June 12, 2003
MOD the movies
An abstract proposal, MOD the movies - sustaining the story through live performance file, submitted for http://www.virtualstorytelling.com/ICVS2003/
June 09, 2003
Character study - the Chief
The Chief is in charge of the State. He doesn't muck around. In a few years Cityscape has exploded into the tourist mecca of the Net and it's because of him. The Chief is at the peak of his power and he's not aware of it. He is cool, smart, stylish and 100% obsessed with the idea that he will control the minds of everyone in his town.
The Chief was born to be an authority figure. He started out in tech but moved swiftly up the ranks of engineers once he realised where the real power lay. He didn't invent the RIG but everyone thinks he did.The hackers that worked for him were the first inmates of Interlink. In return for their ultimate fantasies, bandwidth paid, the Chief keeps them under mental lock and key.
The price the Chief has paid is isolation. He knows that he only holds onto power by the sheer force of his personality and that he can't slip up. Trust is not a concept he adopts easily. He wishes he could trust someone. He wants to be able to teach someone what it's like to create a world and rule it but there is no one in his league. He surrounds himself with obsessives, they follow in his slipstream but don't interfere. Until Blade.
The Chief wants to convert Blade. He does his damndest to tempt him. The Chief is ancient offline. He can barely move without assistance from his nurse. To make contact with a sharp young mind is his last chance to connect with a world that he has fought so long to conquer. Too bad that he can't let go of the ego. The Chief's weaknesses are ego and greed. He wants a prodigee and he wants ultimate power.
Character study - Dad
Daniel Harken (16) is a gruff and dishevelled professor type about to hit forty. He is an academic expert on computer security. He has served time for computer intrusion and has passed on the hacker spirit grudgingly to his daughter Blake.
Dad is not a good parent. His grumpy demeanor and ill-temper have alienated him from his wife and daughter. At home he hides away in his study, burying himself in academic and activist interests. Despite their shared affinity for virtual worlds, he has never been able to communicate properly with Blake as a teenager. He knows he should try harder but he hasn't. While other little girls had a dollhouse made for them by their daddy Blake got a virtual world.
June 06, 2003
A case study in web3d film-making
Our case study on web3d film-making was presented at SIGGRAPH 2002.
SMART feasibility study proposal
SMART feasibility study proposal submitted 20030530.
June 05, 2003
Feature Film synopsis
In the near future, a riot girl hacker must escape from a secret online mental prison run by the State before her real identity is discovered and her family comes to harm.
Blake, an intense sixteen year old girl in small town Australia, becomes determined to join a David and Goliath struggle against the State following the bloody outcome of a protest. In particular, she becomes obsessed with the downfall of the State’s charismatic ruler, ‘The Chief’. Although wishing to be taken seriously by the local activists, they consider her too young to get involved and her crush on one of their number, does nothing for her credibility.
Online however it is a different story….
Blake is a hacker who uses the next generation of virtual reality technology, stolen from her unsuspecting father’s research work as Professor of Information Warfare. In the guise of an older super-heroine named Blade, she is able to cause considerable embarrassment to the Chief. With her crude software agent companion CD, (the Customised Dude), she hacks into Cityscape, a virtual city modelled on the State’s capital, from where the Chief rules. Denouncing him as a murderer and running riot, whilst managing to evade capture, Blake makes the Chief as obsessed with her as she is with him. After discovering that the Chief is experimenting on the State prison population by holding minds captive online in Cityscape, Blade and CD are spotted and she is trapped. Back in the real world, Blake falls into a coma.
From this point on, it is a race against time for Blake/Blade to stop the Chief in his bid for world domination before her mind is lost forever in Cityscape, or her true identity is discovered in the real world. Helping her is Axel, the longest survivor of the Cityscape ‘headbin’, the record being ten weeks. He's also the subject of her schoolgirl crush. Together, they play a deadly game of cat and mouse with the Chief finally trapping him back in his real body – that of an infirm old man – and leaving Cityscape in the capable control of CD. Blade and Axel bid farewell to Cityscape and arrange to meet in the flesh. Back in the real world, Blake wakes, and smiles.
Dino tea
One of the multi-path branches in the interactive screenplay had Blade facing off against the dinosaur that Axel accidently arouses. In a scene betraying unhealthy 3D Studio Max and Lewis Carroll influences, Blade slows the creature down using a teapot.
Searching for Blade
One of the original characters to get the chop was Sim, a data-miner sent by the Chief to find Blade. Here she is using the original Alta Vista Australia search engine (which in 1998 would return links to the screenplay if you typed in 'Blade Harkensen').
Covered in text
Jack Feldstein, my original script editor, felt the concept of a stadium crowd being "covered in text" could use an illustration. This is a live screenshot from Metatropolis in 1997, one of the original 3D avatar chat worlds produced by Activeworlds.
Character study - Blade
A twenty-something ghostly virtual persona, or avatar, created by Blake, a sixteen year old girl, living at home in the town of Bargo, New South Wales, Australia in the near future. Hacker, vigilante, confused teenager-in-disguise, Blade is the escape valve by which Blake is trying to deal with the trauma of having seen her father gunned down as part of a sinister conspiracy she is determined to expose.
Blake reverts to this appearance in virtual space when she goes on the attack during the traumatic events in the Sanctuary. Blade's transformation from ghost to defined virtual persona begins there.
Solemn, strong-willed, proud, athletic, gymnast, wary, confused, lonely, obsessive, reckless, energetic, intelligent, confident, serious.
Before witnessing the traumatic events in the Sanctuary, Blake uses the guise of Blade as a casual mask for casual hacking.
On discovering Interlink, Blade sets out to show the world that the Chief is dangerous by drawing attention to his schemes. By destroying the Chief's power base - Interlink , the secret online prison system holding avatars captive, Blade attempts to draw closure and put Blake back on a more even mental footing.
Gymnastic dexterity (mental ability)
Knack for finding system weaknesses, easter eggs, and back-doors.
Brute force hacking skills
Passionate about getting the Chief at all cost
Kindness (as demonstrated by saving Axel).
Blade's persona is a mask which slowly unravels through the film. Blade appears as Blake aspires to be but the Chief still doesn't take her seriously to Blade's annoyance.
Character study - Axel
Lovable rogue, self-aware teenage pin-up, celebrity activist, brawn not brains, charming, infectious goofy laugh, irreverant, a bit dumb, speed freak, orphan, unreliable, champion racer, stylish.
Log line
In the near future, a riot girl hacker must escape from a secret online mental prison run by the State before her real identity is discovered and her family comes to harm.