Summer job + Future of cinema

     Sensory technician, summer job and the future of cinema

              

Over the summer I worked as a sensory technician for a local community festival called the Shuffle Festival who hosted a programme called ’The Feelies’ where guests would enter a virtual reality through a multi-sensory screening. 

The initial idea was to experiment on how all the senses- touch/smell/see and sound (excluding taste for obvious reasons) combined, effects how amerced an audience can be. There were 2 short 6/8 min screening, both documentaries produced by Chris Milk: 1. Walking New York and 2. Clouds over Sidra, shot on a 360 degree camera for the Samsung Oculus rift head sets.

As a sensory technician, the most important thing was making sure that what the guests were watching was in sync to what we can see (on an iPad) this is so that the guests are fully amerced into what they are watching. So for example, in screening room 1 (Walking New York) after the headsets would go on and all the technical things were dealt with the screening would start, the ‘multi-sensory’ is all coordinated by the technicians so when the guests hear ‘glue’ they can smell fresh glue and when there was a scene which is outside in the cold streets the guests would feel a cold breeze and in the scene of the helicopter the guests could smell fresh air. This all heightend the experience for viewers and made them feel as though they are actually in New York, when in reality they are in a tiny room with technicians floating around everywhere. 

Every day after my shift I’d leave awed as to what technology can do,  the conventional 2D/3D cinemas. The future of cinema will definitely develop more than it already has, the vast technological developments will make it possible for our generation to see an increase of 4D cinemas where with 1 click of a button (without hard working technicians) would feel, smell (possibly taste) in direct correlation with what they can see and hear. 

Interview with Danny Boyle

I had a very lucky and amazing opportunity of interviewing Danny Boyle whilst working as a sensory technician during the summer at a festival in my local area.

Danny Boyle offered me great advice about making my own film.

When I asked Boyle about the key conventions of horror he said that the most important thing about horror films is creating a atmosphere of 'dread', playing with the emotions of audience by making them fear the unknown. One of the conventions of horror Boyle has challenged is the zombie persona, with 28 Days Later he changed the perspective of zombies and how they are presented, this is something that I will think of when looking at the conventions of horror, how I can challenge and personalise my horror film in order to create an new atmosphere of suspense and fear that horror audience's are not often exposed to. Boyle reinforced the importance of sound and addressed how crucial it is in setting up the audience's fright or moment of fear. An interesting point Boyle made about violence was that people often get a thrill out of seeing it in the media in the form of a film as it is something that they experience vicariously and can identify without going through with it themselves which is something I could exploit by playing on real emotions of violence.

By conducting this interview with Danny Boyle I have come to understand that when making my own film I need to take into consideration sound as it is very importance in inducing an audience, also I need to make sure that I meet the expectations of all my existing target audience- the ones who enjoy gore as well as the ones who get scared and enjoy watching films that instil a level of dread and deal with the anticipation as Danny Boyle mentioned. I have taken inspiration from Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later and have come to the understanding that in order to really grip my audience I need to challenge existing conventions of horror and replace them with sophisticated and unique ideas.

Textual analysis with target audience

                 
Analysis of short zombie film with target audience BLOG from as14rk on Vimeo.