Introduction
This year, I've decided to do my blog a little differently — because of the nature of this module, my usual numerous pages would be extremely sporadicly full then empty then full again, so I'm just doing one long page. Don't panic — there's still going to be some truly diabolical titles.
Media Landscapes and the Future of Apple Vision Pro
21 Jan
Initial Notes
End of Module: Public Exhibition
Poster & Social Media Campaign
Crit and Exhibition: April 8th
Submission deadline: April 10th
Group project: 3 - 5 people
155 hours (!!!!) to complete the project
Select and respond to one of three provided briefs
Mid-project review in week seven - Dragons’ Den-style panel presentation
Stimulates professional pitching scenarios, and will be short, blunt and pressured. Like an air fryer.
Camera tracking with unreal engine — can this be done on a person? Like, on their head / in a hat lol.
Project Briefs
Participatory Storytelling: Develop and delivery a narrative experience in which the audience become active participants. This will involve blurring the boundaries between author and audience. It will challenge you to hand over a degree of control and you will need to balance the storytelling and participation. This is not asking simply
Community Engagement: Work within a community to investigate and present an issue that I important to them. The resulting work will need to be disseminated to multiple audience — firstly in the community itself, and secondly external audiences in the wider public. This will require careful consideration of the communities’ needs. This is not ‘conventional documentaery’ making since you will need to work closely with the community adopting a participatory approach. The outputs may be disseminated across multiple media platforms, adopting a ‘Transmedia’ (Jenkins) approach. You will need to consider: what makes media spread, how can it reach audiences and how can you engage them?
Hybrid Realities: This brief asks you to blur the lines between the physical and the virtual. You will need yo think cross and beyond specific techniques and platforms, software, and hardware, to critically explore digital technologies such as mixed realities (or ‘XR’), computer-generated imagery (CGI), interactive design, virtual production, digital scanning, projection mapping and streaming technologies, etc. as well as digital communication techniques, and other virtual worlds such as metaverses, have the capacity to create new experiences of our realities. This may involve thinking and forming a place in between that is neither fully virtual nor fully physical, but which is hybrid.
On Hybrid Realities
Media Landscape
Harry Jenkins, on what convergence culture is: https://youtu.be/ibJaqXVaOaI
Star Wars Uncut: https://www.starwarsuncut.com
Really good example of participatory storytelling — each scene created in entirely new ways by entirely new people.
Online culture wars: https://disnovation.org/ocw.php#map
The future of Apple Vision Pro:
Greeting my friend, Brid Realities
28 Jan
This week we all discussed various ideas and begun to form groups. I was speaking mostly to Peter, Hannah and Eliana, and Robyn from film. These are some of our initial ideas:
Our current plan so to create a film for multiple screens, utilising Unreal Engine to create environments and Cinema4D for 3D modelling, and to screen it in a cinema-type environment to be able to present the audience with th multiple screens in the way that we want. I think it would be extremely interesting (and hopefully fitting with hybrid reality), if we could incorporate some performance elements into our piece. Additionally, I would like to expand the cinema from the screen, having things physical come out of the screen (smoke/sparks/insects/water/etc), potentially using Arduinos. This is a rough sketch idea I had of how this could work, if, for example, a place ted audience member were shot through the screen, breaking the forth wall in an extremely physical, performative way.
That's Unreal, man!
4 Feb
Today we had a morning workshop on Unnreal Engine with Advait, and a seminar with John in the afternoon.
I really enjoyed this workshop, and would love to use Unreal in our final project, although there is clearly a very high, very steep learning curve.
John's seminar was on 'Participating Practices', looking at works such as Anthony Gormley's "One and Other," and JR's "Portrait of a Generation" both of which include the audience in the projects' creation, meaning the end result has a deeper personal connection with its audience.
This week, we also had the set up for the interim Exhibition, so I spent quite a lot of time on the power for that and with Peter, helping Mo to print/mount/trim everyone's work, and me and Hannah went around putting up the labels.
Man ov a ich
11 Feb
Today, we had the second Unreal workshop, where we looked at sculpting and shaping terrains.
We then had a seminar with Chris, discussing Lev Manovich's "Computer as a Meta Medium".
