M.S. Fiction and Entertainment

Coordinator: Liam Young
Program Faculty: Alexey Marfin

What we think the world looks like is largely determined by fiction and entertainment - extraordinary shared languages through which we exchange ideas and engage with our environment. It is impossible to underestimate the importance of media in the production of culture.

Given the critical role contemporary media plays in our lives, it is urgent to widen the scope of architecture beyond just buildings alone. Why shouldn’t architects design the next Hollywood blockbuster? Virtual reality environments? Viral videos? Political campaigns? In SCI-Arc Edge’s Fiction and Entertainment program, we engage the techniques of popular culture to imagine and visualize alternative worlds. Deeply embedded in the entertainment industry of Los Angeles, this program is a place to start telling new kinds of stories about the emerging conditions of the twenty-first century.

The Fiction and Entertainment program is organised as a year-long thesis project. The three-semester sequence begins with a focus on worldbuilding, moves into storytelling in the second semester, and ends in the final semester with a focus on production. Within this framework, students are encouraged to develop their own unique body of work that may take the form of short films, animations, music videos, documentaries, video games, VR environments, theatre experiences, or performances. The core of each semester is the design studio in which students develop their own project through group and individual work with program coordinator Liam Young and program faculty Alexey Marfin. The studio is supported each semester by a design lab which is a platform for supplementary workshops, talks, and mentoring sessions led by world renowned filmmakers, concept artists, screenwriters, and animators from the entertainment industry.

The Fiction and Entertainment program incorporates industry partners and intellectual collaborators drawn from companies such as Framestore, the Sundance Institute, Disney Imagineering, Vice Media, Netflix, Digital Domain, and Imaginary Forces. Instructors and lecturers in the program include:

• Ben West, Creative Director of Framestore Los Angles, the Academy Award winning Production Company behind the visual effects for films such as Gravity, Blade Runner 2049 and Ghost in the Shell.

• Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs, coordinator of the Documentary Film Program for the Sundance Institute.

• Christian Lorenz Schurer, concept artist for blockbuster films including Justice League, Suicide Squad, The Matrix, The Fifth Element and Dark City.

• P.G. Morgan, Emmy winning writer and producer for documentary film and television series.
• Ruthie Doyle, Program Manager of the Sundance Festival New Frontier Labs.

• Matt Warburton, Emmy award winning screenwriter for the Simpsons, Community and the Mindy Project.

• Geoff Manaugh, author of BLDGBLOG and the New York Times bestseller, 'A Burglar's Guide to the City.

• Alexandra Holcomb, Director of Development at production company Platinum Dunes.

Technical Development

The Fiction and Entertainment Masters program provides individual teaching sessions to equip students with a wide range of industry standard production and post-production skills. Depending on the conceptual direction of each student's project, they can learn visual effects workflows ranging from digital compositing, hard and soft surface 3D modeling, simulation and FX, texturing and rendering, VR and game engines, as well as traditional techniques in cinematography, editing, direction, and working on set. Whether going into the independent and freelance industries or the commercial world, the program is focused on empowering students to both be able to produce their own work and to work within industry-standard pipelines in larger studios.

Career Paths

Although students in the program are given the space to develop their own interests, passions and agendas, there is a direct focus on preparing for the careers that will enable them to continue this direction after graduation. Students are exposed to a broad cross section of professionals from the film, game, commercial, visual effects, and design industries and are supported to develop a body of work that will help them to transition into their chosen field. Recent graduates from the program are now developing careers in production design, creative direction, video games, visual effects, commercial and TV production, media art, and design research. A number of our recent graduates have written about their professional experience after the program in the 'Graduate Experiences' section of this webpage.

