Personally, live tweeting during the screening has been a fluctuating experience. There have been tough periods where I have struggled to come up with anything useful and there have been other times where I feel like I have thoroughly grasped the content.
All movies screened so far have been intriguing. I have tried to analyse film techniques used throughout and connect these techniques with the study of future media. Techniques which have stood out to me have been the use of music, colour and lighting. These techniques were so valuable to any science fiction film to set scenes and convey messages, especially without the use of today’s technology.
The first screening was ‘Metropolis’. A film, directed by Fritz Lang, based on the Weimer era in Germany where the country was in political and economic turmoil. The protagonist, Freder, shares a conflicting relationship with his father whilst finding hope for a better society in the form of his love interest and the mediator, Maria.
Inadvertently Maria is a character which undergoes significant change. A scientist by the name, Rotwang, makes a robot version of Maria which works to create an uprising of workers against the city. In a scene which shows wealthy men stimulated towards the new ‘robot maria’, an influential figure is created.
A common theme shown throughout the four films watched to date is the fact that all films have acted as catalysts for the science fiction genre. Both Metropolis and Space Odyssey shared a connection with Star Wars.
As pictured above the sketch of C3PO was influenced by Metropolis as well as the stagnant camera shots used in Star Wars of the spaceships slowly moving, were clearly drawn from the Space Odyssey.
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ is a film produced by Stanley Kubrick about a space voyage gone wrong when an AI becomes overpowered and tries to manipulate Dr David Bowman. The film is known for its incredibly accurate prediction of space flight and the potential ability for AIs to takeover humanity.
For background research on the movie, I found a website which showed how accurate the predictions made in the film came to be in today’s world. Before watching screenings, I made sure I researched the films beforehand. This already gave me an upper hand when pre-generating tweets and even creating tweets on the spot.
Even though tweeted for satire, I found it interesting to think of what deliveries would look like in the future. Watching this film gave myself a right to think about what the future of our generation could be.
A successful tweet of mine which had pretty good engagement was the tweet pictured above. In arguably the best of scene of the film, Dave finds himself going insane. Kubrick’s use of colour joined together with creepy music emphasises the dramatic and confusing nature of the scene. A scene which has acted as a catalyst in today’s films such as Interstellar as Mathew Mcconnaughey goes insane towards the end of the film.
On a similar note, the movie ‘Westworld’ attempts to portray the same connotations as Space Odyssey. The film takes place at a theme park which is made for the wealthy. However, whilst the protagonists start to take advantage of the park, the androids start to rebel against the coding initially developed for them.
From punching bag to the terminator, Gunslinger rebells against the normal coding at the theme park and hunts down both the two protagonists. A sign for the future, much like ‘H.A.L’ in Space Odyssey and the ‘Puppet Master’ in ghost in a shell.
Behind the scenes of the Theme park there are workers who make sure everything runs smooth. This division between workers and the wealthy easily compare with the same division between the factory workers and the wealthy in Metropolis.
As well as this, I connected the workers to the game creators in the hunger games (also received a comment from a BCM peer about the resemblance with the Truman Show), emphasing the influence of the film on movies in today’s society.
Starring Harrison Ford, the film ‘Blade Runner’ stays the with a consistent theme of humans against machines. ‘Blade Runners’ are humans who are payed to hunt ‘replicants’ or androids. The replicants start to gain human-like qualities, much like both the Space Odyssey and Westworld.
The achievement of human like qualities is an example of a prediction made by Ridley Scott and the prehistory of the future. Once gaining these qualities, robots or androids rebel against norms and thus reverting back to the prehistory of the future, bring upon negative qualities.
An interesting aspect of the Blade Runner film is the techniques used to make the film. Ridley Scott made miniatures of the pyramids to bring them to life. A crazy idea which turned to gold as the movie became a sci-fi classic, however, is not normally used in the modern day as visual effects are approached with digital editing.
‘Ghost in a Shell’ is an amine movie which has influence the way in which we watch sci-fi movies today. It follows a security agent, “Motoko”, who hunts an allusive hacker named the “Puppet Master”. A film which challenges self identity in a futuristic setting.
As mentioned above, “Ghost in a shell” has influence many movies in our modern day society. In particular, the Wachowski’s (creators of the matrix) sited this movie as inspiration towards the Matrix. It’s quite easy to see as both films home in on the question of what is real and what is virtual.
Finally, an interesting tweet which I had to retweet about a prediction made in A Ghost in a shell, which as come to fruition. Our modern day society is overwhelmed which the high concentration of social media and ads. This also acts as divination as it warns us as the audience of an imagined future with negative outcomes, shown through the rust on the advertisements.
James Muggeridge 
Reblogged this on Future Cultures.
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