Abstract

Birds of a Feather follows the life of Angeline Lorimer and her pet African Grey Parrot Greyson, who the viewer will embody and experience the story through. Angeline is an artist living in New York, who paints African Grey Parrots for a living, using Greyson as her muse and model. Having grown up together, the two are deeply bonded, and are lifelong friends. The duo lives in peaceful harmony until the pandemic strikes, forcing Angeline's mother to move back into their lives. As the three endure the lock down and the isolation that it brought with it, Greyson, and the viewer who controls his actions, must find a way to keep the peace. This film started out as a traditional film that would have been shot in first-person perspective. Following the outbreak of the pandemic, that plan was canceled, and it has been reborn from the metaphorical egg as a VR project. The piece features drawings and art from my mother, who heavily influenced the artistic and visual style of this film, as well as the character of Angeline. I hope that by experiencing this film, viewers are not only able to appreciate the intelligence of the animals around them, but also gain a new insight into how they might approach interacting with each other.  

Research

I was inspired to write this story after hearing about the work of Dr. Irene Pepperberg. Dr. Pepperberg was and is one of the leading names in Avian psychology due to her work with an African Grey parrot named Alex. Her work proved the intelligence capabilities of African Greys, and exposed the world to a new perspective on how other Animals might think. I was deeply moved by the memoir of Alex's life entitled "Alex and Me" by Dr. Pepperberg, as well as the documentary "Life With Alex". Hearing in her own words the trials and tribulations of living and working with an intelligent parrot was both deeply moving, as well as instrumental to the heart of the story I want to tell with Birds of a Feather. I got the chance to speak with Dr. Pepperberg in 2019 when I first started to develop this project, and her knowledge of, and passion and love for parrots and African Grey Parrots was clearly evident. Since then, I have researched many bird owners, and come to appreciate the adoration and connection that grows between owner and pet.

Technical Details

Birds of a Feather is created in the Unreal Engine version 5.1, and features motion and performance capture that has been made with an Opti-track system. Animation and asset creation is done in Blender, and the project utilizes FMod for sound design.