The concept of my vignette project was to contrast video games and drone warfare. My 3D model was a joystick, which is an item used by both video games and drone pilots. The video was projected into a corner with the game half on one wall and the drone half on the other. I then placed my model in the middle.
In the game footage I made a machinima where the character flys a military vehicle, both a helicopter and a jet. Right before crashing them he wakes up falling from the sky, when he is about to hit the ground he is put back in the cockpit of a different vehicle. This draws a parallel to drone pilots who are not in danger of dying regardless of what happens to the drone. Finally on the last sky dive, he hits the ground and the iconic "wasted" message pops up. In GTA no matter what happens to your character, he will walk out of the hospital in a day, regardless of whatever trauma he endured. It's impossible to die in the game and it's no different with drones. The difference is the drones targets actually die, and what might feel like a game to the pilot has real consequences and takes real lives.
In my research I found out that US Army recruiters use war video games as a recruitment tool to lure kids in to joining. They pursue gamers as young as 12 as potential drone operators. I may have became too journalistic in my approach to this aspect of my piece as the narrative became driven by the people in the found footage more so than my own voice. I do want to use what I learned to create a projection mapped piece for my final.
