Byzantium Tests

To promote Hunted, a 2012 global espionage series on Cinemax, Campfire designed a subversive campaign to determine if fans were among “the 1 percent that matters”. An immersive online experience acts as an elaborate recruitment test for the show’s clandestine security firm, Byzantium. The multi-layered test challenges emotional reactions, multi-tasking skills and subconscious instincts. Strategically placed posters raised awareness of the digital experience and helped the campaign go viral.

“It’s as good as anything I’ve ever seen… if not better. It’s an entertainment experience on its own.” — Frank Spotniz,…

The Washington Globe

The Washington Globe was a news-room style digital experience created by Campfire to generate buzz and build fans for USA Network’s limited series event Political Animals.

Political Animals pulled back the curtain on the polished facade of a former first-family as they navigate the complex world of political and personal ambition, created by Greg Berlanti and Laurence Mark and staring Sigourney Weaver and Carla Gugino. The Washington Globe digital newspaper accompanied Political Animal‘s six-week run with original news complementing the show’s storyline. Weekly and daily content updates included articles, videos,…

Walter: An Eye-Aware Kinetoscope

“Walter – An Eye-Aware Kinetoscope” was created for the class “Computational Cameras” at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Walter watches your eyes as you watch a film, and every time that you blink, it edits the video.

Based on the theories of Walter Murch in “In the Blink of An Eye,” I’ve transformed the subliminal action of blinking into a method of interaction with a film. Building on the assumption that the act of blinking is an emotional or intellectual cue, this kinetoscope leverages the users’ blinks as an indication to advance…

Base Pair

“Base Pair” is a transmedia short created for “Collective Storytelling” and “Animals People and Those In Between” at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications program.

Start exploring the project here.

“Base Pair” chronicles the story of Alice Adams, a geneticist turned cryptozoologist who is trying to bio-hack a mythological creature in her kitchen. Through Alice’s blog, podcasts, Facebook profile and a broken link that leads to personal emails and an in-progress patent application, “Base Pair” paints a portrait of a young woman who is both confidant and conflicted as she hacks together the genes…

The Tragedy of Rosalind Franklin

“The Tragedy of Rosalind Franklin” is a game for children and young teens created for “Big Games” at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications program with Michelle Boison, Archana Kumar and Sara Hallacher.

The game play consists of two teams, led by Watson and Crick, the researchers who discovered the double helix structure of DNA, each working to build a single strand of DNA by collecting their team bases in a specific order. Waston and Crick select their order of bases at the beginning of the game. Watson and Crick are then…

Feather & Fork

Created for the ITP Class “Animals, People and Those In Between,” Feather and Fork was an exploration in the presentation of animal as both subject and object through smell.

My partner, Allesandra Villaamil, and I sought to create a sense of two sides of the Duck by presenting scents that brought to mind both the duck environment and a meal of duck. The scents become an evocation of character and a re-positioning of the smeller’s understanding of the duck as simultaneously a living organism and as an object of human consumption….

The Impressionist Palette

“The Impressionist Palette” is an educational art applet that Elena created for Introduction to Computational Media at ITP. The applet seeks to not only explore what we know about the Impressionists, but also to show the paintings and…

The Story Room

The Story Room is a narrative space that Elena created with Matt London and Hannah Davis for Introduction to Phsyical Computing at ITP. The design was to create a space in which the story can be unlocked at…

Robot Heart Stories

Robot Hearts Stories is an experiential learning project that uses collaboration and creative problem solving to put education directly in the hands of students. Two classrooms, a continent apart, had to work together and with the larger community to get a lost robot home. Robot Heart Stories is the first in a trilogy of experiential learning projects from award winning storytelling pioneer Lance Weiler and creative producer Janine Saunders. Elena served as a story developer, writer and associate producer.

The experience began when a robot crash landed in Montreal and must…

FOOD52

FOOD52 is a food community website run by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubs.

From May 2010 – December 2011, Elena was the videographer, shooting and editing weekly videos which featured recipes, instructions, techniques and restaurant visits.
Elena also wrote a bi-weekly column during 2011 called “Dinner & a Movie,” which paired the website’s recipes with various feature films.

Elena shot all videos with a single camera and typically delivered an edited version within a few days. Elena wrote 17 articles and made over 110 videos for FOOD52 in 18 months.

In…

Biblion: The Boundless Library

Biblion: The Boundless Library is an immersive experience through the Library’s collections. The first edition of this free iPad app takes readers on a gently curated and ultimately personalized tour of the New York 1939-1940 World’s Fair collection from the Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division. Elena was the managing editor of the first edition of Biblion, created the narrative structure and wrote about 60%-70% of the app’s content.

Biblion: World’s Fair redefines storytelling and how story elements are presented, providing visual journeys through original sources. Building on the idea of a digital…

Make Me Young: Youth Knows No Pain

MAKE ME YOUNG: YOUTH KNOWS NO PAIN is a feature length documentary that Elena Co-Wrote and Co-Produced in 2008-2009.

In MAKE ME YOUNG: YOUTH KNOWS NO PAIN, an age-obsessed daughter of a plastic surgeon (filmmaker Mitch McCabe) takes a journey through America’s $60 billion a year anti-aging world. In this Alice-in-Wonderland like tale, McCabe paints a funny but troubling portrait of a country that desperately needs to stay forever young.

MAKE ME YOUNG: YOUTH KNOWS NO PAIN premiered on HBO in August of 2009. It played at Independents Night at Lincoln Center,…