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IMAGO Live film for the 100th anniversary of the end of world war one.
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Politecnico di Milano LM Design della Comunicazione (C1) LAB. Interactive Transmedia Narrative for New Media Mika ‘Lumi’ Tuomola Mariana Ciancia Ilaria Mariani
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RESEARCH
1.1 The first world war
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1.2 Life in the trench
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1.3 Degrees of military
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1.4 Death masks Imago Mortis 1.5 The colors in the trench
CHARACTERS
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2.1 The full description Leary Ševčenko Keats Franklin Shakespeare
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Tesla Robespierre Rommel
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1.6 Mirror neurons
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1.7 The Möbius strip
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White character
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PROJECT
3.1 The “film live”
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3.2 The script
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3.3 The experience
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3.4 The rules
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3.5 The staging
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3.6 The theme of double
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3.7 The conclusions
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THE RES EAR CH-
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1.1 Th e f i r s t wo rl d w a r
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S TA R T 28 June 1914 END 11 November 1918
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World War I was an armed conflict that got involved the main world powers. At the beginning it was called “european war”, later it took the name of “world war” or “great war”: in fact it was the biggest armed conflict ever fought up until World War II. WW1 was also described as war of attrition. The creation of long and deep trench lines drove the commands to consciously look for the attrition of the enemy, both tactically - with massive attacks after scaring bombardments of many consecutive days - and strategically forcing the enemy to use resources and men. This military tactic had the aim to exhaust the enemy. This attrition vanished the patriotic enthusiasm of the soldiers. The soldiers fought because they were forced by a fierce apparatus that punished the insubordinations. Nevertheless, fear and repulsion of the war became refusal: the more widespread type of refusal was the individual one, like selfharm by self-inflicting wounds on purpose to be relieved from military service.
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1.2 Life in t h e t re n c h
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Trenches have been one of the main symbols of the First World War. When the various European governments decided to begin the war, everyone was convinced it would have been a fast one, in which it was essential to take advantage of the time factor. Instead, after a few weeks, the various European fronts stabilized and hundreds of kilometers of trenches began to be dug from northern France to Eastern Europe, in today’s Poland and Balkans. Trenches are the most significant traces of what happened between 1915 and 1918. In this long period of time they became the soldiers’ “home”, the place where they lived for weeks (if not months) busy on the fronts between one battle and
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another. Life was difficult inside the trench. During the war, soldiers had to face hard times on the frontline, in temporary structures, with the constant fear of receiving orders to prepare for an assault or of being shot by a sniper. Experiences that marked the men throughout their lives, as evidenced by the many cases of mental illness developed during the war or once they made it back to their homes. The problems were various even when all was still. Wounds were as frequent as the frostbites, cured with the same grease used to polish shoes. Very often the soldiers were forced to create shelters for the night, in holes covered by a simple cloth, sleeping on the ground one against
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the other in order to keep warm. Often we are brought to think of the war as a violent event in which two contendants fight upto the elimination of their enemy without showing any sign of pity.
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The qualities required to be a soldier in such a situation were, therefore, obedience, patience and resistance to suffering, deprivation and anguish of finding themselves always on the brink of death.
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NECESSITY TO WRITE The act of writing responds to one’s individual need to define his own position in a situation that occurs as a global turning point. The soldiers write during their moments of rest, during the immediacy of the event, near the battlefield strewn with corpses of comrades and enemies not yet collected; they write during the open fire. The strain of nights spent without sleep intensifies their perception of horror. They write while waiting for their meals that do not always arrive, because the few kilometers separating the back ways from the front are exposed to the enemy.
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1.3 Degrees of military
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The ranks were placed in an experimental way on the back of the hand guard in order to make them less visible to the enemy’s officers. TROOP is the basic military personnel category. Usually made of volunteers, as the interventionists, who have not gone to the military academy. It is very difficult for an ordinary soldier to receive an important task, even though, in case of need they can be entrusted with the responsibility of a team or a patrol. CORPORALS are those who had the task of recruiting and training troops. This rank is divided into Corporal and Master Corporal. SERGEANTS are usually called noncommissioned officers. They usually have the task of keeping the troop united and to make the soldiers execute orders. MARSHALS made the “quartermasters” category dissapear. In 1916 the “battlefield assistants” rank was established. This rank could be reached either by NCOs or by the troop, only for war merits, regardless of the degree previously covered. Inside the army they had a logistical and administrative role.
