SCAD graduate explores ‘Strangers’

Written by Abhijit Roy

Photos by Rachel Leach

Susan O’Brien’s “The Strangers Project” attempts to humanize strangers and present their stories in a manner that makes them seem like any one of us. O’Brien, a fall 2014 SCAD graduate in film and television from Albany, New York, said the project is her way of learning from the world before completely embracing it. She picked strangers and assigned them each a room tailored to their personalities. In addition to the physical room, audio-visual elements within give a sense of the person’s insecurities, inner emotions and vulnerabilities.

The project required a large crew; O’Brien had more than 35 people working on it. Justin Suttles, a 2014 SCAD graduate in film and television from Jacksonville, Florida, is the associate producer for the project. He said the primary challenge was trying to tie together the logistics involved in executing such a project. The opening for the project was held on Feb. 26 at 235 Habersham St. and featured live music and catering from Foxy Loxy and The Bier Haus. The final show was held on March 1.

The installation consisted of six rooms representing six strangers. The actual production of the installation was through segregated work between the interrelated departments. The video and sound departments worked independently of each other and similarly, other departments such as production design worked on their own. Each department viewed the interactions O’Brien and the strangers and reacted based on their own impressions.

“The method worked really well as we all came up with similar ideas,” said Margot Foster, a fourth-year production design from Middleton, New Jersey, and the art director for the installation. “We knew what the stranger was like and we all took something different from them, and even though we didn’t work with one another, we ended up with a cohesive theme.”

The rooms are meant to be a fully immersive experience where the presence of the stranger is tangible within the room. All the objects, sounds and videos are representations of what different artists internalized.

The methodology in producing the installation started with choosing the strangers. O’Brien walked around Savannah for more than two weeks trying to find the right people.

“When I would see somebody and I would have a visceral response to them,” O’Brien said. “I would know immediately that they were the right person.”

She received no initial rejections, though certain prospects did fall through due to scheduling conflicts. According to Suttles, the process moved the entire crew.

“Just witnessing the whole process of finding every single stranger, bringing them in for the project, learning about them and then seeing them manifested in the abstract way that they were — it really does put things in perspective with the people that are around you, it makes you wonder what their story is,” said Suttles. “Just six of them were illustrative enough for me to see that everybody has their story and it’s really interesting because they are all so varied.”

“People want their stories to be told and they want to be the protagonist of their own story,” said O’Brien. The stories that she and her crew learned from the strangers they met will be put together in a feature-length documentary to be released in May. “It’s a really cool idea, getting a room based on how you are as a person and getting featured in a feature film length documentary,” said O’Brien.