After several days of cleaning, re-wiring and destroying 2 LCD monitors, it was concluded that the white spirit used to clean the glue off had destroyed the screen itself. When I plugged it in and used the polarized film over it, I could get the screen colour (blue) to come through but no image or mouse. Around the edges they both had a strange paint like effect which I think was the outline of where the white spirit had soaked through.

However, this was 1 step closer to success and I will try again when I have money to buy another screen...

MOVING ON...

For the installation itself I used a regular computer screen with headphones attached so the user could head what was being said. i set up the other 2 screens on TV/DVD Combi's and ran all 3 films on loops. The viewer had to sit on the floor in the middle of these screens which gave the sense of being surrounded by social networking and constantly being watched. This effect was enhanced by the uncomfortableness of having to sit on the floor having people at the exhibition watching you watching the film. I feel it really said what I wanted it to say. You were watching the screen, the screen was watching you, and people were watching you and you were aware of them watching you watching them.
It was a great way to comment on my culture, I've spent over 10 years social networking, I can't explain why, I haven't really said if it's good or bad, I've just said this is how it is.

This has been one of the hardest projects I've ever done, with so many set backs and distractions, however when all the faces sync'd up (see video above) on both screens it was so surreal, so noisy and so... horrible, that it made it all worth it! Although I could've and probably should have done a lot more with this idea, I think it can be something that carries on into a theatre piece (I hope).

See Datamosh Screen HERE and 2 Screens HERE.

'how to datamosh' video by DataMosher, one of the guys who worked on the Chairlift video.

Evident utensil by Chairlift - this video brought datamoshing to the pop culture.

Due to lack of time, it's been difficult for actors to learn the scripts off by heart, which is what i wanted, for everything to be done in one well times take. So Jamie had to look down and read the script a lot and do it in several takes. What I've done is layered these over video of him just staring into the camera looking bored, interrupting the viewers voyeurism, braking the 4th wall and directly asking the viewer why they are watching him.
I added a fractal noise effect in AE to create static like television interrupting a broadcast. I did this by importing the video into AE then adding a Fractal Noise layer on top. I edited the contrast, stretched it wide (9000pxl) and changed the time equation in evolution so that it is animated over the whole video. Then I've changed the fractal type to DYNAMIC and the Noise to BLOCK making it more computerized and square.

So I wrote a short monologue for one of the characters to say into the camera whilst being watched by the viewer.

*While looking at the audience...

What? What are you looking at? What? Why are you watching me? Are you stalking me? That's sick! What are you doing? What are you waiting for? I'm not going to do anything... I'm just sitting here... watching you, watching me, watching you watching me watching you watching me... watching YOU!
Yeah, that's right, I know all about you, your friends, yopur family, your favourite books, hobbies, and i follow your ups and downs... I know how you feel on a daily basis. You tell me this quite happily, you want me to know your intimate thoughts, like, you're so important... nice holiday pics by the way... and hows your Starbucks? Yeah I know where you are, who you're with, what you're doing... and yet here you are, broadcasting your bleak life that you so proudly present to the world like it matters... like you matter... here you are, watching me, watching you, peeking into my life like some voyeuristic pervert, not satisfied with your own meagre existance. What are you doing? Comparing yourself to me? Feeling connected to me? Do you honestly feel like you know me?
You don't even talk to me, you just... watch... what are you waiting for me to do exactly? Do you even know...? Why are you watching me? Why? JUST FUCK OFF YEAH... Fuck off...and go and live your life, a life, any life! So I can sit here and watch you, still watching me, watching you...
- Ben Wingrove & Jamie Laughlin 2012

So here I copied the 9 and put them 4 times in a composition. I don't like how many repeats there are but I do like the overall effect.

Here I tried to produce 4 different compositions of 9 and put them together to create one larger video, this works much better due to the randomness of it and the less repeated squares.

and After Effects to work with these face videos. It was a bit of a pain to work with so many layers in Premiere and a lot easier in After Effects. However I found it harder to compress them into a single file in AE...

So I put together 9 of the faces into a grid and over lapped them so they all speak at once, what I like about this is how the viewer cannot really concentrate on one character but is almost over-whelmed by it all, trying tyo work out who says what, trying to focus on one or two of the faces but being drawn away by other people speaking and how some don't fit. I need to keep playing with these videos and how they speak, and whether they all need to talk or if some don't. I found that when the sounds were not sync'd it didn't have the same effect, I also found that the more faces there were the more mind-melting it became.

I need to work on video compression though and the size as this is causing it to look messy, which might be good but i'm still not quite sure.

I am going to keep the whole cross dressing/stripping idea on the back burner for another time later in the year. 

Instead, still looking at the theme of voyeurism, the viewer has to interact with the screen, the glasses and the headphones to view the work. But they are just shown 5 of the characters looking back at them, not doing anything or saying anything, just staring, each for about 2 or 3 minutes, why? Because essentially this is what we're doing through social networking, we're stalking, watching, peeking into the lives of others, without real consent. We are accused of 'Facebook stalking' in a joking way, but we are stalking eachother, watching eachother watching us watching eachother watching us.

I had this idea a while ago and I started working on a rant, a speech for one of the characters to say directly into the camera, so that, the first few are unaware they are being watched, the final one notices and addresses the viewer head on demanding to know what they are doing 'watching me watching you watching me watching you' though I will work on this some more. I want them to address the ideas of wasting time on the internet, talking but never talking, liking but not explaining what they like, poking but never touching ect... like a sick stalker and a voyeuristic pervert!

I had to have a big re-think. Here is the result of that.

*NO SOUND

I'm not sure how I feel about this all together, maybe it needs sound to hold it together and a lot more work.

I've re-thought over everything and what my film is essentially about, and the answer is COMMUNICATION.
Although the virus idea may not come under that title in the same way a conversation does, I think that it being passed from person to person is still a form of communication, especially since online you'd have to accept or download something, you'd have to have a conversation with your computer.
I'm going to keep working on this to improve it so that it's top quality and it says what i need it to.