Mr. Robot Analysis

Titles
The titles of the episode open with the production companies of the series. The titles of the film pause until the end of the opening, when the main title card is displayed on screen.
Music
The opening music is quite eerie, with simple piano starting and light strings in the background, but as the shot climaxes, the music comes to an abrupt end as the camera cuts to the shot of Elliot on the train.
Shots/Mise en scene/Character
The episode opens with the main character, Elliot, giving a monologue over the opening credits of the episode. This is followed by a close shot of some business men, believed by Elliot to be “the top 1% of the top 1%, the guys that play God without our permission”. This opening monologue is likely meant to appeal to the rebellious and anarchistic side of the viewer, encouraging them to fight against the establishment and to break the status quo. This shot zooms out slowly as the tension builds in the music, with a sudden jump cut to black. Elliot then says that he now thinks that these corporate giants are following him. The music climaxes and jump cuts to a close shot of Elliot on an underground train, hood up. The camera then cuts to a shot from Elliot’s point of view of two men appearing to have a quiet conversation, then they both turn to look at Elliot/the camera, adding a sense of unease, given his statement at the end of his monologue. The camera cuts back to a long shot of Elliot, sitting minding his own business looking around the train.


The setting suddenly changes to a coffee shop with a jump cut to a side profile shot of Elliot as he turns around to watch a character walk through the front door and the camera follows this character to his seat. This establishing shot connotes this man as an important character in this scene yet we know nothing about him as of yet. We then get a further away shot of Elliot lurking in the back of the shop, looking somewhat uncomfortable. We can tell from this shot and the previous shot of Elliot on the train that he is clearly not comfortable in social situations and could suffer from intense anxiety. The camera cuts back to a shot of the other man sitting in his seat and getting his coffee given to him. The camera stays on him for a few seconds then cuts to an over the shoulder shot of Elliot watching the man from his spot at the back of the shop. Elliot starts to walk and it cuts to a close shot of his head and upper torso, as he picks up his bag and walks towards the man. The camera then pans out to an establishing shot of the man on the left and Elliot on the right, with the title “Ron’s Coffee” in the background, establishing the location of the scene. The camera cuts to an over the shoulder shot of the man as Elliot sits down opposite him and takes his hood down, fixing his hair. The camera cuts back to the previous establishing shot, with Elliot on the right and the so-far anonymous man. For the next few minutes, the two characters exchange dialogue. The camera cuts between over the shoulder shots of both characters.Elliot reveals that he has been tracking the man and gathering information on him for a while. The man is revealed as Ron, the owner of Ron’s Coffee, however his real name is Riyad Matah. Elliot proceeds to talk to Riyad about his very fast WiFi that he has installed in his shop, however Elliot finds it highly unusual for a coffee shop to have “gigabit fibre speeds”. We can tell from this dialogue so far that the target audience of this show is people interested in technology and have experience in IT. The language used is scientific and complex.


From the way that Elliot acts during dialogue and even in the opening establishing shots, we can tell that he is uncomfortable with people, socially anxious and clearly not used to talking to strangers. Perhaps from this we could see that the writers of this show have built Elliot to be more of a relatable character; maybe those who spend a lot of time on their computers, whether it be for work or leisure, are seen or could feel very much the same way Elliot is portrayed in this opening scene. As Riyad’s private life is unravelled in front of him, the music starts to rise and tension builds. The scene climaxes as Elliot reveals that he gave the police an anonymous tip, including the current date, time and location. As Elliot stands up, the camera follows him and it cuts behind him to get a shot of Riyad as Elliot gets his bag on and begins to leave. The music begins to build to a climax. Elliot walks towards the door and leaves Riyad behind, and he gradually falls out of frame. As he walks out, two police cars pull up outside the cafe and 4 officers get out and enter the shop the same time as Elliot walks out, presumably to arrest Riyad, and the camera cuts to the title card.
General Analysis
I feel like the episode has stuck to the conventions of this rather niche genre. The main character is an almost stereotypical, socially anxious hacker with a morphine addiction. I feel like the most unique quality of Elliot is his addiction but the rest of his character is very uniform with what is expected of the genre. Elliot seems to have surrounded himself with relatively normal people but he feels uncomfortable at most times.
The target audience of this film is clearly technically minded people with a vested interest in cybersecurity. Perhaps by following the conventions of the genre they were able to attract a wider audience and relate to more people who could feel the way Elliot does; alienated and outcast. Despite some of the cringey writing of the series, it attracts a wide target audience well.
The series is distributed by USA Network, Universal Cable Productions and Anonymous Content.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Red Five Filming Log

Filming log, stardate 70699.4 We tried filming our first few indoor shots. It was hard to film as we wanted the curtains to be closed to darken the room to give a more secretive atmosphere, however the low light levels meant that the footage didn't come out very well after reviewing it. A lot of the footage looks blocky and because there was so little light in the room and so much light coming off the computer monitor the camera wasn't focusing correctly and the focus kept changing to adjust the light levels, which meant that the characters were almost invisible. We are going to have to reshoot the indoor parts and then keep the curtains open to ensure that the camera performs optimally.
Read more

Shooting Schedule for Writer's Block

Image
DAY 1 We are filming in Art 3 in Rathmore at 3pm. We are going to film chronologically. We will to record the entire film in one 30 minute session. Ciarán Hines and Aaron Esteban are the two actors in this film and Eoin McCoy will be the cinematographer and editor. Aaron has written the treatment and drawn the storyboard, and Ciarán has written the script. The actors will be wearing the Rathmore uniform during filming, however Ciarán will be looking disheveled with his tie loose, top button undone and blazer off. The props necessary for filming will be a piece of paper to throw at Ciaran and a cup of coffee.  DAY 2 We could not complete filming on day 1 due to time constraints. We were able to film a complete rough draft of the film on day 2 and see what we have to fix on the final film. It went well, we finished up to the final scene, which is what we were aiming for. We might need a 3rd day, as the lighting slightly differs from day 1. All the props and costumes were...
Read more

Red Five Filming Log

Filming Log, stardate 70636 On the 25th February, we attempted to film the first few shots of the film. We managed to get a few of the first shots filmed, however the weather was not optimal. It was a really overcast day, with light rain. The rain gradually got heavier as we filmed. We wanted to have a nice sunny day for filming. We will attempt to re-film these shots as soon as we get the opportunity and the weather is good. We are yet to decide whether we will use these shots in the final production or if we will use the more up-to-date ones, as there is a possibility of continuity issues. Also, during filming we discovered an issue with sound. Because it was a windy day it was hard for the camera mic to pick up my voice, so therefore we have decided to use an audio recording program on my laptop since it is already being used as a prop. Then we can combine the audio and video clips in post production to make better audio quality. Ideally, we would like to film without any wind...
Read more