EX MACHINA!!!!MUST WATCH FILM IN ORDER TO ANSWER DISCUSSION QUESTION!!!!

Discussion Question #4

(This film is available on Kanopy)

EX MACHINA

The film EX MACHINA was released as an Indie film in 2014. With a budget of just $15 million dollars, it was a hit on the Indie circuit, earning a total of $36 million. As a point of reference, the film X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST was released that same year with a budget of $225 million. Chapter 3 talks at some length about genre. EX MACHINA director and writer Alex Garland created a story that definitely lives in the Science Fiction genre but he did so by making the film look as realistic as possible. The one exception, of course, is the character Ava and her AI sisters. With that said, this film won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, despite its miniscule budget. Garland was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

Please respond thoroughly to ONE of the following prompts:

            1) What themes are being explored in this film? Which elements of Cinematic Language reinforce those themes? Do any narrative or visual patterns recur a sufficient number of times to suggest a structural element in themselves? If so, what are these patterns? Reference specific scenes and elements of Cinematic Language and don’t forget to timestamp.

 2) Our focus in this section has been on genre. Although this is clearly a Science Fiction film, it also features a lot of imagery from the natural world. How do those visual work with the Sci-Fi elements? Why? How would you classify this film in terms of genre? What elements of Cinematic Language support your classification? Reference specific scenes and shots in your response and don’t forget to timestamp.

PLEASE ANSWER ALL ELEMENTS OF THE PROMPT YOU CHOOSE AND REMEMBER TO FOCUS YOUR COMMENTS ON CINEMATIC LANGUAGE RATHER THAN STORY

Content Warning: this film has adult language, brief nudity, and brief violence.

Please take some time to consider your response before you answer. These Discussion Questions should be written with proper grammar and spelling and should reflect a depth of thought appropriate for a college course. As always, half the grade comes from responding to another students answer. Only one is required, but the more of a discussion it becomes, the more useful and interesting this exercise will be.

TO ACCESS THE FILM VIA KANOPY: If you go to the Richland libraries’ home page, click on the link for “Articles, Journals (Databases)”. That will take you to the A-to-Z list of all our databases. Kanopy is the lone entry under the letter K. Once you set up an account, you can just go directly to Kanopy in the future.