearly, the problems the characters go through are linked with technology. The teen receives text messages from the bullies saying bad things about him and the father receives a text telling him that he is going to prison.

Overall, I think my section is successful in meeting the brief as it reaches the minimum time limit of two minutes and thirty seconds and while not explicit, it demonstrates the influence of Ex-Machina in various ways throughout. My section also has an understanding of critical perspectives of narrative as it tells the story using various techniques.

(Word count =954)