ROLE: Screenwriter | Director | Producer

“What if you could turn around and see your blindspot?” NM

The idea for UTurn was to start a dialogue about gender issues in the tech industry. Nathalie Mathe (creative director) and Justin Chin (creator, cinematographer, editor) came to me with this project in the early stage of development to give life to the characters, come up with the storyline and later to piece together the direction of the actors in the tech start-up environment. It was unique challenge writing two parallel story lines, one of a fictional female coder and one of her male boss at a crisis point for their fledgling tech startup. We utilized first-person perspective and embodiment, which, from a writing standpoint was a very interesting way to tell a story. The two perspectives can be viewed separately, yet the action in each world unfolds in a linear fashion at the same time. Synchronization was the biggest battle, having to consider the story’s timing, the length of the lines written, and the individual timing from the actors line delivery. There are also moments in the story where the two sides intersect, reminding the viewer that there is another side to check out, and those all needed perfect timing to match up with the other side.

With clever use of audio design, each world unfolds in a 180 degree space and you only have to turn around to land in the other sides’ shoes. Much like directing a play, there were long takes where everyone had to the hit their choreographed marks. We did a lot of testing and

Synopsis: UTurn - The Tech Startup is a pilot of a 5 episode Virtual Reality narrative comedic series. When a young female coder joins a male-dominated floundering startup deep in an identity crisis, she must muster the mansplaining to get her company closer to the funding it needs to survive. With a comedic twist, UTurn is an immersive live-action VR series where you experience both sides of the gender divide.

https://www.uturnvr.com/

Accolades & Awards:

Winner Special Jury Prize: Jump into VR Fest, NYC 2017, USA

Nominated Best Interactive Experience: FIVARS (Festival of Intl Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Stories), Toronto 2017, Canada

Nominated Best Cinematic Narrative Experience: Raindance Festival VRX Awards, London 2017, UK

Cannes International Film Festival, XR Arcade, Cannes 2019, France

Women Deliver Film Festival, Vancouver 2019, Canada

360 Film Festival, SATIS, Paris 2018, France

Nuit Blanche, SAT IX Immersive Symposium, Gaite Lyrique, Paris 2018, France

Colcoa French Film Festival, Los Angeles 2018, USA

Seattle International Film Festival 2018, USA

Cleveland International Film Festival 2018, USA

Nantucket International Film Festival 2018, USA

VR Days International Festival, Amsterdam 2017, Netherlands

UN Women Global Voices VR Festival, San Francisco 2017, USA

San Francisco International Film Festival, VR Days 2017, USA

Mill Valley International Film Festival 2017, USA

Tacoma Film Festival 2017, USA

Oculus Connect Conference 2017, USA

Samsung Developer Conference 2017, USA

Viewer Reactions:

“UTURN is a beautifully crafted VR film that tackles gender politics in a way that is both nuanced and effective.” – by Rene Pinnell, KaleidoscopeVR festival founder

“Nothing like this has ever been done before.” – by Colum Slevin, Oculus Head of Experiences