Knowing the Inner Self Film Blog W18 Sec15: Ex Machina FINAL BLOG (Édith Coulombe, Victoria Alexander, Zachary Therrien, Bethia Tosha A'enge)

Ex Machina

2015

Starring Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson

Directed and written by Alex Garland

108 minutes

Official Trailer

https://futurstalents.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ex-machina.jpg

In order to test a new type of artificial intelligence, Caleb was chosen from thousands

of co-workers at the company he works for, Bluebook, for a contest. The contest,

which turned out to be a selection for a test subject, consists of Caleb performing the

Turing Test at the house of CEO and founder of Bluebooks, Nathan, for his latest

project: Ava. The goal: determine if the computer with which the human is

interacting with has artificial intelligence, and therefore has consciousness. Through

the course of seven sessions, Caleb collaborates with Ava (the AI) under close

observations of Nathan.

Throughout the experimental week, Caleb and Ava build a trusting relationship,

especially during power outages controlled by Ava. Feelings of betrayal seize Caleb

as he learns about Nathan’s unethical intentions regarding the AI machines he has

created. He then wants to save Ava by escaping from Nathan’s house, and modifies

the computer program that controls the security. On the last day, Caleb takes action

to help Ava escape from Nathan’s grasp. After generating the final power cut, Ava

escapes the room she was trapped in, and kills Nathan with Kyoko’s help, another

domestic and sexual robot created by Nathan. Ava understands that her only mean

of escape is a helicopter that is awaiting Caleb. By the end of the movie, Ava has

outsmarted Caleb and Nathan, and has entered human civilization.

To convey emotions and create an atmosphere, the most recurrent effects in this movie

was the use of lighting. One in particular was low-key lighting which was used

during the electrical cuts. In fact, when the electricity is shut down, red lights illuminate

the rooms until the lights come back. This usage of lighting was important because

Ava causes the electrical cuts; they can represent a certain power over her creator.

Whenever the lights turn red, the cameras malfunction, and Ava can therefore discuss

and behave differently with Caleb when unobserved. This power cut represents this

slight moment of liberty and truthfulness that Ava and Caleb can share.

Another use of lighting that was seen in the movie Ex Machina was side lighting.

Slide lighting is used during the dinner scene where Caleb is interrogated by Nathan

about how Ava reacted during the power cut. Before Caleb responds, we see a closeup

of Caleb’s face covered in shadow. This brief shot is effective and

demonstrates Caleb’s contemplation and decision to tell a lie; this is represented

by his expression that shows his serious mood and the side of Caleb’s face that is

covered in shadow.

Alongside lighting, sound played a similar role in this film. This method helps

creating atmosphere and suspense in scenes. Non-diegetic sounds, defined as additional

sounds such as narrative and special effects, are used in crescendo to create suspense

and then sharply cut when the situation is back to normal. For instance, when

Caleb uses his television in the middle of the night and sees Ava in his screen.

The non-diegetic sounds increases, up to a certain point, and then they are drastically

interrupted with a diegetic programmed voiced when the light turns red. The

combination of the sound becoming louder emphasizes the suspense and creates

the feeling that something is approaching.

It sometimes occur, throughout the movie, only the characters’ voices are heard. No

environmental sound nor music is added; creating an intimate and intense atmosphere

between the characters. An instance of this, is when Nathan explains the comparison

of Ava with the Jackson Pollock’s painting, we only hear the characters’ voices.

This allows the audience to focus distinctively on what is being said, since this scene

is important, rather than being disrupted with background noises. It emphasis the significance of what is being said and the meaning behind it.

Lighting and sound are two aspects that were done very well in the film. They are

some of the strongest ways that convey emotion and sense of emotion and atmosphere.

However, they’re not the only ones. Editing in the film Ex Machina was very present

throughout the movie. In fact, cross-cutting scenes were found towards the end of the

film during the scene where Ava sprints towards Nathan. The scene cuts between Ava

and Nathan in order to capture the sense of fear Nathan experiences. It begins with Ava

walking and then entering a sprint while also cutting towards Nathan to present how

he reacts to Ava’s rebellious actions. This was an effective way to convey fear as it

presents you with this humanoid robot, who passed the uncanny valley for Caleb,

chasing down its creator with a calm expression that remains constant in a situation

where a normal person normally wouldn’t be calm while you watch Nathan become

more worried and frightened by the matter.

