Escape from the IOI

Virtual reality as a medium is very broad so I want to define what I think of when I think of it as a medium. I don’t quite consider it as the games in the novel – the viewer is not playing a part of any character. You’re not there at all. You have no physical presence but can look all around you, kind of like you’re the main character’s trusty companion or sidekick that can’t talk or a balloon that the main character is carrying. The sequence I chose to adapt was the escape from the IOI. (The tech help sequence was tempting to choose but I can’t say it’s essential. Sorry Mr.HotCock007)

The camera is set at the entrance of Wade’s small hab-unit. The camera is locked so the viewer can’t look around, conveying the cramped, restrictive feel of the environment. His feet are in the foreground. His ear clamp falls on the top left rule of thirds point, and then his ankle bracelet unlocks on the right bottom rule of thirds. 

The camera pushes in a little further so you can see what Wade is doing as he prepares his escape, getting his things together, pulling off his visor and gloves. The camera stays here, only showing his torso as he changes. His fake ID badge is held in front of the screen long enough for the viewer to see it.

Wade

"I need to use the bathroom,"

There is a hiss as the door of the hab-unit opens and the camera pulls back far enough to see him stick his anklet in the pocket of his uniform. The camera continues back and out the unit and eye-level from the ground. The viewer is free to look around now, seeing the hab-units and deserted hallway. Wade climbs from the  hab-unit down the ladder.

The camera follows behind Wade as he walks towards the elevator although the viewer is free to look in any direction they wish. In the elevator the camera is positioned at a high angle next to wade as if the viewer is like a security camera in the elevator. The viewer is free to look around as they wish, although there is nothing in it other than Wade. It is positioned like this rather than over the shoulder so the viewer can see his nervousness as he waits for his identity/authority to be cleared.

Elevator

"Good morning, Mr. Tuttle, Floor please?"

Wade

“Lobby”

The camera stays in place until the elevator dings that it had reached the lobby, the camera shifts to be over Wade’s shoulder. Lost in a sea of people, the viewer can see exactly what he sees and feel the same confrontation as the woman greets him in the lobby to tell him his ear is bleeding.

When he finally gets outside, the camera goes upwards to provide a wider shot of his freedom as he casually walks towards the trashcan. When he throws the anklet monitor into the trashcan the camera shoots forward into the trashcan as well, effectively cutting to black to open on the next scene.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. From the very beginning we know what the ending is going to be. Most movies and stories hide that from readers and movie until they reach it, throwing the audience through various loops along the way. But not Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. We know they are going to die. It's in the very title of the play. The fun part is the comedic story in between. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are secondary characters in Hamlet. They aren’t entirely important and that’s what I feel the hidden message in this story is.

Making important choices can be really hard. But not making them and just passively going along can have dire results. From the very beginning they are answering to other people. They are on the way to the king whom had summoned them and they can barely remember whom they are or where they are going. They are summoned; they do what they are told basically spying on Hamlet when they are supposed to be his best childhood friends. They simply follow the word of the most powerful person around them at the time, which happens in this case to be the king. They briefly question if going to England is the right thing to do for themselves but off they go anyways.  

The primary example of this is when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern open the letter they are to give the king of England and read it. The letter calls for Hamlet’s death, the death of their friend. But instead of doing a wide array of things such as maybe getting rid of the letter, telling Hamlet, or forging a new one, they just reseal it and go along with it. This fatal mistake of letting fate take it’s course is what got them killed for Hamlet had overheard and changed the letter to call for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s deaths.

This play is about being a secondary character. We can’t be secondary characters in our own lives. If we just ride along in our lives letting people push us around letting them tell us what to do, we won’t get anywhere.