Personnel
Gerrie Villon
Producer Gerrie Villon assembled and coordinated a superb team of creative and technical talent from around the world. His background in Music Theatre and television gave him the experience to lead the complex development of the overall dramatic structure of the CD-Rom.
- Gerrie VillonThe whole area of multimedia is really still in its infancy and multimedia projects often run the risk of turning into lumbering monsters. In many ways it's like the early days of the film industry - pioneer territory with no standard operating methods. This was both challenging and exhilarating. In directing the actors, I could draw on my experience of creating dramatic television, but the project also involved so much diverse creative innovation, that we had to rely on our instincts for much of the time. In the end, I think that the team got the balance absolutely right; the amazing creative digital technology never obscures the drama of the production.
Alex Mayhew
Alex Mayhew is a Real World artist whose ground-breaking approach to interactive multimedia led to him being appointed Creative Director for the project.
When designing the interaction for Ceremony of Innocence, the aim was to use it to stimulate emotional reactions in the viewer that would help them to empathise with the inner feelings of Griffin and Sabine when they wrote or received a letter or postcard. Through interaction we have the opportunity to shock, surprise, intrigue or amuse the viewer. These opportunities were used to form an emotional narrative that follows the moods of Griffin and Sabine and allows the viewer to identify more closely with their experiences. It is interesting to see the range of expressions on peoples' faces when they are experiencing 'Ceremony of Innocence', especially when they are reacting exactly as intended. It's a form of manipulation I suppose, but manipulation carefully designed to enhance the user's enjoyment.
Nick Bantock
Nick Bantock was collecting mail at his local post office on the tiny Bowen Island, when he noticed another customer eagerly opening a package covered with exotic postal markings. Looking through his own uninspiring junk-mail he felt a twinge of jealousy. By the time he got back to his studio the seed of Griffin and Sabine had been planted. He began to send himself lavishly decorated mail and to respond to it. As the idea developed he incorporated Carl Jung's theories of the subconscious mind communicating its concerns through archetypal dream images and the ancient Egyptian concept of life on two separate planes that could interact - perhaps the source of the enigmatic Sabine. Griffin's character was loosely based on his own experience as a struggling English artist, burdened by the oppressiveness of London life before he moved to Canada in 1987. The project was never intended for publication, but his publisher discovered it by accident and insisted on its commercial release - 3 million copies sold worldwide would suggest that it was the right decision !
Throughout the entire production period of Ceremony of Innocence, Nick Bantock worked closely with Gerrie Villon and Alex Mayhew, acting as Guardian of the spirit of the story. He played a major part in choosing the right actors for the various characters and, although based in Canada, was one of the main sources of inspiration and encouragement to the production team.
Dan Blore
Dan Blore, a Real World multimedia, used his gift for seamless photo-montage in many areas of the production.
Essentially, on this project I was the guy who pulled the rabbit from the hat, or to be more precise, pulled the banana from the kangaroo's pocket. When something weird was needed, it was my job to create it. For instance, there is a scene where Sabine describes a seduction attempt by her corpulent publisher. This was to be represented by a large beetle scuttling lustily after a smaller scurrying insect, so I was dispatched to Bath University Entomology department to try and coax some of their tropical insects into accepting a starring role. We finally agreed on a line of sugar to get them moving in the right direction and a warm light to get them scuttling. I filmed the lead characters' chase scene and an insect crowd scene, and then blended them in with a background that represents the publisher's offices.
Karolyn Pike
Karolyn, a Real World multimedia artist, was truly inspired by Nick Bantock's vivid portrayal of Sabine in the books and welcomed the challenge of creating something so emotional for a medium which is, by its very nature, so unemotional.
The letters were a joy to deal with conceptually because of the intricately woven layers of the story and the complexity of Sabine's character. The more immersed in Sabine's character I became, the more I thought of her as the essence of nature - beautiful and enchanting, as in Sabine the Island muse, yet mysterious and foreboding, as in the dark angel that haunts Griffin's nightmare. Much of the artwork was derived from natural materials that I collected; flowers, fruit, leaves and insects all inspired my own vision of Sabine's emotional world.
Brian Short
Brian felt an instinctive empathy for Griffin's character which he channelled into creating imagery that portrays the complex moods of Griffin's letters.
While I was working at Real World I lived near an old rubber factory. I was looking for some grimy, industrial footage to convey the tense melancholy of Griffin's mind, so I packed my old camera (it has a truly artistic soul; its workings are so scrambled that it sees only beauty) and set off to investigate. It was perfect - the factory was on the brink of collapse, rusted to its heart and leaking clouds of fumes. As I filmed, the autumn sun flashed through gaps in large blackened pipes that writhed about each other. I took stills of patches of poisoned earth and sheets of rusted steel that had been gnawed by time and stained by chemicals. The textures were superb.
Andy Kennedy
The sound effects that breathe consciousness into the life forms that inhabit Ceremony of Innocence were composed and constructed by sound designer Andy Kennedy, a man with a remarkable ability to paint with sound.
Some of my favourite sounds in Ceremony of Innocence have been taken from the audio world of insects and shifted to a pitch audible to the human ear. These sounds are great because they create an alien and alienating soundscape which I found ideal to evoke the distress of Griffin's descent into madness.
Alex Gifford
The bewitching music that enhances the moods of Ceremony of Innocence was composed and performed by Musical Director Alex Gifford. As essential to the production as the dialogue, the music creates a sonic map of the story, with audible features that clearly belong to one or other of the characters yet change with their moods. In this way the emotional narrative is signposted by the music - it subtly links related scenes and helps to guide the viewer through the story.