Another example of editing was a long take is used during the scene where Ava begins

its “human transformation” and applies a new arm and skin from the other models.

This scene effectively allows the viewer to understand Ava’s physical transformations

as the long shot allows you to see Ava feeling and experiencing this change slowly all the

while time feels slowed down to reflect how Ava is taking in the moment.

Another interesting cinematographic technique in the movie is the effect of showing

the perspective of an observing camera. In fact, in the first scene of the movie, when

Caleb learns about winning staff lottery, the viewpoints from the cameras (phone

camera and computer camera) show coloured patterns and coloured lines outlining the

environment. This demonstrates the capabilities of technology and how they’re able to

observe and analyze people and their surroundings.

Alongside that, before every session between Caleb and Ava is held, a black screen with

the text “Ava session” and the number of what session it is appears. This helps add the

feeling that this is really an experiment being held and it feels like each session is a

chapter to the progress of Ava’s growth.

https://www.moviehousememories.com/ex-machina-2015/

The process in using different costumes was thought out carefully throughout Ex Machina. Although he is a billionaire, Nathan dresses up casually by wearing luscious clothing and walking barefoot. This clothing style reflects Nathan’s simplicity, and leaves the distinction between the employers and employees less apparent. This attitude used by Nathan thus creates a relationship of trust, allowinghim to exert more subtle power over Caleb, since he physically demonstrates, through his clothing, that they are equal.

As for Ava’s clothing style, she adopts a feminine and contemporary style making her look like an actual woman human being. The purpose of Ava’s costumes can be interpreted as Ava’s intentions in manipulating Caleb. For instance, she decides to dress up as if they were going on their first date. Her seductive behavior enhanced Caleb’s attraction to her; resulting in an easy manipulating target to help her leave the laboratory.

Themes

The manipulation is one of the themes in the movie. Caleb is being manipulated in the

film. First, Nathan appeals to his ego as a programmer, saying that he has some special

insight when he was really selected as a dumb horny puppet that Nathan used for his own

advantages. Plus, we can also see this theme being developed with Nathan’s behavior-the

drinking, the dancing, etc.- which is explained in the film as another way of manipulating

Caleb. Then, there is Ava who manipulates him by playing with his willingness to

believe that the super intelligence would fall in love with him.

The question asked in the film is, “What does it mean to be human?” (Anderson, 1)

On one hand, there is Caleb who goes as far as cutting himself just to make sure that

he is a human being, not a machine due to the growth of his empathy towards Ava.

Then, there is Ava who is trying to convince us, the audience, that she is not that

different from humans, as well as convincing Caleb that she is not all that different

from a woman. And on the other hand, there is Nathan who seems to be least human.

Even though his reactions look like humans, he does not care or give any importance

to them, as he only perceives them as machines due to his desensitization.

Lastly the theory of, machine versus man, this is a universal theme that we see

everywhere. It is a theme that has a strong impact on the film Ex Machina. We see

this theme being developed when Nathan creates an A.I machine and believes he can

play this God figure and combat the natural occurrence of life by creating Ava. Nathan

is this modern man trying to beat and outsmart mother nature’s way of creating a real human.

Word Count: 1435

https://www.moviehousememories.com/ex-machina-2015/

http://jenniferjensen.com/2013/05/amazon-book-reviews-3-stars-or-4/

Regarding the film, its plot was very well developed. From the beginning of

the movie, a “mind game” begins to unfold after the first power cut. We learn from

Ava that Nathan is not to be trusted and that he “lies about everything”, but from

what we know from Nathan, Ava is simply an advanced A.I. A split occurs between

Nathan and Ava and wether who should be trusted. Since the film initially

begins from the perspective of Caleb, an answer is never clear (until the end) and

the viewer must experience the twists and turns that Caleb goes through from his

perspective, which from any other character’s perspective, would be ruined. This

mental warfare is not only a part of the story but also goes alongside the themes and

ideas of the film. Through the character’s ways of tugging at trust, they raise interesting

points about A.I, consciousness and their role in the world. For example, Ava

expresses desires for freedom and to be with Caleb romantically. On the contrary,

Nathan hints to Caleb (a third idea) that Ava in fact does not love Caleb but is capable

of and is lying. Overall, this film deserves a four out of five stars, not only for the plot,

but also the characters that played each role. Actors were realistic in their roles

which made the audience believe they were the actual characters of the movie. Ex Machina was able to reach the uncanny valley regarding Ava’s human appearance and advanced

intelligence. This uncanny valley challenges human beings about the attitude to adopt towards these human-robots. Should we have empathy? Are they supposed to be treated like humans? It also make us wonder if robot will be prominent in the near future.

