Z on Location

Overshare

The next morning, Z loads her camera into her backpack and helps Mom and Nora divide up the equipment for the day’s interview, having studied the next company’s binder the night before. Simulated Actuality, or S/A for short, specializes in bringing virtual reality experiences to students of all ages.

Nora compliments Z’s “CREW” cap, and Mom jokes that she needs one, too, prompting Z to swallow a groan and grab her own load. Mom also mentions that Nora said that Z took the scholarship footage from Drama Connect. It was great footage. Z half-heartedly smiles at Nora, feeling bad for not wanting Nora to have a “CREW” cap.

Josh Feldman, S/A’s founder, greets them in the lobby wearing his own crew shirt, all smiles and energy as he shakes everyone’s hands. He leads them into a Virtual Reality Lab where the walls look completely blank, explaining that keeping the space plain helps people feel as immersed as possible once they put on a headset.

Mom, who’s always insisting VR will change the world someday, jumps at the chance to try one out. For a photo op, Josh straps a giant black visor over her eyes while a monitor lets everyone else watch what she’s seeing: a dense jungle. Mom raises her hands to push through invisible leaves, grips a virtual machete, and jumps when a tiger prowls into view. A moment later, a parrot lands on her shoulder and a monkey blocks her path through the simulation. Once it’s over, Josh helps pull the visor from her head. “There,” Mom says. “I didn’t look that funny, did I?” Z answers in an exaggerated tone that she didn’t look funny at all. Mom and Nora look at each other, and then the whole gang breaks out in laughter.

Next comes the workshop. Josh reminds them not to photograph anything in the prototype rooms. And then he shows off S/A’s newest tech: oversized wireless touch gloves five times more sensitive than the industry standard. Mom pulls them on and operates a drone on a nearby screen, popping open its hatch and spinning a propeller with a poke of her virtual finger.

Despite Josh’s request for no photographs, Z can’t resist snapping pictures and clips throughout the tour and texting them to her friends with #summeradventure. It’s not like the pictures are going on the public internet, right? Becka fires back that it all looks so cool. The last stop, the education gallery, lets Z and Nora try headsets of their own, and Z takes some selfies for what feels like the best #summeradventure post yet.

The actual interview with Josh goes smoothly, and afterward, Z posts more of the day’s photos, hoping the tags and hashtags might catch Winter Costello’s attention for a shoutout on her next vlog. Since Mom already has dinner plans with an old coworker, Meg, Nora takes Z to a vegan restaurant called the Cheerful Onion. Its walls are covered in cheerful dancing vegetables. Z isn’t thrilled about the menu and picks at a plate of tofu, only half-listening as Nora mentions she’s been vegan for two years.

Partway through dinner, Nora’s phone rings, and Mom sounds serious. They hurry back to the RV, where Mom is furious. Josh called to say that someone posted footage of S/A’s still-secret prototype tech, tagging the company after he’d specifically asked for no photos or videos in those rooms. He’s revoked permission to use today’s interview footage and canceled tomorrow’s shoot at S/A entirely. Z realizes with dread that she never posted anything herself; Becka or another friend must have reposted the clips Z had sent and tagged her, too.

Z tries to apologize, but Mom, too angry and disappointed to hear it again, cuts her off. Thanks to a backup location Meg has already found, filming continues at a different site tomorrow, but Z will spend the rest of the trip grounded in the RV, with no phone and no laptop. Only the promise of meeting her friends at VidCon is keeping Mom from sending her home early.

That night, unable to concentrate on a book she’d packed, Z asks Mom if she can write one email now, an apology to Josh, rather than waiting until morning. Mom lets her, agreeing to review every word before sending it along herself. The email is hard to write, and Z struggles over the first few sentences, deleting them over and over before finally landing on something that feels right. Lying awake afterward, she realizes she’s also lost her shot at interviewing Winter Costello, and wonders whether she’s really cut out to be a filmmaker after all.