SCI-Arc is grateful for the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Student Projects

EARTH MOTHER SKY FATHER

Kordae Henry. 2017/18

Earth Mother Sky Father is a live action music video that takes place in the year 2030, when the Congo is no longer shipping unrefined rare earth minerals out to sea, but is keeping its wealth onshore and in the ground. The processes and infrastructure of mining have been revalued and ritualized as an important aspect of local culture. This is Afrika’s future through dance - a ceremony for the God of Rare Earth. The ‘music film’ features a performance from acclaimed street dancer Storyboard P playing the part of Woot, an Excavation Programmer and is supported by the sonic sounds and dissonant electro haze of the infamous duo Shabazz Palaces from Sub Pop Records.

LAST CHOICE

Lu Te-Hsing. 2017/18

Last Choice is a hybrid documentary exploring Hikikomori, a condition of social-withdrawal prevalent among young men in Japan. Set during the deadly earthquake and the tsunami of 2011, the film follows a 'hikikomori' who for 3 years has locked himself in his room playing video games and now faces the dilemma of whether to leave or stay, which ultimately is also the choice between living or dying.

VALENTINE IN THINGS CITY

Viviane Komati. 2017/18

Valentine in Things City is a research and design project that imagines the future of post-human spaces like Google data centers and Amazon warehouses. Using the same artificial intelligence code that organizes logistics infrastructure, a fictional fulfillment center at the scale of a city has been procedurally generated. Things City is designed to accommodate only delivery drones, logistics bots, and packages as its citizens. Through the eyes of the city’s machines, we watch as a girl enters Things City on Valentine’s day searching for a lost package.

TO BE GREAT

Allen Zihan Zhang. 2017/18

As Elon Musk launches his mission to Mars, Trump announces the formation of Space Force and China broadcasts new narratives of industrial dominance, technology, politics and fiction are merging together. In this context VFX, concept art and worldbuilding have become critical acts of propaganda. To Be Great is a new propaganda film from the United Republic. The government is presenting the design and animation of a speculative nation building mission to send astronauts to Saturn and Titan.

DEEP DIVE

Mohammad Soleimani. 2017/18

In a near future Los Angeles everyone sees the city through their own set of augmented reality contact lenses. Through this digital overlay it is possible for everyone to curate their own experience of the world. Here a young Persian refugee arrives at the border to the city and is given a mandatory set of government issued cultural adjustment AR lenses. Shut out of other people’s realities she slowly descends into a new form of digital alienation.

Graduate Experiences

Lu Te-Hsing. 2017/18

"Fiction and Entertainment is an ambitious program that focuses on the future of media and storytelling, unlike any other academic approach I’ve seen before. With the resources and support the program provides, each of us established individual workflows that correspond specifically to our projects. The numerous guests from different disciplines come in weekly, exposing us constantly to the latest trends and technologies. To seek the balance between ideology and practice, we learn different tools as languages to communicate with mentors and use in the industry. It’s a program worth investing in for those who are fluent in techniques yet not satisfied with traditional forms of practice, and those who have strong visions and a passion for developing their own personal projects.

During my time in the program, I developed the short film ‘Last Choice’. The project explores “Hikikomori”, the phenomenon of social-withdrawal prevalent in Japan, through the lens of fiction and documentary. ‘Last Choice’ won Best Direction and Best North American Short Film in the Asia South-East Film Festival, and it was nominated for the LA Independent Showcase, New Filmmaker NY Film Festival, Docs Without Borders Film Festival, Asian Film Festival Of Dallas, and the Houston Asian American & Pacific Islander Film Festival.

After graduation, I started working for UNIT9 as a junior creative director. UNIT9 is an international production company that produces interactive experiences, including AR, VR, gaming, film, installations and immersive theater. We work closely with teams from Nike, Vice, Tinder, Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, Starz, Gucci, Chanel, Pandora, Netflix, Snapchat, Oculus, and many other companies that are interested in unexpected and unique productions."