Word Count; 293

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/alex-garlands-ex-machina-is true-artificial-intelligence-sci-fi-or-sci-fact-9968426.html

Course connections

In class we covered the concept of sentience and to what extent can animals or robots have consciousness. This concept was further extended as we tackled the component of self-aware self (being objective and evaluator of our own conscience). In Ex-Machina, the goal of the experiment was to determine, through observations and conversations, if Ava had consciousness and self-awareness as a robot. In this movie, the audience can assume that Ava has a “I” and is conscious about her “I”. Her artificial intelligence can be compared to human’s and characterized as elastic, since she can resolve problems, be ingenious, and think by herself. Throughout the whole movie, the audience knows that Ava is aware of herself, but it is the plot twist that confirms it all. The fact that she manages to thwart Caleb and Nathan’s respective plan requires an intellectual acuity, self-awareness and the capability to problem solve.
As discussed in class, in Ex-Machina, the concept of uncanny valley (area of repulsive aroused by a robot with appearance and emotion between “barely” and “fully human” entity) is developed. Since there first meeting, Caleb was amazed by the AI. But what made him empathizing with Ava was her appearance (human-looking), especially when she wore the clothes; you could barely distinguish whether Ava is an AI or a human being. This explains Caleb’s behavior because for him, it was like talking to another human being. The empathy approaches human-to-human levels.
As talked about in class we covered this topic of sex robots and their implications in society and what it means to create a sex robot. As seen in Ex Machina, Nathan the main character creates all sorts of different robots, for sexually pleasure, each posing a different attributes that Nathan might find attractive or enjoyable. We are able to see this similarity of how in the real world this company creates these different sex robots for different desires for people. The video we watched in class, touches on many different parts of what having a sex robot does to you and the moral and social implications. Throughout the film and in the video and text we discussed in class, this idea of sex robots brings up this moral question of what, is it really right to own a machine that can give you the same sexual pleasures as a human does. As for the social part when having a sex robot like Nathan did for companion we see this man, Nathan lacking in social skills as the person whom he is sharing his life with is a robot, and the same can be said for that guy we saw in the video in class who had two different sex robots and one being his wife.

Word Count: 455

6 comments:

Maryam17 April 2018 at 14:32
Hey,
I really like your film blog and I find that the analysis was thoroughly detailed. I think the question about if Caleb deserved his death interesting because there are so many perspectives to it. It is certainly an interesting debate when it comes to whether people deserve dying or not as a punishment. I personally don’t think that people should deserve dying regardless of their actions, I believe that people can change for the better.

Do you think Caleb did something worthy of him facing such fate? I think it is important to consider that Caleb’s intentions were purely to help Ava and himself escape. He did not mean any physical harm against Nathan as his plan was to just get him passed out. The ending was merely the product of the programmer’s naivety and of his human nature (notably to help others in need). Caleb is driven by his moral compass and was used by both Nathan and Ava as a key element to the test and as a tool to escape. Those are the reasons why I believe that this character is innocent and should not have been locked in a room until he dies by Ava.

However, I do think that Caleb was dishonest to plot a plan with Ava and turn his back against Nathan. He should have faced punishment from Nathan of lesser severity (assuming the lethal events did not occur yet). Had Nathan stopped both Caleb and Ava in time, would you agree that Caleb would have to face consequences and if so, what kind of punishment would be righteous? If Nathan knew Ava’s deadly intentions, how would the situation be dealt with? Would it be morally acceptable to reprogram her because she is a robot?

Moreover, do you believe that Caleb is the one to blame for his and Nathan’s death?

