Signal 0001: NNZNULL, the error that throws the algorithm into crisis

A world decided by an algorithm

We are in a dystopian future split into two classes. At the top is an elite, the only class allowed to work. Below is the rest of the population, apparently free because they can do nothing all day. In reality they have nothing to do: people walk through grey cities or sit still in dormitories, all dressed the same.

Resources are rationed. How much oxygen, water and food each person gets, and how many hours they sleep, is decided by an artificial intelligence run by the elite. On the screens the system shows a number: 99% accuracy.

NNZNULL wakes up

The protagonist is called NNZNULL. One day he wakes up, and the awakening is also a metaphor. To the model he is an error, something that according to its predictions should not have happened, and his existence throws a system that believed itself perfect into crisis.

In the script NNZNULL escapes from the dormitory, chased by one of the doctors charged with fixing the anomaly, and in the end the one who controlled the algorithm is killed by his own colleagues. The chase was meant to be the centre of the film, but with the tools of the time scenes with several people running together did not work: we cut it, along with the ending. The first episode stops before that.

The name says it all

We called it 0001 because it is the first of a series. The protagonist carries the studio's name, and that is no accident: NNZNULL is an error inside a system that boasts about its precision, and that is the side we like to be on.

How we made it

It was one of the studio's first big projects and we gave it a huge amount of time. Behind it there is real screenwriting and directing, with a story written before a single image was generated.

At the time we worked only with generated images and clips, with no live footage. To keep the characters recognisable from scene to scene we built a first character sheet, when almost nobody called it that yet. Many scenes went through After Effects, with tracking and effects done by hand. There were many problems with consistency and movement, and solving them taught us much of what we use today.

Sound tells the two worlds apart too: the elite's world has a classical piano and light airs, NNZNULL's awakening a tight rhythm of footsteps and drums. The story of the studio's name, from NNNN to NNZN, and the tools we used are in the Academy article behind the scenes of Signal.

The second episode

The idea for Signal 0002 already exists. We fund a project like this ourselves, so it needs time and resources. If a partner comes along who wants to produce it with us, we will make it sooner. Otherwise we will take our time.

• In-house project, no client
• Images and clips generated with artificial intelligence, tracking and effects in After Effects

We also work on narrative projects for brands. We talk about it on the creative direction page.