Section A Practice: Mr. Robot
The scene starts with a black screen with a non-diegetic sound of the main character. As the black screen turns into the opening credits, the character talks about something. The camera shoots from a close-up shot, combined with shallow focus, to show an unidentified person standing, and behind him is a building. The camera then zooms out slowly, eventually to a medium-long shot, to show a bigger picture. We see that a group of people are arguing with each other around a table. With the help of back lighting, the identity of everyone in the room is unknown. As the dialogue continues with this, we hear the main character such lines, like: “A powerful group of people who are secretly running the world”; “The guys who are unknown, the guys that are invisible”; even “The top 1% of the top 1%, the guys that play God without permission”. These lines may connote the scene of the group of people, that they are possibly the secret world rulers. The scene is actually showing them arguing on how they could divide their world to their own benefits.
The next scene starts with the main character saying “And now I think they’re following me”. This line alone may suggest that he is being watched by the group of people in the first scene. We then see that the camera plays shot-reverse-shots between the main character and the two men that are watching him from a distance in the subway. The camera sets up a big close-up with the main character, showing each and every movement on the character’s face. Meanwhile , the camera is set at medium-long with the two men, suggesting that they are watching the character.
Next, we see that the man on the right approaches and talks to the man on the left. This action may connote both of them are planning on doing something to the character. Again, the scene matches with the character’s dialogue, where we clearly see now, that the character is being watched. This might be due to the character having done something that catches the attention of the “top 1% of top 1%” group of people, and now they are finding a way to get rid of the main character. The scene then ends with the line “This is about last night, I should’ve gone to Angela’s birthday party”, which means that the character did something last night that made him the target now.
The next scene is played in a coffee shop, where the main character is at. The scene is set with yellow lighting and a nostalgic atmosphere, which comes along with the next action of the character, when he approaches a man who just walked into the shop. The camera then sets shot-reverse-shots between the character and the man. But while the camera uses medium close-up, showing the man and people in the background, the camera uses shallow focus close-up shots with the character, showing the man blurry on the left. This may suggest that the character is the one that is in control of the conversation.
The conversation starts normally, when we know that the man that the main character is talking to goes by the name of “Ron”. The story continues to get unveiled as the character said that the man’s original name is Rohit Mehta, which then the man changed his name when he bought the first “Ron’s Coffee” six years ago. However, the conversation starts to become an exposure, when the character unveils the dark secret of the man, as the character talks about the coffee shop’s internet speed. The camera now zooms out to medium close-up, combining it with close-up; while still using shallow focus. The conversation escalated quickly, as the main character reveals that the man is using “Tor Networking” to run an anonymous website. We can see that this scene shows the binary opposition of both characters in the conversation. While the man is scared and tries to explain everything, the main character still has control of the talk, despite having social anxiety, as he said. The scene ends with the police outside of the coffee shop, and the main character walking out, suggesting that the main character has informed all of the man’s secrets to the police.
The next scene returns to the subway, suggesting that the story continues the day after the talk. The main character, again saying “I’m being followed”, strengthens the point earlier in the scene. He then talks about how it took him a few minutes to destroy a man’s business, and that the higher-ups don’t like that. The atmosphere is getting intense, as the two men keep watching the main character’s movements. Suddenly, the intensity got interrupted when a stranger on the subway tried to talk to the main character. The stranger then said “Exciting time of the world right now”. This might conclude that what the main character has done last night might result in something big in the future. It could be a hunt, or it could be a secret warfare against the “top 1% of top 1%” group.
In conclusion, we see that the main character is portrayed as a person with social anxiety, who is outstanding with his computing skills. He isn't afraid to expose the dark secrets of the mysterious group of people. Although this is only a minor to a much bigger discovery that the main character will make, this already shows the main character will be a big problem for the superior group of people.
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