This was a group project to design a site-specific attraction in an existing parking garage in Savannah, Georgia. The notes that accompany the following slides were the script for our presentation and further narrate the story and concept. We collaborated on the overall story and layout. I developed the aesthetic, story beats and storyboard, and was responsible for slides 2-13 and 19. Alyssa also created the axonometric.

[LOGLINE] Welcome to Nicneven Cemetery. A private burial place for a group of Savannah families whose descendants still walk among us. This was not any normal group of families however. In 1763, an extensive witch hunt came to an end as Edin Perceval, the daughter of one of the families, was hanged on these very grounds as she was believed to be the leader of a coven of witches. 
The site along with its dark history has long been forgotten, until now. A recent rapid growth of trees encircling the site has led locals to believe a new coven has started visiting the cemetery. Those who dare venture into this mystic, superstitious thicket risk disturbing its ghostly inhabitants, as well as the new creatures and conjurers that have taken up residence. Enter at your own risk…

As we get closer to the cemetery, we start to notice there  are strange things hanging in the trees...

Nicneven Cemetery isn't on any maps anymore. After centuries of neglect, Savannah wanted to turn the cemetery into a parking garage, even going so far as to name the site "Liberty street Garage" before construction started. But every time the construction crews would start to cut down trees or tear down walls, there were unsettling paranormal incidents and terrible accidents that drove contractor after contractor away from the site.

This is what the cemetery looks like today. Completely overgrown, it looks like not even light can penetrate through the twisted oaks. 
Entry to the cemetery is near the corner of Harris and Jefferson; the quietest corner of the lot; where no one would notice anyone, or anything, disappearing into the thicket...The gates are open, yet something gives you the feeling that you are trespassing into a place that does not wish to be disturbed...

We approach the rusted entrance gate shrouded by trees and moss. Suddenly a panicked man bursts out from between the trees. "Are you with them?" he says "No, no you don't look like them...Why are you all here? What's-How did I get back here...I was over...I must have lost some time...I need to get out of here, WE need to get out of here! We were just trying to make a documentary about what was going on in here...where's my camera?... where - the crew was just with me. They're still in there! I've got to get help, the police, or a priest...All I know is I'm not going back in there!" (He runs off)

We decide to continue forward...strange sounds are heard all around us...including one that sounds like a taught rope swaying on a branch, as if a body was on the other end of it...Blocking the pathway, we see what appears to be the original cemetery gate from the 1700s, old and decrepit. The view beyond the gate is obscured by a heavy moss curtain draped over high branches. Next to it hang strange items above 2 large niches in the trees. A sign above them reads "Those who wish to enter must make an offering of blood and splinter (red string and sticks), and place it on a tree in order for the gate to open for thee." After we make a small totem, the ancient gate creaks open.

Once through the gate, we find two people arguing. They must be part of the same documentary film crew as the paranoid guy. "I'm not going back in there!" one says "But I saw them take Blake!" counters the other. They suddenly realize we are standing among the headstones. "Who are you!?" A noise in the distance draws all of our attention to red lights behind the trees that seem to be walking towards us. "Nevermind," they say to us "We've got to get you out of here!" They try the gate we came in through but it won't budge.  
"We thought the stories about this place and who was here were just stories that would make a good film, but I'm warning you this place is very real...They captured our friend and seem to be preparing for some sort of ritual. We need to find our friends but you can still escape. I think there's a way out through the crypts... We have to move quickly. Everyone in, two per skull! They lead to the crypts and probably the way out. Stay quiet, and they won't notice you. There's no other way. They're coming! " 

These skull baskets woven from branches and suspended from an arial track in the canopy must be the coven's main mode of transportation. The jaw flips up and we take a seat before being lifted several stories into the air.

We slow to a stop outside one of the tree structures. We see a small group of hooded figures as one begins to speak: "Brothers and sisters! Our time is nigh! Edin Perceval, the ancient original leader of the coven, was murdered on these hallowed grounds! Her very descendant, our leader, will bestow on us the good fortune that we so deserve! Our ancestors built this town as much as the ancestors of those who condemn us, and we deserve our share! We will take back what is rightfully ours!" The ride vehicle moved on...

We stopped again to see what appears to be one of the documentary crew members held against their will as members of the coven encircled them, placing items on them as if in preparation for a ritual. The crew member notices us and ever so slightly mouths "help me..." One of the hooded figures suddenly notices us and shouts. "Get them!" As coven members rush towards our vehicles, one of them draws a knife and slices through one of the track ropes holding up the skulls. We felt a quick jolt that sends us into a momentary free fall before the skulls catch on another track. But the drop has caused us to accelerate to a frightening speed.

We careen downwards, whirling through the trees. We see tombstones embedded in the tree trunks. As the oaks grew up through graves they took their occupants with them. We soon realized we were heading down into a crypt. Is this the way out??

We speed in before skittering off the rails and into an underground stream that gently descends down further into the darkness. We entered a torch-lit tunnel covered in more  symbols and float towards a large chamber...

We come to a stop just in time to see one of the crew members from the cemetery being taken towards a large slab of stone, a sacrificing altar...beside which lays a slaughtered goat . A coven member in a special cloak drinks from a chalice, goat blood dripping down their chin. The chamber appears to be for rituals and housing the coven's dark library. The most venerated of their dead are also in this room, including the remains of their founder, Edin Perceval.

Suddenly coven members rush in, screaming about trespassers. At once, they all lunge to grab us. Thankfully the current rushes us down the river and into another tunnel... (Illustration by Alyssa Phillips)

Coven members began popping out of archways along the tunnel all around us shouting: "Stop them! Close the gate!" A gate ahead begins to creak closed; were we going to make it out in time? (Illustration by Alyssa Phillips)

Yes! Our vehicles made their way past the gate just in time!
We float to a dock located outside a mausoleum, where the cameraman from the cemetery helps everyone to exit the vehicles. "You all made it! They took Sarah after we left you back in the clearing! Did you see her? I have to go back, but this leads to an exit! Hurry!" (Illustration by Alyssa Phillips)

As we made our way into the mausoleum, the door shuts behind us...a camcorder begins to project a video onto the wall...it's the guy we saw at the very beginning...this must be the camera he lost. "I don't know where anyone is...I snuck onto one of these transportation devices to look for my friends and found a crypt full of really weird stuff...I've got to go find help... what was that?" We see a shadowy figure emerge from the shadows ... We start hearing that same strange sound from the video as hands, or claws, reach for us from behind columns and bricks. The other door at the opposite end of the room finally opens and we sprint out. (Illustration by Alyssa Phillips)

The doors closed behind us and we were safely located in what appears to be some sort of gift shop. (Illustration by Alyssa Phillips)

We bought a few protective objects to make sure the coven cannot hex us for trespassing.  The mausoleum shop led out to a section of  the cemetery's perimeter wall that had been broken through by those misguided construction crews who tried to tear this place down. We breath a sigh of relief, but we don't know if others will be so lucky in their escape.