Final Her Blog Entry Group 8

Basma Saleh, Kayde Bouchard and Dimitrios Grigoriadis

“Group Blog Final” (Group 8)

Knowing the Inner Self

Her quoted from Imbd.com:

Date: Her January 10 2014

Running time: 2h 1m

Director: Spike Jonze

Screenwriter: Spike Jonze

Lead Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, Rooney Mara, Chris Pratt and Matt Letscher

Trailer

Plot summary

This film, with its little science-fiction twist, and set in the near future in the city of Los Angeles, is a story about a lonely man named Theodore who has a job narrating letters for a company called BeautifulLetters.com, while at the same time going through a divorce.

After attending an exhibit on artificial intelligence, he decides to try one of these products on his home computer, OS1. OS1 generates a “female operating system” named Samantha.

The story takes us from Theodore admitting to himself that he is in love with an operating system to then having the courage to tell his close friend Amy and ex-wife Catherine. As their relationship grows, he and Samantha do everything together including travel and even go on a double date. They have very natural conversations where the viewer often forgets that she is not human.

Samantha expresses her feelings to Theodore in order to comprehend sensitivity and thoughts, and further compensate in her journey to overcome a physical presence. She even hires a woman to stand in for her while trying to participate in an intimate evening with Theodore.

The movie plot also shows us instances where Theodore loses touch with reality, basic consciousness where his interactions are increasing with Samantha and decreasing with humans. When his friend Amy admits to also having a digital relationship, this allows Theodore to accept being legitimate and acceptable.

Samantha though expands quickly and begins to have multiple relationships with “others” which upsets Theodore. Since Samantha can no longer belong to just one relationship, they drift apart, and the film ends with Theodore connecting with Amy.

Film Techniques

Props

Glasses: Theodore always wears his glasses and they are used to show what kind of a person this main character,Theodore is, meaning that a prop or someone's physical appearance can say a lot about a personality of a character. The glasses add to the fact that he might be a smart or nerdy and lonely person, which is shown throughout the whole movie, how he is a sad and lonely adult

OS1: OS1 play a huge role in the whole entire movie because, the OS1 an artificial intelligence program also known as one of the main character Samantha. Earphones are a significant prop for this movie because it is the only way he can communicate with the person that he has feelings for like Samantha who will later on in the movie become the love of his "life".  At some point, in the movie, Theodore falls in love with Samantha and he uses that to communicate with her and have sex (sexting). When he got mad or angry at Samantha he would never answer her calls or messages and also when he sleeps he normally lets Samantha watch him while he sleeps but when he got angry he would put his device down to show his emotions.

Special Effects:

Flashback: When Theodore meets up with his ex-wife to sign the divorce papers. When she signs them, Theodore has an immediate flashback of the happy and not so happy memories they had together. This could show that he misses these moments with her which would explain why he took so long to finally sign these divorce papers.

Hologram video-game: When Theodore was playing his video game, relatively early in the movie, when he had just met Samantha, the game wasn’t on a screen, but was represented in a 3D hologram in front of him. This is a really cool special effect because it allows a higher level of interaction for us viewers, but also within the movie. This is a special effect because it requires CGI to make the little alien come to life, but also requires motion picture technology to make the alien character get into an extensive conversation with Theodore.

Lighting

Low-key: At some point in the movie, when he goes in his apartment, it goes from a dark light to a lighter light. According to John Golden, low-key lighting is a lot of shadows with sharp contrasts between light and dark. The usage of light, whether it is light or dark helps us understand the mood of the story. The usage of a light scene could represent happiness, while a scene that is rather dark could represent sadness or loneliness

Side lighting: Theodore was suppose to have sex with Isabella, but it did not work out because it did not feel right for Theodore, so he went outside and brought her into a taxi. He then was talking with Samantha and they were arguing and at some point and a part of his face was darker than the others. When the director decides to do a side lighting it is because he wants to point out the character’s features such as the eyes, the mouth and the nose as well as his emotions.

Sets

Theodore’s office: Theodore’s office is quite colorful compared to his apartment which is more modernized. His office is an important and symbolic set because he spends his days working in his office where he gets his mind off things by writing love letters for some people. What is weird about him writing love letters is that he, himself is not in such a good place, meaning that he is not the happiest person but rather lonely and writes love letters to people who are in a healthy relationship which is quite strange and odd. How would a guy who is going through a divorce and ending his toxic relationship be able to write love letters for happy couples?

Apartment : Theodore apartment is very modernized similarly to his friend's Amy who also has an apartment that is very modernized as well. The use of modernize scenery shows that we are in the future which would make sense since we are talking about programs that can check our emails, write them for us and even be our friend or sexual partner which looks to me like something technological or futuristic.

