Based on 1953's Ray Bradbury's novel and 1966' Francois Truffaut's film adaption, and in the light of today's global status, aim of my Final Master's Project was to develop a new visual concept, time - shifted in the not too distant future, but in one of the possible hypothetical realities based on the dominance of technology and especially the technology of the media that doesn't represent reality, but completely creates it.
In this context where priorities are lost and all is relativized , social apathy is induced by cheap entertainment and a wealth of useless information maintaining a society in a state of permanent numbness.
Montag's apartment
The place where the main character lives. The design was inspired by the architecture of military bunkers, cold modern interiors and Japanese metabolism e.g. Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo by Kisho Kurokawa.
Concept sketches
Final renders
Montag's apartment - Technical drawings
Montag's apartment - Props
Shell radio - is a device that Montag's wife Mildred wears on her head while she is sleeping. It represents a substitute for the "TV wall" while the user is unconscious. "Shell" is an instrument for controling otherwise involuntary and irrational subconscious mental activity.
The Device - apparatus which the emergency health tehnicians use while trying to save Mildred, who overdosed on pills.
"They had this machine. They had two machines, really. One of them slid down into
your stomach like a black cobra down an echoing well looking for all the old water
and the old time gathered there. It drank up the green matter that flowed to the top in
a slow boil. Did it drink of the darkness? Did it suck out all the poisons accumulated
with the years? It fed in silence with an occasional sound of inner suffocation and
blind searching. It had an Eye. The impersonal operator of the machine could, by
wearing a special optical helmet, gaze into the soul of the person whom he was
pumping out. What did the Eye see? He did not say."
and the old time gathered there. It drank up the green matter that flowed to the top in
a slow boil. Did it drink of the darkness? Did it suck out all the poisons accumulated
with the years? It fed in silence with an occasional sound of inner suffocation and
blind searching. It had an Eye. The impersonal operator of the machine could, by
wearing a special optical helmet, gaze into the soul of the person whom he was
pumping out. What did the Eye see? He did not say."
A segment from Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451
Palm scroll - is not mentionet in Bradbury's book nor in Truffaut's adaption, it is a personal idea and a statement. This device would represent a hybrid of today's mobile phones and newer devices such as Google glass. We can notice that people today while waiting/riding public transportion , or when they are sitting with their friends in coffe shops, all the attention is directed towards the illuminated screens of their mobile phones. The idea was that this device would be packed in a pair of gloves and the actors in the film would use it when they are away from their homes, away from the TV wall and Shell radio. Turning on the device itself would be performed by a religious gesture, emphasizing that technology is the new religion in which there are no non-believers. Controlling of the device would be done by voice commands, which would resemble of today's people on the street, talking to themselves but in fact having a Bluetooth headset in their ear. The very name Palm scroll was inspired by the name of the most famous social network of today.
Face - Palm / Book - Scroll.
The Fire station
The heart of antagonism of this story is situated in the Fire station. Actors and the space in which they are located, make the core of the dystopian system which is introduced in the film.
Concept sketches
The Fire station - Props
Salamander - is the vehicle which Montag and his colleagues use during interventions.
Mechanical hound - is described in the novel as an eerie eight legged robotic mechanism that resembles a dog. The idea was not completely abandoned, but only changed a little bit. The final design is an African hunting dog with standard two pair of legs and a high-tech augmentation. The head of the dog would be covered with a helmet with an opening for the mouth which propels the procaine needle when attacking. The helmet should have a role in reprogramming the dog into a faceless killing machine.The dog wouldn't bark, but would be dubbed by an eerie computerized "HAL" voice which would issue commands to suspects.
Fire station - Technical drawings
Old woman's apartment
The apartment in which Montag and his colleagues break in, where they find a secret library, and where the unnamed old woman sets herself on fire.
Concept sketches
Old woman's apartment - Technical drawings
Faber's apartment
Concept sketches
Faber's apartment - Technical drawings
Abandoned railway track where the "Book people" live
The final scene is set in a forest, in the ambient of abandoned train cars that have been refurbished to a makeshift village inhabited by the so-called Book people. Montag at the end of the story comes to this place ( for which he was told by Faber), fleeing from arrest because he burned his apartment down and killed Captain Beatty, his colleagues and destroyed the mechanical hound.
Concept sketches
Abandoned railway track where the "Book people" live - Technical drawings
The project won the CRATER VFX TRAINING CENTER competition for the best project in the field of applied arts and design.
