Following an urgent call from his supervisor, Leighton, now working as an undercover detective, arrives at the Alpine Rose Hotel, where he must solve one or more mysterious disappearances.
Though he arrives late and the staff have clocked off and gone home, keys have been left for him, and he can hear the sounds of the other guests as they get ready to turn in for the night. Overall the atmosphere is welcoming.
Leighton forms a plan to question the other guests without blowing his cover, and, after a quick call to his Supervisor, goes to bed.
VERITAS: PART 1 - MIDNIGHT, ALONE
PROJECT VERITAS
Veritas is my Final Year Project with Teesside University. It is an audio driven first person psychological experience, the story of which follows Leighton, an undercover detective, as he investigates the disappearance of a young woman from the Alpine Rose Hotel, a small, pretentious place with a low budget but big ideas. However, as he learns more about the mystery, he also discovers the horrifying truth about himself...
The principal of the story is based on the concepts presented in Jekyll and Hyde (R. L. Stevenson, 1886)
As such, the dialogue in this project contains quotes from the original text.
VERITAS: PART 2 - THE DAYLIGHT NOISE
Leighton sleeps in and misses his chance to question the guests at breakfast, but uses the time to have a look around the office and some of the empty rooms.
He begins to find notes left for him, and starts to worry that he hasn't seen anyone yet.
Following the sound of one person's footsteps leads him to a very nasty shock.
VERITAS: PART 3 - HYDE AND SEEK
Leighton becomes aware that this is now a murder investigation. Furthermore, the killer knows who he is and plays games with him.
The killer has left cryptic tapes for him, describing how he killed the missing woman.
Leighton's relationship with his supervisor becomes cloudier, as the DCI seems unphased by the events that have been revealed.
VERITAS: PART 4 - THE LENGTHENING SHADOWS
Leighton's sanity takes a turn for the worst as he finally smashes his way into the cellar.
Dark, damp and fetid, containing a few crates, a single sofa and a TV screen playing what can only be the killer staring into the camera screen, Leighton discovers that this is where the missing girl met her fate.
When he tries to relate all of this to his supervisor, contact is cut and he is on his own.
His hallucinations become more vivid and real than before, and as it draws to a close, he realises he has known the killer's true identity all along...
CHARACTERS AND BACK STORIES
While audio is my main specialism, I also put a lot into the story; the concept and characters all have hidden depths which I endeavoured to bring through subliminally. When writing the scripts and working with the voice actors, I produced detailed back stories and characterisations for every character. The main ones are pictured right (click to enlarge).
FREUD
The twist at the end of Veritas is that all three main characters are the same person, each one a third of a fractured personality. Each part is based on Freudian psychology; the killer represents the id, driven by desire; Leighton represents the ego, driven by consequence, cause and effect, and Colwell, the supervisor, represents the superego, driven by conscience and humanity.
RELATIONSHIPS
This is also reflected in their ages, relationships and circumstances. The Killer is "the past" - the younger version who is simply bored with life and likes to play games and run rings around those who would put an end to his wrongdoing (the id is the part of the psyche that we are born with). Leighton is "he present", trying to discover, or moreover, remember the events of the past, using his strong sense of justice and consequence (the ego develops around the age of three), and the supervisor is "the future" who, driven by conscience, is trying to guide Leighton towards the discovery of his dark past (the superego develops around age 5).
WRITING VERITAS:
The idea behind the story is derived from concepts suggested in Jekyll and Hyde - a man has learned to compartmentalise elements of his psyche so that he can indulge all of desires and fancies, while still living a moral, guilt free life. However, when "the killer" goes a step too far, killing his wife/girlfriend while on vacation together, each fragment becomes detached and the memories are repressed. The Killer chooses to remember and the Supervisor has accepted responsibility for his actions, changed his name, and divorced himself from the situation, living a solitary life where he doesn't associate with people often - Leighton remains bliddfully unaware. The main goal in the story is to force Leighton to accept his past and move on, thereby unifying the elements of his psyche once more and enabling him to live a normal life.
BACKGROUND CHARACTERS
The background characters are essentially the conversations that Leighton overhears on his first night and during the restaurant sequence the second day. While these characters weren't integral to the story, they were still written with a background story as to make them seem more believable - one of the main focuses of the project was to maintain an illusion using sound, which, in this case, was dialogue based.
There are ten background characters in total, all of which have their own background story, personality and profession, and each interact with at least one other character. There's a nervous pair of newlyweds, a tired, older man with a nosey, overly dramatic wife, a pair of not-so-bright businessmen getting screwed over by a more devious businessman and his trophy girlfriend, and an arrogant small town author who has an angry telephone conversation with his editor, and gives a young waiter the run around.
THE ENVIRONMENT
The hotel environment was chosen in part because of its adaptability to the nature of the story; it allowed for a large number of background characters to be present, yet seemingly inconsequential, as opposed to investigating a murder in a mansion with a number of family members and servants present. It allowed for the situation to be personal to Leighton without it being immediately obvious, as opposed to, for example, Leighton tracking down a family secret in his own household, Additionally, it also provided a convenient explanation as to why the characters could not be seen or visited, they were behind locked doors, which, in a hotel was natural.
Additionally, Leighton had to be investigating undercover to prevent players wanting to take a more cavalier approach and question the non-existant guests directly. This also accomodated the lack of any character models and animations, which would have been beyond the scope of a one-man project.
