Learning From Somna

Through Somna , I aimed to address the notion of fragmented identity in the digital era, and its manifestations in various parts of our lives; dreaming, waking, and playing. The film focuses its attention on the three realms of dream, reality, and virtual-reality, and will portray how the blurred boundary between these realms in the post-modern age. I aim to establish a level of necessary ambiguity regarding the importance of these realms, to allow the audience to decide for themselves which realm is truly most appealing, more real or tangible. For this reason, the protagonist's identity is split into three personae, each a manifestation within one of the three planes of reality that he (she) experiences. While the characters, events, and use of visual motifs will be changed for the upcoming short(er) films, the approach that I took toward writing and producing Somna will remain intact.

Media Theory & Game Studies

Games have been avenues of diversion throughout our cultural history. Through gameplay, people can engage in conflict and adventure, and establish an entirely independent diegetic universe for themselves and their playmates. However, while play has existed as long as we have, the (fairly recent) creation of the microchip and the advent of computer games have thrown game play onto a whole new trajectory. Video games allow users to bend their perception of reality and memory, as well as their own identities. Academic investigation of video games suggests that a combination of user imagination and game design allows the player to become nearly fully immersed into the game world. Richard Bartle (year) writes that “sometimes full immersion is likened to an altered state of consciousness” (p. 156). Alison McMahan concurs, as she cites Janet Murray's definition of immersion, when a game environment “takes over all of our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus” (McMahan 68). Nick Yee scrutinizes virtual communities under J.B. Walther's requirements for hyper-personal interactions, “interactions that are more intimate, more intense, more salient because of the communication channel,” positing that all of these elements exist within the virtual worlds of MMO's (Yee, 2004).

Just as Moore's law states that our technological capacity is increasing by orders of magnitude, so is the ability for developers to create much more fertile and realistic worlds for their players. As development continues, the interfaces through which we experience the virtual world (as well as film) are becoming less buffered and less disconnected from the user. In The Interface ¸ Lev Manovich discusses the inseparable roles of interface and content, in very much the same way that Marshall Mcluhan ( The Medium is the Massage ) and Scott McCloud address the issue . These three authors focus on different aspects of the interconnectedness of viewer, medium, and message in media as cultural texts. Manovich writes that “with a VRML interface, nature is firmly subsumed under culture.” (p)

It is the continually advancing and immersive nature of the interfaces through which we ingest hypertextual information and experience virtual life that is one of the growth points of radical identity experimentation and formation. In the novella True Names , Vernor Vinge writes a story about players who live the majority of their lives in the virtual world, and are so immersed that they come to identify much more so with their avatar, virtual environment and friends than with those in real life. Sherry Turkle, building upon McLuhan's global village idea, suggests that computer is playing a central role in our ‘retribalization.' Our identities, which are constantly in flux depending on our environments and social interactions, have the opportunity in the virtual experience to travel in various previously unavailable tangents.

So it has become that our media connect us to the world, and consolidate our communities and ideas into highly accessible nodes. Marshall Mcluhan spoke of the global village, how the world is actually getting smaller again, as we're all becoming hypertextually linked to each other. He wrote that “media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions. The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act- the way we perceive the world. When these ratios change, men change” (Mcluhan p.41). Players are allowed to be perceptually and psychologically immersed in the game world, and they begin identifying with the avatar, their representative manifestation in the game world. This most definitely has the potential to change a person, as it has changed me.

The Process, & Film-Related Theory

It's difficult to pin down exactly where each decision comes from, but there is a synergy of style that I take great interest in. Philip K. Dick writes about the duality of the persona in A Scanner Darkly . I am inspired by Terry Gilliam's chaotic and frenzied film style and narrative content, as well as Michel Gondry's ingenious disruption of narrative structure and mise en scene . Donato Totaro works out an analysis of Fight Club , my favorite David Fincher film based on a book by one of my favorite authors, Chuck Palahniuk. Based on Gilles Deleuze's concept of the Rhizome , the arboreal symbol of research (and design) that involves the branching off in various laterals and exiting and re-entering at points along the narrative structure (or research) (Totaro). Deleuze's postmodern approach to epistemology resonates approximately with Descartes' implementation of methodological skepticism. The contorting and skewing of the narrative structure and visual content of the film will by default follow a branching, arboreal rhizome structure, as well as embracing a level of skepticism toward the idea of objective or ‘true' perception of reality, identity, and experience.

Manovich writes that “the designer of a virtual world is…a cinematographer as well as an architect”(p. ?). Film has occupied a dominant role in the dissemination of cultural texts and instruction since the early 20 th century. Directors and writers have, through film-making, been able to express ideas and emotions in a more visceral way. Manovich writes that “cinema is now becoming the cultural interface, a toolbox for all cultural communication." This particular film will take advantage of three visual motifs, and the production methods I follow will stem both from previous experience, as well as supplements, both personal and academic. Herbert Zettl's Sight, Sound & Motion explores the aesthetic qualities of film including framing, space & motion, and should serve as a good reference for cinematographical decisions. A large portion of the film will be machinima format. Paul Marino (year) and Matt Kelland (year) have also addressed some of the implications of using a video game as a filmic medium. The virtual director is given freedoms as well as hindrances that are not experienced in traditional film-making.

