Mysteries in NYC
A Creator Profile on a project we ♥
Bad@$$ creators Samantha Pyra and Rose Glaeser used Eko Studio to create Mysteries in NYC. And it’s awesome.
Click here: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3… coming soon
MYSTERIES IN NYC
What project did you create and how did it come about?
Mysteries in NYC was created for Eko during the Tribeca Film Festival + Games for Change “Challenge of Diversity” competition. Samantha attended a brainstorm session hosted by Eko and a lot of important topics were brought up during the brainstorm session, but most approaches addressed the the topic in a very negative light. Samantha decided a positive story could be told about our differences and individual struggles as a very diverse community in New York City. Samantha and Rose have been avid fans of strategy and logic based games since childhood and wanted to see that passion reflected in the project, most notably the open world format of early computer game adventures. With each episode Samantha and Rose wanted the viewer to experience a new take on the point and click genre. This included memory recall mini games, quick time decisions and long format logic puzzles. And it was just as important to Samantha and Rose to include plenty of humor and light-hearted moments to otherwise serious themes and issues.
What/who are some of your biggest influences?
Sam: For this project I drew from my early gaming days of point &click to Choose Your Own Adventure books. Mainly because I always loved the open exploration of these games and feeling so involved within the story because you’re helping craft it, even if you get distracted and do something entirely outside the main storyline!
Rose: Inspiration for this web series came from my childhood obsession with the detective mystery genre. From Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes to Scooby-Doo and the X-Files to the Clue and Spy Alley. It was always a source of gratification when I could solve the crime before the big reveal. With Mysteries in NYC I wanted the viewer to experience that same sense of accomplishment.
What are you watching, or playing, or both?
Sam: I definitely started to revisit my favorite Choose Your Own Adventure books. I was able to track down a copy of Forest of Doom by Ian Livingstone, who made a huge series of fight fantasy novels in the 80s. The fact you have to draw your own map alongside reading them so you don’t get “lost” in his written world was my favorite as a kid, I felt so drawn into it.
Rose: I’ve currently been spending my free time with entertainment that keeps me on my mental toes. These are shows like the witty dialogue of Veep and compelling visuals of Stranger Things. As well as revisiting classic games like Adventures of Link and Dr. Mario.
If you won a billion dollars, what would you do?
Sam: Firstly I’d buy my family something really big & fancy like a beach house as a huge thank you, because they were the ones that never stopped supporting me when I said I wanted to pursue film. Then I’d take a year off to travel, what better way to keep learning and gaining new perspectives.
Rose: Give back to the people who helped me get where I am: family, friends and institutions. With the remainder I would invest in charities focused on women and girls in the STEM fields, as well as the game and film industries.
If you had an unlimited budget, what would you make?
Sam: It’s a funny question because as a filmmaker you’re always considering budget when going into producing something! So to be free of that I’d definitely go for an epic trilogy, I’m talking Lord of the Rings style, but with my own visual twist of it being a little dreamy with intertwined storylines, that would be the Michel Gondry influence. Because I love a movie you can watch multiple times and find new little clues, so really strong art direction, and while we’re at it give me those real FX! Huge built sets, big animatronic creatures, whole deal. (Hey I grew up with E.T. and Jurassic Park, can you blame me?)
Rose: There are so many projects I have churning away in my head, but if I had to pick just one it would be a Wonder Woman film. With an unlimited budget I could give this iconic superhero and her film top notch talent in every department from director to the set PA. To make a film that preaches equality and respect while actually practicing that mantra is practically unheard of in today’s film and television industry. An unlimited budget at the very least would help alleviate monetary-based gender discrimination.
If you could be present to film any scene in history what would you film and how would you film it? Or if you wanted to make it into a game, how would you do that?
Sam: I like watching those history shows where they try to uncover or reveal “what actually happened here” or “how did they make it”, and it’s amazing we can explain so much with technology, but still have this mystery around it, so revisiting those ancient civilizations at their peak would be fascinating — the Sphinx, Nazca Lines, Moai heads, you name it. It would definitely be required that David Attenborough narrate it, obviously.
Rose: I would love to visit any of the periods during the Mesozoic Era, also known as the Age of Reptiles. Dinosaurs. It would be amazing to compare the modern day theorized conclusions to the actual living breathing beasts themselves.
What would your Graduate School syllabus look like? (10 books, movies, or things to listen to)
Sam’s Top 5:
1. Ian Livingston’s Fighting Fantasy Novels — it’s a choose your own adventure book on an epic scale
2. Skyrim — I’m a huge fan of computer gaming, so hands down a must play. I love how you can actually make enemies with npc’s if you choose the wrong choice.
3. FRANKIEonPC youtube channel — hilarious game play and reviews crafted into heroic adventures. Well, sometimes heroic.
4. Hammer Head — The Making of a Carpenter by Nina MacLaughlin — about a woman pursuing what some conceive as a “man’s” job.
5. Yokohama, California by Toshio Mori — A fictional short story book I found so simply told and captivating about Japanese Americans in the 1930–40s.
Rose’s Top 5
1. Hukkle- A 2002 experimental Hungarian film directed by György Pálfi. A fascinating story told without any dialogue, but with layers of intrigue.
2. The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore — The most comprehensive book on the iconic hero and her radical creator Charles Marston.
3. Betrayal at House on the HIll board game — A twist on the classic horror genre in which players must decide to work together or against each other to survive.
4. Kathleen Hanna — A study on the life and causes of the revolutionary feminist singer. Required viewing ‘The Punk Singer’ and required listening; Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, and The Julie Ruin
5. Full Moon Soup — A children’s picture book about strange happenings that occur ina hotel during the full moon. Intricately drawn and humorous scenarios that progress with each flip of the page.
What kinds of stories do you hope to see or make? And specifically, what kind of stories do you want to make that aren’t traditional storytelling, and why?
Sam: I want to make films that leave you having a positive experience or a new perspective to consider. I believe film has the ability to keep you thinking about it, or wanting to discuss it with others after having watched it even days earlier. Since creating Mysteries in NYC it’s really sparked a lot of ideas and interest to collaborate with a game developer, VR technician, or installation artists to craft something together because it’s the time where everyone’s willing to try a storytelling experience in a new way.
Rose: Films have an amazing potential to reach across the globe and unite people from every continent. I aim to tell stories that reflect underrepresented voices. The push to make these stories popular on an indie level encourages established outlets to pursue these projects and in turn allows a once controversial or radical topic to assimilate into the mainstream narrative.
