X Files Killswitch (AI Mastermind)

Watching this amazing episode of The X Files has really interested me with more sci-fi knowledge than ever before. In this series, we see lots of uncanny yet sometimes imaginable things such as aliens, ghosts, and even paranormal activities in this mystery world. This one episode titled as ‘the Kill Switch” explains Mulder and Scully’s investigation of a mass shooting in a diner leads them to believe that one of the victims known as Donald Geldman who had been sitting at a table working on his laptop computer is a target of an unknown assassin. Their clues leads them to find a hacker who informs them about an artificial intelligence program created by Gelman that has deadly intentions. One of my favorite editing scenes was when the hacker aka Esther, realizes that she and the investigators are being locked on. First we see her face in a shocked position due to her finding the targeting system activating.

These scenes shows the locking system zooming in on their location while skipping back and forth to the point of view of Mulder. This adds huge tension, fear, and panic to them as well as the viewers.

After they managed to escape, we see the laser from the satellite destroying the hideout. Obviously, they are dealing with an intelligent mastermind which may not be human.

There a lots of editing scenes where many shots were cut, taken, and put back together again such as when Mulder was trapped in the trailer, and then the next minute he was in a hospital.

Here I realized that the hospital is a virtual reality created by the AI to lure Mulder into giving the Kill switch up. It gave me suspense emotion as well as fear. This is a great work of special effects in it. Either way, this was a great episode to watch.

Tron (1982) Cinematography Analysis

 

First, I just want to say that this is by far one of my favorite Sci-Fi Disney films of all time. The first thing I want to analyze about these shots are the lighting in it. Lighting is one of the main details of the film as evidenced in here. The antagonist Sark has Halloween lighting, giving him a scary look. Makes you think that’s he’s up to no good or planning something devious while hiding in the shadows of an dark alley, doesn’t it?  Tron, on the other hand, has a frontal and/or edge lighting, giving him the symbol of a hero and cyberspace’s only hope for freedom.  Also, I noticed that the colors represent the side of good and evil, which makes it easier for us to specify the programs. There had been many other scenes with high ratio to low ratio lighting, but cyberspace has the best list of lighting I’ve ever seen.

Another thing this movie is famous for are the special effects. The movie is based on two different worlds in one planet: the human world and the digital. Being inside a video game or a computer must be an out of this world experience which is extremely cool, unless you’re force to take part of the games which will cost your life. YIKES!! My favorite special effects is the cycle race which is placed over the Grid especially in the scene where you digitize your vehicle. I also like the digital field, defense mechanisms, and the streams created by the cycles are specialized for this film.

Robocop Mise-En-Scene Analysis

What is a Mise- en- scene exactly? Well, it’s actually everything that’s put into a scene or clip of any film whether it’s the lighting, actors, clothing, or  the whole background in it. Whenever we analyze a film, we receive many feelings from it and even experience different types of unique settings and point of views. Watching the film Robocop was fun to watch and by using the Mise- en- scene analyzing technique, I have identified so many changes.

Here’s my favorite scene of the movie where Robocop aka Alex Murphy had finally removed his mask in order to see what was left of his human self. It is a sad scene for me because I realized that even though he was given a new chance in life, he will never be considered a human being again. Mostly half of the background on the right picture focus on his human face while it is his reflection on the left picture. As we focus on him looking at his reflection, we see that his face shows his humanity in all of his cyborg body. Also the lighting can represent a new light of truth was given to Robocop in order to embrace his human half in the new body. Many people believe that robots don’t possess souls or feeling due to them being an imitation of life. But I know that even a little compassion or kindness such as Lewis showed to him, can change any man, beast or machine.