Ex Machina — The Control of Information
Lessons from The Screenplay
Ex Machina — The Control of Information by Lessons from the Screenplay
The Gist
Michael, the screenwriter behind the superb Youtube channel Lessons From the Screenplay uses the equally superb Ex Machina film to dissect some key concepts in storytelling.
The Gem
Michael’s key point is that storytelling is nothing more than a revealing information to the audience. He breaks the entire movie down into its underling revelation sequence aka the “Journey of Discovery” — in this case, 7 simple pieces of information that form the skeleton of the entire story.
Why I Chose this
I’ve been exploring the link between technology and storytelling for a while now (in fact, it was the main motivation for picking LA over the Bay Area). Great products — the ones you use multiple times per day — are the like the movies you think about long after you leave the theatre. Their underlying structures — the journey — are so well crafted that they influence your experience while remaining invisible — hiding in plain sight.
It takes a carefully trained eye to point it out and an even more expertly trained craftsman to produce it in the first place. How and when information is revealed — whether it is a movie or a product matters a lot, even within genres. You can be methodical and restrained like Ex Machina or you can be sloppy and unfocused like Rogue One (sorry not sorry Star Wars fans).
