San Junipero Flashcards
Yorkie as a loner
• Loose framing and wide angle shot of Yorkie in establishing shots
• Her silence and lack of interaction emphasise this
• Glasses signify geek archetype
• Drinking coke instead of alcohol at Tuckers signifies immaturity
Wes toxic masculinity
Wes regularly harassing Kelly reflects issues of toxic masculinity and the way women are often subject to unwanted attention
How is a female target audience established?
• Women are central to the narrative, reflects modern production
• Attracts a new audience to black mirror, previously more heavily focused around male characters
Conventional representation representation of women: San Junipero
•Women are shown as emotional, nurturing, caring - Embracing outside of Kelly’s house by the sea, ect.
• Entire narrative centred around women finding love
How does San Junipero differ from the rest of Black Mirror as a series intentionally?
• Ends with a utopia
• Female centred - keeps the show unpredictable
•brighter mise en scene
How is Kelly represented as popular and sociable
• seen via group shots, enjoying herself socialising
• Outfits, hair and makeup suggest she is glamorous and confident - intertextual reference to Janet Jackson, rock n roll star
• ‘I am bodacious’
How is the binary opposition between Kelly and Yorkie reinforced
• lots of shot reverse shot emphasises their visual differences
• Mise en scene of two shot in the mirror - Kelly is playing with her appearance, Yorkie is standing awkwardly, wall creates a barrier between them
Kelly as independent
Says to Wes she ‘doesn’t do feelings’ - Doesn’t need male independence, challenges shared conceptual roadmap
Bisexual representation
• Colour scheme of pink, purple, blue colour scheme throughout replicate bisexual flag
• e.g lighting in tuckers, Kelly and Yorkie wear purple and pink and blue when confessing their love to each other at beach, holding hands
Unconventional bisexual representation
•Bisexuals often represented as promiscuous and non-monogamous
• however Kelly and Yorkie are represented in a closed off, romantic and deep relationship
Conventional representation of bisexuality
Yorkie - ‘Everyone is looking at me’ - self conscious, taboo - anxiousness emphasised through slo motion group shot of everyone dancing whilst Yorkie is self-conscious
Diverse representations
• Lack of racial discrimination in San Junipero, interracial relationship reflects timeless nature of the show
• Attracts diverse audience
• Attracts perhaps an older audience who couldn’t experience an accepted interracial/ homosexual relationship when they were younger
Representations of youth SJ vs old age
•Shown as full of energy, enthusiasm, life - evident in dancing on the arcade game in Tuckers in 2000s era
• Binary opposition - older characters dependent on others, infirm, poor health, in the retirement home, Yorkie in a coma on a ventilator for 40 years (close up of her breathing on life support)
Heterosexual relationships given importance SJ
Kelly is laid to rest with her husband and wife when she passes over rather than with Yorkie - suggests a functional homosexual relationship is only achievable in a fantasy where discrimination doesn’t exist
Realism in san Junipero to make the show relatable to audience
Intertextual references to Bubble Bobble, Max Headroom, Scream
Sci fi iconography
• CGI used to replicate data banks, multiple identical lights and track out to wide angles shot emphasises sheer number of consciousnesses in SJ
•Mise en scene of future world e.g futuristic car, use of white metal to create sterile feel
• Higher key lighting and wide angles of white spaces adds to futuristic feel/ ‘heaven’
How is the USA location signified SJ
Americanised coastal iconography e.g ocean, convertible car, sunsets, feels escapist, neon lights
Intertextual reference to signify time period
‘Heaven is a place on Earth’ by Belinda Carlisle, Simple Minds and Robert Palmer tracks, ‘Don’t you forget about me’, Pretty In Pink makeover scene
1990s time period indicated
Scream 1996 posters and songs by Alanis Morisette
2000s time period
The Bourne Identity and Kylie songs ‘Can’t Get you out of My Head
Music used to foreshadow and hint at elements of the narrative
‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ - Kylie
‘Girlfriend in A Coma’ - The Smiths
‘Living in a Box’ - by Living In A Box
How is Yorkie and Kelly’s growing connection and feelings of intimacy displayed in San Junipero
The use of tightly framed close up shots e.g two shot outside of Tuckers sat on the garbage bin
Sexual representations in the Quagmire
• fast paced editing helps to significantly it as a thrilling, dark, chaotic place
• Dancers explicitly dancing in cages - positions alternate sexualities as strange/ dangerous/ restricted
Signifiers of drama/ romance genre
Kissing, long emotional conversations, arguments - e.g about Kelly passing over
Enigma codes within SJ
• why do the characters have only until midnight? (Close up of clock changing to 12)
• why is Yorkie in tuckers if it isn’t her scene?
• Yorkie’s alarmed expression at the car crash in Topspeed video game, foreshadows her car crash as a cause of her coma later in episode
Apply Jean Baudrillard’s theory of postmodernism to San Junipero
• Intertextual references
• episodes deal with hyperreality, preferring the simulacra to real life (relates to phone addiction)
• hybridity typical of post modernism
Charlie Brooker inspo for San Junipero
• Nostalgia therapy - playing music from previous periods
Significance of Heaven is A place on earth
• First and last song to play in the episode
