AICE Media Studies Blog

       I've been researching some of the qualities that make one of my new favorite shows, Black Mirror, so highly reviewed and popular. One notable aspect is that it is very emotionally stirring for the audience, as every episode causes the audience to feel shocked, depressed, and often times a combination of both. This may be specific to its episodic nature in that it wants to keep its audience coming back to each episode, but unlike most shows, every episode of Black Mirror tells its own unique story, but all the episodes revolve around a single, central theme: society's fear of the fast progression of technology and the dangers it could create.          As I continue to research why nearly everyone thinks black mirror is so great, I am finding that it entertains its audience by shattering their expectations of what is going to happen, further enhancing the tension and suspenseful nature of it. It also sparks wide...

I’ve been researching significant aspects of acclaimed science fiction films and come up with some interesting results about the underlying themes and implications of them and how they influence the audience’s perception of technology and the world around them, and plants questions in their mind about these topics. For example, some common examples are things like how The Matrix causes the audience to take a hard look at reality and question whether they too, are living in a simulation. Blade Runner and The Terminator cause the audience to consider the advancement of robotics and if they could pose a danger to society as we know it I the near future. Alien and 2001: a Space Odyssey raise the topic of space exploration and whether that could become dangerous to humanity. This recurring theme reveals to me that if a Sci-Fi film is well received, it almost always makes the audience seriously think about and question reality. This is an aspect I fully want to incorporate in my ...

The Film of the Future         I just started brainstorming the plot of the film with my partner Noah Ball. We decided that it would be in the Sci-Fi genre that would take place in the future. We thought that some plot elements would be inspired by Sci-Fi legends like Blade Runner .  This would give the viewer a nice blend of both nostalgic content inspired by previous directors and new, creative content coming straight from our own ideas.  The setting would obviously be futuristic, but it would certainly be an obstacle to create that environment with very limited resources. Another possible obstacle in the future would be costuming and props fo the setting, as making them seem futuristic would be difficult. Despite this, we want to make the overall mise-en-scene elements seem both modern and present but also slightly further in the future. For example, Blade Runner ’s setting is very urban and modern, with dark shadowy streets ...