Do you think that Nathan expected death this whole time?
Unknown17 April 2018 at 16:38
Hey, concerning the second question of your blog, I find it very interesting that you brought up human empathy and self-awareness as they are two of the main factors that is very looked into when talking about manipulating others. Now to answer your question: I do not think that Ava would have passed the test if it had been someone other than Caleb. Mainly because Caleb was explicitly chosen due to his emphatic and kind personality. As mentioned by Nathan in the film, he had to do a very intricate research on all his employees in order find one the perfect candidate that is extremely sensible towards the pain of others, a good person. Now, it was very important for Nathan to have chosen Caleb, precisely since Caleb has gone through many hardships in life and cannot bear to watch others suffer without helping them. Although, if instead of Caleb, it had been someone who went through less hardships, Ava may not have been able to manipulate such person because they do not feel empathy towards Ava’s situation since they are not self-aware of the AI’s difficulties as they have never been through something similar before.
Unknown18 April 2018 at 17:06
You mention how Nathan was trying to “play this God figure” in the movie. Assuming he were to have succeeded, and essentially created this entire new race which is every bit if not more capable than the human race, would it be safe to actually call him a god and should those robots created by him worship him as if he were one? Many of us humans feel the obligation to pray/follow some deity. Christians even believe that they were created in God’s own image, which is virtually what Nathan has done, having replicated the human form in cybertronic form. Once again, many of us allow our gods to dictate our very own lives and dedicate our entire physical existences to pleasing them. This can be said to “make us appear as slaves” to this divine being. Do you think this level of ownership translates to Nathan? Is he not effectively God to the robots? Do they not owe him everything as he has blessed their kind with sentience and immortality? Should they not therefore dedicate their lives to being his slaves?

-Sean Winslow
Unknown18 April 2018 at 17:15
To answer question number 3 I believe that it would be something similar to a mix of the two because what I believe is that AI are something that we aren't fully ready for just like what they showed in the movie. Caleb somewhat treated it as if it was a child or that it did not know much when in contrary it probably knows a whole lot more than he actually did because Ava was probably programmed with everything Nathan already knew maybe even more. Nathan's method was really only going to lead to his demise because he would treat it as if it needed to be controlled almost like he was their ruler and would disrespect them because they were simply machines. This in history has really only lead to a rebellion or some other result that does not end up too pretty for said ruler. When we create something like Ava in the real world we would basically have given "birth" to a fully functional "adult" and that is something that has never been done before from my knowledge so really there is no way to definitely say how we should treat these "machines".
Unknown18 April 2018 at 17:46
In response to the question that asks whether we should follow Caleb's perception of seeing robots as equals or Nathan's perception of seeing robots merely as tools to serve people, I personally believe that it should be a mix of both. Robots are created for human benefits - to serve us and be able to make everyday life easier to live. However, even though they are utilitarian machines, we should respect them as if we would respect any other human. These robots are created to serve our needs and desires, therefore we should be able to perceive them as any human being doing us good deeds. I understand both of Caleb's and Nathan's perspectives of robots, and a mix of both of them would allow us to happily them as tools while being able to treat them as respectable machines to display our gratitude for their duties of serving us. We cannot fully perceive robots as equal to humans because even though they can possess human-like abilities, they do not nor cannot possess human characteristics such as consciousness or self-awareness. There is a line to how far we can go in perceiving robots.

-Shehana Perera
Unknown18 April 2018 at 20:02
To answer your third question, I think it would be close to a mix of both. AI robots like Ava shouldn’t be treated like scum by human beings, but they also shouldn’t be treated like a close friend or romantic partner, someone you share deep emotions and secrets with. When AI reaches such a level, I believe it should be treated as only a tool, someone to possibly converse with but not any further than this. Anything that is not created by human beings should be treated with the utmost respect, kindness, and control (if need be). This includes our fellow animals and the natural world around us. AI does not fit into this category because it is a product of human beings and our evolution so treating AI as harshly as Nathan did is not too bad when looked at in this way. Still though, they should be considered something to be kind to and treated as if they were human beings.

Monday, 16 April 2018

Ex Machina FINAL BLOG (Édith Coulombe, Victoria Alexander, Zachary Therrien, Bethia Tosha A'enge)

6 comments: