Digital Detox
The story is about a man who is glued to his phone falls into the internet world filled with complicated electrical circuits. He wants to escape just like he wants to detox himself from his phone. However, the longer he stays, the easier for him to blur the concepts between the real world and electronic world. What is the reality for him after all?
The project is inspired by my daily experience with the electronic devices around me. Sometimes I feel that I’m over-focused on my phone, especially the social media - changing the profile photo, editing posts…because I care about what others think regarding my virtual identity. It even makes me feel indivisible from the real life. Therefore, I want to use this work to show my ambivalence towards the virtual world in a visual way.
Why is hand the main subject in the video?
In the story, the protagonist can only see his hands in the internet world because phones always occupy the hands and fingers. Many doctors today predict that our increasing use of computers and mobile phones will permanently alter our hands. Then what will this mean for the way we touch, feel and communicate?
As a result, during the shooting, I only adopted the actor’s hand and let him do the gestures in front of the LED screen. However, there is a full body shot at the end in order to show that he escapes from the virtual world.
The virtual scene is built in Unreal Engine. Here’s an output without the actor on the right side.
This is a draft for the scene and camera movement. The structure of the blocks is largely inspired by the game Monument Valley.