Contextual studies: Virtualism

What do we mean by Virtualism?
- In media context, the simulation of 'the real': primarily through digital contsruct and manipulation
- The aesthetic tension between physical and digital; material Vs immaterial; 'the uncanny valley'

Virtualism in visual media
- Game of thrones - fantasy drama, dramatic elements (narrative and characters) relies on realism, fantasy (non-realist) elements relies on digital construct
- Sanctuary - fantasy/ sci-fi drama, dramatic elements (narrative and character) relies on realism, visual infect (environment) entirely digital

- 'Virtual' news sets are purely representational
- Simulates reality; we decide by genre symbols

Aesthetic tension
- What is 'real' ?
- What is 'created' ?
- Analogue (practical) or digital?
- How do we perceive the difference?

'The Uncamny'
- "an uncanny effect often arises when the boundary between fantasy and reality is blurred" - Freud 1919
- Heimlich - the familiar and comfortable
- Unheimlich - the unfamiliar and strange

'The uncanny valley'

- Following Freud's theory, the perceptual gap between that which is perceived as 'real' and that which is 'almost real' (or a close simulacrum)
- Provides aesthetic sense of discomfort, eerieness or revulsion

Comments

Documentary unit: Script first draft

Documentary unit: Jackie interview

So we could get an outside view on fake fear, we were able to secure an interview with an actual adrenaline junkie, only thing was, she's 73! She was amazing to interview, and her answers were so descriptive, which gave us some area to play around with during the edit. We needed to rearrange the house to better suit an interview, and when we realised that we would have to do that, we were glad that we were filming in one of our own homes instead of Jackie's house, or in a public area, as we then had control over the whole environment. Jackie was a pleasure to interview, as she was very relaxed and had a great sense of humour to match.

Decision evaluation

Decision evaluation During the writing phase, I drew inspiration from the surroundings at my dad’s house, as there is an orchard on one side and a field on the other. This inspired me because I could imagine something happening within the orchard, and no one knowing due to them being well hidden. This was the starting point for my script, so I needed to develop a story from this. The idea of a murder came from the effectiveness of the orchard hiding whoever was in it, so I thought that this was the perfect place for a murderer to commit his crime. In wanted my story to have a twist, so I thought of a person stumbling across the murder scene, and the killer giving the innocent person a choice of either possible death, or helping with the body and walking away. I thought that this was a good idea as it is a scenario not often seen in films, so was a unique twist. Between the scripts that I wrote for my short film ‘Decision’, I had to change quite a lot in order to make it more e...

Connor Winfield TV production

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