Semester Exam- Film Analyses of Black Mirror Season 3 Episode 4

     In the clip from Black Mirror, there were many different elements that helped to highlight the importance of the opening scene in the overall movie. This ranges from sound, lighting, camera angles, costume, and editing. All of this put together makes for some important pieces.

    When looking at camera angles individually, some of the ones used included the following shot into a pan over what the night club looked like. The shot then widened out to a medium shot, in order to show how Yorkie was beginning to loosen up as time went on. This helped the viewer to feel more relaxed as well. However, after the close-up shot shows her uncomfortable encounter with a boy, to say the least, Yorkie tenses up, leaving the arcade area, changing the camera shot and angle again. Then, another close-up is used between Yorkie and Kelly, as she seems to feel more comfortable once again after Wess leaves.

    The sound used plays an important role in bringing out the viewer's thoughts and emotions as well. As Yorkie is walking down the sidewalk, there is a diegetic sound of a song playing from a nearby car. After this car is not close enough to hear the music coming from the radio, something whispers in Yorkie's ear the words, "I see you" as Yorkie then looks up and sees Kelly or the girl in the purple Jacket who she does not know yet. This creates an eerie feeling as it almost seems like Yorkie and Kelly have a connection even though they have yet to speak to each other. Synchronous sound takes over as Yorkie then enters the club. While everyone around her is dancing to the music, she does not seem amused. This is until she hears an offscreen sound of arcade machines. This is when Yorkie really begins to loosen up. As she's in the arcade, a boy comes up to her, trying to make conversation. Yorkie is trying her best to ignore him until he asks her to play a game in there where a car crashes into a building. Then, the upbeat music changes to sounding eerie, giving the viewer a bad feeling. At this point, Yorkie exits the arcade going back into the club where she finally meets Kelly, who needs her to escape from her date who won't stop bugging her. After Wess leaves, the two girls seem to talk and become friends.

    The editing techniques used to play a role in keeping the viewer up to speed on what is happening, however.  While Yorkie is trying to avoid the boy from the arcade, Kelly is attempting to avoid Wess. This shows parallelism between the two characters and shows that there is an unknown connection between the two girls. The lighting is lowkey to set the mood and in the very opening scene, you can see the neon lights of the city reflecting off a body of water. This along with the title of the movie makes me think it is set in California somewhere during the '80s. The main character throughout the scene seems upset and on edge until she meets Kelly. After meeting Kelly, Yorkie seems more relaxed and laid back. 

    Mise-en-scene, however, seems to play the biggest role in the opening scene and its importance. Important cues such as big hair and scrunchies, costumes consisting of bright neon colors and big jackets, and music made from back during this decade made it clear that the time period was the '80s. The scene opens with frontality, almost to show the discomfort the main character Yorkie feels. The music playing in the club offers the older viewers a sense of nostalgia and an uplifted mood. There is also a mood shift from the quiet, dark street with less vibrant clothing to the inside of the club where music is blaring and everyone is dressed for a night out.  However, the most important thing to be noted is the contrast between Kelly and Yorkie. While Kelly appears friendly and outgoing with her makeup, jewelry, hair done, and flashy clothing, Yorkie appears more antisocial and timid. Her clothes are very plain, she wears big glasses with not jewelry. However, the two clearly have something in common, the viewer just doesn't know what yet.

    Overall, there were many different important factors all around that lead the viewer to make their own inferences about what is going to happen to Yorkie. Different film codes, such as sound, camera angles, editing, and mise-en-scene all contribute to the film and help to individualize them in their own unique ways.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 7- Editing

Image
 This week we continued to edit our film and finalize the background music. Since we did most of our editing last week, all that was left was to focus on adding the music which can be seen in the image below. Then, Theresa, Peter, and I looked over our opener one last time. Almost everything from last week remained the same. We had the same title, fonts and kept from adding any more visual effects or transitions, as it would disrupt the flow of the film.  For adding audio, we had to look up legalities for adding and uploading music on your computer then into iMovie, the editing app we used.  One of the problems we faced was uploading music that we liked and wouldn't be copyrighted. However, after watching tutorials we figured out how to do it.  This took us two class periods to figure out.
Read more

Week 6- Editing

Image
      This is what Theresa's screen looked like while editing. While Peter and I helped out, Theresa editing the main parts and added music.     These are different photos taken from all of us editing different parts of the movie opener. We all discussed what order the clips should go in and made sure they were all the same length.     We placed titles at the end of the movie opener to create a more suspenseful and dramatic atmosphere. We titled our opener "The Next Level," as it seemed fitting for highschool athletes who are signing onto be a part of the collegaint level. The best place for the title seemed to be in the center.          Some of the different video effects used were fade away, cross-dissolve, and cross blur.   Fadeaway was used most of the time because it provided a seamless transition into the next clip.           During the editing process, the decision was made to use ...
Read more

Initial Storyboard

Image
  Summary: This week, Theresa, Peter, and I began to outline what our film opening would look like by creating a storyboard. This will help us come up with a script and figure out when we should transition into the next scene. We all came up with the idea of our opener being based around a high school softball and baseball player, who will be played by Theresa and Peter. I will act as a college scout from FGCU, looking for them to play for the school at the next level. The purpose of this is to show what a high school athlete goes through when they are trying to play at the collegiate level.      The first scene is Theresa and Peter walking out to the dugout for practice. This shot will establish and set up the opener. Next, they will be in the dugout showing all the equipment they need for practice. Following this, Theresa and Peter will be throwing a ball back in forth to warm up, when they see me sitting in the bleachers wear an FGCU shirt and carrying a clipboard...
Read more