In the Robot Skies (2016, 10 minutes) is the first narrative short film shot entirely by drones whose cameras are programmed with specific cinematic rules and behaviors. The film tells the love story of two teenagers who communicate via a hacked drone from within the digital confines of their own council estate tower block in London. The film embraces the drone as a new instrument of visual storytelling, but also as the catalyst for a new network of surveillance activists and drone hackers within the infrastructure of smart cities.

In the Robot Skies was directed by Liam Young, written by Tim Maughan, and developed in collaboration with the Embedded and Artificially Intelligent Vision Lab at the University of Leuven, Belgium. In the Robot Skies was commissioned by Channel 4 Random Acts and STUK, Belgium.

Where the City Can’t See (2016, 12 minutes) is the first fiction film shot entirely through laser scanning technology. The film is set in the fictional Detroit Economic Zone (DEZ), in a not-too-distant future where Google maps, urban management systems, and CCTV surveillance are mapping—and ruling—our cities. The film explores the subcultures that could emerge from these new technologies, following a group of young factory workers across a single night as they drift through the smart city in a driverless taxi.

Where the City Can’t See was directed by Liam Young, written by Tim Maughan, and produced by AND Festival; with support from Forestry Commission England’s Forest Art Works; and funding from Arts Council England, St. Helens Heart of Glass, and the University of Salford Art Collection.

Renderlands (2017, 8 minutes) is a mixed reality film set in the outsourced video game companies and render farms of India. The film tells the story of a digital renderer who has fallen in love with an animated actor he has created. It chronicles his construction of a dream city as the stage for his romantic fantasy, which he collages together from scavenged VFX movie models and 3D game assets—the remnants of cancelled production jobs that remain on studio hard drives. Using actual digital detritus from the film and game industries, Renderlands presents a contemporary utopia that exists in the thickness of the screen: a virtual city of demolished landmarks, drowned streetscapes, alien invasions, and synthetic actors.

Renderlands was directed by Liam Young, written by Tim Maughan, developed in collaboration with Dhurva Interactive, and Labyrinth Cinematic Solutions, and with support from Columbia GSAPP.