Context

In 2020, most people were experiencing the weight of forced isolation for the first time. As a disabled person, it was strange to see the macguyvered accessibility and work-from-home-work-arounds that I rely on become a novelty to the rest of the world.

Problem

At her Google solo exhibition in Soho, I befriended The Agoraphobic Traveler and was featured in her video for the front page of Google on World Mental Health Day. Her work helped inspire this idea when shit hit the fan and I was no longer the only filmmaker looking for ways to keep creating from home.

Action

Accessibility demands intersectionality — in both deep and shallow scales. Here, I crossed over my experience in stop-motion animation and VFX editing to animate the street car camera frame by frame. 

Over  1400  screenshots

Result

After clicking randomly around the globe and suddenly landing in a beautiful, quiet spot, I felt a little spark of adventure — and that’s what I hope the viewer feels too :)

"This is mesmerizing"

- Jessica d.
YouTube

Context

After wrapping with Carnegie Hall, I was left with an unused concept on how to both create and experience a 360 + mixed reality video without using any specialized equipment.

Problem

I came up with this technique when I was tasked by Carnegie Hall to find a way to get several quarantining musicians onto the same screen without “zoom boxes” (or the complications that come with a dozen musicians trying to set up a dozen green screens in their NYC apartments.) The question became: what do the musicians have access to?

I was also in love with with the irony that chamber music was originally played in, well, the chamber, and it had taken 250 years to come full circle.

To honor this, I wanted to use a spatially-aware mixed reality. But to accomplish this, the question then became: what does the audience have access to?

The answer to both:  darkness 

Action

With nothing but a small flashlight and a dark room, you can cast a dramatic spotlight on your subject and keep the background a consistent color (black).
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With this you can put separately shot phone footage into one equirectangular composition and have seamlessly matched backgrounds.

Boom, now you have a 360 video without using 3D assets, green-screens, or even a "real" camera.
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In the YouTube app you can watch 360 videos gyroscopically by rotating your phone around you. Taking advantage of this fairly accessible technology, you can mix this virtual space with your real space by watching it in a pitch black room (a bathroom, a closet, a bedroom in the night).

This matches your background to the background of the video and makes it feel like you’re peering through a small window to see what’s out there in the dark. 

Result

For a lecture on Site Specific Dance, I used this technique to create Pigs — a version of the Three Little Pigs about how choice and safety are privileges when they shouldn’t be. It’s cool on its own, but the mixed reality of watching it in the dark with earphones on does something magical; magical enough to leave several people in tears. It was specially selected by the lecturer to be shared with cast members of Sleep No More, highlighted by the department at NYU, and used as an example in the lecture for following years.

"That was amazing. My heart is racing and there are tears in my eyes and I'm not even fully sure why 🤯 🤯 🤯 "

- Hannah M.
Audience member

Context

During the pandemic, virtual performances went from 0 to 100. With experience as a disabled filmmaker in the art of Accessible solutions, and at only 21 years old, I became the Director and Editor at Carnegie Hall for their Ensemble Connect Concert: What Does It Mean To Be Moved.

Problem

The main problem with other self-recording orchestras at the time seemed to be that everything about the experience had changed, except for their approach — musicians dressed to the nines, filmed in front of blank apartment walls, basically pretended that they were still performing in a concert hall.

However, it was very obvious that they weren’t — and neither was the viewer, who was likely at home in their pajamas. The classic pandemic-era "Brady Bunch/zoom room" editing only added to the awkward feeling of this juxtaposition.

Action

First off, I didn’t want to hide the fact that everyone’s at home: I wanted to have the musicians play in spaces that describe their personalities, wear their most comfortable clothes, surround themselves with the things that bring them joy — no blank walls or dressing up like they're going somewhere other than from the bedroom to the kitchen and back.

There is a mutual vulnerability in sharing your home with virtual musicians and in the musicians sharing their home virtually with you — honesty is easily recognized.
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On the other hand, using a technique I initially crafted for filming 360 video on phones without green-screens (see Pigs for more), we could erase the homey backgrounds altogether and easily place musicians who filmed in separate locations into the same ethereal space.

And most importantly, we could do it without sending special equipment to each of the dozen musicians. This killed the boxy editing and environmental disconnect with one stone.

Result

It was filmed on phones, it was lit by flashlights, it was the first of its kind, and it became Carnegie Hall’s most watched video of the year in less than a week. It held onto that record for several months.

"It's wonderful!"

- Ross marshall
Manager, Ensemble Connect, Carnegie Hall

"It looks and sounds really beautiful!!!"

- Amy Rhodes
Director, Ensemble Connect, Carnegie Hall