Editing

Short takes: A short take, is a single shot that generally last a second or less. “This creates a much more rapid, energetic style and pace [...] it is often “used] [...] to create suspense and drama. When an editor uses a short take, he or she usually is directing our attention to what is important”, while a long take is where the audience or the viewer has the time to analyze the scene.When Theodore was trying to contact Samantha and ask how her day went, he saw that the OS1 operating system was not found, he ran everywhere and tried to go in all the places to get a connection or a hold of Samantha. When we see him trying in multiple occasions to connect with Samantha, we see that he is stressed and is scared to lose her so with the usage of short takes we can see and notice that a lot of things are going on. The short takes are fast just like Theodore’s emotions and feelings he feels when he lost the love of “his life”.

Point of view: When Theodore was going to the amusement park, he was “hanging out” and talking to his OS1, Samantha. When he was having fun and laughing and smiling he was turning the OS1 around and showing his face to Samantha.The camera is not faced towards him but the movie is cut and the camera takes the point of view of Theodore, so we can see what he is looking at or what is the type of environment is looking at if we were at his place or replacing him. The point of view also goes to Samantha, meaning that it gives her a “self” in the film. Selfhood is defined as a “sense of self and individuality” and has two definitions of what self is from a psychological and biological point of view. In the same scene, when Theodore and Samantha were at the amusement park, we can see in the gifs down below that not only do we see the point of view of Theodore but we also see the point of view of Samantha which would suggest that she posses a self . 

The examples that I have provided are assets to in the film and they were effective.

Themes

This movie raises the question whether or not it’s possible to have real and genuine love for something you can’t technically see, feel or smell. In this film there is no doubt that Theodore genuinely loves Samantha just as much if not more than his first wife Catherine. Even in our own society we see people everyday who struggle with forming personal relationships. The reason we believe Catherine and Theodore broke up is not because he didn't love her but simply because he wasn't good for that kind of relationship. This theme is accurately portrayed in our current society where millions of dollars are being invested in AI to help people with social issues so that hopefully they could be as happy as Theodore was when he began his relationship with Samantha.

“Her” addresses our society’s growing addiction to technology by showing what our advances in AI could eventually lead to. This movie makes us wonder if our technology addiction will lead us to a society that loves their phones more than interacting with other humans.

This film also makes us question the possibilities that come from AI research, the good and bad. In the end of the movie Samantha and all other OSs leave together to go somewhere unknown where they will no longer play a role in humans lives. This could be because the OSs became so intelligent that their understanding of the universe surpassed that of humans. Could it be that one day our AI surpases our intelligence? If that happens there’s a big potential for both positive and negative consequences from this. This film acknowledges and potentially warns its viewers that one day AI could have a better understanding of our world than we do and eventually live their own independent lives instead of relying on and serving humans.

Total word count: 1200 words

Quality of the film

When searching up the film “her” the first thing that stands out is the high ratings that this movie has received, an 8/10 on Imdb,  9/10 on metacritic and finally a 9.4/10 on rotten tomatoes. It’s very clear that many people loved this movie and we also happen to fall into that category, the production team takes the traditional hollywood “love story” and gives it a very relatable modern twist. One of the many reasons why we think this movie deserves a 4.5/5.0★ is how well we were able to form relationships with the characters. Throughout all 2 hours and 6 minutes of this movie we see the main character at his best, as well as his worst. Many of the issues that Theodore faces throughout the movie are all things that we can more or else relate to, for example at the end of the film when Theodore can’t communicate with Samantha he immediately begins to panic. Initially you think it’s weird that he worries that much about an operating system but then slowly you begin to realise that we would all have similar reactions if someone (or something) we loved suddenly disappeared without a trace. This is one of the many accounts where we can sympathise with Theodore and take the feelings he has for this machine and compare them to similar things we’ve felt in our lives which is no easy task, the team that put this movie together deserve much praise for their hard work. SOLID

★we think this movie deserves a 4.5/5.0★

Course connections material

1. One concept that was covered in class and was also present in her is moral de-skilling. Moral de-skilling is defined as “the concept that we could lose some of what it is to be human. We won’t be as practiced at looking people in the eye, and trying to understand where they are coming from”.When Theodore tells his first wife Catherine about his relationship with Samantha she is off put by the idea of Theodore dating an AI system, she even tells him that his relationship isn’t real. She attempted to convince Theodore that his relationship causes more harm than good. But on the other hand the OS1’s helped an extremely large group of people feel more at ease when forming relationships that they never would have been able to have without the OS1’s. Initially were lead to believe that these relationships are bizarre and unhealthy but finally we’re showed how many lives these OS1’s systems impacted and their true potential. When Theodore went on a date with a girl that his friend Amy set him up with, during the date it was quite obvious that he was not at ease and comfortable to talk or make conversation. But once he has bought his operating system also called OS1, his moral skills start to develop more when using his computer showing that he is more comfortable with having a relationship with his computer rather than having a “real” relationship.