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LOWER LEVEL OFFICIALS were affected by the enlargement of military degrees with the advent of the war. In 1915 the vacuum degree was introduced, in other words young second lieutenant aspirants who had not yet finished the academy but who were already at the front. Lieutenants, captains and chief captain have the duty to maintain the lead according to the situation and needs. SENIOR OFFICIALS saw the indroduction of three new internal roles in order to deal with the increased number of degrees in the lower ranks: lieutenant colonel in charge of the regiment, colonels in charge of the brigade and the brigadier general. These are entrusted with the command of regiments or battalions. These compose the brigades. In some cases, the colonels could take command of brigades. GENERAL OFFICERS are those who are entrusted with the command of the major operating units. To better distinguish the command assignments, during the great war, the general officers went from three hierarchical degrees to eight.
CAPORALS
SERGEANTS
MARSHALS
LOWER AND SENIOR OFFICIALS
GENERAL OFFICERS 25
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1.4 Death mask I m a g o mo r t i s
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We can find the custom of hiding deceased people’s faces with masks since the ancient times in different places. The death masks take origins from magic believes: in many populations faith in afterlife needs that the head remains intact after the death. This is the aim of the death mask, which meantime defends the dead body from the eventual power of hostile demons. Moreover, the surviving one can see danger in demoniac powers acquired by the dead one. The head is considered the nucleus of these powers, so it is isolated by the mask, which, in both cases, is needed to distance bad influences. Vaguely connected to these uses deriving from magic fear, is the desire of pure and simple conservation, for which the mask tries to preserve the individual physiognomy after the death. Death masks of this type, which
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we find where there’s a developed cult of individuality, always show evident realistic features. Death masks require a material that can be laminated and wrought. We know silver and mostly gold death masks done with this technique. Also, the gold on the dead body has a magic value. More often, particularly in the roman empire period, death masks were made by bronze. They could also use less expensive and resistant materials, but easier to model, such as plasted canvas, papiermâchÊ, gesso or clay, terracotta or wax.
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1.5 The colors in the trench
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RED The color red has the meaning of passion and impulsiveness. It has the effect of tumult, turmoil, excitement and motivation. This color has a lot more energy than the other colors: it is the color of fire, blood, elan vital, adrenalin and action. It is identified as an alarm signal and it is passed down from generation to generation. It represent an energetic nature, a will to take action and courage. The color red means the ability to make decisions without hesitating and to work with vigour and executive energy. It also symbolizes practical intelligence and vitality.
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ORANGE Orange is the combination of red and yellow, so it has the characteristics of both. It mixes the excitement of red and the warm sensations of yellow. Orange symbolizes energy, vitality, cheer, excitement, adventure, warmth, and good health. This color means hospitality and kindness, and confindence in oneself but without arrogance. It’s the color that gives the ability to react to adversities of life in a quick and effective way. It’s also the symbol of extraordinary challenges.
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YELLOW The meaning of the color yellow is evolution, transformation and free development. It is the color of sun, light, gold, brightness, happiness and fantasy; of dinamism of creativity and intelligence, of wisdom and speech. The dark side of yellow, though, means madness, caution and physical illness. Some say that yellow is the favorite color of those who display mental extremes.
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GREEN The color green means perseverance and tenacity. It is the color of harmony and balance and equilibrium. It represents the push to wellness, in fact it is a neutral color in the solar spectrum, because it is in the center between warm and cold colors. Green is the color of concentration and focus and it guarantees a precise control, an exact analysis, a coherent logic and the ability to register and remember. It is also the color of someone who doesn’t want to change his way of life and is conservative and a creautre of habit.
