Editing done

Well the editing is finally complete, please enjoy the fruits. Feel free to leave a comment.

Past Two Weeks

For the past two weeks I have been recording audio and capturing video. Nothing much I can show here.

Capture Me

Update

Furnished Apartment

Storyboard

Rapture Island

Last class with Sephan

Today’s class opened with a demonstration of Eliza. An example of artificial intelligence personal centered therapist, written in the 70’s, Eliza relays text depending on the users responses.

We had a look at ilovebees.com and other examples of interactive stories such as majestic.

Stephan explored different styles of the story structures for interactive stories. We were asked to think of how we could add an element of interactivity to our story.

I can add an interactive element to my story by allowing others within second life to teleport into the apartment where Terrence encounters the mushroom. When they click on the mushroom they two can be case through the windows and into the field of cosmic rays. There they may choose to gravitate towards Mercury, Venus or the Sun. Each path leads to different stories and experiences.

Made T-Shirt

Terrence & the Metaphysical Mushroom - Script

THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT ARE (no longer?) PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

Terrence & the Metaphysical Mushroom

by

TIAGO PIRES

FIRST DRAFT

JULY 2008

(c) TIAGO PIRES, JULY 2008

64 Willys Ave, Keilor Downs

VIC 3038, Australia

Ph: (61 04) 2336 3218

1. INT. LOUNGE. DAY

Terrance sits on his couch reading Time magazine. The title reads “consciousness a product of the brain”.

He finishes his joint and puts down the magazine on his coffee table.

On the table next to the ash tray and rolling paper, sits a little brown package all tied up with string. An airmail sticker stuck diagonally across the side. He reads the tag.

TERRANCE (V/O)

Hmmm. “Hope all is well in the land of the living, From Brother Tim.”

Terrance opens the package to find a small wooden box, he raises the lid to reveal an ornate pipe. It appeared to be an ancient Mesoamerican relic. He took a moment to study it before concluding.

TERRANCE

Well… you know what they say, the older the pipe, the better the smoke.

He thumbles around the coffee table looking for a bowl of assorted herbs he had prepared earlier, before packing himself a pipe. Striking a Lucifer against the pipe, he takes a long drawn out drag. He exhales slowly expelling a continuous stream of smoke.

Terrance coughs once. In the direction of the cough, a puff of multicoloured dust sparkles in the center of the room. Terrance rubs his eyes, imagining the sparkles were coming from his retina. He coughs a second time, yet again another small cloud of dust forms in the center of the room. When coughs for the third time a much large cloud of sparkly dust forms and hovers over the center of the room. As the dust settles, it unveils what appears to be a 4” fire engine red mushroom. Terrance looked stunned. The mushroom appeared to be dancing. Suddenly Terrance drops the pipe. It hits the table with a thud, ash spilling out onto the surface. He walked towards the center of the room onto a large hexagon patterned rug. There stood the mushroom, bopping away. He circled the mushroom like a bird of prey, perplexed, studying it for signs of authenticity. He stopped in front of it and demanded in an authoritative voice.

TERRANCE

What are you?

A moment’s paused and then in a monotone electronic voice it announced.

MUSHROOM

I’m a mushroom

Terrance now pacing, annoyed and perplexed by the answer. He turned and shouted.

TERRANCE

Well… I can see that… but what are you doing here?

The mushroom bopped for a moment and then stated

MUSHROOM

I’m here because you smoked the pipe… I came to answer three questions, but… you have already asked 2… better make the last one a good one

TERRANCE

GAHHH!

Terrance exclaimed, and began pacing faster now. Looking down at the table he sees the time magazine cover. He quickly scans the front page article, neuroscience proclaims consciousness to be a phenomenon produced entirely by brain chemistry.

TERRANCE (V/O)

Hmmm, consciousness produced by brain chemistry they say…

Now turning to the mushroom, Terrance asks.

TERRANCE

Well… is consciousness a product of the brain?

The mushroom once again starts bopping, slowly at first, but then progressively faster. Then in an instant the mushroom comes to a halt.

MUSHROOM

The answer you seek cannot be explained through logic, nor measured by number. A mystery must be experienced to be understood. But first you must die.

TERRANCE

Wah… What!? That wasn’t part of the deal.

MUSHROOM

Relinquish your fear. Death is but an illusion. Now, eat of my flesh.

Reluctantly, Terrance approaches the mushroom. He gently breaks off a piece of flesh. It is soft and spongy. He takes of it and eats. He feels a little light headed and sits back down into the couch.

MUSHROOM

Alas it is done. Arise.

As Terrance ascends, he slowly peals away from his body like a semi translucent, phosphorescent banana from its skin. His feet now hover ever so slightly from the floor. The mushroom motions towards the window of the apartment. As it does something strange occurs, the mushrooms passes straight through the glass and out the window. Terrance hesitates a moment and then follows straight after.

2. EXT. SKYLINE. DAY

Bewildered Terrance looks out at the buildings off in the distance. South bank looms bellow. He cries out to the mushroom.

TERRANCE

WAIT! Where are we going?

