Reminders/Suggestions for Essay #3

Thesis: 1) Offer the main connotative significance, or message.

Ex Machina represents a postmodern revision of the Book of Genesis.

2) Explain how the work expresses this message.

It does this by refashioning the figures of God, Adam, and Eve into a tech genius CEO, a kind-hearted computer programmer, and an A.I. fem-bot, respectively.

3) Explain the cultural moment that surrounds your work. Why is it important right now? What’s going on in its system of signs?

Heralded by a longstanding fascination with computers and robots in popular culture, Ex Machina points to an inevitable future in which we must reckon with the very nature and ethics of what it means to be a sentient being.

*Avoid the three-point construction for thesis.

Ex: This film is culturally significant because of its music, acting, and cinematography.

Works Cited: It’s simple. Do it right, or lose a point for each incorrect citation on the final essay.

Integrate Quotes: You cannot, cannot, have a quote stand on its own. It cannot, cannot be its own sentence. It needs your words to frame it.

Conclusions:  Do not give the reader advice at the end of your essay. Remain analytical, reflect on the larger issues surrounding your topic.

Synopsis VS Full Summary: Especially when working with TV or film, you need to provide a brief synopsis that gives the reader the gist of the story. Do not, give a point by point summary of each thing that happens in a given episode.

Ex: Ex Machina, Alex Garland’s 2015 directorial debut, follows Caleb, a young computer programmer who wins a contest to spend a week with his boss, Nathan, a reclusive genius whose company, Blue Book, is a clear stand-in for Google. Nathan offers Caleb the opportunity to partake in a Turing test of his new AI, an attractive fem-bot named Ava. What unravels from this premise is a three-way chess match of intellect and emotion. As Caleb progressively sees Ava’s humanity, his faith in the good nature of his employer declines rapidly.

Introduce Characters: Also in films, TV, music, etc., introduce your characters before you start writing about them. Don’t begin like this:  Kate is all flustered by D-Bo, even though he has good intentions. What she doesn’t know is that Ray also loves her.

Transitions to Research:  Do not leap from your film directly into a paragraph on research without a transition. Ex:

The film shows Ava’s struggle to prove that she does indeed have consciousness.

Cognitive dissonance theory was pioneered by Alexander Blok in the 1950s.      

VS

The film shows Ava’s struggle to prove that she does indeed have consciousness.

Crucial to understanding the film’s implications about the possibility of AI consciousness is Alexander Blok’s theory of cognitive dissonance.

Blog Post Week #12 (due by 4 p.m. on Monday 11/14)

Write a post about the current state of social media and the technology we use to consume it. As usual, take the post anywhere you want, but try to create an analytical argument about new media and what it's doing to us. Does social media, like much pop culture, connect or isolate us? Does it enhance our lives or detract from them? Make us more efficient or more distracted? How do these platforms affect communication, social interactions, psychological well-being, body image, sexuality, race relations, politics, pop culture, etc.? You can certainly respond to the readings to help guide your post. This will be one of the last posts, so make sure you get it done!

Halloween 2016

Halloween is the one time out of the year where you can be anyone you would like without any judgment.  Halloween is a time for you to explore your deepest fantasies, thrills, and horror.   Halloween is celebrated around the world with many different traditions varying on regions. Halloween in the most recent years has become even more popular. You have celebrities that go out and create extravagant costumes. So they can post them on social media. Also, people aren’t wearing the tradition Halloween costumes that consisted of pirates, doctors, superheroes, and more. People are starting to dress like their favorite celebrities and social media stars.  Even Google search engine has a representation for Halloween.  One movie that never seems to age is Michael Myers.  Michael Myers has been showing for more than 30 years and people love the fact of a serial killer who never dies. Haunting the people around him until he kills them.  Everyone has either seen or heard of the movie which is one of the biggest representation for Halloween and horror during this time.

Michael Meyers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TJTE6ZDPrU

Blog Post Week 10 (due Monday 10/31 by 4 p.m.)

Vultures, for this week, write a blog post that comments on the cultural tradition of Halloween. Think about how Halloween is represented in pop culture via movies, shows, images, etc. If you don't celebrate Halloween, you can still explore how fear/horror is portrayed in the media.

Try not to simply talk about your favorite Halloween memories, nor what your costume is this year. Think about fear, horror, and Halloween in terms of pop culture. Any images, video clips, etc. will be useful. Have fun! 

Also, below is a video clip of seven great moments in horror films. Watch, if you dare...muwahahahaaaaaa...

Reading for Wednesday 10/19

Here's the link to our reading for Wednesday. It's an essay on Ex Machina, titled "Goddess from the Machine." Look for the main argument, and how the author explores the film's system of signs. Take notes. You may be quizzed on it...

http://feministing.com/2015/05/28/goddess-from-the-machine-a-look-at-ex-machinas-gender-politics/

POMOgranite Juice

Postmodernism is the ever changing manipulation of tropes in modern art used as a way to immerse a weary audience all while remaining self-aware. It’s tricky to place an exact definition on POMO but one way to think of it is if pop culture was a car, POMO would be the steering wheel. Besides “Scream”, the best example of a POMO movie that comes to mind is “Edge of Tomorrow”.

In classic storylines, the protagonist evades danger with a perfect balance of luck and skill to impress the audience, whereas in “Edge of tomorrow” our hero is killed off repeatedly. The means of excitement then becomes its unpredictability and trying to keep up with/outsmart the writers. My first time watching EoT felt like playing a video game, solving a puzzle AND watching a sci-fi film.

Plot twists at the end of movies used to be POMO before every possible configuration of them was played out. Mr. Emilio mentioned how the split personality protagonist became commonplace. It got to a point where the finale of every other suspense film could be summed up as “one hour, fifty-nine minutes in and!... oh yeah, hero is a schizophrenic serial killer. The end.” “Secret Window”, “Mirrors”, “Shutter Island” to name a few off the dome. Pick a suspense/thriller from 2000 to 2010 and chances are it concluded with hero back on his medication.

PS you young-lings need to watch “The Sixth Sense”. From first seeing it to this day I still wonder if I’m alive.

Week 8 Blog Post

The movie "Easy A" and "The Breakfast Club" have similar moments and similar elements, so instead of focusing on the film elements and tactics, am focusing on the storyline, symbolism, and meaning. The movie Easy A is about a girl who pretends to be a slut, so the term "Easy A" can be in reference to comparing getting an "A" in a class easily, to scoring with a female easily. This movie, Easy A, is also a reference to the novel "The Scarlet Letter" as she walks around with a red "A" on her body- the "A" representing "Adultery". The movie also includes elements that the movie "The Breakfast Club" uses; at the end of both movies the directors ties up the ending love stories, and replicates the scene where the final character walks off into the sun, while fist pumping. 

"Easy A" ending scene

"Breakfast Club" ending scene