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It is sometimes complex to separate the personal work from the commissioned, because the two overlap and feed off each other. Besides, on a regular basis, Mélanie Courtinat is given by institutions or even brands a complete "carte blanche". This selection therefore presents her most unrestricted projects, and those that resonate the most with her work as an artist.
ALL UNSAVED PROGRESS WILL BE LOST
Virtual Reality 360°, 6DoF, 10’

YEAR 2022
ART DIRECTION, PRODUCTION Mélanie Courtinat
ORIGINAL MUSIC Yatoni
DISTRIBUTION Diversion Cinema

For some historical events that have occurred, we have no system of representation, no analogies, no experience.
We’re talking about catastrophes of a new type for which neither our eyes, nor our ears, nor even our vocabulary are adapted. All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost is a sensorial journey that questions our fears and our ability to resist the very worst through the testimony of a survivor who refused to evacuate her home. Voluntary prisoner of a space made unfit for life, she shares her vision of the event in a fantasized environment made of concrete and fog, that represents the projection of an original land where no return to the sources is possible.
It is only at the very end that we are revealed what the story is based on, and without this information, the unnamed threat is silent, inexplicably imminent, and leaves the viewer to project their own fears of a possible future catastrophe.
The Premiere took place at the Venice Biennale as part of the Immersive official selection. It has since been shown at over twenty venues - exhibitions, festivals - around the world.

COOKING FOR WILLIAM

Video game

YEAR 2023
ART DIRECTION, CGI, PRODUCTION Mélanie Courtinat, Nino Filiu, Pierre Moulin
SECOND TO LAST MUSIC Yatoni

Cooking for William is a short horror visual novel disguised as a cozy cooking video game 🥬🍅🥗🍕in which we assist ▢ ▢▢▢▢▢ chef in preparing a delicious meal ▢▢▢▢▢▢  her husband ▢▢▢▢▢▢ William ▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢ ▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢ ▢▢▢▢ ▢▢ ▢ ▢▢▢▢▢▢ ▢▢▢ ▢▢▢▢ ▢▢▢.  ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა | ₊‧°𐐪♡𐑂°‧₊ | ✮⋆ 💕

⚠️ SPOILERS ⚠️
The game is initially presented in the parodic form of a simplistic, sexist casual cooking game, in which we help Marie, a jovial and naive NPC (non-player character), to prepare dinner for her husband. Quickly bored, the player finds himself tempted to install another game instead, in this case a horror game, "Forest of Fears". As the second game gradually replaces the first, the latter becomes populated with monstrous creatures and elements from another register that gradually interfere with the cooking narrative and disturb the main character, who finally breaks the fourth wall, begging the player not to delete her.
The visuals, entirely created with the assistance of artificial intelligence, prove as often to be very effective in generating archetypes.





A SIDE QUEST IS NOT ENOUGH ___ UBISOFT

Photographs taken inside a video game

YEAR 2022 
ART DIRECTION, PRODUCTION Mélanie Courtinat
EVENT Agence m_nstr_


A side quest is not enough is a narrative series created using the video game Watchdogs Legion by Ubisoft. This project is the response to a carte blanche offered by the latter, in the context of the first worldwide exhibition of in-game photographs, taking place in New York in November 2022.

The project tells the story of an NPC ("Non-Playing Character") who realizes that he is stuck inside a video game, that he is purely virtual, and worse, that he is not even the hero of the game. We then follow him in his frantic search for "real" sensations, in which he will go very far in terms of violence, but at the end he confesses that the real emotion that haunts him is an infinite loneliness, when the player will leave the game and turn off the console.

NPC

CGI renders 

YEAR 2023, ongoing
ART DIRECTION, CGI, PRODUCTION Mélanie Courtinat

NPC stands for "Non-Player Character." In the context of video games and role-playing games, an NPC refers to a character that is not controlled by a human player. Instead, NPCs are controlled by the game's programming and artificial intelligence. NPCs play various roles within a game's world. They can serve as quest givers, providing players with tasks and missions to complete. NPCs can also act as merchants, allowing players to buy and sell items within the game. Additionally, NPCs might populate the game world to make it feel more immersive and realistic, by interacting with each other, the environment, and the player. This research project explores these essential figures from the video game register.