About the Film

 

Synopsis (short)

A beautiful National Park comes to life and reality becomes distorted.

Synopsis (long)

This augmented reality (AR) 3D animated short film taps into our feeling and sensing of the afterlife. It takes the audience into the geographic and spiritual world that the Japanese have spoken of for centuries, in the heart of Aogikahara Forest, or ‘Suicide Forest.’ This is the first AR short film shot through a headset.

 

Director Notes

Technology has always been one of the reasons I explored computer animation. As a researcher, it's exciting when the latest and greatest tools come to fruition. Augmented Reality is one of those new and exciting tools to use with computer animation to further push storytelling. When Christian Sandor, Associate Professor @ NAIST approached at Siggraph Asia 2017 about collaborating on an AR narrative, it seemed like the right time to experiment. The beautiful aspect of AR is that it is location specific, and with many sites in Japan or the world to choose, we narrowed it down to a place that has a long history of folklore, stories and fascination of the National Forest in Japan or known as the 'suicide forest.'

I’ve always been fascinated with the ‘suicide forest’ since I first heard about it. The idea of bringing ghosts into a space was not only creepy but seemed a suitable topic with augmented reality technology. I understand it’s a sensitive topic and to be respectful to those who ended their lives there, so the idea of imagining a future where robots were tour guides and explained a time when people ‘believed’ in spirits gives it an external perspective. I really believe this is only the beginning with this technology to find novel ways to engage audiences will push the technology into a rich and satisfying force to enrich storytelling.

 

Exhibition Schedule (Not current)

Coming soon...

 

Specifications

Copyright ©Peter Chanthanakone