After this, we had a group meeting (although unfortunately it was only me, Hannah, Peter and Eliana) where we discussed out project and the possibility of using two or three screens to display different views or aspects of the film. We briefly discussed narrative ideas and the idea of using a horror style with an Unreal environment. We looked at existing scripts, particularly from theatre, as inspiration. Hannah suggested the French play 'No Exit' by Jean-Paul Sartre, where three dead people are locked in a room together for eternity, and their discovery that that is their punishment. It explores the concept of 'hell is other people'. I loved this play when I first read it, so would be extremely interested in using it in some way, whether directly or just as inspiration. I also suggested Mike Leigh's 'Abigail's Party,' a play I was in in 2023 (I played 'Laurence' — easily one of the top 5 characters I've ever played!). This is an extremely dry, extremely British comedy about five middle-class britons who have a somewhat abnormal gathering while one character's daughter (the eponymous Abigail) throws her first party. Elements of this play out like a French farce, with the genuinely cringing humour coming from our character's misfortunes and misunderstandings more than anything else. There is no character you like or hate more than the next, and this works beautifully. The third idea we had spawned somewhat from this, which was of a dinner party, with three screens showing three adjacent rooms. This could play out as either a comedy or a horror, depending on the action that happens. All of these ideas, whether a farcical dinner party or eternal damnation, would use Unreal environments and the Green Screen room to add to the 'hybrid media' nature of our film.
MilkBook Pro
18 FebDisaster hath struck — I spilled an entire bottle of milk which decided ti really fancied a one-way trip down my laptop's HDMI port. One petrifying night later and it seems okay but I'm worried something still smells a little..... milky.
Luckily, Hannah seemed to think it was okay.
Anyway — today's Unreal workshop focused on texturing and UV unwrapping.
We had planned to have another group meeting, but unfortunately one of our group members was AWOL, so we had to manage with just me, Hannah, Peter and Eliana. We discussed script ideas again, and decided that I would write three scripts for next week, with just a generic idea and a few lines of dialogue to get the gist of what the story would be. The ideas we're going with are the dinner party, a psychological/dystopian interrogation/trial (which I had suggested based loosely on Kafka/Berkoff's 'The Trial', or Pinter's 'The Birthday Party'), and one based on 'No Exit'.
Many Scripts
24 Feb
This evening, I finished the first drafts of the first parts of the three scripts: a psychological dystopian, a farce, and a 'hell is other people'-type film based on 'No Exit'.
In that order...
Park Bench
25 Feb
Kam took us in to the green screen room for a workshop, where we looked at chromakeying, Unreal Engine's live backgrounds and its connection to the camera via bases, and how you can see the keyed footage in real-time. It was all extremely interesting (and very technical), and I would absolutely love to be able to use the green screen room for our project.
Afterwards, we all met (although Robyn now had to leave) to look at the three scripts before meeting with John for a tutorial. We ultimately decided on the so-far-untitled psychological dystopian one. I think I would still like the explore the 'hell is other people' concept within this though, which I definitely think there is room for. We also completed the group contract:
Our meeting with John went well, with Robyn joining from her bed via Teams, but John seemed a bit concerned about the cohesion of our piece. We discussed ways to present our final project, whether we want to have a separate screening and show a recording in the exhibition, or if we wanted to have the actual performance element within the gallery space. We discussed theatre in the round as a conceptual idea, and utilising that kind of space but inverted, putting action around the audience rather than vice versa. I also now have a first full draft of the script:
Son of a Pitch
4 Mar
The pitch snuck up on us like arthritis on an 85-year old seamstress. I'm losing my marbles. I am Jack's complete lack of .
I think the pitch went well — we discussed the narrative and making it clearer what we're trying to say.
Our producing admin documents can all be seen here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1S-E565D2xKlFSbCtzitF7bHdaH8UK5WY?usp=share_link
These are my notes from the pitch:
Scene opens as is. At some point a shout, which is heard from the next room.
CRT screens with CCTV footage of the actual audience.
Ray runs off screen, through the fire escape door. Interrogator turns and shoot him through the camera/screen, in the physical space.
Anti-panopticon — everyone sees everything all the time.
I also really loved Chris' idea of having the door rattle to further show that the interrogation was actually happening in the next room along.
Taken to the Green Side
6 Mar
Today we had our induction to the Green Screen room with Kam, just going over what we looked at in the workshop in more detail, allowing us to use the room by ourselves.
I also completed a second script draft.
Another Day, Another Draft
7 Mar
Draft 3
VP Set Up
11 Mar
Today, we booked out the green screen room for the virtual production set up, to make sure we knew what we were doing and play around with our limits and capabilities. We then had a tutorial with Tadej, where we discussed our piece and its link to surveillance capitalism and corporate consumerism. Tadej spoke about other immersive theatre pieces, such as Punch Drunk, an immersive theatre company. We looked at starting an A/V script, but decided that as there is a lot of static long-shots (both for the green screen and the there-screen medium), a guerilla-style approach may work best.
We had a few issues with the green screen room, mostly to do with the bases behaving sporadically, but Kam and Craig were extremely helpful and able to fix the issues for us.
Prop Art
12 Mar
Additionally, I spent several evenings cutting up a Stanley knife, hoping to create a 'bleeding knife' that we could use for the interrogation scene. Extremely luckily, my girlfriend's dad had some spare plastic tubing in his van (he's an aeronautical engineer) that he said I could use to try and pump face blood through the handle to ooze out of a fake blade. Please enjoy this fabulous photo responsibly.
