Episode 2 · THE GUEST-GIFT

The experiment

Here it is in order. Click a frame and the film plays from there.

Each episode tests one family of CINEOSIS signs. This one tests the recollection-image: the flashback, and what happens when two people remember the same events differently. Each act card is a CINEOSIS tile with the sign's number, symbol and name.

0:34 “I am Simon Borgen”

Part

Cold open, the feast

What it does

Odysseus stands on Alcinous's banquet table and finally gives his real name. The archive answers with other people's names: "My name is Jacob Hedinger", "I am Simon Borgen", "And so it goes." He points at us and the projector rolls.

scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

I · as Odysseus tells it

Sign

Sd 28, Strong destiny

What it does

His version is a pot. The film is graded to black-figure on clay inside a gold meander border, and he and his crew are drawn black-figure. The act ends when a full-colour hand comes in from outside the pot, grips the border and pulls it open.

scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

II · as Polyphemus tells it

Sign

Pf 40, Powers of the false

What it does

His version is the film itself, in colour, inside a rope of wool. He is a careful shepherd who carries wood, milks, laughs at a lamb and lights the fire. In his version the guests are small thieves behind his cheeses. When he eats the two men, they disappear behind his back and a napkin appears.

8:04 the start of this part, just after its cardscene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

III · both at once

Sign

Fp 30, Forking paths

What it does

A split screen: his pot on the left, his film on the right. The seam moves toward whichever teller is speaking. Anything that crosses the seam changes style as it crosses: the wine cup first, then the hot stake. When the stake reaches the eye (The Eyes and Their Care, 1941), his half of the film burns through.

scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

IV · in the dark

Sign

Sn 34b, Sonsign

What it does

His half is now black, and his voice appears only as a trace of light. The neighbours come to the door, hear "Nobody", shrug and leave. At dawn he knows his flock only by touch, so each ram is drawn in white scratch lines only where his hands touch it.

Part

V · the name

Sign

Lo 36, Limpid and opaque

What it does

A rock flies out of the dark and lands in the pot. Then Odysseus says his name, and the two halves swap: the seam slides away, and Polyphemus's film comes back in colour while the ship shrinks to a black-figure speck. He speaks the curse.

7:26 “the fairest thing”7:32 “Well, I don't think they'd be any fair.”scene test The scene rendered on its own before the episode was assembled, to check staging, scale and the line.

Part

Back at the feast

What it does

The story was the guest-gift. The archive's last word on "the fairest thing" is "Well, I don't think they'd be any fair."

8:23 “a most curious animal, the ant eater.”

Part

After the credits

What it does

Still in the dark, his hands feel along the cave mouth and find what the archive calls "a most curious animal, the ant eater."

check frame Contact sheet 1check frame Contact sheet 2check frame Contact sheet 3check frame Contact sheet 4

costume test Polyphemus testcostume test One body, many costumes: the first gods

scene test Scene test, hallscene test Scene test, ramsscene test Scene test, cursescene test Scene test, olympus

The fourth-wall devices

These are the tricks for talking to you directly. Like this.

• Two hands arguing in the margins. Gold notes are Odysseus's ("me.", "cowards.", "guests!", "HE ATE THEM.", "for my men."). Blue notes are Polyphemus's ("MY cave.", "a careful hand.", "thieves.", "dinner.", "MY EYE", "NOBODY did it!", "my ram.").
• Each hand crosses out the other's notes.
• The blue hand first appears in the cold open as an unexplained "sure."
• At the end the blue hand writes down the address Odysseus has just given away: "ODYSSEUS / son of Laertes / ITHACA". The gold hand adds "...oops."
• The archive shows its film. When an answer's own film is in the library, it plays in a framed inset for as long as the line lasts. This happens for 13 answers, including The Snow Queen, How Man Made Day, Your Movie Camera and How to Use It, Hi Diddle Diddle, Introduction to Firearms and Broadway Limited.
• Things that cross the seam change style, from black-figure to colour and back.
• Callback to Episode 1. On "Nobody is my name" he hops on the name again, and the gold hand writes "(see Ep. 1)".

Observed and generated

This part separates what came from the archive from what was made here.

Observed:

• Every spoken line is from the Found Odyssey CALL tracks for OD-B09-S01 to S11. The words and their order are unchanged.
• Only the selection of lines and the pauses between them were chosen (ody/ep2/cut.py).

Footage:

• The plates and insets come from the cineosis-lab library (lab/clips).
• The insets are always the same film the line comes from, but not necessarily the same moment of that film.
• The clips the Found Odyssey itself picked are hosted on r2.dev and could not be reached.

Generated:

• all drawing and animation;
• the vase grade, the film burn and the sonsign trace;
• the ink notes;
• the sound effects and the music.

Character designs: Polyphemus is a new original design (one eye, unibrow, fleece, blue-grey skin), added to the same ink renderer as Odysseus.

Files

The code, if you want to open it.

The engine and scenes are in ody/ep2/:

• eng.py: the engine;
• s_*.py: the scenes;
• props.py: the drawn props;
• furn.py: the title, cards, credits and assembly.

The rig worlds are in crash/m_e2*.js.

Review

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