Emerson thesis -- Film and media art

Overview "'A Matter of Time' is a 15-minute short film written, directed, and edited by Yang Liu. The story describes an independent grandma YING(70s) is in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease living in a small town in China by herself. She insists on working, making a modest living by owning a small tailor shop, while her daughter XIAO YU(late 30s) is married to a laborer working and living in a big city. Xiao Yu travels back to Ying's hometown with her son WEI WEI(7) in order to persuade Ying to...

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"A series of installations that incorporate projection mapping on objects with abstract animations and original sound designs. The theme of the thesis is the struggle and conflict in current society through the limitation of our physical spaces to represent our attempt to escape from our mental spaces. The project can be viewed from any direction, and the audience can enter the installations and interact with projected images and sounds." --page 2.

Overview "Melinki Lander Arena is a science fiction video game in the low poly flat-shaded style, with role playing and real-time strategy components. This game is played on maps that are actual 3D objects, which is a new approach in mobile device gaming, and unique to this application. This project combines multiple elements from different gaming mechanisms to synthesize a whole. While thematically similar to individual science fiction space games that preceeded it, the principal challenges of this...

Overview "The film is meant to vaguely mimic television narrative structure as a pilot for a potential web series. The plot follows awkward, fish-out-of-water protagonist Roger the Robot. One year after Roger's mad-scientist creator, robot fiancé and best frenemy all die at once in a fiery explosion, the lonely robot must face reality that he is a male stripper living out of a cardboard box behind the library he frequents and not an aspiring ballerino-in-training. Following a librarian's offer of a...

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"Ark is an experimental documentary about a cruise ship at the end of the world. In this film we tour the ship and discover through anonymous voices that the present is actually the future." -- Abstract

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"A minimalist thriller-mystery that follows a young man as he searches for help for an injured dog that he hit on an isolated, rural highway. The film deals with the themes of isolation, guilt, masculinity, and pain." --page 8.

Overview "Before I Go' is an experimental short film about a granddaughter's love letter to her recently passed grandmother. Shot in 16mm film, as well as 35mm photography, the film blurs the lines between past, present, life and death. Both Ektachrome and Negative 50D footage were used to delineate jumps in timeline and shifts in mood and tone. The film is inspired by the works of Isabel Allende and the magical realism genre. It questions the idea of physically being, and then being no more, and how...

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"Colour is a twelve minute still image short film. The film portrays a unique relationship between a young girl and a toy seller and the influence of his tales with moral lessons on the girl's outlook to life. She breaks the shackles that is imposed on her by her parents and learns to embrace life and especially youth." -- Abstract

Overview "An original, psychological horror film about a young girl, Sasha, who envisions an ominous monster lurking in her home after her mother comes back from an extended hospital stay. Formatted as a 15-minute short, the film will explore Sasha’s inner turmoil as she witnesses her family dynamic crumble in the face of a physically disabled mother and emotionally distraught father. The application of horror to this context is used to explore the societal issues of prescription drug abuse/addiction...

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"This is an ironic comedy about a Chinese immigrant family. When a university offer arrives, conflict is heated up between the father and the daughter, right before her 18th birthday party. The story is inspired by personal experience." -- Abstract

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"'Cuts' is a documentary about a 47-year-old man's career path and his relationship between his two fathers." -- Abstract

Overview "Does a Bear Need Many Glasses? is an eight-minute fiction short film. It tells the story about a man who always wears a bear costume, which does not have a smile on the face. He goes to a craft store to buy some drinking glasses and falls in love with the woman who runs the store. When he gets back home he cuts his bear face to make a smile. The next day, he catches a thief who is stealing from the store and fights the thief. But he is defeated and the woman thinks he is attacking the man....

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"Set in 1950s Puerto Rico, a 16-year-old boy's physical altercation inadvertently leads to the disappearance of his employer and mentor. A ten-minute fictional narrative film, El Desaparecido incorporates music, dance, and documentary elements to pay tribute to actual events and to explore the cultural ramifications of Puerto Rico's relationship with the United States." --Abstract.

Overview "Excarnation is an interactive film about horror: the anxieties and comforts it creates, views of it from the outside and inside. Viewers turn on/off layers of audio and video to create varied experiences, and bring attention to film as an active, participatory medium. The first film, Corruption, remixes "social guidance" films from the 50's and 60's, as well as public domain horror films, to contemplate fears around consumption of horror media. Layers include gorier tormenting visions, and...

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"Export My Love is a documentary about four divorced or widowed women trying to persue love by finding U.S. husband. It tries to raise the discussion of how the society treats those single women with kids." -- Abstract

Overview "A filmmaker confronting the efficacy of telling one story over another rewrites expectations for a failed project about the artist known as Miles, whose planned installation addresses the experiments conducted by psychologist Harry Harlow in the late 1950s. Weaving together past and future, truth and fiction, From a Spaceless Within approaches the construction and dematerialization of the artist while asking where our intentions take root when we attempt to create anything at all." --...

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"Happy to Be With You is a short narrative that depicts the emotional bond between an old woman and her lifelong AI robot. It raises the discussion of the potential relationship between humans and AI. It is also a film about companionship." -- Abstract

Overview "A visual novel containing the three proposed chapters for the purpose of this thesis project. A visual novel contains narrative and visual elements that allow the user to make decisions that will affect the story. This game would be best played alone because the choices a player makes may become personal. However, the game can still be played around others it is just a matter of preference. Here We Go is a story focusing on the relationship between a group of friends as they finish their...

Overview "'Hide and Seek' (2021) is a visual mixtape illustrating the author's personal experiences with existential depression and anxiety through a surreal, artful lens. Expansive and profound, the film utilizes this narrative to unravel and investigate the nature of humanity's withered connection to love, purpose and spiritual grounding. Combining truth, dance, music, and metaphoric imagery to craft a unique and personable audio-visual experience, 'Hide and Seek' aims to break past the barriers of...

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"Hoop Dreams is a multimedia installation consisting of three pieces: You Play Ball?, Hoop Dreams, and Memorabilia, which combine performance art, video projection, photography, and sculpture to explore themes at the intersection of race, identity, and opportunity." --Abstract.