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INDIGO Indigo means the ability of perception and the ability to expand the knowing towards mystic and spiritual experiences. It has a connection to the internal. It is a very particular color as it is the crossing pointbetween blue and purple; it is more a hue than a true color. This is the color of someone who tends to elevate himself and to look at the situation with a critical mind; so the color indigo permits to better understand the reality to have an internal fulfillment.
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BLU Blue means genius and creativity. It recalls perseverance, tenacity, reliability and intellect. It also means knowledge, vigor, integrity, seriousness and gravity. This is the color of trust, dignity, intelligence, authority; it conveys a sense of trust, loyalty, cleanliness, and understanding. It increases the attention and prepares someone to be more precise, so it is the perfect color for works that need concentration.
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PURPLE The union of two dispositions, one of the body, the other of the spirit. This is the meaning of the color purple, that has alway been associated with supernatural energy and the cosmos than with the physical world as we know it. Purple symbolizes magic, mystery, spirituality, the sub-conscious, creativity, dignity, royalty - and it evokes all of these meanings more so than any other color. It can also cause an alterate state of conscience, emotional disorder or psychosis. Purple is the color of someone who wants to be original.
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1.6 Mirror n e u ro n s
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Mirror neurons are a family of cerebral cells able to make us react in a reflecting way to our counterpart’s actions and intentions. This type of neurons converse with each other in a very simple language with electric signals. Our receptors transform external stimuli in these electric signals and travel in our nervous system. Mirror neurons are interesting because they put into effect a mechanism for which one hit the other without passing by inferential logic process. The study of mirror neurons gives us the ability to understand what is empathy and what it has to do with emotional and understanding process. If we are in front of a sad face or vice versa we see the hint of a smile, if one of our guests is about to take a cup and drink, a string of neurons activates and makes us duplicate the emotion or the action with our body and our mind. The replication of that emotion or action allows the exact comprehension of the mood of the other human being and consequently his intentions. It’s like our mind created inside itself a copy of that person to understand his way of thinking and be in tune with him.
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1.7 The Mรถbius strip
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Ordinary surfaces always have two sides. For these surfaces it is possible to conventionally distinguish an “upper” side from a “lower” side, or an “internal” and “external” side. With the Möbius strip this principle does not stand anymore: only one side and one edge exist. After having done one round, you will find yourself on the opposite side. Only after having done two rounds you can find yourself on the side where you started from. So it is possible to move from a surface to the one “behind” without having to go through the strip and without skipping the edge, simply walking for a long time. The Möbius strip has been used in our project in order to recall the “loop” effect in the plot.
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N I N E - C HAR ACT ERS
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2.1 T he f u l l de sc ri p t i o n
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LE Timothy Leary is red, the color of passion, of rage. The passion and the rage that animated him while struggling against one of the stronger american taboo: legalization of psychedelic drugs. Leary was an open minded psychologist and even when his mindset drove him into uncommon and unaccepted researches, he never renounced to his cause and keep fighting for his goals. The color red has a double value: the negative one characterizes aggressiveness, rage and war; the positive one characterizes passion and love. Revolution is often a sum of this two faces of the color.
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Leary is strongly convinced of his ideals of peace, but he accept not to create internal conflicts into the trench in order to come back to his normal life to fight his personal struggles. In his sight war is just an obstacle, a time lapse while keeping his breath before starting over to follow his way. Anyhow, even in war, Leary didn’t stop being himself, he just couldn’t stop. In fact, he can’t stand violence and bloodshed, so he strives to act his role of nurse the best he can.
ARY The nurse may look as a strange role for an open minded revolutionary but while war is the triumph of death, a nurse is a revolutionary fighting in the name of life. Like “Leary Psychologist”, “Leary Nurse” is a black sheep, but he go on through his own way with his head up. His role in the trench is often the one of supporting his companion victims of the inflexible regime that Robespierre imposes with arrogance.
