Dear Angelica

Company
Oculus Story Studio

Software
Quill

Timing
No idea, but it was absolutely beautiful.

Narration
There is the narrator/ the protagonist who speaks about her mom. We hear her mom at points when the dialogue shows her mom in the scene, sometimes that is through the tv and we hear that difference.

Subtitles
This one was subtitled throughout in a spatial, emotional way. However, the text is read clearly and it was looping into the space, highly scripted, a literal words coming off the pages illusion. The script was a part of the scenography, and whirled around us like the characters and story progression. The story revolves around the script writing of the main character, so the style of her hand writing also had a spatial dimension. Words were not flat, but painted in space, so although it was hard to read, with the voiceover text, we clearly knew what was been said and the script helped to activate the illustration and blossom.

Story Arch
Socratic method:
We start with a girl in her bedroom describing her mom in a journal and then the pages come to life as we enter her journal, relive some moments, brought to climax and return to the bedroom again with the story in place. The ending then lifts us out of there to new dimensions.

Cinematography
It was made by Quill which was aesthetically beautiful and unlike anything I’ve seen, something that only VR could use or explore to it’s fullest potential. The result is stunning and dynamic. Seeing the strokes come to life was also an incredible visual result.

Framing
All the scenes were full environments, you have no body, but it is as if you are in a painting.

Color Palette
It was in color, hyper-saturated and illustrative with a select color palette of mostly neons and bright colors. My favourite scenes were the ones in black with the colors serving as a stark contrast to the pitch black, like neon lights.

Composition
There was no symmetry, the drawings encircled you, it was a bit chaotic at times and overwhelming in both material, mark making and stories surrounded you in a spiral 360 way. 

What was most effective was the use of scale and vertical movement. When her mother is ill and weak, she is so tiny in a large space, hopeless. When her mother is a hero, she is huge, dynamic and bright. It was an amazing use of contrast and scale. Verticality: as the story gets more amazing, we spiral upwards into a brighter reality. At the end when her mom dies, they are so small and below. The room we are in and the end also falls down down down as we ascend upwards, slowly, making the storytelling even stronger and more powerful.

Point of View
You are a by standing actor in this space, but it is fixed, you cannot move. 

Looking Around
The illustrations spiraled around you, so you are constantly spinning around (not so good for the Oculus cord)

Storytelling
It was fixed and linear, you could not pause, fast forward or interact. I didn’t mind this, nor the fixed position, I felt that this was the best way to go forward with the story. 

Sound
It was immersive voice over sound, dialogue was mapped and placed in the space which encouraged me to turn and look around. This 360 sound made it highly immersive. All scenes had a music soundtrack underlying the sound effects and voices. They really used sound to the potential and it worked very well to bring forth the emotion.