VR
The Unbearable ____ of Being
Oliver
Would you like to stay with the ones you care about and make yourself meaningful to them, or, you’d rather leave everyone who cares about you in order not to take the burden in your life? In the beginning scene, a man is kneeling down and begging you, asking you to be his lover. Then falling books remind you of the reason you fall in love with him: you both read the same book. The flames and broken flames show the determination of the man: he put himself as the passive side of a relationship and left the initiative to you. The outside world is unlimited grassland, the inside is your love, your responsibility and maybe your sacrifice. What’s your choice?
If you choose to be with the man, then you will enter Tereza’s dream world. Naked women dancing around the pool without facial expressions on their faces. The man you love is shooting at the ones who don’t obey him. There are dead bodies continuously appearing in the pool. You realize that although he is your only one but you are not his. You are so frustrated that you climb on a hill to ask the executor to end your life. But when you see the bodies in the valley, you give up. You don’t want to suicide because your life is too heavy. On the way back, you saw a giant crow statue buried by a bunch of books. Those are exactly the books you read with him. As the crow, you want to fly in freedom, but you care about the weight of your life. That’s why you are stuck in the dream. Your life is too heavy to bear.
Jump into the void, you get another chance to make your choice. You run into the grassland and enter Sabina’s dream world. You wake up with a flower in your hand. And you wander toward a graveyard. Graveyard is used to be Sabina’s favorite place because it makes her enjoy the lightness of her life. However, when you hold the flower and have no idea who should the flower be given to, you feel loneliness the first time. You don’t know any of the names on the tomb. What you can do is watch people praying for their loves, parents and kids. The angel statue smiling at you under the moonlight. Your life is too light to bear.
It is a pity that I met some issues when I tried to upload my work into the headset. But I will make effort to make it before the show. Because I think some emotions I want to express is better throught the form of VR rather than a 2D screen.
11月4日.mp4I can't record the video because the speaker of my laptop broke. The BGM I used are all from Hollow Knight because I think Christoph is really good at making BGM for different scenes.
The sound sourse I used:
White Palace, The white Lady, Dirtmouth, Queen's Garden, Enter Hollow Knight.
The reason the name of my midterm project is “The Unbearable ____ of Being” is because I generated the idea from a book The Unbearable Lightness of Being written by Milan Kundera. I have been reading this book these days and some of the writer’s points really touched me. I aim to express my thought of “no matter life is heavy or light, it is unbearable and there is no shortcut of living” through an interactive VR project. The title itself is also interactive because players can choose the heaviness or lightness of being by themselves.
The book is good at describing characters’ dreams and analyzing their perspectives of their lives. In other words, Kundera is a master of storytelling. I want to try to show players what I want to express by bringing them into the dream of those characters in the book. As I am not able to build a scene that looks like a real world and dreams are always fractional and veiled, I think using VR to make a dream-like world more immersive is possible. Moreover, I like to use symbols as a way to tell a story. For example, in my practice, the stream on the floor is a symbol of pushing someone away and the falling figures with a sword in their chest is a symbol of the main character being hurt, etc. I want to explore using those symbols and metaphors to finish my whole story and let the player get what I want to show, which means they are supposed to feel depressed or uncanny when they experience those scenes.
Players are able to make their own choice by doing certain things. These things are also a symbol of choosing to live a heavier life or a lighter life. The scene will change according to their choices. So the other thing that is important and also what I want to explore is “how to guide the player to be on the right track?” As for me, I don’t want to read a lot of sentences when I experience a VR project. However, if there are completely no readable guides, I will get confused. That’s why I need to figure out how to properly lead the players by making use of words and objects in my scene.
I drew a storyboard for my project with a lot of explanations based on what I can achieve in Unity because I am really poor at drawing things. I will make it better after the discussion and the further learning outcomes.
Storyboard
Pauline: Your storyboard is super comprehensive! It looks pretty ambitious, but I'm super excited to see how things will play out. I don't know that much about this book, but I can already sense the strength of the concept. Good luck! Do you have any ideas for the music?
Cole: I love you in depth your storyboard is. I think proper planning like this will make the project more doable and easier to carry out. You may want to check how available some of these assets or if you can't find them try making them yourselves as that might be tricky.
Rosanna: Hi Oliver! You included a lot in your storyboard! I feel like your project has a strong feature of storytelling, as I can feel the development in each scene.
Theyab : The storyboard is REALLY detailed and well defined on what your going to do with your VR project.
Jannah: Love the concept and deatil of your storyboard! I feel like thgis is such a unique project and I think it will be very fun to explore. Good Luck!
meera : i second Rosanna's thought. i feel like you're project is very thourgh and the vision seems very coherent and clear. great !
Jiapei: I really love the depth of the concept. It seems very interesting and very ambitious as well! Looking forward to seeing your final work!