Michel Erler. 2017/18

"Over the course of my Masters in Fiction and Entertainment at SCI-Arc, I did not only deepen my conceptual skillset through world building and design research, but also gained a thorough understanding of game engines and the overall professional workflow for game development and immersive experiences. My project Ways of Seeing, which explores the world seen through the eyes of machines, has been exhibited at State Studio Berlin, shortlisted for several competitions - among them Sundance New Frontier - and will be exhibited at media art festivals in Europe, Asia and North America this year. Through connections made in the program I am currently working at Framestore’s Immersive Entertainment department in Los Angeles. At Framestore I have been both involved in early, internal pitching phases for AR games, as well as in the development of a state-of-the-art VR experience for Intel. The program equipped me with strong conceptual, artistic and technical skills, exposed me to a range of highly contemporary developments and concepts, and introduced me to numerous creative leaders in their field, making me eager to push the forefront of interactive, immersive and emerging forms of entertainment."

Pierce Myers. 2016/17

"The Fiction and Entertainment program is an invitation to the forefront of storytelling. Students of the program gain an intimate understanding of emerging workflows while also learning how to tell compelling stories, a combination of skills which other programs can’t offer. Fiction and Entertainment’s broad focus on worldbuilding allows students the opportunity to focus on any point of the process that they choose including modelling, animation, game design, writing, and concept development. The course has positioned me perfectly for work in the field of creative direction. I now have a comprehensive knowledge of emerging narrative mediums at a technical level and understand the ethical urgency associated with mediating the future. Working in futurist writing and narrative development I feel confident in my ability to steer projects and move culture in a desirable direction. Through connections established in the program I am now currently working with world builder and award winning production designer Alex McDowell on a new project that involves embedding narratives in a near-future context for an immersive installation, and I have begun preliminary work with Netflix and the New York Times on a documentary project."

Khevna Shah. 2016/17

"As part of the Fiction & Entertainment program, I made the short hybrid documentary “The Endless Market.” The film is based around the design of a fictional tower that forms an archive of stories from an important market in Mumbai that is now threatened by gentrification. My architectural approach to the project gave me a different perspective towards a particular place, it’s people, culture but it was with the guidance of Liam Young and Alexey Marfin that I learnt how to speculate and visualize an alternate world within this existing context. In the year long course I have learnt and developed a completely new pallet of skills. The curriculum gave us the opportunity to learn from and receive feedback at every stage of the process from some of the great professionals in the industry. Furthermore, it enabled us to make connections and work with them in the future. Currently, I am working with production designer Alex McDowell on a world building project imagining the city of tomorrow and the urban possibilities of driverless cars. This program opened up innumerable possibilities for me and definitely added a great deal to my skill set."

Paul Krist. 2015/16

"Every short film that I made in Liam Young‘s studio at SCI-Arc pushed me to learn new tools to better tell a story. We travelled through India with the studio and I worked with local actors and producers to develop a speculative fiction set in a hybrid Los Angeles and Mumbai cityscape. We developed skills in both traditional in camera cinematography and digital visual effects. Ultimately, through the studio I developed the knowledge and professional connections that helped me to get a position as a compositor at Framestore in Los Angeles. I had the opportunity to work on AAA games titles, Hollywood blockbusters and various commercials like the cinematic trailer for Destiny 2. I have now transitioned to Framestore’s HQ in London to work on concept designs and environment art for National Geographic TV series Mars 2."

Sarah Villareal. 2016/17

"The studio helped me to cultivate the skills I learned in architecture as a vehicle to explore my interests as a designer and filmmaker. The guidance, dedication, and tireless tutelage I received from Liam Young and Alexey Marfin instilled a determined work ethic and sense of wonder in me; giving me the tools to visualize and realize my short film ‘Neville’—a story that follows an autonomous lawn mower doing its daily rounds in a post human, special economic zone of downtown Los Angeles. The curriculum’s rich exercise in world building; development of speculative narrative through research and story boarding; and intimate workshops with leading film professionals were an invaluable opportunity to learn and gain access to one on one feedback from the best. I submitted my film to the Sundance Film Festival and through the professional network I met in the program’s design lab I am working as a researcher on an upcoming documentary series for a major network. This program is truly inspiring and a mind-blowing experience. It opened up real opportunities to pursue a future as a filmmaker."