The Green Mile
13 Mar
Today was supposed to be a green screen test day, to get some test shots and see how best to work with the green screen. We did get a bit of this done, but the majority of the day focused around our actual script and storyline, and hammering our any questions or ideas anyone had. I think me and Hannah came in to the conversation with a bit of a clearer grasp on the details, but I'm confident that by the end, no one had any more questions.
While everyone was still there (Robyn had to leave after a short time), we went through the storyline, world building and character motivations, and wrote a synopsis:
‘Hell is Other People’ is an extreme representation of the present day. The project is a piece of propaganda for the regime to show that this could be anyone.
Ray is being interrogated for breaking the ever-changing “contract”; not to interact with false “truth”. Ray and Magnus interact with physical media -books and texts-that are a representation of the concept of “truth” being hard and unchanging, in a world where it is malleable. This is a world with no “hard-copies” and the digital can always be updated, upgraded and rebooted and yet your digital footprint is forever.
People need to be careful about their online presence. Anyone could easily be the person who is picked out and scrutinised for their digital footprint. We want our piece to remind people that this concept of “safety in numbers” is not an intention, but rather a side-effect of a world gone digital. To our audience members, we warn them: “ Do not be passive”. Do you know what data about you has been collected? Do you know where that data is being used? How is it being used? How it could be used for you, as well as against you? Read the terms of conditions, understand the jargon and read between the lines. Our depicted regime does not want this because with “truth” being their driving force and being pliant to their desire, they have absolute control over society with fear.
Thematically, I wanted to take ideas from a wide variety of dystopias, from the surveillance of Big Brother to the book-burning of Fahrenheit 451, to the corporate nullification in Fight Club. The idea is that a screening from the Central Corporation (the governing body) of a propaganda piece (similar to the Two Minute Hate) is infiltrated by the very so-called 'heretics' is is trying to defame, ultimately creating them into martyrs.
Draft Punk
13 Mar
I finished the fourth draft today, and this is pretty much the draft we used for everything from this point, with only slight variation to dialogue.
Key Art
14 Mar
Today, I looked briefly at some poster / thumbnail / key art ideas. I love the black and white thresholded idea, and the corporate serif font (I tried Garamond and Baskerville for this sort of effect), with the camera imagery, and the terms-and-conditions small print. The camera is a photo I took in an underground station when me and Hannah were shooting Stereoscopic, which I always thought would have a use one day!
Green Screen Shoot 1
18 Mar
For our first proper shoot, this day could definitely have gone worse. Please don't ask me how. Robyn wasn't able to come there than to the tutorial; we had every conceivable issue with the green screen, Unreal Engine and the bases; Eliana was ill and so had to leave early. I ended the day exhausted, covered in blood, and with footage that we all could immediately tell was less than ideal. But — it was definitely a good learning experience. Everything was a little bit too dark, so we have decided that next time we will shoot everything a bit brighter, and take it down when colour grading if we need to.
I set up the camera with Peter as our dummy (and I took the shot which is gold — and an almost perfect representation of our piece, with him literally tied to his screen). Me and Hannah then went to find a stool to use instead of a chair that looked a bit too clean. We spoke to maintenance and they very kindly gave us a stool they said we could destroy. We chucked it around to scuff it up, banged it to ding it up, and finally spray painted it to make it look old and dilapidated.
Frameless
19 Mar
Today, some CMP students went to the Framless exhibition at Marble Arch. This was an extremely interesting exhibition, and gave us a lot of inspiration. The entire exhibition is fundamentally hybrid media, expanding art beyond its usual frame. This ties in strongly with our screening, presenting not only three projected screens inside a frameless-esque experience, but with actors physically and violently breaking the fourth wall, we hope to take this idea even further.
Additionally, please enjoy this video of Peter taking the stairs.
CenCorp
24 Mar
I spent most of the day today writing the waiver to be used at both the screening and inside the exhibition. The idea is that no one reads the small print / terms and conditions, et we always click 'allow' or 'accept' as there usually isn't any other choice. One of the key takeaways from our project is 'Read the terms and conditions!'
To further exacerbate this point, I put the signature and date at the top, implying that you will not and do not need to even read the conditions, which gradually fade out — audiences can chose to take this as a printing error or a deliberate choice.
I also designed a logo for the Central Corporation, the governing body in our dystopian world. The two 'c's in a sans-serif font, San Fransisco Pro, is sued by many real-world corporations (Apple having created it originally for their own website and products). The 'c's have dots to create eyes, giving a double-meaning of a friendly exterior but with a sinister underlying message of constant surveillance. I would have put a smirking mouth (perhaps with an arrow at one end) underneath, but that felt too on-the-nose — and would surely never happen in real life (?!).
EXT: Fire Pit — Night.
