#Virtual Reality Game Group Members Mariam Fahad Omar Shamsa #Project Concept Instead of studying, a bored college student escapes into the VR world, choosing between an ‘indoor’ or ‘outdoor’ game. Through a harmonious intersection of choice and predetermination, we endeavored to embody the idea of the character experiencing realities you choose, with our take on the philosophical question: is choice merely an illusion?

The user makes two fundamental choices for the main character, one with not-so-much impact: digestive biscuits or apple juice. The other, however, with significant impact, not on whether the game, a metaphor for life, ends but on how it ends. This choice is the game they choose to play. The eventual result (losing) is consistent. However, the methods are different. Can we really change anything?

Then, we integrated it into a website, giving the audiences buttons to make choices after playing relevant film clips, almost like a video game.

#Filming & Editing Over the course of 2 days, we filmed around 30 minutes of footage, using only about 6 minutes for our entire project. Omar, the main character, acted in both real life and the virtual world under Fahad’s direction. Instead of an incredibly cohesive, professional look and narrative, we decided on a more experimental look, with disorienting transitions, VFX, camera movements, camera placements, and audio choices. We shot both from the Blackmagic HD camera and an iPhone 12 because of mobility constraints. For a significant portion, Omar wore the camera over his eyes. It doesn’t get wilder than that. As learnt after studying Akira Kurosawa’s work, we cut on movement for seamless transitions. Using sounds and music from freesounds.org and YouTube, we amplified the emotional punches, alongside using recorded diegetic sounds for a touch of realism.

In a way, what we wished to accomplish was a ‘kafkaesque’ fever dream. Our game character isn’t entirely sure what or why they must do something yet they do it anyway. Both scenarios have ‘a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, and illogical quality.’ Initially, in real life, the camera placements and movements are slow, neat, and calm. However, as the character descends into the game world, both the filming and editing choices were deliberately choppy and haphazard for a sense of disillusionment, panic, and worry. We embedded a timer on-screen, keeping the audience at the edge of their seats while they wonder about the character’s fate in nail biting suspense. We used DaVinci resolve for editing.

#Code and Output For the coding, we started out by looking into the layout of the website, and the color scheme we wanted to display to make it stick to a theme. After applying the green background, we added buttons for the menu, next and choices. This part is to create a sense of interaction for the users, so that they could move to the next page and also pick out the choices that the video will display.

For the design, we chose a green background that had a VR effect to stick to the theme. WIth adding the button we kept the text red and the button to be black, with a gray effect on it to give it a sense of a 3D look. We took time with finding the right design, but going for a minimalist design gave us the best effect we were looking for. The colors, font, and overall design came together into what we wanted to go for.

For the video we decided to make it a YouTube video for the users to play. We initially wanted the video to be as a background and to play automatically but we faced several issues that did not allow us to add YouTube links as a background even though the downloaded versions worked. Facing these hardships with coding made us search for other solutions, and we managed to find it. Nevertheless, we liked the final output where the color scheme, the interaction, and the videos were suited together. #Conclusion & Reflection It was a fruitful experience. We learnt that while improvisation is always an option, rigorous pre-production saves significant time on-set while also enabling you to foresee transitions, cuts, website integration, and potential shots – something the storyboard helped in a lot. Naturally, sound design was complex, as we not only endeavored to accurately capture the universes our film was grounded in but also to pack an emotional punch, via non-diegetic audio. Testing equipment while collection is always a good idea, since faulty equipment took a massive toll on our already tight production schedule. Overall, though, we feel like one should have fun on-set, being open to ideas, improvisations, crazy ideas, and taking leaps of faith, instead of playing safe. Art is so broad, and one should look for unique, never-before-seen ways to tell stories or elicit feelings.