RELEASE: Regression 4

It has been three years since Regression 3 was released; the (currently) last installment in the on-going Regression saga. Highlighting the airspace of the Grand Theft Auto V map and clocking in at 9 minutes, it was well received and was featured on a number of international film festivals. It's time to break the silence and to present the next step forward for the Regression-saga. Time for a visual upgrade. Time for a technical upgrade. Time for a runtime upgrade. Time for a new direction. Time for a new and exciting trilogy. Today marks the release of the first installment in the second Regression-trilogy: Regression 4.

Regression 4 marks the return to the ever expansive and vibrant Grand Theft Auto V map by conducting a highly experimental and cinematic exploration by using water as its primary perspective. The film explores the the many water bodies found within the game, its marine life and a number of hidden secrets scattered underneath Los Santos and Blaine County. Furthermore, Regression 4 is the first installment in the series to enjoy a visual upgrade to 4K Scope (4096x1716) resolution. In addition, I am currently considering mastering a 5.1 surround audio mix in the near future for film festival purposes. This way, I hope to get even closer to the true values of the 'practice of distortion' framework I often utilize in my work: a framework of rules and values that revolves around the practice of distorting otherwise extremely clear video-game generated images (and audio for that matter) with the intent of moving away from perceiving the film as a 'product from a video game' and more as a 'product of cinema' by using various values found in traditional cinema such as cinematic resolutions, 24 frames per second, color grading and various visual effects such as motion blur and grain.

Production took around two weeks and took place during May of this year. The film was captured in its entirety on a Cloud Gaming PC called Shadow. A limited number of mods were required for this production. Only the well-known MENYOO mod was used during production for easy teleportation and submarine spawning purposes. As stated in the release statement of Regression 3 back in 2020 and in various interviews that followed regarding the production process of future Regression films, I wanted to let go of the predetermined flow that was present in the previous Regression installments and went into production this time with a blank slate and just the simple mindset of exploring everything and everywhere as much as I could with the intent to present a highly experimental visual study seen from within a submarine. Post-Production was also treated this way: all of the shots were randomly chosen based on feeling and interpretation; closely resembling the randomized approach found in the original Regression. Offline editing was conducted over the course of two weeks, adding another month and a half for the color grading and audio post-production process. The final renders literally just rolled from the press a mere few hours ago.

Look forward to more Regression in the near future. Regression 5 is in active post-production. Regression 6 is in production (50% completed). More Regression installments are planned after that. Here's to another trilogy! I am extremely excited to share the end result with y'all. Enjoy!

REGRESSION 4

An experimental visual study of the Grand Theft Auto V map seen through its many water bodies, underwater secrets and marine life.

A Jordy Veenstra Film

Produced by A Pixelated Point of View

Released: Thursday, September 7th 2023

Runtime: 13"51'

Color/BW: Color

Genre: Machinima, Experimental, Visual Study

Aspect Ratio: 2:35

Resolution: 4096x1716 (4K SCOPE)

Framerate: 24FPS

Audio: Stereo, -14LUFS; Stereo, -23LUFS

(5.1 Surround -14/-23/-27 LUFS at a later stage)

Color Space: REC709

Game:

Grand Theft Auto V (2013) by Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive

Mods:

ScriptHook V by Alexander Blade

MENYOO by Mafins

Mods were obtained from gta5-mods.com

Music:

DEPTHS

Composed by SuperMash