Jason Kempshall’s Weblog

Firstly, through a lot of research i have found a way of cutting serious costs for the actually mirror. Instead of purchasing already treated acrylic mirrors i have found out that normal office window film has the same reflective properties that i am looking for and after receiving many samples in the post from various companies i have found that the “High reflective silver window film” is the product i need. This along with oversized tracing paper and Two sheets of transparent acrylic two sandwich it all together will bring the cost down of a 1.5m x 2m mirror from around a grand to a more affordable £250.00.

As i know i will definitely be using this rear projected technology i will be purchasing the above materials immediately for testing purposes. Though a problem with my before mentioned rig has arisen and is now subject to change. It has come to light that to use two projectors in the way mentioned below, with room for the user to stand would create space needed of around 8 meters long by 1.5 meters wide and 2 meters high. This is mainly due to the throw needed by the two projectors of around 3.5 meters to cover a surface of 1.5m x 2m viewable area.

Obviously the answer would be to use a multiple monitor displays instead to cut this space down dramatically but unfortunately that would be WAY out of budget!

I personally hate naming my work and products that i create but here goes, see below for a very rough list of general musings. Please leave any feedback that you may have. Thank You.

• Fear Interactive
• The Panic Box
• The Panic Room
• Challenge Your Perceptions
• The Panic Mirror
• Paranoid Reality
• Face Your Fears
• Nightmare Interactive
• Digital Disturbia
• Deranged Reality
• Another Place

JEEZ, these seem pretentious…………!

See below a list of words that i wish to mould my project around, This list is more for my benefit than anything else.

• Fear
• Disturb
• Paranoia
• Outer worldly
• Reflection
• Mirror
• Reality
• Dimension
• Freaky
• Interactive
• Digital
• 3D
• Horror
• Unnatural
• Psychological
• Unease
• Submersion
• Subconscious
• Imagination
• Auditory
• Visual
• Scary
• Challenging
• Illusion
• Mental
• Experimental
• Confusion
• Memorable
• Unique
• Experience
• Unnerving
• Panic

Amy Smart in “Mirrors” Jaw scene

Although this form of manipulation would be almost impossible to achieve at realtime i really think it demonstrates the fantasy second reality theory behind mirrors and how the thought of that second reality coming alive as its own independent being can be truly terrifying, Although in this case it does help that she is tearing her own jaw off (Warning – Video below not for the faint hearted!).

See the full mirrors trailer below.

Japanese Ghost Girl In Mirror

Although i doubt the authenticity of the home shot video below, i find it truly creepy, this is roughly the kind of feel i’m after, though again the specific manipulation of the users reflections on a real mirror seem daunting if not impossible.

Silent Hill 3 – Mirror room

This next video, although a scene from a game is a lot more achievable and i believe equally effective. the way in which the “red slime stuff” spreads across the reflection and not the reality then visa versa is really effective. One other thing i noticed with this video is how important the music/sound FX are.

The new rig (click image for full view).

Now i have an initial prototype and proof of concept its time to take it to the next level for the FMP. Instead of making a small scale rig the next plan of action will be to make a full body scale version or the user submersion technique, therefor i can do real physical tests with users to see how they react to being submerged in media.

I was going to go down the educational rout on first though, for example traveling through space or to shrink the user down to miniature and have them walk through a microscopic environment. However these initial ideas proved to be floored in a variety of ways, some to do with the size of the rig needed and affordability and some to do with the basic nature of the rig. I also don’t feel qualified enough to be able to create an application for children, whether that be because i don’t understand kids, i don’t know but it is not an area i would be confident exploring.

The route that i do however want to go down is to play with reality, i want to be able to confront the users senses of what is there and what is not. I want the experience to be intense and challenging and want the experience to be memorable and create a sense of distubia or panic from within them. Based on the factors i believe i will go down the route of subtle horror, what i mean by this term is the effect and feeling surrounding a lot of modern horror films (and some old). The use of subtle/almost subliminal image flickering of disturbing images and unnatural movements. i also want to incorporate a warping of the reality that the user is already within by the use of shading and distorting the mirror and backdrop via the use of projectors.

Finally, the start off environment that the user steps into would be ideally plain, white and have a very sterile feel to it. my reasons for this is to create an almost hospital feel to the room/box, i believe this will also add to the unnerving feeling of the project. Another reason to do this is to leave a blank canvas which will be ready for manipulation.