An Artificial Intelligence – 360 Immersive Interactive Journey

THE CHALLENGE

The complexity of relationships and personalities in mind-boggling.

What makes each of us a unique personality?

For the human mind to figure out the complex intersection of various systems – modern to ancient – from cutting edge psychiatric evaluation to old beliefs and superstitions from various cultures – western, eastern – such as astrology, palmistry, handwriting recognition (some uncanny in their accuracy) to an analysis of your social media stamp, your background, and then marry it with and input from the general social media universe, culture, media, literature, movies, TV, politics, the world at large and the wast sea of knowledge out there…  would be nearly impossible.

And is it possible to customize a hypothetical compatible mate for each person instantly, on the spot?

And we wonder what our an ideal partner might be – our soulmate – the way in some systems, like astrology, certain signs are compatible or not. Could we learn more about ourselves and could it help us choose the right partner, one who can make life more fulfilling and enjoyable, but also challenge us in the right way, so we can grow, learn and gain a deeper understanding? Or can we use the experience to improve existing relationships or gain more self-awareness or self-realization through this?

THE CONCEPT

The goal is to create an intimate, emotional, entertainment experience, based on input from you, the world and universe at large and put you, the viewer, into a curated experience – a classic/archetypal movie type love story – where you get to be a character in your own movie, created just for you.

This is where Artificial Intelligence and the ability to process this vast and almost endless sea of information, systems, beliefs can be utilized and could perhaps uncover some amazing truths about each of us and who our ideal soul-mate might be.

The experience, and the script we anticipate it can create,  could also include the fact that some of these systems can BE PREDICTIVE OF THE FUTURE – like your daily horoscope, giving us clues how the day might go, and how this new “relationship” with this person you are about meet could be affected.

You might find that your experience will vary from day to day depending on your in the moment cosmic configuraton – so it may require repeat visits to figure out the patterns and how you behave toward your soulmate, and how they behave towards you.

THE METHOD

Artificial Intelligence might be able to utilize Astrology, Western and Eastern systems, require you to throw the I-Ching, perform a Tarot-card reading with you, and perhaps sprinkle a bit of Chaos Theory into the mix. It could incorporate the news, the weather, the mood of the day to color the experience. It indeed will be a “cosmic experience,” in real time, using the current astrological configuration precisely to the location of the venue and what is going all around, as science is now discovering – we are all energies and interconnected with all that is around.

You get to choose how your “avatar-date” will look like and be dressed, based on input from Watson – age, sex, gender, racial back-ground, body type.

Then you will be subjected to an experience with you “date”:

In structure it would be a curated, story structure, composed of dialogue scenes/conversations between you (the viewer) and the actor-avatar, in various pre-designed scenarios.

THE VENUE

The venue is a 360 multi-screen dome composed of between 8 t0 12 hi-def digital projectors and dolby localized sound. There will also be cameras and microphones to capture the viewer interacting with the “Experience.” Watson will edit the output – sometimes a collage of shots, views, sometimes a 360 – view all around (“cinema 360’). It will listen to you and create dialogue that your date will speak to you.

It can be a communal experience, as others can be in the dome with you and “ride along” (isn’t that what cinema is, anyway?).  It can also be a VR head-set experience for private home-use.

THE EXPERIENCE

We will shot stylized, minimalist-style sequences featuring archetypical scenarios with real actors on real locations, sets and green-screen stages. The actors will also be scanned so they can “lip-synch” dialogue enabling them to talk to you and have a conversation. The scenarios will be shot in a POV style as if you were looking at your date-partner and they “look back at you”. We hope to cast several dozen male and female actors, who are attractive (we all hope out dream mate to have movie-star qualities, right?), who are able to portray a “blank canvas” of emotions, as the AI computer creates dialogue and emotion in vocal delivery.

We will storyboard the sequences and shoot specific angles that can be edited in multiple ways, creating a designed, tasteful experience – like billboard/perfume commercials. The multi-screen presentation allows for a collage effect where the scene can be shown cinematographically from various point of views, some subliminal and poetic, without having to show the lips of the actors all the time – to make it easier to make the experience-dialogue feel real-time and realistic. At times we will be placed in a 360 setting, where all the screens combine a all-around hyper-realistic view, as if we are literally there (cinema 360, captured with the highest definition VR camera rigs).

Visually it would be a collage that the computer – creates and edits in real time (picture, dialogue, music) – in a minimalist, distilled, elegantly designed style, as if we were in an Antonioni movie, or Andrei Tarkowski directed it, or Doug Aiken constructed as a multi-screen video installation in an art gallery. There will be collections of shots as well as closeups of the actor talking in real time (lips moving) – using pre-scanned elements of the actors composited, into the 360 collage.

THE “STORY”

The story-structure is based on the classic archetypal “human-story” structure based on input ranging from greek plays, literature, movies (specifically love stories and romantic comedies), TV shows, pop songs, magazines, commercials, and all the other input from all around the world.

An archetypal structure (a 7-12 minute suggested time frame), consisting of several (classic type scenes) scenes averaging approximately 60-120 seconds each:

1. First meeting

2. Breaking the ice, overcoming fear

3. First Meal

4. Fun and Play and Adventure

5. Seduction, Intimacy, Tenderness (romance, if you wish)

6. Moment of conflict, danger

7. Rejection, Break up

8. Pain of Separation, Loss, Longing, Catharsis

9. Make-up

10. An enlightening-spiritual moment

11. Understanding, Compassion, Acceptance of Differences

12. Self-Awakening

YOUR INPUT

You get to input the information:

Your web/social media profile.
Your time and place of birth (confidential).
You throw the I-Ching and perform a tarot-card session.
You answer a set of questions – such as  “what are your goals, dreams, hopes, desires”, as well as some questions about your background, childhood, etc.
You choose your date – will it be a girl next door, or a “super-hot dude”? How will she/he be dressed, their fashion style…?
You get to chose where you go – should you meet on the dance floor in a club, or in the elevator, will you be in a beach in Fuji, hiking up Mount Everest, in a busy Time Square, a market in Kabul, or at the Taj Mahal, at a fast food joint, or a cafe in Paris….

