Category Archives: Blog Post

Updated Film Review: Black Mirror

Summary

The episode opens with the main character, Victoria, waking up in a strange house with no memory of who she is or how she got there. As she stumbles outside, she notices that people are silently filming her on their phones, showing no response to her confusion or pleas for help. Suddenly, masked individuals begin hunting her, attempting to kill her with firearms and other weapons. As they navigate through the dangerous town, a plot twist ending is revealed, and it truly astounds viewers and leaves them questions their own morals.

How It Connects to Tech Noir

Black Mirror tends to take the route with it’s episodes to explore some potential new technology, its benefits, as well as its downsides. Specifically, in the episode White Bear, it doesn’t showcase much new technology, it showcases some advanced tech with how they handle punishment in the U.S. Also, with the dark aesthetics and sort of dystopian society it portrays.

When asking Dr. Oblivion, he said the episode “White Bear” has the similar themes of tech noir and cyberpunk, with the “dark, twisted reality” due to the “bleak future dominated by sinister technological advancements.” The new and advanced technology is used to control and punish people who do not follow what they want.

Course Character

Meet Veronica Malone

I decided to pick the hard-boiled detective arch type, but to steer away from the usual and make her female. We do not see many female detective characters, and if there are any they are more stereotypical. I wanted to create one that had the hard personality, but also a soft side.

Veronica Malone works as a detective, and is a no-nonsense, sharp-tongued character who has a moral compass. She will usually use humor even in tense situations. Being born and raised in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, she grew up wanting to fight for justice, and to work in a field where she could help others. She is single, born in 1992, which makes her 32 and her zodiac sign a Scorpio. She has shoulder-length brown hair, dark eyes, and wears an iconic wine red coat and fedora that she wears when she is on the case.

She does enjoy some movies and books. Her favorite movie is either Ocean’s 11, or Miss Congeniality when she is feeling good. Her favorite book is The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler as she likes a story with flawed characters and moral grey areas. If she had to pick her favorite possession, it would either be her journal where she makes notes of all the cases she has worked on or criminals she has caught, or her revolver, which is self-explanatory. Her personal motto is “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing”, as it reflects her way of life and her upbringing to where she is now.

First Week Summary

Starting off the week

I started the week for this course by reading over the syllabus carefully, as well as scrolling through the course website just to start acclimating myself to what is expected of me. I then started the weekly tasks for the first week, and planning out when I would do what. I also thought about what I wanted to accomplish with this course. I went more in depth about my goals in my post My Goals for this Course.

The First Week Tasks

I found the first week tasks to be easy, as I simply created the accounts I needed. Also, I already have created a domain and various subdomains in past digital classes, so creating a new subdomain, as well as installing WordPress with it was a piece of cake. I also had the group meeting, which was very helpful in terms of answering questions and getting to know the professor as well as some fellow classmates. It was also interesting to dive into the background and meaning of Tech Noir, as well as some films and tv shows that fall under that genre. I watched an episode of Black Mirror, which I went into more detail in my post Film Review: Black Mirror.

Film Review: Black Mirror

I watched an episode of Black Mirror called “White Bear”. I have watched a couple of episodes of Black Mirror before, so I knew the baseline plot of most of the episodes were trippy, futuristic, had some major plot twist, as well as some message about society. This episode had my jaw dropped as I did not expect the plot twist ending. To explain it without spoilers it really had me questioning my morals, and thinking about what we have come to as a society today with easy access to technology and how you are always being watched with what technology we have today.

My Goals for this Course

What I want to get out of this course is to expand my digital presence, as well as get more practice using different softwares to create videos, podcasts, or graphics! I also want to be able to juggle and plan accordingly with my work since I tend to procrastinate! Otherwise, I am pretty excited for the course!