25 Mar
Today was the Exhibition Workshop. It would have been useful is Robyn, as one of the Production Designers, had actually been to this workshop. I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
After this, we had a tutorial with Tadej, then headed straight to Milton Keynes for the fire pit shoot. I had spent a few weeks previously liaising with my former Scout leader about a camp site we used to go to, that I knew had a camp fire pit that would be perfect — I actually had it in mind while writing this scene. Below are my messages and emails.
After the tutorial, we (all of, as Robyn had joined us for Tadej's tutorial) bundled into mine and Hannah's cars and set off for Milton Keynes. We got to the Quarries at around 6pm, stopping for dinner on the way. We started setting up by the big fire pit, then I went to pick up my friend Oliver who was helping with the shoot and was going to act as our guard — he studies film and media at Milton Keynes college. He ended up being a tremendous help, also acting as our boom operator. The shoot went really well, and we got three solid takes before we started to run out of wood and fuel for the fire.
Hannah was on the centre camera, Eliana on the right and Robyn on the left.
We wrapped at around 11:30, packed everything up, and began the drive back to Harrow. We got back to Harrow at around 1:30, by which time tubes had stopped running. So, I dropped Peter and Hannah dropped Eliana back to Wembley (Robyn's girlfriend picked her up from Harrow), then reconvened at Harrow campus car park, so we could drop the equipment to Hannah's, then back to uni again so Hannah could leave her car in the car park, dropped her home, and then headed back to MK. After dropping Oliver home in MK, I got home at around 4am. A successful day (minus two pairs of Dr Martens with melted soles and a number plate which was mysteriously pulled off — the varying reactions may indicate guilt), and the first shoot with all group members present (plus one!).
Posters!
26 Mar
I worked on some posters today to advertise our screening, using two images taken from the shoots: one vertical and one horizontal, for either screen or print. I decided to not give it a public title, as its being a government screening, but which is infiltrated, means it wouldn't ever be publicised with the title 'Hell is Other People' — this is simply the title that our protagonists dub it. Instead, we focused on the screening location. The CenCorp logo in the landscape poster was replaced by a QR code for print, but the CC logo for online, when you were already on the page the QR code linked to, for the screening's Eventbrite tickets page (which you can see here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/trial-of-a-heretic-tickets-1306781872759?aff=oddtdtcreator)
I also finalised the posters to go around the room in the screening and on the walls for the exhibition:
Green Screen II
27 Mar
Today, we completed the second shoot in the green screen room. Unfortunately, we didn't have Robyn. This shoot went smoothly, with Eliana assisting in directing me and Hannah, which was actually extremely helpful. We had three strong takes, and some additional shots of beatings and torture that will be used in the transition scene between the fire pit and the interrogation room. Hannah did accidentally punch me right in the nose on one take, so there was a small amount of real blood mixed in with the fake stuff. Once we made Unreal behave itself (thank you, Craig!), the shoot went very smoothly.
Diabolical Edit
28-31 Mar
For the past few days, I've been working on the edit. This is quite a taxing task, as we have over 300GB of footage, so trawling through it all was a task in itself. On the 28th, we had all planned to meet but Robyn was unavailable. I managed to get the bulk of the edit for the centre screen done in a couple of days, and me and Hannah looked at it together in an edit suite on the 31st, despite actually having to use my laptop as the edit suite simply wasn't working!
Unfortunately, the footage from the left camera was largely unusable, due to it being out of focus and/or poorly framed, so I made the decision to deliberately corrupt the footage so it became the point of fire of a CCTV camera, with a lot of grain and in black and white, with a camera graphic I quickly mocked up.
On the 30th, Eliana asked for a walkthrough for production design to aid with that, and Hannah did a sketch to try and explain how we thought the screening space (and, subsequently, the exhibition) to look. This is my walkthrough:
Clinical white walls. Advertising posters along the walls at just above eye hight, with he same slogan, ‘always here’ or similar. The front of the room as three fabric screens suspended in the air (if using flash cotton). CRT screens dotted around the room, with a small pile on the left and right, between the screens. Cameras attached to the walls watch the audience, displaying various angles on the CRT screens. Five rows of 6 chairs, with an aisle down the middle. Each chair is identical — it would be nice if they were quirky-looking bauhaus-style, or identical stools to the one in the torture scene, but if not then all covered in identical fabric. In one of the seats is a 360 camera with hazard tape around it. A table by the door houses a pile of forms for the audience to sign as they come in. As the sign them, they are placed into a slot for ‘processing’, which is just a shredder (if we can find a shredder). Mixed in with the ad posters are CCTV signs (“CCTV in operation” etc) and various warning signs (“no smoking,” “please turn off electronic devices,” etc).
Hannah also sent me a walkthrough of the physical interaction, which I absolutely loved:
Audience greeted by 2 guards at the door.
