5th Floor Walk-Up

A humorous look into the future of NYC walk-up apartments.

A humorous look into the future of NYC walk-up apartments.

A humorous look into the future of NYC walk-up apartments.

My Role

My Role

My Role

Lead Animator

Duration

Duration

Duration

3 weeks

Tools

Tools

Tools

Adobe After Effects

Adobe Premier Pro

Runway ML

Go Pro Camera

Zoom Recorder

Design Process

Design Process

Design Process

  1. Concept

  1. Brainstorming

  1. Storyboarding & Filming

  1. Editing

  1. Final Product

Team

Team

Team

Prisha Jain

Bethany (B) Wu

Skills

Skills

Skills

Ideation

Storyboarding

Videography

Scripting

Video Editing

Sound Editing

Animation

Concept

Concept

A humorous viewing experience into a speculative future in which everything has become immersive. The main character is experiencing a glitch in her normal “Walk Up Experience”, which customizes the stairwell based on which theme the player chooses. “5th Floor Walkup” hones in on a common present-day issue for New Yorkers (stairs) and combines it with futuristic sci-fi elements, showcasing a world that may be closer than we think...

Brainstorming

Brainstorming

Early in our conceptual development, we settled on a first-person POV approach, and knew we wanted it to feel almost like a game. In searching for an effective way to present our speculative future, we landed on a concept that was both familiar and surreal to New Yorkers: the daily experience of climbing a five-floor walkup apartment building. This mundane activity would serve as our canvas for creating increasingly bizarre and unsettling scenarios, with each floor representing a different layer of our dystopian vision.

Storyboarding & Filming

Storyboarding & Filming

The ground floor is the entry point to set the scene.


The second floor would transform into a jungle theme.


The third floor would shift completely into a 2D cartoonish reality, inspired by the TV show Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends


The fourth floor would become a portal world, with multiple doorways leading to different micro-universes.


Finally, the fifth floor would subvert all expectations of "home" by opening into a void.


Throughout our planning, we maintained several guiding principles: creating distinct, contrasting experiences between floors, maintaining an absurdist, nonsensical atmosphere, incorporating humor as a central element in the storytelling, and breaking expectations with each new level. This structure allowed us to create a progression that becomes increasingly surreal as viewers ascend the building, while the familiar framework of climbing stairs grounds the experience in reality.

Pre-Production Planning

We developed a detailed storyboard that mapped out:


- Visual elements for each floor
- Dialogue and comedic timing
- Camera movements and blocking
- Character interactions with the space

We paid particular attention to choreographing movements that would enhance each floor's unique characteristics. For example, on the fourth floor (our portal realm), we carefully planned three distinct portal transition, jerky motion to simulate interdimensional travel, and camera angles to maximize the impact of each portal jump.


Filming Process

  • Taking turns filming on stairs

  • Executing planned choreography

  • Multiple takes to perfect the movements

  • Continuous troubleshooting and refinement

Editing

Editing

We edited each floor with sound effects we sourced from places like freesound.com and YouTube. Then, we came together to do the dialogue. I created a script before recording.

We recorded on a Zoom recorder while walking through echoing hallways for authenticity, capturing natural movement sounds to make it sound more real.

Final Product

Final Product

Our speculative future video was well-received, with audiences responding positively to our surreal take on a familiar space. Through this project, we successfully transformed an ordinary walk-up into an increasingly bizarre journey through multiple realities. The feedback we received suggested several areas for future development, particularly in terms of audio enhancement. Adding more complex ambient sound design and spatial audio effects could help enhance the echoing qualities and create a less pristine, more atmospheric soundscape to match the visual distortions. Technical refinements, particularly in the 3D tracking precision, would also improve future iterations. The project successfully achieved our goal of creating a speculative future that blends familiar spaces with surreal elements, while maintaining a sense of humor throughout the narrative progression. Through the combination of strategic planning, technical execution, and creative problem-solving, we were able to create a unique perspective on how everyday spaces might transform in unexpected ways.