The Midnight Rendezvous
PITCH DECK
BY HUA-HSIANG CHEN
Project Information
Logline
An island youth heads for a temple of dreams to mend his shattered family, and the journey branches out to spiritual growth through a serendipitous encounter with a fox-cat deity.
Synopsis
Dongdong’s family is falling apart during the military administration in Matsu. One day, a sudden military decree tipped the scales and precipitated their fate apart. Dongdong’s father, who served in the national army, was called to join an excavation mission of the military tunnels on Beigan Island. The mission reinforced Dongdong’s mother’s determination to take Dongdong to migrate to Taiwan for a better future. Propelled by existential angst and the imminent date of departure, Dongdong embarked on a journey to scout for the hidden temple where one could seek guidance from the god of dreams for any trials and tribulations. Along the drowsy journey, Dongdong encountered a fox-cat deity, an eerie being that the islanders dared not speak of. A surreal dream-like adventure between humans and gods began, expanding into a quest to explore the enigma of the subconscious. Would Dongdong complete his expedition before the last transporting boat approached the port?
Core Concept
The Midnight Rendezvous is an adventurous story transporting the audience to the period of martial law on Matsu island, wherein the audience will experience a slice of life from a perspective of a little boy Dongdong, vicariously living through his relentless anxiety to reflect on the position of Taiwan in today’s political battles. Fused with a fox-cat deity folklore, The Midnight Rendezvous invites the audience to embark on a surreal journey, projecting their impasse in lives and searching for inner strength along with Dongdong.
Main Characteristics of the Project
The Midnight Rendezvous is developed based on a neurological phenomenon of synesthesia which allows our brain to complete a picture based on memories and correlations, enabling us to perceive across modalities within an image. The aim is to evoke the audience's proprioceptive involvement, arouse emotional connection with the protagonists, and prolong the narrative immersion and sense of presence throughout the movie.
The Midnight Rendezvous leverages the synesthetic stimuli with mise-en-scène, a catch-all phrase for how a scene comes together and tells stories, to direct the audience's attention to synesthetic stimuli. The arrangements of the synesthetic stimuli are hinged on the Film's Tactility Framework by Barker, J and the theory of Narrative Immersion by Marie-Laure Ryan.
Main Characteristics of the Project
The Midnight Rendezvous employs the audience’s real-time position and head movement data from a VR headset to develop an AI-based mechanism for the purpose of customizing the multisensory viewing experience for individuals, complementing synesthetic stimuli in combination with the audience’s natural exploratory behaviors.
Given that the audience's attention span is transient in VR, The Midnight Rendezvous takes one step further to emphasize engagement in emotional response, particularly empathy, as it cues the audience to assume the role of the protagonists and actively involves them in the experience. As a result, a sense of realism materialized in the audience's emotional feedback.
Elements of the Script
After the Communist revolution in 1949, Matsu underwent martial law administration, with the military taking charge of everything for over 45 years. Situated in the middle of the Taiwan Strait, Matsu held sway over China and Taiwan's political situation. As a result, islanders had nearly secluded themselves in Matsu, and the strict martial policies had deprived residents of freedom, predominantly affecting their daily lives, creating a stark contrast in the twentieth-century era.
M A T S U
C H I N A
Elements of the Script
According to a lond-standing convention in Matsu, the Nine Immortal Elders travel around various places for 364 days a year, but only on the 29th day of the first lunar month, they come to the Wuwei Linggong Temple in Longjiao Peak, Qinbi Village, Matsu, to help people solve their problems through dream interpretation. Therefore, worshippers wil gather at the temple, waiting for the gods to grant a dream and provide an answer to their questions.
Elements of the Script
Fox-cat deity refers to a cat that has transformed into a fox spirit, a concept ingrained in Fuzhou's cultural theology that has been passed on to Matsu. In Matsu, fox-cat deities are often associated with caves, nighttime, and taboos. As a result, children are raised with caution against approaching caves and venturing into desolate areas at night. This belief stems from the fear of fox-cat deities. Allegedly, the Bei Hai Tunnel on Beigan Island is a den for fox-cat deities.
Demonstrations of the Theoretical Concept
We choose the scene where the little boy encounters a fox-cat deity during his drowsy journey as an example. The encounter scene enacts the skin layer of synesthetic stimuli to enhance spatial and temporal immersion. When the audience goes deeper into the cave, their position and head movement data will automatically feed into a customized C# script to initiate rustling noises and falling rocks, stimulating the audience is brushing past boulders in person.
Demonstrations of the Theoretical Concept
The encounter scene enacts the muscular layer of synesthetic stimuli to enhance spatial and temporal immersion. While the audience walks within the cave scene, droplets plop onto the puddle spasmodically around the audience. The sudden motion attracts the audience’s attention, inviting them to explore the location in depth with these scenery details. Additionally, the audience can use a controller, represented as a flashlight in the virtual environment, to light up their way in the cavern and keep the audience alert to how the story lies ahead.
Demonstrations of the Theoretical Concept
The encounter scene enacts the visceral layer of synesthetic stimuli to enhance temporal and emotional immersion. When a bark creeps over from behind, the audience will turn around reflexively to the audio source. Then, they will see a looming silhouette of a fox-cat deity foreshadowing the peculiar adventure is about to unfold. The unexpected emergence of the fox-cat deity adds a final touch of mysteriousness to the atmosphere, allowing the audience to submerge themselves in the story more easily.
Production Timeline
Exhibit Modality
The interaction involves the audience wearing a head-mounted display to view VR content, and the tracking system embedded within the headset captures the audience's head movement and position data. Simutaneously, the cutomized program records the audience's interaction with the environment to map out diegetic synesthetic stimuli created in advance.
Goals for Attending the Venice Immersive Market
Team Members
Director & Screenwriter: Hua-Hsiang Chen
Hua-Hsiang Chen graduated from the National Taiwan University of Arts with a film major and is currently pursuing a master degree in interaction design at the National Taipei University of Technology. Hua-Hsiang’s creative work spans movie production, VR content, and interaction design.
Team Members
Technical Consultant: Jan-Yun You
Jan-Yun You serves as a software engineer at the Virtual & Physical Media Integration Association of Taiwan. Jan-Yun has participated in a Venice Film Festival award-winning VR artist Hsin-Chien Huang’s work, responsible for VR development and system engineering. Representative collaboration works include Through the Body, Samsara, and Bodyless.
Team Members
Script Consultant: Hsiao-Yue Tsao
Hsiao-Yue Tsao is a chair of NTUT in the department of interaction design and the director of Metaverse R&D Center. In 2022, the Matsu-themed VR Blue Tears - Episode 1 won the Best Virtual Reality Award at LAFA. In addition, her AI/VR team was selected as the start-up team of NYC Media Lab, leading Taiwan's VR/AR/MR innovations advancing to the world.
Previous Works
Blue Tears - Episode 1
Previous Works
Yong-Jiu Grocery Store
Previous Works
The Other Side
The Midnight Rendezvous
THANK YOU
CONTACT:
huahsiang.chen@gmail.com