Mis-en-Scene - Ex Machina

One of the better films to have been released in 2015 had to be Ex Machina. Given its relatively small budget of $15 million and the very contained and isolated set pieces, it manages to be one of the most thought provoking and tense films I've seen in my lifetime. Aside from the writing and acting, the film is exceptional in its visuals and keeps the viewer immersed with realistic practical and digital effects that could easily fool the untrained eye. This is all thanks to a blend of good direction and a very talented visual effects team.

Throughout the whole film, Ava, who is an artificial intelligence (AI) in a robotic body, interacts with the two other characters (Caleb, shown above) as well as the environment around her. In any other film, this isn't too much of an accomplishment, but for Ava, it was an extraordinary feat in visual effects to be able to seamlessly blend her character into the world around her. By blend, I mean consistently and continuously use digital effects to make her robotic character seem realistic and believable. In the scene above, this is demonstrated by both the character herself and her reflection. What makes this scene work, and by work I mean what grounds the scene in reality, is the fact that there is nothing about Ava that looks unrealistic or unbelievable. From the lighting on and from her, to the texture of both her skin and metallic limbs, she looks really real. This is thanks to the visual effects team at Double Negative with the special effects team lead by Richard Conway. 

The Special Effects (SFX) Supervisor is the person in charge of making sure the atmosphere is set and the right things blow up, as well as any other means of demolishing a prop. Now, Ex Machina isn't exactly a Michael Bay film in terms of destruction, however, there are scenes, and without spoiling anything, with props that get destroyed in this film. This scene is not one of those, but one of the props might be in this shot. (oops!) While the SFX Supervisor played a very important role in this film, there is a little (a lot) more to say about the Visual Effects (VFX) team.

Visual Effects are more what made Ava come to life, which this movie, and specifically this scene, would be nothing without. The VFX team was able to create balance when they were able to reflect Ava on the pane of glass right next to her. That is really what makes this scene believable. If it looked wrong, you would notice and point out how wrong it looked. If it looks natural and real, you don't say a word, because what's to praise about a reflection? Nothing, unless it's the reflection of a mostly computer generated character. There is a great deal of negative space in this film to contrast the living creatures against sterilized, futuristic backgrounds. Ava stands out in the scene due to her human appearance, and her robotic features against the stone canvas behind her.

In this scene, you can equate the blank walls to the blank slate of Ava's mind. A mind that has just recently been created and is ready to be filled with all kinds of information and human interaction. This is in contrast to the antagonist of the film, Nathan, whose living areas are noisy and are decorated with abstract art and decorations. The room in the above picture is Ava's living quarters, where you can clearly see there is close to nothing in terms of decoration.

These VFX artists are essential to conveying anything in this scene. A robot communicating with a man, and then the frame communicating with the audience, telling us that this is all real, which is really the point of the film. To tell the audience that AI is real and is happening.

Pragnanz comes to mind, reducing reality to its simplest form. In our minds, as we see a robot on screen, we know it's fake. The beauty of film isn't to just to trick the viewers, but to allow them to escape. To recognize that what we're seeing isn't going to be reality, and to suspend our disbelief to escape into a world where artificial intelligence merges with an autonomous robotic body. Sure it's all make-believe, but the VFX of Ex Machina make sure you forget that for two hours. 

This scene is one of many just like it throughout the film, with Ava and other characters in dialogue. With the writing to augment the visuals and vice versa, we see a contrast of human and AI and the blurred lines between the two. In this scene, the only thing that separates Ava from Caleb is her robotic appearance, and visually, we are being told much more about our robot friend Ava than we might originally have thought.

Production Credits:

Sara Desmond		Unit Production Manager
Clare St. John		Post-Production Supervisor
Tor Arne Øvrebø		Production Manager

Art Direction by Katrina Mackay

Principle Photography by Rob Hardy

Axioms of Web Design: YouTube

I frequently browse YouTube and I am a dedicated subscriber to many channels. I use YouTube daily, so much, in fact, that I actually pop the 10 bucks a month for YouTube Red. Offline videos with no ads, as well as Google Play Music is absolutely worth it, to me at least. But I'm not here to sell anyone on paid YouTube, no, instead I'm here to put their homepage to the test against the following 8 axioms of web design, so let's begin.

