This document provides information about the 2014 sci-fi thriller film Ex Machina. It was Alex Garland's directorial debut with a relatively small budget of $15 million. It explores relationships between humans and artificial intelligence through the story of a programmer invited by his CEO to participate in a Turing test evaluating an AI assistant named Ava. The film was successfully marketed using viral techniques like a fake Tinder profile to promote the film at the SXSW festival and using virtual reality to immerse viewers. It received critical acclaim and awards recognition despite its modest budget.

1. Ex Machina- a typical British film?
A Sci-Fi thriller; explores relationships between human and Artificial Intelligence
Alex Garland’s first directorial film-not an established director-although was the
screenwriter of screenwriter of 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007) Never Let Me Go
(2011) and Dredd (2012). Also wrote The Beach.
Had a relatively small budget of 15 million
what may this information already suggest to us?

2. Quick quiz
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
To qualify as British, 3 of the following should be met:
•A British Director
•A British Producer
•A predominantly British cast
•A British production company
•subject matter that informs on the British experience
•British identity defined

3. Types of audience
• How might the BFI classify audiences?

4. BFI film research-are you a film avid?

5. Our smaller film study: Ex Machina
• https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=trailer+ex+machina&&view=detail&mid
=3B050D5143721E14B4033B050D5143721E14B403&FORM=VRDGAR
In the mountain retreat of a internet
billionaire, Caleb takes part in a strange
experiment: testing artificial intelligence
in the body of a beautiful robot, Ava. But
the experiment twists into a dark
psychological battle, where loyalties are
torn between man and machine
A film for avids/mainstreamers/aficionados?

6. Using Tinder
• http://mashable.com/2015/03/16/ex-machina-tinder-
marketing/#mGbFly5BsPqq
1. How did they utilise Tinder?
2. Were there any issues with using Tinder?
3. Which festival did this coincide with?
4. Was this a successful marketing technique anyway?
5. Anything else that is clever about this marketing technique?
Viral marketing is capitalised upon-the controversial nature of this marketing
will lead to people discussing-and raising awareness of- the Tinder site, and
of course the film!!

7. Raising awareness-film festivals
• Love-seeking Tinder users at the SXSW festival in
Austin, Texas have found themselves the victim of a
sneaky marketing stunt to promote artificial
intelligence thriller Ex Machina.
• The weekend saw festival goers fall for a 25-year-old
woman called Ava who turned out to have a secret:
she’s a robot. Echoing the plot of the film, which
premiered at SXSW on Saturday, users who swiped
left were then engaged in a conversation with her
which served as a form of Turing test.
• They’d been botted!
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/tinder-users-sxsw-are-
falling-woman-shes-not-what-she-appears-163486

8. The site then links to Instagram- meetava
• https://www.instagram.com/meetava/
• Look at Instagram….
• Trailers
• Review snippets promoting the film
• images
• Information
How does it market the film?
Answers underneath!!

9. Marketing techniques to raise awareness
• They used avasessions.com- have a go now.
• How is it cleverly used?
• asks for your name –interactive –web 2.0
• Asks if you’d vote for it t o win award- free feedback
• Asks if you would like an award
• Takes a picture of you and then allows you to share it
• Also touches on the film’s themes-identity and AI/human barrier merging
• enigma

10. Using digital technology to promote Ex_Machina
• At a London event last week, Double Negative, the technologists behind
Ex_Machina and winners of two Oscars for its visual effects and computer
animation work on Inception and Interstellar, went one step further.
• Its Virtual Reality team created a VR experience by using a custom built
digital spherical stereo camera designed for use with its 3D rendering
software. The result allowed the viewer, wearing the Samsung Gear VR
headset, to look around the entire hi-res environment and to ‘meet’ Ava
using a specialised Android Oculus playback app.

11. Which audience do you think Ex Machina’s
promoters are trying to market here?
1. Content/themes
2. genre
3. Marketing methods and chosen platforms to promote the film
Any technological convergence?

12. Major roles
• Who are they?
• Previous filmography (roles)
• Why have they been chosen?
• Are they obvious star vehicles?
• Do they have obvious Hollywood appeal and repute?
• Any other interesting info relevant to the exam?
What is their impact upon the film?
Domhnall Gleeson
Alicia Vikander
Oscar Isaac

13. Distributed (shared) by Universal
• What does this tell us?
• Do you thin it would have achieved the same level of fame without
Universal?
• What does this tell us about media conglomerates like Universal?

14. Two film locations
• Pinewood Studios, Bucks
• A Norwegian hotel for a fortnight
• So again-nothing too extravagant
but still reaches success!
“Artfully spartan in its use of digital
effects, Ex Machina looks great,
forging a strong visual aesthetic
from a limited budget. All glass walls and
stripped pine, Nathan’s remote mountain retreat is
elegantly sketched out as a modernist, minimalist holiday
cabin perched atop a high-security subterranean bunker.
Interiors are clinical and sparse, with muted colours and
discreetly embedded technology. With Norway standing in
for Alaska, the landscape framing the action is elemental
and vast, awesome in scale but chillingly devoid of human
life. It could be prehistoric, or even post apocalyptic.”

15. Filmed digitally-why?
• Benefits?

17. Was it successful?
• Ex Machina was the big winner at the December British Independent
Film Awards-four awards:
• Best British Independent Film
• Best Director Alex Garland
• Best Screenplay Alex Garland
• Outstanding Achievement in Craft for its Visual Effects, by Andrew
Whitehurst.

18. technology
• Worked with UK company Double Negative, rather than drawing on
support from a bigger film conglomerate
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.
Saves
money on
dig editing

19. Interview of Double Negative’s Andrew Whitehurst
-Production of Ex Machina
http://cinefex.com/blog/ex-machina/
• What do we find out from this interview?
Another link
http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/8/8572317/ex-machina-movie-
visual-effects-interview-robot-ava

20. Academy award
nominees for Visual
effects

21. How much did it gross worldwide?
a) £3
b) 3 million
c) $33 million
d) 333 million
e) 3 billion
Answer: 33 million
Is this comparable
to Star Wars and
its grossing
figures?

22. Any cross media convergence?
• http://www.soundtrack.net/album/ex-machina/
• Can we find other examples?

23. Any differences between E_M and Star Wars?
• Production
• Distribution
• exhibition

24. Ex Machina doesn’t contain traditional British content
• Is this surprising for a British film, considering that British films are often
famed for reflecting British cultural heritage/values?
• Why has it been successful-in your opinion?
Imbd
The film is a modern retelling of William Shakespeare's last complete
play "The Tempest," featuring a "magical" master of his domain, a
beautiful pseudo-daughter who has never met another man, and a
young man with whom she is smitten.
Links to Frankenstein-creator and creation parallel