Every inch of this film's production has been permeated by the very substance of the message I've been trying to get across. There has been a synchronicity, a weird sort of resonance that has so naturally followed the course of this production. My first realization was that I had chosen automatically to set the dreams within rotoscoped World of Warcraft environments. Not only was this a very simple and efficient (not to mention beautiful) way to drive home the plausibility and fantastical nature of the dream world, but it was so incredibly appropriate in a conceptual level. The film's concept first came to me during a week when I had under a few circumstances had a very difficult time placing vague (but poignant) memories. Had I dreamt them? Where they in game? During that same week I also had a number of dreams that were thematically organized like video games I'd been immersed in as a child. Ultimately, the choice to use the WoW environments for the dream sequences was a good stylistic choice, but it was made for completely separate reasons, I believe.

The machinima element of this film brings to mind yet again what a profound impact that the virtual worlds are having on the art world, as well as nearly every other facet of modern day society. I have been embarking on virtual art in a non-tangible context for a while, and this film only made me immerse myself deeper into it. Again, it seems so appropriate that while I'm standing at cusp of the professional life, I find myself wandering the virtual environment with a semi-professional attitude. Having abstained from massively multiplayer games for a while, I seem to have returned to that realm under a new context. I believe this has allowed me a new ludological view on video games. Wandering about with the interests of finding the right shot, I have passed up mithril veins, very tempting gank kills, and other assumed trappings of MMO enjoyment. It is most interesting to think that at one time, it was the gamers who felt so out of place in the real world; Now, it seems that I takes a roll as preposterous as virtual cameraman/film-maker to feel out of place in virtual worlds that have become so normal to such a large spectrum of society.

Dream & Philosophy

Stanford professor and research Stephen LaBerge's (year) Exploring Lucid Dreams , covers the topic quite thoroughly. It combines techniques for attaining lucidity, as well as documented instances of lucid-dreaming, and the psychological implications therein. On a more far-out, fictional level, Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams proposes a series of short stories in which time and space act idiosyncratically, and the implications therein. Much like the dream-world, a series of non-sensical outcomes arrive out of these scenarios, but are rationalized by the application of some of Einstein's core theories. I aim to address the implications of perceptual experimentation within the dream-world. The dream portions of the film will touch on ideas discussed both within pop culture regarding lucid dreaming as well as these literary works. The protagonist's dream self will be female, for instance, exposing the radical opportunity for identity revamping in the sandbox of the mind.

The schools of philosophy that seem to correspond well to the themes in this film (although the film was not a derivative of these schools) are phenomenology, skepticism, and branches of existentialism. McCloud, McLuhan, and Manovich describe the depth of experience that can be wrought from mediated engagement. The phenomenological approach was delved into largely by existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. In his debut work, La Nausee , Sartre recants a heavy mescaline trip, wherein he faces, among other dark voids, the nature of the ‘naked existence.' He realizes (or convinces himself of the realization) of the existence of objects and environments independent of our selves. In the park scene, he writes, in reference to the people around him “I used to say like them: 'The sea is green; that white speck up there is a seagull', but I didn't feel that it existed, that the seagull was an 'existing seagull'; usually existence hides itself” (Sartre). This, according to him, was the first time that he was able to indulge in the idea of independently existing objects. When the ‘doors of perception' (Huxley) are shut, even our interaction with people and our environment is in our own perception merely an interaction with symbols and representations. In this traditional, unenlightened point of view, then, he retrofits the phenomenological approach to include not only direct experience, but actual representations of those experiences as well. These include cultural texts, such as theatre, literature, film, etc.

Renee Descartes takes the idea of the existence of objects a step further, and through an eight-step method, attempts to prove the existence of the mind independent of the corporeal body. Alison McMahan cites the humanities definition of presence in the virtual environment as “the feeling of being there.” Many players' virtual experiences are enough on par with those of tangible reality that even the traditional phenomenological approach applies well enough. Along that train of thought, the user is investing his mind thoroughly into the virtual experience, and any actual physical interaction required merely due to a current lack of an advanced interface. The film in large part will also fantasize the current interface technology, more along the lines of an advanced interface apparatus (i.e. not just a keyboard and monitor) that is more akin to total sensory immersion. In this way, I hope to equate the realms of dream, game, and life and integrate them successfully into each other.

Visual Motifs

Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping was pioneered when film was a relatively new medium. It involved the drawing atop each frame of a filmstrip, so as to integrate animation effects in a live-action sequence. Today, with digital video editing tools, it's much simpler (and less permanently investing) to apply rotoscoping techniques. There are a variety of techniques that can be employed, depending on the desired effect, but after experimenting a bit, I've deduced that I'll probably be using two methods. Adobe Premiere allows the user to export a filmed sequence as a filmstrip or a batch of single-frame images. Those images can then be batch-processed through Photoshop, using the “cutout” filter (I'm currently looking for a better one, but can't seem to find one at the moment). The filter effectively rotoscopes each image for you, and then it's possible to re-insert thebatch into the premiere timeline. Voila, you have rotoscoping. The effect is adequate, but definitely not exactly how I'd like it. Touch ups are required in after-effects and illustrator.

Machinima

The virtual environments I will be using will be within a machinima format. Machinima is basically video game cinema, wherein the filmmaker uses the game world, characters, and in-game tools to create a film. Using fraps, a video capturing application, I will use various multiple game environments, including those from World of Warcraft. Furthermore, I will be doing some level design in such engines as Source (Half-Life 2).

Some would agree that memories from virtual adventures are comparable if not more vivid than memories of many real-life experiences (speaking from personal and shared experience). And the same can be said for dreams; many of us wake up in the morning incredibly disappointed at having been ripped away from an excellent lucid dream by our alarm clock. Finally, there are those of us whose fond memories are based strictly in reality. I hold memories from all three close to my heart, and hope to elicit mutual sentiments in the audience. The tone of the films will remain neutral, not suggesting that one realm is more superior then the other. The point is to establish that they're all starting to level off in their role of shaping identity through experience.