GUARD: “We at Central Corp appreciate your attendance to this mandatory presentation. Please turn all devices off and do not touch any other attendees. You must sign the waiver when entering, then you may take a seat.”
GUARDS open the door and PLANT enters first. PLANT signs the waiver and takes a seat next to the 360 camera.
MAGNUS enters second (or near front) and sits at a pre-planned seat.
All audience members take their seats while a reel of news and adverts are shown on the screens. The news broadcasts show the same thing but the messaging changed and the adverts all end with the same slogan and are altered to seem more sinister.
GUARDS enter last and take their seats at the back of the auditorium.
One GUARD starts the video.
During the fire pit scene, smoke emanates via the smoke machine (may need to be turned on manually by a GUARD)
During the scene where RAY and MAGNUS are beaten, MAGNUS gets up in front of the audience and starts shouting about the rebellion, handing out leaflets which tell people about where their data is being used.
He shows a leaflet directly at the camera before putting it on the seat. (In the exhibition, this leaflet will be on the seat next to the VR headset)
There may need to be a moment of black screen during this before the final scene to allow for the performance to take place.
The GUARDS tell MAGNUS to sit down and he reluctantly does so.
At the end of the video, RAY runs into the auditorium and is shot once by the INTERROGATOR who then gives her speech about right and wrong. RAY falls to the floor begging for help. He is then shot in the mouth and bites into a blood capsule which leaks onto the floor.
The GUARDS take RAY by the legs and pull him along the floor back into the room he came from, along with the INTERROGATOR.
MAGNUS then jumps to his feet while they are gone, lights the sheets on fire, reminding the audience of what has gone on here and demands they leave.
He speaks directly to the camera, “Did you hear me? I said leave!” which is then taken out the room by the PLANT next to him.
End.
The only potential issue we discussed was whether the guards would let Magnus retake his seat or just drag him out of the room, but we can finalise that closer to the time.
I also wrote a little bit of internal monologue from th point of view of Ray. I do this often to get into a character, and in this case especially it really helped me visualise the world and try to explain my vision to the others a bit more clearly:
My head is being tugged upwards by the hair. The hand gripping my hair belongs to a girl I knew vaguely and had once dreamt about killing. Not in a sadistic way; in an intrusive way. I’m not a psychopath. My scalp burns for a second as I look through my fringe matted with blood to see her sour face glaring into the middle distance, as she shouts something that my ringing ears can not comprehend. I can’t feel my arms. I see that she is pointing, however, to photographs of a man who looks somewhat familiar. He wears the same corporate white shirt and tie that I still wear now, but he is committing heresy: at least, that’s what the girl from the media department is saying.
I don’t know why she is here - I didn’t think the media department got involved with this kind of shindig. She seems far too emotional. The stone-faced defense department usually dealt with heresy. The media department would promote the live viewings, sure, but they’d never be this involved.
My mother used to read to me.
It’s one of my earliest memories, and probably the last of her. When people knew what you meant if you said the word ‘book,’ she used to tell me she always liked books written in the first person: it means the ending has to be happy. If it wasn’t it couldn’t have been written.
I am being pulled by my hair and my scalp is burning and my eye is stinging because there is something in it which I suspect is my own blood. The girl from the media department -- bizarrely -- is pulling my hair, and she’s shouting things and showing me photos of myself at a Burning, and now in a shop, and now in my living room (not that I do much living in it: it’s more of a hallway, really). I think I say, what?, which seems to annoy her, because now she is standing in front of me and I realise that I am, actually, in quite a tricky situation. I can’t feel my arms, and realise that is because they are strung up and my wrists are bound and tied, and I must look like a Mock Jesus. The girl looks down at Mock Jesus, that’s me, and stares at me like I’ve just reversed over her cat. I look at her with what I wish I could say was an emotion, but which is probably pure vacancy. The ropes cut in to my wrists, and my head is still pounding, and my ears are still ringing, and my left eye is starting to sting quite a lot from what I am slowly becoming more and more sure is my own blood. I can barely ponder this before the sharp pain of a backhanded slap ricochets across my face and the world goes dark again. It was the kind of slap that seems not really to serve any purpose, as it must have hurt the hand that delivered it nearly as much as it hurt me. I never understood the concept of delivering pain with a painful method. Why would you hit someone with your own knuckles? Maybe people forget that faces have bones in them too. I hit someone in the face only once, when I was younger, and I regretted it ever since. Not because he didn’t deserve it or I felt ashamed, but because it actually hurt a lot more than I expected. I thought it would be painful for him, just bang and his nose breaks or his jaw or whatever, but no, it was more of an anticlimactic sound and really all I could focus on was the bridge of his nose, or jaw or whatever, against my knuckles. I don’t just go around hitting people, by the way, I promise I am not a psychopath.
The girl from the media department has knocked me out again, as far as I can tell, and I feel like I should probably try and remember why, what happened. I never understood why we needed a media department.
