Semester Exam - Film Opening Analysis of Black Mirror (season3, episode 4, San Junipero)

     The clip from Black Mirror, San Junipero, is depicted as a bond between two strangers at a party. The first scene is compromised of non-diegetic sound from a river which I believe is used to signify something mysterious. The river is also starting to develop some unnatural lighting which seems to be originating from a city. After the river is shown the audience sees an establishing shot of a very large and bright city in the night. The opening scene then cuts to what seems to be a busy street full of old cars and the cover of a movie which came out in the late 1980's. Another signification that explains it is the 1980's was that when the car passed the main character, we hear over the radio that the song playing is one of the best hits of 1987. With this being said we can clearly describe the setting, a busy night in the 1980's. After the car full of people drives by we see the main character for the first time who appears to be somewhat shy walking by herself.

     After the main character stops to watch the television she spots two people walking into party, the main character becomes curious and follows them in. The very low lighting inside of the party is a great representation of the misce-en-scene in the episode, because it shows that the main character is necessarily new to parties such as the one shown. Another important aspect of the party is the clothes that the main character wears compared to everyone in the party, everyone in the party is mainly wearing clothes that are meant for going out meanwhile the main character is wearing a striped long sleeve with khakis, which shows that she does not fit in with this crowd.      

     Next, we see a follow shot of the character looking around the party and finds an arcade. The episode shows the arcade using an establishing shot. The main character almost seems relieved that she found the arcade showing that this could possibly be one of her favorite hobbies. After playing one of the arcade games a side character is introduced who tries to get the main character to play a game with him. The new side character is portrayed as awkward similar to the main character and he tries to make conversation by discussing the games. As he shows the main character the new game, it deals with a car crash that the character seems reluctant of playing, this could mean that she may have insecurities with danger or something happened to her in the past regarding a car crash. After the main character witnesses this she walks away back into the large crowd.

     After she leaves the arcade, she takes a seat in a booth with a soda. An important piece that separates her from the audience is that almost everyone who is partying decides to drink something alcoholic while she decides to drink a soda which may portray that she is law abiding. Next we are introduced to the second main character (Kelly) who introduces herself to the main character, this is when we learn the name of the main character (Yorkie). Yorkie and Kelly seem to have fairly different personalities but get along quite well. With this being said, this signifies that they will have a good bond throughout the rest of the episode.

     To conclude, we see that Yorkie and Kelly will be getting along quite well even with the difference in personalities. Yorkie seems to be more of the awkward type especially from her body movement/positioning while Kelly seems to be the more outgoing character especially from the fact that she was the one who introduced herself first. The audience can infer that they will be getting along due to the fact that they have a certain friendliness with is shown through their short dialogue.