Antiche tracce. La vita in palafitta
Municipality of Desenzano del Garda
- Municipality of Desenzano del Garda
OUR SERVICES
- Content Production
- Video Production
- Sound Design
An extraordinary opportunity to discover and enhance the archaeological heritage of the UNESCO pile-dwelling sites in northern Italy through a combination of modern technology and immersive storytelling
ETT signs a new project for ‘The UNESCO Pile-Dwelling Sites. Development of common projects for the promotion and enhancement of Italian sites’, funded by the Ministry of Tourism, which involves and enhances seven other municipalities in northern Italy belonging to the UNESCO World Heritage circuit of Alpine pile-dwelling sites.
‘Antiche tracce. La vita in palafitta’ (Ancient Traces. Life in pile dwellings), is a short film in Virtual Reality set in the Archeo Natura Park of Fiavé, in the province of Trento, and divided into six scenes, created to narrate through immersive storytelling in VR the life of one of the oldest farming communities in Europe, which built and inhabited prehistoric alpine villages on pile dwellings between 3,800 BC and 1,500 BC.
A fiction in a double version – traditional and VR – written and directed by Federico Basso, a window on daily life in a prehistoric village, in which the location becomes the canvas on which to illustrate the everyday life of the inhabitants.
The work, which lasts five minutes and is divided into six scenes, each of which lasts about one minute and is filmed at 360 degrees to give an immersive experience, retraces the daily activities of the prehistoric society that inhabited the area of Fiavè, in the province of Trento, where the pile dwellings that housed one of the oldest European farming communities are still preserved today.
The public witnesses scenes from the life of a prehistoric community, with a focus on the lives of the people, immersing themselves in the reality of that era, between pile dwellings and traditional activities.
The different scenes are declined in function of a unitary factor, consisting of a protagonist, a woman in her fifties who, followed by a camera, gives continuity to the short film and accompanies the spectator along the unfolding of the different scenes.
After the first scenes set outdoors, where the activities of fishing, handicrafts and pile building are described, the scene shifts to one of the village huts to film characters intent on other tasks, such as weaving, making butter and grinding grain. The protagonist – followed by a dedicated camera – gives narrative continuity to the short film and accompanies the viewer as the settings unfold.
Through the use of multi-camera shots, the scene is observed from several angles and the concept of VR editing is interpreted in a completely new way, changing the point of view according to the narrative.
In order to eliminate disturbing elements (public furniture, lighting fixtures, the operators themselves or supporting equipment) or roads and buildings, in the most panoramic shots, ultra-high-definition CGI (Computer-generated Imagery) post-production interventions were carried out, which, by means of Artificial Intelligence algorithms, reconstruct and correct even the smallest details.
Specifically, each narrative is divided into four parts: an initial overall geographical overview, showing the position of the archaeological sites on the map, is followed by a focus on the individual area to be investigated, to continue with the reconstruction of the objects used for the specific activity represented, thanks also to the work of professional actors, in the finale.
The peculiarity of the short film is the absence of a narrator’s voice or dialogue. This stylistic choice stems from the idea of giving more space to images and a visual type of narration. The elements that emerge, in fact, are gestures, movements and non-verbal language that gives the final spectator a simple but impactful tale. A peculiar ‘sound design’ work was also necessary, built on the sounds of elementary music expressed by flute and percussion, which nevertheless leaves room for ambient noises. At the same time, significant post-production work was carried out to eliminate disturbing ‘modernity’ elements (benches, signs, lighting) or roads and buildings in the more panoramic shots.
At the end of the short film, a map identifies the UNESCO archaeological sites in the overall context and provides access to content in Computer-Generated Imagery. Each municipality of the project (Desenzano del Garda, Ledro, Fiavé, Monzambano, Polcenigo, Arona, Lonato del Garda and Arquà Petrarca.) is matched with a faithfully reconstructed and representative object (a canoe, a plough, etc.), for a total of eight different insights. Each CGI is accompanied by a voice over in two languages (Italian/English).