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ŠE The color associated to Ševčenko is orange, because it means hospitality and kindness, so it perfectly matches the psychology of the poet. The color orange also means confindence in oneself but without arrogance. It’s the color that gives the ability to react to adversities of life in a quick and effective way. It’s also the symbol of extraordinary challenges. This is the color of Ševčenko psychology, as we can see from his life. He was persecuted and was not afraid to go on with his fight for political rights for the needy.
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Taras Ševčenko was a writer who, during his studies, made several trips in Ukraina where he saw the conditions of the poor people and decided to become part of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, a clandestine society also known as Ukrainian-Slavic society dedicated to the political liberalization of the Empire and its transformation into a federation-like polity of Slavic nations. The society was suppressed by the authorities and Ševčenko was arrested and eventually exiled.
EVČENKO In the trench, Ševčenko is a soldier who is always caring for his companions. He helps the wounded and the distressed and he would do anything to help the others, even if this means put his life in risk. Ševčenko is the one who rush to someone’s aid, not only friends but whoever needs help.
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KE The meaning attributed to the color yellow is evolution, transformation and free development. John Keats is the character that corresponds to these meanings because he arrived to define a “negative capability�. To him, this ability that every great man has, especially poets, is that to not question themselves upon the uncertainty that governs life; therefore the ability to remain open in every situation, evolving on the basis of the moment.
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Although Keats wrote that “if poetry comes not as naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all”, poetry did not come easily to him; his work was the result of a classical selfeducation. He may have possessed an innate poetic sensibility, but his early works were clearly those of a man in the act of learning. His poetic sense was based on the conventional tastes of his friend, who first introduced him to the classics. Keats’ ability and talent was acknowledged by several influential contemporary allies such as Shelley and Hunt. His admirers praised him for thinking “on his pulses”. Keats was convinced that he had made no mark in his lifetime.
E AT S The role my character has in a 1st world war trench is the role of the letter writer. The person who was encharged of wrtiting letters for those soldiers that were not able to write them on their own for reasons of poor education, or others. Usually the soldiers would talk about their loved ones, describe them in order to make sure the letters would be as realistic as possible, as if the soldier himself were writing them. For the psychology aspects selected in J. Keats and the color attributed to him, the character’s ability to be open to the world in order to describe it better, the ability to transform on the basis of what he was living seem to lead to this possible role in the trench. 69
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FR Benjamin Franklin is represented by the color green. This color expresses firmness, resistance to changes, constance in points of view and it confers a great value to the Self in all its forms of possession and success; the possession increases self-esteem and self-confidence. Franklin, as green, desires to see his opinions as predominant, to see his person as representative of fundamental and unchanging principles.
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Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on 700, he was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. “The most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become.� - Walter Isaacson
RANKLIN He put himself on a pedestal and he is used to preach at others. He wants to impress the others, he wants to be considered and to do whatever he wants in spite of general opposition or resistance.
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SHAK Indigo (also called Royal Blue) is the third eye chakra color, connected to the sixth sense. Like the color blue, indigo governs communication, either written or spoken. This color though is more about inward communication. Personal thoughts and reflections are governed by the indigo color as are insights and deep understanding. It is also a color of wisdom and deep inner knowing. It opens the door to the Divine and it is the color usually associated with night. It is at night in fact when our senses become finer and a different part of us awakens. Indigo promotes deep concentration during times of introspection and meditation, helping achieve deeper levels of consciousness. It also brings clarity to the sense organs - seeing, hearing and feeling.
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English Language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. William Shakespeare dedicated his entire life to his passion, he believed in doing his best possible job, creating stories that could amuse and entertain people. Shakespeare expanded the dramatic potential of characterization of the characters, the plot and language, pushing the boundaries of storytelling investigating the human condition at the deepest level.
KESPEARE Inside the trench Shakespeare is portrayed as a thinker: his ability to see beyond appearances spurs him to investigate the deepest reasons of the human condition. Shakespeare questions everything, he strongly feels the need to know the reasons behind the mechanisms that govern reality, war, and the human nature. His desire for answers leads him to question what he sees and what he still can not see.
