Taken (2008)
One of the main infleunces that was applied to the Junk Mail Box room and Sorcha’s character was the film Taken. There was one scene in paticular that caught our eye, which was when there was young girls that were clearly drugged and being sold in an auction. This act of Human Trafficking, contributed to Sorcha’s character ‘Unknown User.’ She was ‘hacked’ before she was even accpeted in the network and so to portray she was hacked, we used the idea of her looking drugged throughout VIP, Junk Mail Box and Main rooms. This was shown effectively in VIP room, as she was slumped in the corner unable to control herself.
The idea of the auction in Taken seemed to communicate the general idea that we were trying to portray in the Junk Mail Box. The ‘Spam’ box is a place were all unwanted items go, like inappropriate adverts that are sent to us via email, or viruses that infiltrate our computer. We wanted the room to represent a underground, seedy marketplace, and a “Profile Auction” seemed to be a fitting element to the performance. Due to all the profiles being sold being female, alludes to the dangers of women on the internet, which ehcoes what is being shown in the auction scene in Taken.
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By Rebecca Britten.
The Matrix (1999)
This film was one of the original influences on our idea of humanising and theatricalising the virtual world. A well known sci-fi film about another virtual dimension that is lived through the unconscious minds of captive bodies, it captured the ‘coolness’ that we wanted to portray as it is a highly modern and critical concept. One of the key sequences that I was obsessed with ‘remixing’ was the following scene, in which Neo is offered a choice via a red pill or a blue pill. The main influence that I took from this was I wanted to have some sort of audience participation where they didn’t know they were making a choice, but with the same visual style as this scene.
We played with ideas of having red and blue shots as the choice which would split the audience, however we felt it was more classy and ‘VIP’ to have champagne in the Premium Check-In Lounge instead of shots, so instead we used counters, offered without any kind of indication that they would determine their exits. And we kept the red and blue theme throughout in lighting, costume (my tie for instance) the alcohol plied to us by the administrator right before deactivation was red and blue, (a similar theme to this film, as the pill reveals ‘reality’ to Neo when he takes it) and our marketing carried on the theme as well.
TRON (1982)
Another well-known sci-fi film, this is probably an influence for The Matrix as well, but for our piece the main influence it gave us was the embodiment of computer programs and The SYSTEM’s costume by the neon visuals as well. The ‘grid’ in Tron was replaced by the ‘SYSTEM’ and we also borrowed ideas (that circulate many many other sources as well) of the loss of identity through technology.
By Sylvia Entwistle.