“We.” I hate the word “we.” “We’re in this together,” or “we’re like a family.” “We,” I suppose, is the Central Corporation, the current governing body, for whom I have the misfortune of working. Apparently they tried hard to find a more generic, nondescript name, but couldn’t. If I’m being honest, I think the media department actually runs things. Everything about the Central Corporation is so brand-identity, so deliberate: their smooth sans-serif friendly typeface, delivering their letters of excommunication or execution, something like Helvetica Neue or San Fransisco Pro, like every other corporations’ attempts and being friendly and recognisable. Their fake-friendly logo of the two ‘C’s with dots creating eyes. If they could get away with a cunning-friendly smirk underneath, I’m sure they would. People even lovingly pet-name it, “us,” the ”CenCorp.” People say it sounds friendlier. I think it sounds like an anticholesterol drug. Or an offshore scam firm.
The need for a media department, I suppose, comes from the screenings. About every week or so, they invite select groups to pre-screenings to see various promotional materials. I went to one, once. They wanted our opinion on an ad for a new box of cereal. It wasn’t government cereal, though, that would be stupid, it was just a cereal from one of the billion companies they own, but trade with under their names so if they go bust they can just declare bankruptcy (to themselves) and then open again under usually the same name. Wheat flakes. They were made to be eaten with water instead of milk, to help you “save money” on milk. They used a specialised dehydrated milk substitute in powder form and applied to the flakes, which means, it tasted like eating straight off of a beach. Not in a good way. If I wanted to “save money,” I simply would not buy their shitty sandy cereal that tastes like a lake.
Sometimes, the screenings would be more exciting. Heresy wasn’t particularly common anymore, but if you got to see a heretic’s interrogation then you were in for a real treat.
The heretic would be sat somewhere, in a field or in the woods, thinking they couldn’t be seen or heard, and would commit some heresy. Maybe it would be having an affair or drinking more than the allowed weekly units or trying to memorise news headlines or writing them down. There was a rumour that someone used some old photographic technique to copy an old newspaper onto some special chemical paper. I don’t really know how that would’ve work, though; it was all backwards text and flipped images and news headlines that were never true. Whatever it was, they’d think they were all alone, and would commit their heresy, their treason, and would be dragged before a tribunal. Magnus says “tribunal” used to have a different meaning. Everyone knows the outcome. They’re always guilty. The CenCorp would never make the mistake of falsely accusing someone. So the auditorium would shout ‘whore’ or ‘liar’ or ‘glutton’ or ‘heretic’, depending on the crime, and cheer as the interrogator broke shins and faces and souls.
And that’s the thing: it’s not enough to break someone’s face. You must break their soul.
I started working with Magnus about a year ago. At first I wasn’t sure what to think, but I like him. He has a tendency of pushing the walls. He leaned to juggle at a Burning, with the remains of books. He taught me but I’m not as good. A Burning is the one place that no one can see you. They don’t want any record. It’s where they get rid of any remaining documents or books or files or news papers. Things most people have never even heard of - or say they haven’t. At a Burning, no one watches what you do. They can’t risk more people finding out that these relics still exist. So me and Magnus are at a Burning, and he’s juggling charred books. He throws one up high from his right hand, which was holding two, then when it’s at its peak, throws the one from his left hand to catch the one that is now in a real hurry to hit the ground, catches it with his left hand, so he’s now holding two charred book remains with one in the air, then throws the one from his right hand to catch the one in the middle, then throws the one in his left hand to catch the one in the middle, and so on. He taught me all this, but I am not very good. I can get about three throws before I drop them. I say it would be easier with balls, or apples. He ends with a trick shot, throwing all three book stubs into the roaring flames. He says, no one can hear us out here, so why not learn to juggle? Why not enjoy this miserable existence?
I think this helped to explain the relationship between Ray and Magnus, and the almost sexual tension between Ray and the Interrogator.
This is Hannah's Production Design Sketch:
Foley a Deux
1-2 Apr
I didn't realise the date until too late — I suppose Hannah blanking me in the car park was the first clue that why were going to pretend I didn't exist. I need to outdo them next year — albeit they were easy to break.
My girlfriend, Ellie, is a sound engineer, and so offered to come down with me to record foley audio for our project. We spoke to Simon yesterday so said the foley studio was — thankfully — free for the whole day. We went through the current near-final cut, recording footsteps, breathing, punches, slaps, crowbar hits, lighters, and film flickers. Reviewing the audio we already had, it became clear that the fire pit scene was not up to par. Though a difficult decision, we decided to scrap this audio altogether and overdub the entire scene. We recorded fire sounds and burning paper, bottles being opened and drunk from, footsteps on gravel, the sound of sitting down on concrete, and so on, before having to leave at 5pm. We decided that I would go home and record my voice, and then I will come in tomorrow to record Peter's voice, and hopefully be able to sync it all up perfectly. I find that the best way is to hear yourself say the line, and then repeat it identically, and sync it up afterwards, rather than trying to say it in unison. Unfortunately, we still haven't seen or heard from Robyn since we filmed at the fire pit.
