Index
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Supernatural 02
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Supernatural 01
'Distance' (CSM graduate showcase)
Jun 2024
3D, Video, Sound
Narration: AI-powered TTS
War, atrocities, and nation-propelled violence are issues we know we shouldn’t ignore, yet we often do. These problems are too vast for individuals to solve, leaving us feeling helpless and overwhelmed. The project started from my inquiry: ‘Why are we indifferent to mass violence and the suffering of others beyond our borders?’ Through theoretical and practical research, I explored the reasons for our unintentional indifference and concluded with a call for individual activism against inhumane activities. This message and my thought process were embedded in the statement narrated in the video
The final outcome, a video fully composed of 3D rendered scenes, reveals the desolate mise-en-scène of still existing traces of loss. The void scenes with no signs of life, accompanied by subtle ambient sounds and narration, explore the reasons behind our indifference and emphasise the need for individual activism. The emptiness of the scenes might appear as mere voidness, but that emptiness and quietness might also give us space to quietly reflect. What have I forgotten, and what shouldn’t I forget?
Project statement
War, atrocities, and human rights violations are issues we feel we shouldn’t be indifferent to, yet we often are. These problems are indeed too complex and vast for individuals to address, and it seems there are no clear solutions that we can offer. We struggle to find answers but are constantly exposed to devastating images, videos, and news about inhuman acts. We are aware of gut-wrenching issues around the world, yet we lack solutions for them.
Tragedies feel close through media interpretation but are physically distant. The frustration of having no solutions while knowing what’s happening, and the feeling of being diminished as an individual in the face of nation-propelled violence, are some of the biggest reasons for our unintentional indifference, as I discovered during my research.
The core message of my final outcome focuses on changing our perspective on the overwhelming issues. Even though we might not find clear solutions, we need to think, speak, and act according to our moral values. I strongly suggest that people need to listen more to what they personally think and feel about the issues they find problematic and take action. Focusing on negative perspectives and seeking clear solutions only dampens our courage to challenge; the focus needs to shift to ourselves.
Process log
1/3
The initial concept of the production was ‘emptiness’ from getting forgotten by people. Mass graves and bombarded buildings, initially packed with meaning, turn empty and silent when the media attention shifts, and the concept of emptiness was depicted as an absence of life through out the video with various visual and sound elements. I gathered reference images mostly taken from Gaza and Ukraine, and recreated the environments extracting several elements from different images and combining them into environments that capture voidness. The point was encapsulating the emptiness in atmosphere, in the air, while keeping only necessary objects and textures in the scenes.
2/3
Since the motions in each scene are mostly subtle, lighting and camera movements were crucial to achieving the intended look and feel. While the environments remain dark overall, each one has its own unique lighting setup.
Scene 1: The camera pans around the space, and the lights are animated along the camera’s path. The intensity of the lights is keyframed to create contrast and spatial depth by adjusting them at the right timings.
Scene 2: A single fixed area light is used, and the camera movement is very steady. This decision allows the audience enough time to observe the space, as Scene 2 contains more tiny details and visual narratives compared to the other scenes.
Scene 3: Two lights are parented to the camera, functioning as searchlights. The camera height is set to the average human chest height, moving as if wandering through the forgotten space. This setup aims to make the audience feel like they are in the environment, not just observing from the outside, by bringing them closer in a first-person view.
3/3
The narration was created using an AI-powered TTS. I generated a suitable voice that is calm and soft, aiming to guide my audience seamlessly. The statement was converted into AI voice sentence by sentence, with each sentence carefully composited to ensure the narration sounded natural and conveyed the intended message. Apart from the narration, the video features only the sounds of wind, rustling grass, and ambient noise, which support the flow while also interpreting voidness through an auditory experience.