Sorry, your “choices” will be adjusted by the “wisdom” of the AI computer… so may not get exactly what you expected.

Thats part of the “fun” of the experience.

DISCLAIMER:

Ray Bradbury envisioned the immersive “Parlor” in Fahrenheit 451 as dystopian – one that could make us loose our humanity and take us away from reality. On the other hand, Aristotle stated “Self knowledge is the beginning of all wisdom”. Artificial Intelligence could be a double edged sword. I hope it can help us more that harm us.

RZ

A group of New York street kids find that the only way to make it through the day is to hold onto their dreams while their reality is eating out of dumpsters, turning tricks and squatting in abandoned buildings. starring Academy Award nominees Genevieve Bujold, Burt Young and John Savage.

Under the Boardwalk is a teenage love story set on 4th of July, a story of two couples, from different backgrounds, who become entangled in a drug ring of petty criminals while the whole amusement park dances away at the rave party celebration on the midway.

I had a similar concept (“Fun Park”) that I almost got to make at the beginning of my career set at La Ronde in Montreal, but the move was literally stolen from under my feet during pre-production (and became a movie called “Breaking the Rules”).

I suffered for many years the devastating unjust impact it had on my journey as a filmmaker, something I never quite recovered from.

But the dream of making a beautiful magical romantic story set in an amusement park never went away, and was re-kindled when I discovered the park set on the beach at Santa Cruz.

A High School Bollywood Style musical set in Los Angeles

Devdas (2002 India)
Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali

I keep of thinking of Bollywood musicals which I remember fondly when we were living in India – and have been thinking of an independent film to be shot in Los Angeles as a Bollywood musical and a starring Pooja Batra.

The story would go something like this (this is just notes):

Rona was a young star in Bollywood, but her career ended after she fell in love with a wealthy man who ended up moving to Los Angeles. He could be an Indian or an American. Now she is living in a fancy compound in style, drives a Mercedes – but feels isolated and uprooted and misses the film business. She feels trapped and unfulfilled – leading her to take a job teaching at a performing arts High School as a dance teacher, inspiring a young generation of performers – while secretly living in her memories. It’s a magnet school – with performance arts gifted kids from all over the city – a multicultural environment with kids from all kinds of economic sectors.

Laura is 16, from an artsy Silver Lake family – she is a single child and has high aspirations of going to Juilliard to become a serious dancer. She is into ballet, jazz, free-form – an introvert – pouring all her time and energy into her dancing.

Nas comes from Compton – he just got released from the juvenile hall for robbery, and has been identified as gifted in dance – he is a street dancer – but does not take it seriously. He is troubled and thinks school sucks, would rather hand with the homies, but knows if his grades fall or he cuts classes he faces the risk of being sent to juvie – he is on probation.

Nas and Laura are like oil and vinegar – and clash immediately – especially when Rona puts them together as dance partners.

Everyone is curious about Rana and she keeps her Bollywood background a secret until the kids find the tapes locked in her desk.

They pull a prank and the whole class breaks out into a spoof of a Bollywood dance number when she enters the classroom – dancing on desks, etc. making fun of her. But she joins in and turns ridicule into inspiration.

Can one combine modern dance, with the street dance and wrap it up in a candy-colored Bollywood confection set in a San Fernando strip mall parking lot?

Can one create an Electronic Dance number – with instruments from India – rap and pop – of course – it’s done every day on every dance floor with a clever DJ.

And break out in song in a convertible on Ventura or a city bus.

How about remaking JaiJai on an open-air tourist bus cruising down Hollywood Boulevard instead of on top of a train car heading to Kashmir?

How about a Bollywood dance number in a skatepark with skateboards

Or the cheerleading routine at the home game when the football players turn into dancers, helmets and shoulder pads included. All hell breaks loose!

A dance number on Zuma beach in bikinis and bathing suits and surfers.

And prom – have you ever seen an all American prom done Bollywood – it would be wild!

Besides there is a dance contest coming up -the choreographer’s Ball – where talent scouts search for the next group of dancers to go on tour with Beyoncé.

Anything is possible if Nas and Laura would bury their differences and with Rena’s guidance be the couple that they were meant to be.

And they can… despite all they are attracted to each other … however, they hate to admit it…

Practice on rooftops, alleyways, Silverlake, Compton, outside Disney Hall, even in the parking lot as they buy tacos…

Gang banger parents, neither the artsy Silver lake snobby mom and dad can stop them.

When things look like they may fail they end up on Rana’s doorstep for the encouragement – she’s been there more than often.

She shows her clips of the movies she was in – they share their memories.

The night before Nas gets arrested and it all might just fall apart…

But in Bollywood~Hollywood everything ends like it should.

A happy ending.

New ideas to add:

Girls pajama party – they sing dance in underwear ripping pillowcases – feathers fly

Boys robbery in rap intercut / Dance

Him stealing jewelry in her house

She confronts him – he’s a thief!

Perhaps as they rehearse – a rooftop love scene? (Do we want to go there or keep the movie more pure?)

Multi-ethnic classroom:
There is the Latino girl
The sensitive gay guy
Oriental girl
Huge fat girl and guy who are great dancers