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TES However, he will do all of this alienating himslef and not caring at all for what happens around him. The color that best fits Tesla is blue. The color blue is usually associated to creativity and genius and for this reason it has been linked to Tesla’s personality: a man who despite the war never ceases to nourish his genius and always finds a way to keep himself busy.
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Tesla can be considered one of the most brilliant people in history. He dedicated his entire life to technological research in particular electromagnetism. Tesla was able to think beyond imagination, beyond patterns yet he also suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder that led him to the vilification of his work and of his person, leaving him to die in solitude.
SLA The Tesla inside the trench is a man proved by the war, situation which has worsened his detachment from reality, feeding his obsessive-compulsive disorders. But all of this does not jeopardize his genius and even in this situation of extreme difficulties Tesla manages to find a way to make himself useful by fixing the binoculars that have been broken for months.
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ROBE The color representative of Robespierre is purple. It is a secondary color composed by red and blue, so it has the characteristics of both the two colors - going back to the theme of contradiction and “double� personality. The color red represents activity, passion, excitement in action. The color blu represents safety, decision and moderation. These two colors sometimes integrate each another and in other cases contrast each other: the color purple, as a union of the two colors, has the urge to conquer from the color red and the sense of fulfillment from the color blue. The impetuous passion of the color red meets the serenity of the color blue, producing the temperance of the two colors mix. Union of the opposite, union of two characters of the body and of the spirit.
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Robespierre is one of the most controversial people of history. During his life he was considered a committed extremist and, at the same time, an idealist. He was a man forced to take difficult decisions, extreme actions that weren’t always understood by others, for the democracy.
ESPIERRE In the trench Robespierre interprets the strategist with a controversial personality. He is the man who makes decisions and actions that aren’t understood by the comrades. His main purpose is to win the war: this ambition takes him to shoot to a comrade and, eventually, to confront with himself.
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ROM The color representative of Rommel is grey. It implies a condition of instability and continuous search for serenity. In fact, Rommel tries to take distance from the context that gives him anxiety and emotional tension. The color grey is the symbol of a character that can’t adapt to different circumstances, with the consequence of a inappropriateness sentiment that brings Rommel to behave in an extreme and disinterested way.
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Rommel was the second of four children of Helene von Lutz, who headed the local government council. In the North African campaign he established his reputation as one of the most able commanders of the war and that earned him the appellation of the Desert Fox. He later commanded the German forces opposing the Allied crosschannel invasion of Normandy. Rommel is remembered as one of the most important strategist of the First and Second World Wars.
MMEL Rommel is tired of the war and he feels lost, he lives the life in the trenches, but he can’t go on. He knows that this war has no end and therefore he knows that no one will win. Realizing that this war doesn’t make sense, Rommel has lost his fighting spirit and the sense of what his is doing. For this reason he is about to make a decision that will significantly change the future of war‌
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WHIT in the trench, in fact, he absorbs all their characteristics. The color white is the combination of all the colors of the electromagnetic spectrum, as much as the white character is the union of the other personalities. This color symbolizes the beginning of the vital phase, the faith in the future, the spirituality and the purity. The color white is also the symbol of knowledge, so it can be seen as a threat in a trench.
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The white character represents the union of the personalities of all the other colors represented by his comrades. Observing the other soldiers in the trench, in fact, he absorbs all their characteristics.
E In the trench, the white character is the one who first increases the awareness that brings him to confront himself with the comrades and with the enemy. His decision will have consequences on the story.
