Common Ground
STUDIO — All Seeing Eye
CLIENT — East City Films
Conceived and directed by Darren Emerson, Common Ground is an immersive documentary which explores the notorious Aylesbury Estate, a concrete monument to the history of social housing in the UK.
The project is a journey into the history and legacy of one of the most controversial housing estates in Britain: the Aylesbury Estate, in Walworth, South London. Utilising stereoscopic 360° video, photogrammetry, 3D, interactive elements and archive footage, audiences enter the world of the estate from its birth in the 1960s, through its decline and up to its controversial regeneration today. The multifaceted documentary questions notions of community, examines the disenfranchisement and demonisation of the working class, and asks whether current housing policy today is destined to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Common Ground has been shown internationally to much acclaim. It received its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2019 and its UK premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest. The experience won the Grand Prix for Innovation at Cinema Nouveau and award for Best Immersive Storytelling at Sandbox Immersive Film Festival.
I was responsible for creatively leading and co-producing the project for the All Seeing Eye team. Additionally to this I also created 360° illustrations and textures used across the experience.
“What was interesting was how the piece had everyone talking – not purely about the medium but the content, the story and its impact, something rarely achieved in the realm of extended reality filmmaking.”
— Marisol Grandon, Sight & Sound Magazine