Things Get Blue (Shed)
3 Apr
We had today and tomorrow to completely dress the Blue Shed ready for our screening on Monday, so that on Monday we would only have to worry about making the projectors and speakers actually work. Hannah, Peter, and I went to Hobycraft to get materials for the screens, and plain white masks for the guards.
Unfortunately, we ended up wasting this day but having a catastrophic falling-out.
I originally wrote about this in more depth, but have decided to take it out. We spoke to Chris about the issues that arose, and the following day all spoke with him as a group to clear things up, and I don't want to reignite any old grievances. Ultimately, it is a shame that the day was wasted, but most of all I just feel awful that it came to blows. As director, issues around understanding fall on my shoulders, but I honestly don't know what I should have done differently when it seemed clear that everyone knew what was going on. I was initially worried that there was some confusion, but thought we had cleared everything up when we wrote the synopsis and spent hours discussing character motivations and the world. Perhaps production design should always have been a more collaborative effort, as it ended up being.
Hannah, Peter, and I went to the pub to play pool and darts with Anne and try and just forget about ti and focus on having a good, productive day tomorrow, instead. I drew up a quick sketch and floor plan just to use for tomorrow.
Marl Karx
The Day After Yesterday
4 Apr
We finalised production design, and Eliana and Robyn went to get some tarps and plastic sheeting to cover the walls and chairs, while Hannah, Peter, and I painted the walls white, built the screens, went to buy hooks, hung the screens, and then promptly took the screens back down upon Chris' advise that it would look better to just project directly onto the walls. We then went to Sainsbury's to take photos of 'Ray lingering by the alcohol aisle'.
We also asked photography very nicely for a video camera that would live-feed to the CRT screens and set that up, managing to get most of them to actually work.
After a finally-productive day, we managed to get the centre screen working properly in a room that we were fairly happy with. On Monday, we need to finish the set-up and then get the projects, media player and speakers working as quickly as possible so we can actually rehearse. I have five friends coming, including Oliver who will be making an appearance once again as a guard.
Sneaky Photography
6 Apr
Hannah sent me the advertisements and newsreels to use, and I added a few more bits of news and the doctored recording of Chamberlain's declaration of war on Ger-France, and then we had a final edit done.
We realised we still needed some photography on Friday, when it was much too late to add an extra shoot in, and I was working the entire weekend open-close. So, I my dad offered to take some photos of me for the left and right screens, for the photos the interrogator shows Ray of him committing his various 'heresies'. The final picks are below.
The Screening
7 Apr
Edit done. Photography done. Room ready. The moment of truth. I bought two of my friends, Hannah (lovingly referred to as 'Hannah 2') and Eleanor, who both offered to help with he set up, and were both invaluable.
It was extremely disappointing that Robyn was unavailable to what was without a doubt the most important day of our entire project. She told us she had a job that had been moved from Monday, having originally been on Wednesday. In that situation, surely you say you aren't available, as you have prior commitments to university. Additionally, when we went to M Stores, we saw here there with film course mates collecting equipment, so it seems like she didn't actually have a job and was just onna different shoot. This is still important, of course, but her lack of care for this module is representative of her approach to the entire project. But it is what it is.
The set up, naturally, was an utter nightmare. I am Jack's absolute lack of marbles.
The media players — or the USB sticks — or both — would not work. We tried every possible combination to get it to the projector, and only once for a split second did it even think about working. Genuinely lost for ideas, I began trying to daisy-chain USB hubs together to allow my laptop two extra HDMI ports so I could just run it all through here, but to no avail. In the end, we had to use mine and Hannah's laptops and were absolutely thanking any kind of deity for Oliver just having brought his with him. So after ten minutes of data transfers, my laptop had the centre screen and audio, Oliver's had the left screen, and Hannah's had the right. This meant we had to just time it right when pressing play, when originally we had hoped to use a single controller to play all three identical media players at the same time. Perhaps the issue was that they were all identically not working.
The actual screening went surprisingly well. It started a little later than we had hoped, owing to all the technical difficulties, but once we started it ran smoothly and we had no hiccoughs. Me and Oliver surveyed the scene from the back as guards, dragging out the heretical Magnus when he attempts to disrupt the screening, then Peter and I swap costumes so he becomes the second guard with Oliver, allowing me to change into Ray so me and Hannah can get ready to come out. I had used cling film and fake blood to create burst-able blood sachets that I then taped to the inside of my shirt so, when shot, I can clutch the wound, thus bursting the sachets and releasing a lot of blood. This all worked really well, the audience feedback was all extremely positive.
The screening ended, I quickly showered at the gym, then we stripped the room back down to move it all to London Gallery West.
