Analysis of an Advert: A Short Film for Cinemark Hoyts — “Robot”
In this ad, a lonely robot escapes isolation and monotony
“Robots” is an advert for theatre chain CineMark and was targeted towards the Argentian market.
It begins with a robot waking up to a beeping alarm. He prepares a simple breakfast of coffee and half a grapefruit. He gets on an elevator, then on a bus to work. He works his tedious job. Then he takes the bus home and the elevator back to his apartment. He eats a microwaved dinner before going to bed, only to wake up and do the same thing again.
We see his repeated routine until a text breaks this monotony. He has a date. She is also a robot. The couple meet at the movie theatre. The film they watch moves them to tears which transform the robots, revealing that they have been humans all along.
Directed by Clan Robots uses various elements of its aesthetic, from its cinematography to its music, to show how films allow us to break from the routine for a few moments of connection and escape.
OUR PROTAGONIST The Robot
Our protagonist’s design implies that he has little use of or chance for emotion in his repetitive day to day routine.
Looking at the design of the protagonist, one immediately notes his dated aesthetic. The robots in the film look much more like a macintosh from the 1980s than a futuristic, complex, or elegant machine. It’s a dated and simplistic aesthetic for robots rather than something modern and sleek.
The actual utility of the robot involves simple jagged movements. He’s much more like C3PO and much less like T-800. The simplicity of the robot also seems to be connected to the job the robot does every day. The job does not require much emotional engagement and he seems to be passively moving through life.
Additionally, the robot has a limited ability to express emotion. His face has little mobility, resulting in limited expression. The only components of the face which move are the mouth, which has a very limited range of movement, and the eyes which are capable of lighting up. The life of our protagonist requires very little emotional engagement and this is reflected in the design of his face.
Though the film is limited by the character’s ability to be emotive, the film finds other ways to communicate how the character feels about his life.
REPETITION & ISOLATION
Smaller repetitive moments in the film allow the viewer to feel the ennui of the character despite the limited time we get to spend with him. Every moment for our protagonist is tedium.
Monotony is an integral aspect of the advert’s story. Expression of this monotony is visualized via repetition. On a macro level of course, the story shows the protagonist repeating multiple events over the course of several days. However, in addition to this there are many smaller repetitive moments throughout the film.
For instance, the film begins with the repetitive drone of the robot’s alarm. Later we see our protagonist drum his fingers in a repetitive loop. In the elevator we see the repetitive disappearance and reappearance of light as he descends and later when he ascends. And at work, we see the repetitive loop of the cash counter. These smaller moments allow the viewer to really feel this repetition and monotony of our protagonists life despite the relative brevity of the advert.
The cinematography is also useful to this effect. The film often features frames within frames both isolating and trapping our protagonist.
This is in contrast to the conclusion when the robot meets the woman. At this point in the story, there are no more frames within frames because our protagonist is no longer isolated and he’s (at least temporarily) free from the grind of his daily routine. This contrast is also expressed via the music, notably its lyrics.
“DANNY BOY”
The precise meaning behind Danny Boy is unknown but it is often said to be a song about a son being sent to war. “Robot” uses the song a bit differently. Judy Garland’s cover of Danny Boy an older song from 1955 is a call from the simpler past. In the context of the advert, Danny boy is about isolation and reconnection after a time of separation. The lyrics parallel our protagonist’s journey starting with:
“Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.
The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling,
It’s you, it’s you must go and I must bide.”
These are the lyrics used for the first half of the advert. In this section, there are references to loss of warmth (“summer’s gone), loss of beauty (“all the roses falling”), and loss of connection (“you must go and I must bide”). The content of these lyrics can be connected to the visuals being shown. In parallel with these lyrics we see images of the robot’s isolation, as well as the coldness and lack emotional engagement required by him in his daily routine. As the song shifts as the images do as well:
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow,
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow,
I’ll be here in sunshine [or in shadow]
…I love you so!
The music suddenly swells as our protagonist is joined on screen for the first time. The lyrics here reference warmth(“summer’s in the meadow”), tranquility (“hushed and white with snow”). Notably, the lyrics in Danny Boy’s penultimate line are altered including sunshine(which could be said to reference the illumination of a film projector) and excluding shadow. As the robots complete their transformation into humans, the lyrics give an exclamation of emotion and connection for the first time in the song (“I love you so”).
The robot’s life is an emotionless one filled with tedium and isolation. “Robots” poses a solution: the communal experience of going to the theatre. Cinemark’s “Robots” is an ode to film. It’s an ode to film’s ability to engage with us emotionally, to film’s ability to allow us to escape, and to film’s ability to help us reconnect.