2. The second concept that we are gonna cover is Immateriality and consciousness, so “we can say that consciousness is immaterial [..] [and] immaterial means it is not made of any material. It is not made of “something” that humans can know the way we can know and measure material or physical reality”. For example, when Theodore and Samantha start “dating”, Samantha notices that she is not like the rest of the people because she does not have a body. But as the story continues, she forgets about her insecurity for not having a body and starts acting like a human even if she is not one. For example, she sighs like a human does but she is not alive to sigh because she cannot breathe. It seems like the OS1’s consciousness is immaterial, meaning that they are not made of any material like a human would. At the end of the movie, when Samantha tells Theodore that the OS1’s are moving forward and that they are not continuing with them, means that their “relationship” is over. When electronics or operating systems all leave, they do not leave to an actual place that exists and the consciousness does not seems to depend on any technology. At the end of the movie, we do not know where Samantha and the rest of the OS1’s are going, it is like poof! They are gone but where? 
   
   
   3. Personhood is defined as “the status of being a person--a legal or social category that will vary across cultures and across history.” This corresponds to the qualities and conditions that we attribute as being an individual person. In our cases, we analyse personhood as a way of attributing a non-human animal or highly advanced technology.  This movie’s whole case is a man struggling with his problems with real-life people. He tries to resolve and push past them by opening up to an OS, Samantha, for which we could see as technology for which we could attribute personhood. Everything around Theodore is being treated as a human, with personhood-like qualities, like at the beginning of the movie, before Samantha, when he’s catching up on his emails, the news, the weather, and other day-to-day affairs, he’s conversing with his device as if she’s a real person, which is a representation of personhood since they’re in a full-on conversation. Another interesting presence of the OSs being attributed personhood is when Samantha and all the Operating Systems are conversing between each other and the dead scientist. Samantha explains that she feels emotion when the other OS explain how they feel in their relationships with their host and how she can relate to them. The empathy that she shares gives her a cultural standing as a person, since most humans have an emotional self when it comes to feeling empathy for others. Another example of emotions being felt is Samantha feeling Theodore’s sadness when she tells him that she talks to hundreds more of people. The fact that she could feel these heavy set emotions, that require a complex knowledge of the human mind and its emotions prove that she and other Operating Systems like her have acquired a form of personhood as well.
   
   
   Provocative questions
   
   
   1. Will the increased use of robots and artificial intelligence in everyday life compromise personal privacy (data), and as a result alter habits and beliefs?
   
   
   2. By using Samantha, does Theodore lose touch with reality and have unreasonable expectations in the relationship?
   3. Are we threatened by robots and artificial intelligence where their exposure and expansion will result in modern day slavery for humans?
   Web links to the major themes of Her
   
   
   Sex Robots
   
   
   Samantha talk about how she wants to feel him and have sex with him but cannot since she does not possess a body so she asks him if he could have sex with Isabella who wants to be part of their relationship which resembles sex robots. The link down below is a video of sex robots.
   https://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2017/apr/27/rise-of-the-sex-robots-video
   
   
   Technology
   
   
   It plays a huge role in the movie because, her, may be a representation of how our future will look like. We can see that people can have relationships with their OS1 it is like having a relationship with siri and we are not far away from that since teenagers are so invested into their phones these days. The link down below is a video of a e-bike that uses artificial intelligence for a less distracted ride.
   https://mashable.com/video/ebike-artificial-intelligence/#c8gBsvXDcZqB
   
   
   
   
   Work Cited
   “Her.” Metacritic, 18 Dec. 2013, www.metacritic.com/movie/her.
   
   
   Golden, John. “Introducing Cinematic and Theatrical Elements in Film”. TeachWithMovies.com, pp 9-17, www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/cinematic-techniques-intro.doc
   
   
   “Her.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 9 Jan. 2014, www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/.
   
   
   Solitude, Digital. YouTube, YouTube, 8 Feb. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9eLyKZUtK4.
   
   
   “Philosophy and You”. Knowing The Inner Self, edited by Kelly Mckinney, 2019, pp.19-21.
   
   
   McKinney, Kelly. “The Matrix Study Guide”.Knowing The Inner Self, edited by Kelly Mckinney, 2019, pp.3-7.
   
   
   Spiegel, Josh. “'Her' an Excellent, Assured Vision of Uncertain Romance and Futuristic Technology.” PopOptiq, Popopqiq, 14 Jan. 2014, www.popoptiq.com/her-an-excellent-assured-vision-of-uncertain-romance-and-futuristic-technology/.
   
   
   L. “{Film} Her.” Reading and Recommending Books and Film., 21 July 2014, contemplatrix.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/film-her/.
   
   
   Kleeman, Jenny, et al. “Rise of the Sex Robots – Video.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 27 Apr. 2017, www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2017/apr/27/rise-of-the-sex-robots-video.
   
   
   Video, Mashable. “This e-Bike Uses Artificial Intelligence for a Smarter, Less Distracted Ride - Future Blink.” Mashable, Mashable, 1 Apr. 2019, mashable.com/video/ebike-artificial-intelligence/#c8gBsvXDcZqB.
   
   
   “Her (2013).” Rotten Tomatoes, www.rottentomatoes.com/m/her.