Semester Exam - Film Analyses of Black Mirror (season 3, episode 4, San Junipero)

 The extract begins with a fade transition from the waves of the ocean to a wide shot a city, the music adds an ominous feeling to the shot. The lighting during this shot is dark besides the small specks of light emanating from the city. The camera cuts to a establishing shot of a street in the city at night, a song playing from a car radio plays. As the camera gets closer to the car, the audience assumes that the people in the car or the person getting out of the car is the main character in this episode. However, the camera stays fixed until Yorkie walks in frame, the camera follows Yorkie in a dolly shot, then cuts to a close-up of Yorkie staring at a television behind glass. The lighting of street in Yorkie's shot gives a contrast to later shots where the lighting more colorful and dim. Yorkie's outfit also matches the lighting of the street from the storefront as she is wearing proper looking outfit. Yorkie stares at the television until she hears Wes and Kelly arguing while walking up the street. Both Wes and Kelly are dressed in punk style outfits and the lighting of their shot is bright but with the moon being the only source of light in the shot. They both walk into a club and the camera cuts to a close-up of Yorkie, now looking in the direction of the club. 

Yorkie walks into the club, the camera behind her showing the inside of the place. The mood of the shot changes from somber to energetic as people are partying. Yorkie appears out of place and dazed as she moves through the club. Then, Yorkie stops when she sees a couple of arcade machines, the music that was playing in the shot is replaced by the retro noises of the arcade machines. Yorkie walks up to one of the machines, fumbles a coin out of her pocket, and inserts it into the machine. As she's playing, a man walks up to her and tries to make conversation, but Yorkie ignores him until she dies in the arcade game. The man asks Yorkie if she wants to play Top Speed, a car arcade game, with him. Yorkie looks at the screen of machine where a car is shown racing until it crashes into a building and flies through the air. The crash on the arcade machine makes Yorkie visibly uncomfortable. She leave the arcade to get a drink. When she sits at a table, she sees Wes again, he appears to be looking for something. Shortly after Yorkie sees Wes, Kelly joins Yorkie at her table and asks her to play along with her. Wes comes up to the table and asks Kelly to leave with him, but Kelly says that Yorkie is an old friend of hers who doesn't have long to live, Yorkie adds on to this by saying she has five months left. Wes leaves and Yorkie and Kelly are left alone. In the shot with just the two of them, the audience can see the contrast between Yorkie and Kelly's speech mannerisms and outfits. The extract ends with Kelly offering Yorkie another drink.

Throughout the extract, Yorkie is shown out of place in the street at the beginning and in  the club, then when she interacts with Kelly, she becomes slightly more open to people.