Humans mini mock

 ‘To what extent does the first episode of Humans conform to conventions of the Sci-fi genre’? 

http://lr-media.blogspot.com/2020/11/humans-mini-mock.html Blog post to support planning

Argument	Key Scenes (technical codes!)	Theory you could apply	Media Language
Is typical of the genre, is futuristic, and robots are a real scientific discovery, sentient AI is a real life concern, is possible, Humans is futuristic but fictional, can give the illusion of what our future holds. Full automation. Everything is possible, dosen’t look out of the ordinary, much like our everyday lives, isn't something that would never happen in our lifetimes. Humans acts as an allegory, a comment on broader society which is very common in the sci fi genre. Metaphors such as slavery, reminence of uks colonial past	Pre credit sequence, a warehouse full of human like robots. Can be futuristic or an alternate reality.  First getting anita, setting her up. Credit sequence shows real headlines and real robots that exist at the time series was made, even that can bee seen as outdated as technology changes quickly Synths working at an indoor farm, picking fruits or vegetables. Reminiscent of plantations where slaves were made to work	Steave neale genre theories,  have to have similarities for audiences to relate to identify with but also differences to make it less repetitive. roland barthes semiotics codes- robots a code for sci fi post modernism- jean baudrillard.boundries of the real world and what is presented to us grows increasingly thin. Hyper-realistic imagery of humanistic robots. postcolonialism	Mise-en-scene - positioning of synths in the warehouse, looks artificial and rigid.  Colors- muted, bleak

 ‘To what extent does the first episode of Humans conform to conventions of the Sci-fi genre’?  (15 marks)

one way in which humans can be interpreted as is being typical and conforming to the sci-fi genre is through iconography and codes. this links to Roland Barthes semiotics theory, codes and symbols are signifying for something and we make sense of them through seeing familiar codes. robots act as a symbolic code for the sci fi genre, similar to things like aliens, time travel, mutants (radioactive). it is furthermore typical as it is based on a reality that could exist, we are in a technological age and the threat of synthetic humans, sentient AI and full automation are possibilities. we can also link Steve Neales theory of genre, which states that we need similarities and differences within a genre for them to fit that niche. the similarities we see are robots whereas the differences are that it is not seemingly based in the future but rather an alternate version of reality. A key scene to back these up is the pre credit scene in the warehouse, rows of synthetics standing, they seem rigid and artificial as they're lifeless. surreal sci-fi imagery, also very eerie with the dimness, bleak colours but moon light highlighting Anita.

Contrastingly humans can be seen as not typical as it seems so similar to our present day. sci-fi can often be based around a highly futuristic reality, or even another planet. by being so similar to the world we live in, it blurs the lie between reality and what's being presented to us, this is applies to Jean Baudrillard's post modernism theory, the reality that is being presented to us in humans can start to become confused with what's actually real because they seem so similar and normal at times. furthermore the robots blend in, they appear human so we can also begin to confuse the "real" that's being presented to us and our own reality. we also see hyper realistic imagery in the synths.

the series can also act as an allegory, a comment on broader society which is common across films and series of the sci-fi genre. a key scene could be the scene where fred gets detained at a farm hes been made to work at, the atmosphere and shot type plus knowing that they are working but without being paid is reminiscent of the plantations around the time of slavery. this could be a comment on how the prejudice, discrimination and racism is still prevalent in present day societies. not to mention the fact that Fred, a black character gets ruled out and is essentially shot/tasered for trying to run away. we can see that this is a comment on postcolonialism in modern times, especially significant as it is a british series, the UK being one of the biggest and most notorious colonizers.