Spa Sybarite
“The World health organization states that “Although it is unequivocal that climate change affects human health, it remains challenging to accurately estimate the scale and impact of many climate-sensitive health risks. In the short- to medium-term, the health impacts of climate change will be determined mainly by the vulnerability of populations, their resilience to the current rate of climate change, and the extent and pace of adaptation.”
But what happens in the long term when adapting to climate change will simply get harder at which point our bodies are unable to cope with the impact of the environment’s hostility?
With the wellness industry now being one of the world’s fastest, most resilient markets, outranking the pharmaceutical industry several times over, it’s easy to see wellness, not healthcare, becoming the clear & present winners of the climate change business providing coping with climate-anxiety an emerging market to profit off of. The International Finance Corporation posits that the “Climate Investment Opportunities” will total $23 Trillion in Emerging Markets by 2030.
When you have a total addressable market of the entire planet, the climate crisis provides a perfect excuse to make every business a climate business. The treatments themselves that are featured in the project are not science fiction, but present-day reality. Bathing complexes, IV therapy, nutrition-specific hydroponic systems, and Immersive virtual reality caves are all popular technologies today, which the project packages and rebrands as “climate-specific treatment”.
By shedding light on disaster capitalism, where companies use a crisis like climate change as an opportunity for profit, exclusive Climate Spas like Spa Sybarite are an example of a cautionary architectural typology that is imminent. It is a form of critical architecture that is meant to render and highlight a plausible scenario to provoke and instigate thought on the impact of climate change on health and wellness as well as their corresponding industries.”
Credits / Collaborators / Cast
Director // Joshua A Dawson
Cast
Kyla Dyan (Spa Guest), Victoria Lynn (V.O)
Producer // Ian McClellan
Executive Producer // Sherry Chen
DP // Ashton Rae
Visual Effects Supervisor // Stephen Burchell
1st AC // Dylan Pfaffenberger
Key Grip // Becky Sapp
Gaffer // Will Prada
Costume Designer // Saori Mitome
Hair/MUA // Dre Lamparello
Compositor/3D Track // Ethan Montgomery
3D Modeling/lighting/rendering // Joshua Dawson
Interface // Mario Pegas
Color // Color Space Finishing
Sound // Ankur Agrawal
Original Score // Russell Henson
Key PA // Michael Solomon
The story behind the film
Process:
Production:
This film was shot on a green screen stage in Burbank, Los Angeles. The only live-action elements were the actress herself as well as the props that she came in contact with. Everything else was CGI and built out digitally. The entire film was shot over a single day. The sets of the project were designed and crafted digitally from scratch over 6 months.
Pre-Production:
Before the shoot, we built the 3D model of the spa and the lighting rigs digitally, and every camera move was pre-planned and pre-decided with my cinematographer to match on set. So we knew how to light the shot quickly on the shoot day, and talented actress Kyla Dyan knew her blocking even before arriving on set. This helped us be efficient on the day of the shoot.
Post-Production:
The post-production of the project involved weeks of tracking and re-matching the lighting to what was captured on set to accurately place the actress in the environment of the spa.





FILM DETAILS
Genre: Experimental / Science Fiction
Country: USA
Language: English
Length in minutes: 3:05
YEAR: 2023