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T H E - P R OJ E C T -
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3.1 The “film live”
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A FILM-LIVE is a movie that is filmed at the same time that it is screened. It allows the audience to experience firsthand the consequences of the story that has just been told. After the screening, the audience ventures into the places where the film has just occurred. The places are transformed, brought to life and filled with meaning by the events narrated.Â
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3.2 The script
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IMAGO story by Nicolò Fabio Banfi, Nicola Cerioli, Sofia Chiarini, Giulia Farrauto, Giacomo Flaim, Anna Gasparini, Laura Placenti, Luca Ranghetti and Natalee Christine Rojo based on the original concept by Mattia Costa
Interactive Transmedia Narratives for New Media prof. Mika Lumi Tuomola, Mariana Ciancia, Ilaria Mariani Politecnico di Milano, 2016
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The show will take place in a big area, like an arena. The scene will be composed by two trenches two meters deep, separated by a twenty meters corridor. Inside the trenches there will be nine actors for side performing the role of soldiers. Eight actors for side will wear masks created by death masks of eight famous historic characters: Maximilien Robespierre; William Shakespeare; Benjamin Franklin; John Keats; Erwin Rommel; Taras Ĺ evÄ?enko; Timothy Leary; Nikola Tesla. The other actor, for each side, will wear a mask which combines the facial traits of the eight companions, symbolizing the growth of all characters and their evolution.
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Each death mask will be associated to a color and to a personality: Maximilien Robespierre (Purple Strategist); William Shakespeare (Indigo - Thinker); Benjamin Franklin (Green - Idealist); John Keats (yellow - Lunatic); Erwin Rommel (Grey - Resigned); Taras Ĺ evÄ?enko (Orange - Humble); Timothy Leary (Red - Open-minded); Nikola Tesla (Blue - Inventor). The actors will be disposed in reverse specular positions and they will perform the same movements. Each trench will be filmed by two cameras driven by anthropomorphic robot arms that will follow the actors in a long take. The scene will be displayed on two screens, linked to the ceiling
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one meter over the trenches. Each camera’s long take will be displayed on the OPPOSITE screen. The audience will sit into the two trenches, one meter over the actors and it will only be able to see one of the two screens. The audience won’t be aware of the other trench before the end of the show except for some few non-symmetrical elements and the natural little differences between the live performance that are only meant to make people suspicious. At the end of the performance the scene will freeze with two reverse mirrored Robespierres pointing a gun at each other at the center of the central corridor. Then the camera will turn and
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start a tracking shot filming the audience. The spectators won’t be able to find themselves into the screen because what they’ll see will be other side’s audience. Then the audience will be invited by a luminous path to go to the central corridor where the two actors will stay fixed. It will be possible to the audience to interact with the actors. If a spectator will move one of the actors, the other actor will emulate his movement. Both the actors will return to their first positions. At the end the spectators will be able to go out through a closed corridor where there will be presented the death masks and the dates of birth and death of the characters.
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3.5 The staging
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Camera Rails
Audience
Corridor
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Screen Soldiers
Trench
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3.6 T h em e o f d ou b l e
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The project has the double as central theme. The mirror image is given by the presence of the two trenches, that are opposite but identical at the same time. This mirror image is also
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shown in the characters and their personalities. We make this design choice to highlight the absurdity of war and to make people ponder on the causes of alienating lethal conflicts today as in the past.
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3.7 The co nc lu s i o n s
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WHY DOES THE WHITE O N E L E AV E T H E T R E N C H
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Since the white character internalized all the doubts and uncertainty but, at the same time, all the knowledge and abilities of his companions, he is the only one who has the strength to search for responses outside of the trench.
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WHY DOES HE DIE
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The truth is scary and not everyone is willing to accept it. As he absorbed the characteristics of the other soldiers, he represents knowledge and truth.
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WHY DOES THE SCENE FREEZE
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When the moment of greatest pathos occours, the audience is asked to take active part to the performance and to reflect.
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WHY THE AUDIENCE IS IN THE TRENCH
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It is the only way how the audience can feel the drama lived by the soldiers during the First World War.
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WHY THE DOUBLE
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The mirror image represents the absurdity of the war: the fight between two people who are indeed the same, human beings.
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To Mika. “Some place where there isn’t any trouble... do you suppose there is such place, Toto? There must be. It’s not a place you can get to by boat or train. It’s far, far away... behind the moon... beyond the rain” Dorothy - The Wizard of Oz (1939) 139
Nicolò Fabio Banfi Nicola Cerioli Sofia Chiarini Giulia Farrauto Giacomo Flaim Anna Gasparini Laura Placenti Luca Ranghetti Natalee Christine Rojo 140