JESSICA SHEN
The experience design director enters the world of interactive filmmaking in Doors We Open.
What if there was a way to explore the subconscious mind like an immersive game? That’s what Jessica Shen (along with her collaborators) intends to portray in her interactive short film, Doors We Open.
Raised in Pasadena, CA, Shen was fascinated by Hollywood at a young age and “always imagined [herself] doing something in film, but never took it seriously because of [her] family surroundings.”
“I think being able to see that there were people doing art or just creating things on their own was always something that was inspirational,” Shen adds. “I think without that, I probably wouldn't have even tried to go [into] design.”
A systematic designer by profession, Shen currently works at Google Creative Lab and previously at companies like Disney Plus and R/GA. As the experience design director for Doors We Open, Shen is exploring the Asian American experience through a new visual medium.
“We're telling the story of a father and his daughter,” she says. “We were thinking of the relationships that my friends and I, who have been working on this project, have with our parents and how at home we have our outward selves and our inner selves with them. We kind of have to present this culture and this etiquette at home.”
The concept for Doors We Open came to fruition during a conversation between Shen and Kevin Peter He, the director, on a flight in the summer of last year. After months of filming and experimenting with software frameworks, the team released their first demo in August.
Still from the original demo of Doors We Open
The short film transitions between live action and virtual sequences throughout. Similar to a video game, the viewer maneuvers avatars of the two characters in a simulated dream world; there, they are able to explore different aspects of each character’s subconscious by unearthing memories and the significance behind certain artifacts.
“One of the things our producer [David Woon] kept saying is that it'd be really cool to say to people, ‘Hey, come play my film,’ rather than just, ‘Come watch it.’”
Was Doors We Open always meant to be an interactive film? What came first: the storyline or the medium?
It was kind of back and forth. I'd say it started with the medium. Interactive film is something we were interested in, but there was also the idea of the conscious and the subconscious that we were really interested in. We were also thinking of stories we were familiar with and a lot of it was just our relationship with our parents, especially with COVID when a lot of us had gone home. We had a very different experience at home because it wasn't just a visit anymore. We were living there for a little while, so that was kind of at the forefront of our minds. And these ideas just ended up working really well together.
As the experience design director, what was the process like in creating those virtual exhibitions in the story, and how long did it take?
Yeah, so my role in all of that is really more like a narrative designer rather than the animator modeler myself. We basically have a virtual team. We have some 3D animators, 3D modelers, architectural designers as well as some engineers who are focused on the back end of all of this.
But the process is that we're primarily working in Unreal Engine, which is a game engine. A lot of film companies are starting to go into this. For example, The Mandalorian used Unreal Engine for a lot of the sets; it's a program where you can do a lot of real time rendering.
Virtual scene in Doors We Open
We're able to basically recreate the live action spaces. We shot live action first and then went in, took all the dimensions of everything, and pulled in different furniture and things that we could take in from that space. Sometimes that means if there's any super iconic pieces of furniture we wanted to keep in, that would mean modeling that out. For example, there's this bunny lamp that becomes an item of significance and it's something that we’ll model by hand and put in there. So each of these virtual scenes take a good amount of time.
When I first watched the demo, I believe it featured a father and son. Now it's a father and daughter. What was the reason behind the narrative change?
At the time, we were thinking of a father and son almost as mirrors of each other, and the conflict comes from the son knowing who he should be looking up to, or the father thinking, These are what I think your dreams should be.
Once we finished the demo, we were taking a look back at it and thinking about the backstories of these characters. Then we started thinking about the mother's impact on her son.
In the story, the mother passed away several years ago and we were just thinking of different ways that this would have affected a son versus a daughter. We kind of had two stories running at the same time; we have a version with the son and a version with the daughter. The more we worked on them, the more we liked that there was room to play with a daughter not having a mother figure.
What challenges have you faced during this project?
There's always the obvious, like the financial one. Another one is finding the right platform for Doors We Open because it exists between game and film, but it's not solidly in either one.
We were just thinking about how we could release this. Should we be aiming at festivals? Should we think about this as an art piece that lives in a museum? What space does it take in the art world?
Right now, we’re thinking of festivals that have an experimental or immersive section; we're looking for different places that this film can exist in.
What are some takeaways you hope your audience will have after watching and interacting with Doors We Open?
I hope people reflect on conversations or moments they've had with their parents or even with themselves and think about what led them to make certain decisions in their life — whether that's pursuing a certain career or choosing to be friends with a certain person. Also, I hope that people will open up different conversations with their friends and families afterwards.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. All images courtesy of Jessica Shen.