Conveying their Business Objective
Does YouTube, a digital video hosting website, convey their objective of hosting videos on their homepage? Considering the name "YouTube" is nearly synonymous "internet videos", I'd say they do a fine job at conveying their objective. In the above image, it very clear that videos are the main objective of this page.

Strong Grid
YouTube is almost entirely laid out in a grid shape. Considering the goal of this site is to consume content, the whole page is arranged with video thumbnails, after thumbnails, after thumbnails. Since all the thumbnails are rectangular boxes, it would only make sense to lay them out in a grid shape. Even the comment section, with its reverse chronological order, is laid out in a grid.

Image/Text Relationship
According to Rutledge's axioms, "the lower right is the most effective position for a large image on a text-filled page." Considering that YouTube doesn't necessarily have a text filled page, this axiom is not exactly applicable. However, since there are a literal ton(s) of videos on the site, all of which have images and text, I think it would only be fair to analyze those. I'll be the first to admit that the image/text relationship of YouTube is a bit underwhelming and, in a way, lackluster. There is already so much information to take in while browsing the site, yet, it makes it more difficult when there is tiny blue text that looks nearly indistinguishable from the last video. Honestly, though, it would be difficult to imagine it any other way, so I suppose it passes.

Directing through Angles
Well, I suppose YouTube isn't necessarily great at this either. Unless we're talking about right angles, YouTube doesn't exactly have a dynamic layout. I will say I find that appropriate considering you're not exactly there to learn about a new product or service. I mean, YouTube isn't trying to sell you on anything other than watching videos, and the videos are where all the creativity lies. The site isn't exactly visually stimulating either, but it does what it needs to.

User Friendliness
Here is something YouTube does great. YouTube is to trivial videos as Google is to trivial information. Considering Google owns YouTube, that only makes sense. When anybody (and I realize that's a generalization, but really, ANYBODY) wants to find a video, they go through YouTube (or Google to YouTube) and search whatever it is they're looking for. As the above image shows, the very top of the page is a search bar awaiting input. Literally, as soon as the page loads the bar is primed for search, which is appropriate considering it's the second largest, and technically most popular, search engine in the world. Anyone and their grandma could figure out YouTube in a matter of seconds.

Points of Interest at Points of Contrast
YouTube does this easily since their whole site is plain white, with some red sprinkled about. Any thumbnail that isn't the same value of white is going to stand out. That's where the importance of thumbnails comes into play, but that's left up to the creator to figure out. YouTube attracts viewers to videos by the simple fact that the videos are the only thing on their blank white canvas.

Easy on the Eyes = Ease of Use
Humans like patterns and symmetry, and at any given point, somewhere on YouTube has at least on of those. Thumbnails are often laid out in a grid-like pattern, organized by categories that remain in familiar places. The site may not be gorgeous, but it definitely isn't ugly. It doesn't have the most vibrant colors or most beautiful artwork, but it does keep it simple. Its simplicity definitely aids the site in its ease of use.

Mobile Friendly
Finally, does YouTube hold up on a smartphone? Going back to 2007 with the launch of the first iPhone, YouTube had a dedicated app built into the phone. Since then, they've had nearly a decade to perfect mobile viewing, and have come a long way with intuitive design and utilizing gestures to perfect the ease of use on smartphones. I've used the app on both Android and iOS operating systems for many months and I can say with utmost certainty that YouTube knows how to make a clean looking and easy to use app. The site is definitely mobile friendly and does a fine job with the mobile market.

All in all, YouTube certainly does what it needs to. It may not be award winning or an experience like no other, however, it definitely gets the job done effectively with simplicity and intuitive design.