Sci Fi genre and sociohistorical context

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Sci Fi genre and sociohistorical context


Allegory - a media product that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

- e.g. Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Zeitgeist - the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time. (The 'spirit of the time')

 Godzilla (Japan 1950)
Japan is the only country to have experienced nuclear bombing, Hiroshima and Nagasaki a retaliation from Pearl Harbour. it was after this that japan surrendered. Godzilla is a representation of America (The baddie), of who took over Japan after the war. America tried to turn them more left wing than right wing. The dinosaur was made as the trauma was too raw to feature the disaster explicitly. It shows women having main roles in a film for one of the first times in Japan.

Invasion of The Saucer Men (USA 1957)
The Villan is Russia during the first cold war, the aliens in the film are Russian spies invading America with their communist propaganda. The key theory is Russians are invading America and stealing their women.

 Independence Day (USA 1996)
About Middle Eastern Terrorism - Ended in 9/11. The war against Terror. The film represent Democracy, Freedom and everything American stands for. The Aliens represent Middle Eastern terrorists as the trauma was too raw to use actual people as they can get away with racism. The film makes out that America is the Underdog - a fantasy.

 'Humans' Sci-Fi Conventions:
-Blue Eyes
-Robots
-The word 'Synths'
-The Full moon
-Robotic Music
-Robotic Speech
-Advanced technology
-Artificial Intelligence
-Everything is clean, blue and shiny mise-en-scene
-The stiff performance of the robots
-A realistic real word setting

Allegorical Aspects:

 - Sexualisation

 - Sexual Exploitation

 - Modern Slavery
The synths, you can own them by buying them from the shop and make them do what you want. They are categorised in price by their physical features. The synths have been programmed to do all the housework for the family, and they don't get any form of payment even though they can feel pain. This is because they're 'inferior'. "You're just a stupid machine."

 - Capitalism and the Nuclear Family

 - Racism

 - Prostitution and the rights of sex workers:
Using Synths as Sex workers and effectively slaves as they are kept in booths. They are used as prostitutes as they 'don't have feelings' so can be used for money. Sex robots are legal in the UK. The ethical considerations of these sex robots are that a robot is a depiction of a real human being. Anita is a representation of a Women and the issue is that you wont be able to draw the boundaries between what you would do to a human and a robot.

 This show is about pornography, when the son first looks at Anita you can tell his mind process, all the sexualised synths are women. Online pornography gives the viewer the idea that this is what real life sex is like - this is the cultivation theory.

 Laura Meets Anita:
The C/U of Laura's face with a slow zoom creates the effect for the audience of a contrast between Laura and Anita and an opposition to show their differences. They're not talking to one another - one is a robot and one is not. Laura is older than Anita in appearance, Anita is East Asian whilst Laura is White British. This could represent Chinese technology, and she is represented as the cleaner as she is wearing her factory dress and the mise-en-scene of the cleaning spray ad a cloth is a hermeneutic code that she has been cleaning.

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