These are videos that audience members took throughout the screening:
The Crit
8 Apr
This morning, Hannah, Peter, and I came in at 8:30 to finish setting up our exhibition space. Naturally, technology was once again almost our downfall, as the Oculus did not want to connect to WiFi, or my laptop, or Peter's laptop, or my phone, or anything else really. Advait managed to sort out the WiFi issue, but we still could not load the video directly on to the headset, so we uploaded it to YouTube as a 360 video, signed in to my YouTube account on the Oculus, and had to play it that way. The issue with this is that it needed re-centring every time you took off the headset, and would reset to the YouTube home page — we fixed this by putting a piece of LX tape over the sensor so it didn't know when it was on or off a face, but it still needed re-centring every time.
Having spent most of the day faffing about with this, we started our crit presentation at about 4pm.
We talked about our project and the concept behind it, hopefully without giving too much away, while Marcello demoed our experience. He was brilliant, reacting in literally the exact way we had hoped an audience member would react, drawing intrigue to our project. At the Private View, we had a queue of people waiting to experience our project, which I think he is largely to thank for! Our lecturers all experienced it at separate times, and I think — and hope — they all enjoyed it. During the Private View, I re-edited the 360 video to try and make the sound better (as initially it was just straight from the 360 camera). I used the original audio wherever I could, and then cut and faded it so you could hear the things that happened in the real world space as well (Magnus and Ray speaking inside the room) — and making the tints ring a little bit less intensely jarring. This is the version that John saw, but unfortunately I hadn't noticed that I'd managed to hide the video for a couple of seconds, while Magnus was speaking. So another final edit gives the best experience, which is the version currently on the headset, and the version below. I also re-centred this version so it no longer needs doing on the headset.
Reflection noiɈɔɘlʇɘЯ
9 Apr
Overall, I am extremely happy with the way this project turned out. I think it was very well received at the Private View and in the exhibition, and I think it fits perfectly into the concept of hybrid realities, being a virtual reality experience of a screening of a film with real-world interaction. Hannah, Peter and Eliana were invaluable, all contributing hugely within their respective areas of expertise. Peter took the lead with Unreal Engine, sourcing the space we used for the interrogation scene, and operated the software and the camera for the green screen shoots. Eliana's mood boarding for production design and world-building was tremendously helpful for all aspects, from shot composition to colour grading and editing, to the ultimate production desing, and her assistance in directing the interrogation seen was massively helpful and influential. Hannah, once again, took an insane idea and made it manageable, spearheading a huge amount of elements within the project. Without her, almost nothing would have actually come to fruition, and she was a major help with the scriptwriting process (I must've sent her two or three sub-drafts per actual draft). I wish I could say that all group members contributed equally, but unfortunately this was not the case. The aforementioned group members were all of huge importance, but unfortunately our final group member was absent from every shoot and test shoot except one, and wasn't even there for the actual screening. Of course, people have different commitments, but the utter lack of commitment or care is not indicative of a team player or even someone who seems like they want to be involved in the project.
I think there has been some confusion with a few group members throughout, but aside from a few isolated issues, by the end I think everyone (who was there) really pulled our project together.
If we had more time, I would have liked to overlay the actual video over the projection, as the nature of the 360 recording — especially in such a dark room, meaning the ISO was huge — meant the outcome is quite grainy and noisy. This does actually fit in well with our concept, but if the video could be crisper, I think that would have been useful.
Aside from that, I don't think there is really anything about this project I would change. No project is ever truly complete, and there is certainly room to escape or tighten certain parts, but for this project, in th medium we chose, to fit the brief we chose, I think we were successful, and I really hope the amount of work and effort that has gone into it is obvious.
Afterword
10 Apr
I spoke to Chris earlier today, but to whoever marks this, I hope my documentation is okay. I know that I need to work on my time management and find ways to write more as I go, but I was working almost constantly on the actual physical project since week four. When we weren't in seminars or meetings, or doing work for other modules, I was drafting scripts, writing manuscripts, creating posters or drafting waivers, doing initial test edits, etc etc, and so my documentation slipped somewhat behind. I spent the entirety of last night in the library writing everything up with Hannah and Peter, and finished at around 5am. By this point, I should been able to get a train home to get an hour and a bit of sleep, then shower and head back to see Jane for our Work Based & Placement Learning presentations — however I got to Euston, got on a train, and then woke up in a panic at Nuneaton. After an hour's wait and a cancelled train, I managed to persuade two very lovely train managers to let me get a train straight back to Euston, so at time of writing am now back at Harrow about three hours after trying to leave! All this to say: next year I will make a concerted effort to write my documentation as I go — but that being said, I'm not sure how setting aside more time for that would have affected the overall outcome of our project — so I think I need to work on a bit of a better balance. I am Jack's complete lack of morbles.