For our final project, Eden Chinn and I took inspiration from the Bloody Mary legend, in which a phantom is conjured to appear in a mirror when her name is chanted 13 times. Legend has it that people would seek out Bloody Mary in times of uncertainty in order to have their futures revealed to them. In our adaptation, we want to translate the concept of “caroptromancy” (divination using a mirror) to the computer, in which the computer is used as a parallel form of oracle. In contemporary times, Bloody Mary has left the mirror and entered our screens, as the new medium that reflects who we are. She tries to get the user to open one of many software programs that capture our image and allow us to see ourselves, such as Zoom. We watch as the user comes to terms with the possession of their computer after a series of attempts to thwart Bloody Mary’s control of the device and the user’s digital reflection. Through the use of Terminal, Bloody Mary finally gets what she wants from the user and acts on her new freedom.

The aim of this piece is for the viewer to forget they are watching a video and to start believing that their computer is the one that has been taken over.

Production:
All the shots will be done using screen capture on our laptops. We will, first, have to sync our layouts on our individual laptops so that we can work independently on the effects. Secondly, we will need to figure out how to run the computer without having the mouse move. Our goal is to have the Bloody Mary virus take the viewer into her world. With her world being the computer, she would use the terminal to open the apps.  We will have to test out using the terminal ourselves in order get the shots we require (without the mouse).

Things to consider:

• As a POV experience, what sounds do we want to have?
• How can we make this interactive? This piece could be an actual virus or website that allows for the interaction with the viewer. Could we use OBS and what would that look like?
• Theoretically, if we were able to create a site or an app to play an interactive version of this tale, the app would be able to use the viewers own data to mimic the take over by a sentient virus.
  Is there a place for traditional videography within this piece? As we will solely be using screen capture to create this experience, do we need to have another element/camera view?