Directors’ notes

Australia is largely a land of migrants. After becoming accustomed to a new life it’s easy to forget the feelings associated with arriving for the first time. PASSENGER asks the viewer to consider these feelings associated with migrating to a new country by proposing that they have come to live in a surreal shape-shifting world made from cardboard.

The germ of the idea for PASSENGER came from Van’s parents’ experience of migrating to Australia in the 1970s. Growing up, her parents would tell stories of when they first arrived in Australia, and the constant reminders that they were in a culture not their own. Putting on a VR headset is like being transported to a new world, and replicates the experience of stepping out from an airport in a country you’ve never known. 

All the built environments in PASSENGER are made from cardboard. This aesthetic decision aims to immerse the viewer in an unpretentious, texturally familiar, tactile material inside a very contemporary and technologically advanced digital experience. The advantage of VR means that we are able to inhabit this obviously hand-made miniature set, experiencing the familiar material in a very different way. 

The cardboard world is also a commentary on the fragility of the built environment in contrast to the natural landscape that existed for tens of thousands of years in Australia before European invasion. The cardboard world animates and changes and creaks and groans as it is constantly being rebuilt and developed to cater for an expanding and demanding population. 

The driver character is a bird – specifically a red-hooded plover which is an Australian migratory bird. This character is also a recent migrant to Australia. In researching this project we spent a lot of time in the back of taxis talking to drivers about their experiences of migration to Australia, and their experiences of driving recently arrived migrants from the airport to their new homes. We took elements of these conversations to write the dialogue for our driver character, who addresses the viewer throughout. 

A taxi ride is a fairly universal experience. The safety of the car contrasts with the strange, dark and empty external environment, which takes a surreal turn in the middle of the experience. We want to convey the feeling that the world is shifting around you, and your perception of the place is changing rapidly, but from within a relatively safe environment, exploring the fear, uncertainty and beauty that comes with moving to a new land.

PASSENGER is one of only a few stop-motion 360˚ films in existence. PASSENGER was animated frame by frame using a compact 360˚ camera. We filmed the backgrounds in a large warehouse, building long sets with a road the camera could drive along on a dolly, shooting each frame though a complicated electronic setup connecting stop-motion software to the camera. The camera was moved along approximately 200 metres (0.2km) in total in 5mm intervals, over 8000 frames.

All the lighting in the exterior sets came from real LED street lights in the set – due to the complex nature of the shoot and difficulties associated with post-production to remove lighting rigs, it wasn’t possible to use lights as you would in a standard stop-motion shoot.

The interior of the taxi was shot in a 360˚ green-screen room, matching each of the 8000 frames of the exterior with dialogue and actions timed carefully with the environments. The lighting effects needed to match the streetlights in the exterior scenes so it was necessary to animate the lights sliding along complex tracks. 

Financed by Screen Australia, PASSENGER is the most challenging project we have ever undertaken. We have worked on it for nearly two years, with the shoot consuming 6 months. We have overcome a large number of technical obstacles to produce an experience we are thrilled about. We hope to take you on the journey with us.

Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine, May 2019