Conceiving Ada

This film is very unique. It allowed us to see the way that a director can utilize a digital set. I found this idea to be an interesting concept. It is a good way to save money, but personally I think that the lackluster performance of the actors could be contributed to this lack of a tactile setting to use for the performance. The way that these digital sets where created was that the director went around to several houses and photographed them, then she put her actors against a blue screen and put the two together in post production. Though this is said to make some sort of artistic statement in the film, it was also done because of the limited budget for the film.
What made this film important to our class, however, is its discussion of the digital world. Ada, refers to Ada Lovelace, for whom a whole digital language was named. Ada was the daughter of Lord Byron. It also refers to Charles Babbage, who created one of the first devices that could be referred to as a “computer”, which is the difference engine. This device was actually a large mechanical device which could compute numbers. This film centers around the idea that Ada could help Charles perfect his design.
Ada also eventually comes into contact with Emmy, through a completely surreal set of circumstances. Emmy creates a digital bird, which is similar to the one created at MIT. This bird is a digital version of the mechanical one given to Ada by Charles Babbage. Through some interesting channel of communication this bird is able to link up Ada and Emmy. The film describes it as using digitized DNA of something of that sort,b but really the film does a bad job of making this concept clear to the viewer. Emmy can see into Ada’s thoughts and communicate with her. This creates some sort of gap in time and space that the film tries to explain, but fails at.
The woman who created this movie is full of interesting concepts, and I have been able to gain a greater understanding of this film by learning more about her. She is very concerned with escaping herself and creating new individuals, which she considers “art.” In class we viewed some of her “art” which consisted of her making random, and as she insists “personal” confessions into a video camera. This woman also created another form of “art” which involved her going out as another person some days. This escapism that the “artist” is so concerned with is a major theme in the movie, in my opinion. It seams the artist is always looking to escape herself, just as the character in the film is so concerned with finding this new person. In the end this also becomes significant because Emmy declares that she will let Ada live on through herself to let her accomplishments be recognized.
This film was an interesting choice for the class. It served to show us that a filmmaker could choose to use a digital set, instead of a real one. This has become an interesting topic in filmmaking because of the increasing popularity of Blue Screen epics such as Star Wars. This film, however, shows us every negative of the blue screen being used in film. The actors, who were not amazing to begin with, are further debilitated by their lack of surroundings to react to. The sets are so fake looking that they take away from the story in some parts.