By Frazier Moore, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --William Shatner's bumpy flight. Burgess Meredith's smashed eyeglasses. The fateful misinterpretation of the phrase "to serve man." Even after a half-century, these memes can still deliver a jolt of recognition.
But if you're drawing a blank instead, that's OK. The anthology series "Black Mirror" takes you through a high-tech looking glass with jittery tales sure to lodge in your brain for years to come, as it reclaims the hallowed realm of "The Twilight Zone" for a new millennium.
Netflix has just released six new episodes that supplement seven previous hours created for British television.
Among the new crop, "Hated in the Nation" unveils what is literally a killer app that lets people choose the day's most disliked individual— who will then be put to death. "Men Against Fire" chillingly confronts prejudice on the battle front. "Nosedive" takes social-media "likes" to the nth degree of crazed approval-seeking. "Shut Up and Dance" exposes a teenage boy who, after his computer is hacked, will do anything to keep his private life private.
"Black Mirror" is set in the present, or in an all-too-plausible near-future, with tales that are, by turns, descriptive or cautionary or devilishly speculative. Some episodes are grim, some perversely playful. Most are shot through with a streak of mordant humor. Some you will love. A few may put you off.
But it's fair to say that all come loaded with a potent "Uh-oh!" payoff.
How to further explain the essence of "Black Mirror"? Ask Charlie Brooker, its creator, co-producer and the writer of most of its episodes.
"It's like umami," he quips. "It must be something like that."
Brooker, 45, is an English media critic, satirist, TV personality and screenwriter whose piercing contributions to Brit cultural life may have been a bit too U.K.-centric to have made the leap to American shores. Until now.
Perhaps it's no surprise that Brooker's starting point for "Black Mirror" was his childhood obsession with America's "The Twilight Zone," with its socially progressive parables, twist-y endings and shivers delivered down the viewer's spine.
Airing in the early 1960s, it drew inspiration from timely touch points: the Bomb; outer space; racism and the Red scare. Decades later, as Brooker set about framing his new series, he asked himself, "What's the big thing worrying people now?" To him, the answer seemed obvious: the disruptive effects of ever-mounting technology.
Episodes of the show he comes up with typically unfold in an oblique, contemplative fashion, reflecting a modern age when technology, notwithstanding each breakthrough, is largely taken for granted. Brooker realizes that, unlike in the not-so-distant past, technology today is seldom found to be thrilling but rather, at its best, "cool." This guarantees that, when it bursts on the scene in a "Black Mirror" yarn, its effect is all the more disturbing.
That said, Brooker would like to straighten out a common misconception: "There are people who say this is 'the anti-technology show.' That really makes me cross!"
He doesn't look cross. He is rumpled, affable and animated as he corrects the record: "You COULDN'T do this show if you weren't interested in technology. I love all that stuff! Writing the episodes, I'll pace myself: 'When I get to the end of this scene, I can go on my PlayStation a bit.'
"Usually, the technology isn't to blame in the stories," he adds. "It's just facilitating some weakness in our character. It saddens me when people think this show is written by an angry old man who's furious at pixels."
In Brooker's mind, "Black Mirror" treats technology as if it were a drug whose side effects— some benign, some dire — are being analyzed. "Hopefully the show isn't wagging a finger at you. It's really down to the viewer what they take away."
Another half-dozen episodes are in the works for release in a year or so, and beyond that, "as long as we have ideas, and people want to watch, we'll carry on," he promises.
He acknowledges it's hard to stay ahead of the curve.
"But because we're sort of dreaming out loud onto the page, we can start with a 'what-if' idea and identify the human story at the heart of it. Then we work out some technological means of allowing it to happen. But luckily, I don't have to work out how the wiring works.
"Usually," he confides, "the broad idea is something that makes me laugh on some level. And then I'll be describing it to Annabel (Jones), my co-showrunner, and she'll go, 'Oh, my God, that's horrible!' And then, to appall her even more, I will embellish it. And at the point when I'm REALLY laughing, and she's near tears, we know we're in the 'Black Mirror' section of the Venn diagram."
Finally, "Black Mirror" defined! Now you can't say you weren't warned.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More