Home’s Forgotten Public Spaces
by Godzprototype, HSM team writer and filmmaker
“For the attention of the residents of Pripyat! The City Council informs you that due to the accident at Chernobyl Power Station in the city of Pripyat the radioactive conditions in the vicinity are deteriorating. The Communist Party, its officials and the armed forces are taking necessary steps to combat this. Nevertheless, with the view to keep people as safe and healthy as possible, the children being top priority, we need to temporarily evacuate the citizens in the nearest towns of Kiev Oblast.
For these reasons, starting from April 27, 1986 2 p.m. each apartment block will be able to have a bus at its disposal, supervised by the police and the city officials. It is highly advisable to take your documents, some vital personal belongings and a certain amount of food, just in case, with you. The senior executives of public and industrial facilities of the city has decided on the list of employees needed to stay in Pripyat to maintain these facilities in a good working order. All the houses will be guarded by the police during the evacuation period. Comrades, leaving your residences temporarily please make sure you have turned off the lights, electrical equipment and water off and shut the windows. Please keep calm and orderly in the process of this short-term evacuation.”
-Evacuation note, April 27, 1986
Most of you reading this weren’t even born at the time of the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl power plant on April 26, 1986. To give you an idea of the scale, think of the disaster at Fukushima nuclear power plant after last year’s earthquake in Japan. Both catastrophes are the only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The only difference is that Chernobyl was not caused by a natural disaster.
At least thirty-one people – all reactor staff or emergency workers – died as an immediate result of the Chernobyl disaster; countless thousands affected by the radiation have died in the years afterward.
Pripyat, the city that was built to house the workers at Chernobyl in the 1950s, was a thriving community of nearly 50,000 citizens at the time of the evacuation. Today, it is a ghost town, huddling in the shadow of the sarcophagus that covers what’s left of Chernobyl’s reactor unit 4. Apartment complexes and homes stand abandoned and vandalized. The places that used to be bustling with business and moving people now are all boarded up or have blown out windows. The amusement park with its Ferris wheel is silent. If you play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, you are probably quite familiar with this landmark.
Time and nature are slowly erasing Pripyat off the map. But for the people who survived the disaster, it will never be forgotten.
Similar spaces can be found in Home as well. I don’t mean similar in terms of a disaster, but like Pripyat, they are empty of the life in them that once was.
We all know the places. Once celebrated, now abandoned, these Home spaces sit on the navigator, buried and ignored. Even the museum to the mighty Xi – considered by many to be Home’s high point – lies empty with the look of unkempt disarray. Resistance 2, Resident Evil studio lot – spaces that were widely promoted in conjunction with their companion gaming titles – are now forgotten by the community; only the rare visitor pops in and passes through in their exploration of Home.
This video is a return to those places.
I attempted to emulate the return to Pripyat and Chernobyl, as seen in the video I used as inspiration (you can watch that here). You can imagine what that must have been like for people going back and seeing the emptiness – the sheer volume of the ransacked and overgrown, the memories that occurred there, and the sadness of their loss.
Please keep in mind I am still learning – my attempt at creating emotion is as genuine as I. This has not been easy. I went with my first gut instinct and bit the bullet.
These places, although empty – some may even be slated for removal in the future – are still there. If you have the time to visit them, you should; they still have the memories of what they once were and may not be around long.
And if you have the inclination, read your history about what happened at Chernobyl 26 years ago.
Special thanks to Bayern_1867 and SORROW-US for acting in this video.
March 20th, 2012 by Godzprototype | 7 comments
Godzprototype is learning the art of creating Machinima, and would like to share it with you. Hope you enjoy.
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Bill I am in awe That’s a visceral experience
All I can say Bill is WOW! That was totally unique and amazing for one so young in this genre. I can’t wait to see where you go with this in the future if this is what you can do so early on in your career of film making. Very well done!
You have just set a bar so HIGH, that even I’m going to be struggling to come up with something ANYTHING..that even remotely matches what i have just seen, when I very soon enter the world of machinema,
(a departure from my usual live action work in real life. )
That was a Masterclass in filmmaking and editing.
I know exactly how you feel, Cheeky. When Ridley Scott saw “Star Wars” for the first time, he walked out of the theatre and said, “I’m not even on the same planet as this guy. Here I am, doing this stuff, and he’s making STAR WARS!?”
There are some Home machinima which truly do rise above the rest. Alinea3’s “Alors on Danse,” DOD’s “The Castle,” ShikasClouds’ “SAW,” or HearItWow’s HomeCast are pretty much at the top of the tree. There are others as well.
This video, for my money, is at that level. It’s a real gutpunch of a machinima.
Thank You for your responses. I appreciate the support!
I have a lot to learn!
Loved it Bill, watched it twice!
Hi, Bill I am Sposny3,we have only met a couple of times mostly through Karen1. My wife saw this machinima first.She is not a member of home or much of a gamer but stands behind me 100% she watched this machinima along with all of your work, after that would not leave me alone about watching all of your work as well. I just did and I can finally see why. She also went and researched the story behind this machinima just like you had said and was just taken away with how well you captured it with your machinima .I have to agree with her if anyone has ever read or seen the story will imidiately be reminded of it by watching yours,well Sir all I can say is, truly amazing from start to end amazing. I hope I can assist you in more of your work like I did at novus, again breath taking Sir keep up the good work sencirly A friend Sposny3. (note:Her absalutly favorite one by far has to be “Gabriel”)