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Small Design Decision – Jhnn Ymn

2046 Movie Poster

I viewed the film 2046, in which the titular science fiction world is situated via mise en abyme within the film’s storyworld: A futuristic realm governed by memory and loss, as crafted by the lovelorn writer, Chow. On a high-speed train out of 2046, the written protagonist is told of the existence of a series of android cabin attendants that cater to passengers’ every need — the only caveat being that one must never fall in love with them.

In a scene where one of the android attendants refuse to leave with the protagonist, I was quite taken with a minute design decision that manifest through the character’s costuming: A piece of one-sided, metallic earwear, glowing red along its underside, in consonance with the crimson-lit set. Its function is never explained, nor is it seen to be used by the character. Yet, its sleek appearance, along with the character’s figure behaviour and costuming, help to craft the figure of the android as the unfathomable technobeing incapable (?) of affection.

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Small Design Decision – Boo Shangyou

Movie: Oblivion (2013)

One small design decision made in the movie that I realised was the asymmetrically-designed Scav Binoculars. Unlike regular binoculars that have symmetrical lenses on both sides, these binoculars have one side that is clearly a lot larger than the other.

The film is set in the year 2077, where humans have fled the Earth after a race of aliens known as “Scavs” had devastated the planet. Early on in the film, we see a Scav spying on the protagonist, Jack Harper (played by Tom Cruise), using one of these Scav Binoculars.

As a regular movie viewer, one might think that the Scav Binoculars are really strange, and assume that it is alien technology. (Did the Scavs design it that way because they had one eye that was a lot larger than the other?)

However, later on in the movie (spoilers), there is a big plot twist where it is revealed that the Scavs are human after all (they were wearing masks the whole movie so they always looked like aliens to the movie audience). I think the design of these binoculars (by the filmmakers) is brilliant, because at a first glance, one might naturally associate it with being alien technology because it looks nothing like the technology we have in our world today, but upon viewing the movie for a second time (after knowing that the Scavs were human from the very beginning), the binoculars actually look like it could be used by regular humans when you think about it. Each side of the binoculars actually gives a different view (left: visible light, right: infrared) as seen in the image above. Although these binoculars only appear for a few seconds in the film, its the small design decisions like this that really build the world and serve as “easter eggs” for audiences to catch upon repeat viewings.

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Small Design Decision – Rachel, Xin Yee, Johan and Hazzry

The movie that we watched together was Okja. One small design decision that was incorporated was a meat extractor gun, used to extract meat samples from live pigs (in this case, superpigs), without killing its subject. The procedure was briefly explained to us via the iPad scene, where visual instructions were displayed on the screen; and the end product was shown in the following scene to give a complete visualisation of the futuristic product that was introduced. It other than the main movie detail of the “superpig”, the introduction of this device allow us to understand that the movie’s storyworld is different from the world that we are living in. 

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Small design decision – Stephanie

The movie iBoy creates a science fiction narrative by the projection of glitchy looking rows of code from electronic devices like laptops and mobile phones as well as from buildings to show the extent of Tom’s ‘powers’. When the audience sees these scenes, we can automatically understand that this is a science fiction movie that is not grounded in reality. Tom had somehow acquired these ‘powers’ after bits of his cellphone was embedded in his brain after a violent attack. 

Picture credits: Netflix

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Small Design Decision – Low Jia Yi

Movie: Ready Player One (2018)

RP1Download

One small design decision made in the movie that I noticed was the collapsible iPad-like device that a student was using to view James Halliday’s pre-recorded message announcing a game that grants the winner full ownership of the OASIS.

Instead of a regular tablet that looks like a block of metal, the one is the movie looks like it consists of two longitudinal objects that when pulled apart, reveals the screen. Its space-saving sleekness really points towards a time in the possible future where technology has progressed even further to provide even more portable table computer devices.

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Small Design Decision—Shelton Chang

Ender’s Game (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=003QxSocTLE

The GUI that we see from the movie that range from the simple design of door latch actuators to the massively complex setting of battle simulations was designed by Ash Throp who was the Lead Motion Graphics Designer. It had a very minimal yet condensed feel to it which helped in the final battle scene. Even though they were assumably full of data, it kept the hull of the ship pretty neat and tidy, which would help Enders to assimilate what was going on while having the big picture of the final battle. The fluid motion of the zoom-ins and the ability to have a cross section view of the battleship fighting through the swarm of Buggers gamifies the battle, which adds to the moral dilemma which was expressed in the book originally by the author.

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Small Design Decision – Kaitlyn

Her‘s OS1

Movie: Her (2013) by Spike Jonze

One small design decision I noticed was the operating system (OS1) designed for the near future (think 2050), one seemingly familiar to us but has capabilities way beyond our time (2018). Like modern day operating systems, OS1 offers user customisation but its exquisite intuitiveness and responsiveness – far beyond what Apple’s iOS or Siri can do today – is seen from the creation of a highly personalised artificial intelligence called Samantha, merely based on a casual conversation with Theodore (guy in red). As viewers might have guessed it, Samantha is just as smart as OS1. Subtle hints as such thus frame viewers’ concept of time successfully by bringing them into the near future through future but predictable technology, whose abilities can potentially be extrapolated and anticipated.

Ho Koon Yee Kaitlyn

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Small Design Decision – Chia Li Hui

Show Watched: Black Mirror Season 2 Episode 1 – Be Right Back

One small design decision I noticed in the show was the pregnancy kit that Martha took. It was very interesting as unlike the usual pregnancy kit that shows only lines, it also shows a digital animation of a baby. Also, there were congratulatory sounds coming out of the pregnancy kit when the digital animation appeared.

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Small Design Decision – Yukie Miyazaki

The movie that I watched was 12 Monkeys by Terry Gilliam. One small design decision that I noticed was the chair that James Cole sat in having the function to move up the wall as the scientists talked to him. It seemed like quite an arbitrary option because whatever that was being done to him on that chair could have been done the same if the chair was not elevated. However, it did make it feel like James Cole was in a giant claw machine and the scientists had control over whatever was going on in it. 

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Small Design Detail – Darren Lee

Movie title: Freejack (1992)

A small design decision that I noticed in a transitioning scene is that the taxis look different in the future (2009 supposedly in the movie). These taxi-vehicles look like some tuk-tuks (like those in Thailand) where the the vehicle operates with 3 wheels only. Unlike the tuktuk we see on the streets, the driver is exposed to the elements of the weather but the passengers would be safe within a sheltered area. The ‘taxi’ sign still remains on top of the vehicle but nowadays, ride-sharing apps like ‘Uber’ or ‘Grab’ changed the concept of taxi entirely..