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Graduates
Blue Roberts
MFA in Media Design Practices - 2 Yr Path — Media Design PracticesCourse:
Thesis Committee Project
Faculty:
Sean Donahue
Term:
2026 Spring
Collaborators:
Ethan Stillwell Barna, Dylan Beiler, Graham Drake-Maurer
Plasmodial Automatism - Short Film
"Shawn, an agoraphobic electronics repairman falls down a hallucinatory spiral as he obsesses over his new living-computer project, all while ignoring his brother’s attempt to reconnect.”
PLASMODIAL AUTOMATISM touches on the speculative reality of obsessive escapism to the point of pushing away one’s own brother and losing sanity in the creation of non-human intelligence. This film is surreal, intense, and gloomy. The visuals are important not only to immerse the audience, but convey the alternative methods taken to create the film. The slime mold is alive and growing, but so are the shadows around Shawn...
Process:
This film is the production half of a larger thesis project. Plasmodial Automatism was created by employing the alternative virtual production methods developed in the research project 'Intuitive Mediamaking'. The production focused on blending physical and virtual effects, utilizing a 'Faux-Volume' virtual production set up, and experimenting with the Sci-fi and Thriller genres.
As the creator of this project, Blue Roberts acted as writer, producer, production designer, and virtual production designer. The environments were conceptualized and designed in both physical and 3D space. All virtual production aspects were run through a system connecting Unreal Engine and a projector, then hand-controlled by Blue on set. This process can be seen more in depth under the project Intutive Mediamaking.
Learning Outcomes:
The main learning outcome of this project, was the refined process developed for integrating alternative virtual production methods into smaller and indie film productions. Finding the steps within the production timeline that needed to be amended or added to to integrate virtual production seamlessly and without wildly inflating the budget was a utmost priority.
By using a Faux-Volume set-up (developed in congruent thesis work) the production was able to create intricate visual effects and sets while cutting down on post-production time constraints and last minute changes. As well, the process of working with virtual production methods allowed the crew and actor to work with visual reference points, as opposed to greenscreen, which allowed for smoother and more intuitive on set work.