Black Mirror was created by Charlie Brooker in 2011, and has so far run for 3 seasons, but has been renewed for a fourth. As it is an anthology series the cast changes every episode.
This series shows how technology affects our lives now and how it could in the future, typically in a dark manner.
Influence on my work:
Technology also features prominently in my own screenplay idea because of how Ida posts Diana's drawing online and it goes viral. However, it was because how character's falls affect their perspective on the world that meant Black Mirror influenced my work the most. I was mainly inspired by two episodes of this show: Nosedive and San Junipero.
Nosedive:
This episode is about a woman who lives in a world where her social media score can be used as currency, therefore she is constantly trying to increase it so she can move up in the world.
The main character, Lacie Pound (Bryce Dallas Howard), thinks that this will happen when she is invited to a high profile wedding but when she has difficulty getting there she meets a female truck driver who doesn't care about her score and won't be nice to people just so it will increase. Therefore, this changes Lacie's perspective on the world.
San Junipero:
San Junipero depicts the meeting of two young women, one who loves to party and another who is quite shy, in 1987.
At the beginning of this episode, Kelly (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) meet in the party town of San Junipero. However, Kelly decides she does not want to be in San Junipero forever as her family are not there, but as the episode progresses Yorkie is able to change her perspective, causing Kelly to eventually choose to stay.
Therefore, both of these episodes have transformation narratives, meaning that at the beginning the characters are far apart as they have opposing beliefs, but become closer because of how their meeting causes them to change their perspective. However, this change in perspective is driven by each of Kelly and Lacie's falls.
For example, Lacie is climbing up the social ladder but is blinded by her want to get there so badly that when her rental car breaks down on the way to the wedding, her frustration causes her to be mean to people, meaning they begin scoring her badly. This is what eventually leads to her meeting the female truck driver when she ends up walking along the highway.
At the beginning of San Junipero, Kelly is an outgoing party girl who seems to be perfectly suited to life in the party town. However, when she begins to realize that a life in San Junipero would mean she would never get the chance to see her family again, she begins to argue with Yorkie and tries to leave, but she finds out Yorkie is facing a tragedy, so eventually returns.
This inspired me to think more about the climax my own screenplay reaches, and the ways which this could cause my character Ida to fall. At the climax, Ida steals one of Diana's drawings as she is running out of time to get rid of her, so is in danger of losing her job.
However, these episodes of Black Mirror made me consider that instead of Ida just losing her job because she has not been able to get hold of Diana's drawings and get rid of her, she loses it because of the picture she steals.
I thought I could use the litter that Ida is responsible for leaving all over the bench for this, as if this was featured in the drawing it would be of no use to Ida's boss, but would instead show what people like them are doing to the environment.
Although, I found that it could not be just a coincidence that Ida finds this particular drawing as Diana has drawn many. Therefore, I thought that Ida looking for drawings she could steal would be an ongoing thing fueled by her desperation to get rid of Diana, after she sees the amount of damage Diana is doing to the company she works for.
This meant that Diana overheard Ida and saw her looking for drawings, therefore set her up to show her that her actions have consequences, which leads to Diana changing Ida's perspective about the world around them through the drawing and the consequences her taking it has.
I thought I could use the litter that Ida is responsible for leaving all over the bench for this, as if this was featured in the drawing it would be of no use to Ida's boss, but would instead show what people like them are doing to the environment.
Although, I found that it could not be just a coincidence that Ida finds this particular drawing as Diana has drawn many. Therefore, I thought that Ida looking for drawings she could steal would be an ongoing thing fueled by her desperation to get rid of Diana, after she sees the amount of damage Diana is doing to the company she works for.
This meant that Diana overheard Ida and saw her looking for drawings, therefore set her up to show her that her actions have consequences, which leads to Diana changing Ida's perspective about the world around them through the drawing and the consequences her taking it has.
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