An independent, non-governmental body which classifies and
censors film, video as well as computer and console-based games
released in the UK.
Promotes understanding and appreciation of Britain's rich film and television heritage and culture.
Government backed lead agency for film in the UK ensuring
that the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively
represented at home and abroad.
Aims to support, develop and promote the art forms of the moving image.
The official UK agency for international cultural relations.
Its Film Department promotes new British films (features and shorts),
internationally principally through festivals and showcases. Portal site
britfilms.com
Main British Production Companies
5 Recent Films From These Companies
Film4
The Lobster
Slow West
Macbeth
Mr. Turner
Ex Machina
Entertainment One
The Last Witch Hunter
Nativity 3
Stung
Mr Holmes
Miss You Already
Pathe!
Selma
Beauty and the Beast
The Great Beauty
Philomena
Slumdog Millionaire
Warp Films
The Stone Roses: Made of Stone
'71
Four Lions
Submarine
Tyrannosaur
Big Talk Productions
The World's End
Hot Fuzz
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
In Fear
Cuban Fury
Working Title
Everest
Bridget Jones's Diary
Love Actually
We Are Your Friends
Les Miserables
BRITISH VS. AMERICAN
British films can claim 25% tax relief from the government. This means the first 25% of any profit you make cannot be taxed! To qualify as "British", a film needs to score 18/35 on the Cultural Test for Film. THIS IS THE SCOREBOARD FOR THE CULTURAL TEST FOR FILM.
My Score For:
Ex Machina (featuring the cultural test criteria for example) -
A: Cultural Content
A1 Film set in the UK or EEA - 4/4 (NORWAY)
A2 Lead characters British or EEA citizens or residents - ¾ (SCOTTISH,
SWEDISH AND GUATEMALEN)
A3 Film based on British or EEA subject matter or underlying
material - ¼ (SUBJECT MATTER AROUND ROBOTS AND TESTING)
A4 Original dialogue recorded mainly in English or UK
indigenous language or EEA language - 6/6 (RECORDED IN ENGLISH)
TOTAL SECTION A - 14/18
B: Cultural Contribution
The film demonstrates British creativity, British heritage
and/or diversity - 2/4 (DEMONSTRATES BRITISH DIVERSITY SLIGHTLY)
TOTAL SECTION B - 2/4
C: Cultural Hubs
C1 (a) At least 50% of the principal photography or SFX
takes place in the UK - 2/2 (TAKES PLACE IN LONDON)
(b) At least 50% of the VFX takes place in the UK - 2/2
(TAKES PLACE IN LONDON)
C2 Music Recording/Audio Post Production/Picture Post
Production - 1/1 (TAKES PLACE IN THE UK)
TOTAL SECTION B - 5/5
D: Cultural Practitioners (UK or EEA Citizens or Residents)
D1 Director - 1/1 (ENGLISH
D2 Scriptwriter - 1/1 (ENGLISH)
D3 Producer - 1/1 (SCOTTISH)
D4 Composer - 1/1 (BRITISH)
D5 Lead Actors - 1/1 (SWEDISH/SCOTTISH)
D6 Majority of Cast - 1/1 (ONLY REALLY FOCUSES AROUND 3
CHARACTERS, 2 OF WHICH ARE UK/EEA CITIZENS/RESIDENTS)
D7 Key Staff (lead cinematographer, lead production
designer, lead costume designer, lead editor, lead sound designer, lead visual
effects supervisor, lead hair and makeup supervisor) - 1/1 (MAINLY BRITISH)
D8 Majority of Crew - 1/1 (MAINLY BRITISH)
TOTAL SECTION D - 8/8
TOTAL SCORE - 29/35 - QUALIFIED AS A BRITISH FILM
Avengers: Age of Ultron -
TOTAL SCORE - 12/35 - NOT QUALIFIED AS A BRITISH FILM (UK filming, but American casting and producing)
A young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breath-taking female A.I.
Age Rating:
UK - 15
US - R (UK equivalent to an 18)
Review Scores:
IMDB - 7.7/10
Metacritic - 78/100
Rotten Tomatoes - 92%
Content:
Sex & Nudity - 10/10
The woman lifts her leg and wraps it around the man. The scene ends and sex is implied.
A woman begins to undress for a man.
Discussion of attraction, flirtation, sexuality and penetrative sex with a robot.
A man jokes that oral sex was performed by a ghost in a film.
Conversation between two males about sexual intercourse. One asks the other if he wants to have intercourse with the main female lead & leads to about how it would be performed if such a case arises.
Mention of pornography.
Several uncovered humanoid robots shown, with breasts and genitals of actual actresses visible.
A female styled humanoid robot lies fully uncovered on a bed (very brief, non sexual with visible pubic hair).
A female styled robot examines it's uncovered flesh looking body in a mirror; nipples are seen.
A humanoid is seen on the ground in a very short that nearly reveals her flesh-looking buttocks.
There are long scenes where full frontal nudity of feminine humanoid robots in human looking flesh are shown. The appearance of flesh includes details of nipples and full frontal and backside nudity. Some of these humanoids are kept naked in closets. Graphic footage of them in partial human form and naked are also seen.
Because the robots are meant to be provocative of female sexuality in such a way that is fundamental and integral to the story line, their presence through out the entire movie is therefore a form of sexualization.
A female caresses her body in either a sexual manner or self realisation manner
A woman stands in front of a bunch of naked woman humanoid robots and she starts stripping artificial skin off of other naked women robots and placing on her own body.