To which the mushroom replies

MUSHROOM

No need for further explanation. Set the controls for the heart of the sun.

As they ascend skyward towards the giant orb. Ancient alchemical symbols begin to flash in and out of view.

Astonished, Terrance asks the mushroom.

3. EXT. SPACE. NIGHT

TERRANCE

Why am I seeing all these glyphs?

To which the mushroom simply states.

MUSHROOM

Cosmic rays, we are getting closer now.

They ascend close and closer, faster. Venus glowing like a beautiful jewel. As they pass her, images of the goddess flood Terrance’s disembodied consciousness. Now as they approach Mercury, images of Thoth, Hermes and Mercury’s winged cap. Everything suddenly becomes bright as they are engulfed in the light of the sun, like an eagle souring into its fiery center.

4. INT. LOUNGE. NIGHT

TERRACE

Waahhhhhh…

Terrance arouses with a fright. He studies his hands for a moment before looking about the room. He sees the Time Magazine still sitting on the coffee table. Pulling himself now out of his chair, he picks up the magazine and drops it in the bin.

Third Class

Today we looked more closely at character development. Looking again at sinefield as an example. Characters can be any one or anything with a personality or purpose. We performed a class exercise where we picked names for characters. We were each given a name. The one I was given was Tony. We were asked a series of questions about out characters,.
One obvious thing about my character: His Italian.
One thing people would recognize about him: Lots of big gold crosses.
Things that would be obvious to them selves: People are slightly intimidated by him.
Something that’s unique or special about them: His got a witty sense of humor.
Some thing they would normally do in their normal lives: eating pasta at a pizza shop.
Situation they would not normal be in: buying a computer
An environment they would normal be in: helping with the family fruit and veg shop.
An environment they would never be in: the state library.

We then had to write a story using the most interesting element.

Tony was at the family fruit and veg shop helping his dad lifting some boxes out of a truck. He took them inside and set them on the shelf. His mother was busy serving a customer so he went back to the truck. As he was walking him mother called out to him, “Tony, I needa you to go down to the statea library and taka backa these booksa for me, I donta wana geta a finea” to which Tony replied “but mumma im helping puppa with the vegetables” “helpa your muda wida da books Tony you ideot” his father demanded. “Ok puppa I will taka da van”. Tony takes the books from the bench, his mother serving another customer, pauses to tell him “Tony just puta da books downa da shoota”, “ok mumma taka load off” he remarks, “what are you still doing here stupid” yells his dad “im going im going” Tony says as he heads out the front towards the van. He opens the door and uses the handle to pull his large body into the drivers seat. He starts up the engine and indicates right before easing out onto the road. The large crucifixes suspended from the rearview mirror swing left and right as he drives in towards the city. At the moment he realizes he has never been to the state library and has absolutely no idea where it is. At this point he decides to call his brother Vince and asks him to directions. He struggles for a moment pulling out the cell phone from his pocket, his jeans tight against his fat legs, his hand is momentarily caught, but he has to let go of the phone to quickly take hold of the wheel as a car that was parked on the side of the road pulls out in front of him and cuts him off. Angrily he beeps the horn screaming and waving his arm out the window, “hey watch it you flipping idiot I nearly hit you! ” For a moment he is fixed by his frustration his mind venting, as it cools he remembers he doesn’t know where his going and reaches for the phone once again, the phone half sticking out of his pocket is a lot easier to reach for this time and he pulls it out flipping it open. “Hey Vince, its tony”, “what you want? I’m busy!” Vince snaps, “I need to find the library” “what do you want to go there for, you cant even read!”


This last exercise was designed to explore a conflict one has had in the past from the perspective of the “other”.

“A man has to work hard to make his money” I stated, it was logical this is what my father did and his father before him. Yet Tiago insisted on refuting this “, a man must learn to work smart and make his money work hard for him.” This infuriated me, who does he think he is to not have to break a sweat, I work hard for my money and so should he, “that’s exactly what’s wrong with this world, people who think like you and expect every one to do things for them”

Lastly we watched a documentary, the taming of Sméagol”, about the making of the character Gollum from lord of the rings, and how the character was explored during the making of the film.

Wed, 23 July

Today we had a more detailed look at the hero’s journey, the path that the hero takes through a story, based on Joseph Campbell’s work. We had a look at story structure, how stories are built up, what defines the turning point, and how they reach their climax. The illustrate this we watched an episode of Signfeild, and spoke about it. We then watched it a second time and went over it with a fine toothcomb listing how the various different elements were introduced in the build up, and how the story was built from the conflicts that ensued after the turning point. We also had time to work on our stories and I have started fleshing out some ideas. Stay posted.

First Class

In today’s class we were briefed about the story we were to create, the fundamentals of 3 part structure and Joseph Campbell’s hero mythology concepts. We were introduced to the concept of mechanima and told we were going to produce a short sitcom using second life and comic life to storyboard it.

We then performed a short writing exercise involving typing randomly, elaborating from ‘I remember’, and finally we had to write some thing with out using the letter ‘e’.