My Secret Plan Pt 2 - A Hyper-Real Manifesto

As explained in the last post, investigative journalism is plagued with problems--and I want to break away with my own style of hyper-real journalism. 

What is that?

Hyperrealism comes from photorealism, the act of trying to sculpt/painting, real life exactly as it is. Hyperrealism takes it a step further by trying to better express our reality by accentuating parts of it. Here's an example: Let's say you're drawing an aging woman's face. By amplifying the lighting and wrinkles, the artist can convey a sense of time/emotion more effectively.  

I think that while this artform usually describes more traditional art, I also think it can apply to making any type of visual media, including journalism. 

In fact I think most journalists are already DOING hyper-real journalism, just doing it badly. 

For example, when you look at a "news" show, if we were to only show the most "realistic" version of a journalist, you'd get this:

I think this man-on-the-street style of interview is great, but there's not much room to improve here. (Channel 5 is one of the best doing it) 

However, I think there's way more room to improve in the hyper-realism space, which as I said... exists... but terribly. Let's take a look at the current landscape of hyper-real journalism. Broadcast News.

Here we get an incredible amount of 'exaggerated' effects that we'd associate with hyper-realism. The anchor has makeup on, they're well-lit from carefully placed artificial lighting, and several people behind the scenes work hard to make the show feel as if it's effortless.   

So what's the problem? 

All the artificial work actually distances us from the story, instead of resonating MORE emotionally.  

The reason for this is obvious. All the artificial work has been done in the name of making things look "professional", "authoritative" and "beautiful", but doing so has created a barrier between us and the story. 

It all almost looks pretend. Looking at the above image, you'd be hard pressed to decide if this is from a movie or from a news show. So is the Ukrainian crisis really important? Did Bernie Madoff really steal from all those people? Does any of it affect me?

It feels alien. 

This is why I want to create my own style of hyper-real journalism, which draws the viewer closer to the story---by creating a world as dystopian, twisted and corrupt as the stories I tell. 

I want the surrounding Coffeezilla world to feel as dystopian as the scams I investigate. 

Hence--- the $10,000,000 Studio was the first part of building that out. Pulling on a lot of inspiration from the grittiness of noir films and the corporate cronyism of cyberpunk aesthetic, my 3D artist Ed Leszczynski put together something memorable. 

Now we're moving onto the surrounding city.

Below is a screenshot from some of the tests we've been doing, building out this surrounding world which hopefully feels more dystopian than reality. 

The goal is to make the underlying stories resonate, told within a dramatic, exaggerated world. 

I should emphasize one point, just like broadcast news can dress up their host, but still aims to hold journalistic standards, so too Coffeezilla, will aspire to high journalistic standards for investigative stories. The set-dressing, and world-building is where the hyper-realism will be taking place.  

Will it work? Time will tell. 

In the meantime, I want to tell you about the progress we've been making in the next post.