Violence & Gore - 8/10
Body Count- 2 Humans and 1 Robot
A man cuts his arm with a razor blade and it bleeds extensively.
A man punches another in the face.
A man is stabbed to death by two different robots. Blood pools in his shirt.
Two robots are hit by another character, one is shown losing their limb and another is shown with a missing jaw after injury.
There is also emotional and psychologic violence towards the robots and it could be questioned whether these interactions depicted in the film therefore constitute a form sexual abuse, slavery and involuntary confinement; particularly in form of both sexual and domestic violence against women.
Profanity - 7/10
The f-word is said approximately 20 times, in both a sexual and non-sexual context.
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking - 7/10
Characters are seen drinking alcohol.
A character gets extremely drunk several times.
There are conversations about drinking and hangovers.
A character encourages another character to get drunk.
Frightening/Intense Scenes - 5/10
A man cuts his arm, the scene is quite graphic.
A female robot peels back her skin to reveal machine parts.
Robots are beaten and have limbs damaged.
A man is stabbed twice by two different robots. Blood is seen.A man is left to die in a locked room.
A humanoid is screaming and emotionally enraged at her physical and sexual confinement.
$5,349,500 (USA) (24 April 2015) (1,255 Screens) $250,000 (USA) (12 April 2015) (4 Screens) €38,500 (Netherlands) (3 May 2015) (8 Screens)
Gross
$25,440,971 (USA) (30 August 2015) $25,434,333 (USA) (23 August 2015) $25,405,058 (USA) (2 August 2015) $25,361,484 (USA) (19 July 2015) $25,233,155 (USA) (9 July 2015) $24,954,673 (USA) (21 June 2015) $24,330,000 (USA) (7 June 2015) $23,587,000 (USA) (31 May 2015) $21,947,000 (USA) (24 May 2015) $19,566,000 (USA) (17 May 2015) $16,705,000 (USA) (15 May 2015) $15,762,000 (USA) (10 May 2015) $10,924,000 (USA) (3 May 2015) $6,827,930 (USA) (26 April 2015) $250,000 (USA) (12 April 2015) $36,659,611 (Worldwide) (9 July 2015) $26,187,268 (Worldwide) (15 May 2015) €89,727 (Netherlands) (6 May 2015) $29,501 (Portugal) (15 May 2015)
Music (Composer of Score/Soundtrack)
The musical score for Ex Machina was composed by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow.
A soundtrack album was released digitally on 20 January 2015, with an LP and Compact Disc UK release in February 2015 by Invada Records.
Additional songs featured in the film include:
"Enola Gay" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
"Get Down Saturday Night" by Oliver Cheatham
"Husbands" by Savages
"Piano Sonata No 21 D. 960 in B-Flat Major" (first movement) by Franz Schubert
Much of Ex Machina takes place inside Nathan's house - an isolated building in the mountains filled with glass-lined walls. Production filmed on the Sony F-65 with anamorphic lenses, which would ultimately make for challenging plate tracking. On set, Vikander wore a gray wetsuit material costume covering most of her body. When visual effects replaced a section of the actor, the remaining parts were still the wetsuit material. Each setup involved an IBL take. Design and texturing of an Ava model continued at DNeg during principal photography, after which it was clear the rig had to be ‘astonishingly flexible’. To ensure the CG elements would perfectly match to the live action photography, Vikander was initially photobooth scanned in pre-production so her equivalent CG model could be built. Once the final costume was ready on set, the actress was scanned again and the model refined.
The film was shot like ordinary live action. There were no special effects, greenscreen, or tracking markers used during filming. All effects were done in post-production. To create Ava's robotic features they filmed the scenes both with and without actress Alicia Vikander's presence, which allowed them to capture the background behind her. The parts they wanted to keep, especially her hands and face, were then rotoscoped while the rest was digitally painted out and the background behind her restored. Camera- and body-tracking systems transferred Vikander's performance to the CGI robot's movements. In total there were about 800 VFX shots, of which 350 or so were robot shots.
Any Issues
"The very premise of Ex Machina sets up a battle of the sexes that has quickly proved to be controversial: As Caleb examines Ava, he begins to fall in love with her, and he’s increasingly horrified by the notion that Nathan is keeping this feminine creature as his prisoner and potential sex slave. Certainly, men don’t come off so well in the movie, which links their desire to create with the more primal male desire to procreate: In other words, it posits that the tech-bros who are driven to design humanlike robots may be thinking less with their brains and more with their ... well, you know. It’s Ex Machina’s treatment of women, though, that has already spurred the most think pieces.
The male characters in Ex Machina are blinkered and sexist in the way they relate to Ava (who's presented to both Caleb and the audience as a tantalizing mystery), but does their mere portrayal imply that the filmmaker approves of their actions, even unwittingly? It’s a notion that needles Garland, who understands all too well that a story designed to make you feel many things can be read by some as intending only one thing.
Ava read as post-gender, her circuits whirring underneath a body she’s been placed into but feels skeptical of. At the same time, she’s still just as hemmed in by male expectations as any real human woman would be: Kept imprisoned by Nathan in his remote hideaway, Ava is born into a literally patriarchal system that measures her worth based on how men respond to her, and it’s up to her to either exploit that system or learn how to circumvent it. When she dons a feminine wig and pours herself into a dress, she’s gauging her physical impact on Caleb; alone in her bedroom, the androgynous android studies images of other women that Nathan has provided, forming her notions of sexuality from the magazine cutouts and advertising images that are literally placed in front of her."
