In December of 1984, a "living" billboard was erected on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles as a promotion for a line of jewelry. A group of aspiring actors took up residence on it, each competing to outlast the others and win a screen test. Artists Chip Lord, Branda Miller and Antonio Muntadas collaborated to produce three views of this public spectacle, creating a work collectively titled Media Hostages. Lord's Future Language uses a docu-narrative structure to introduce the billboard and contextualize it in the physical media environment of Sunset Strip. Miller's Unset Blvd. deals with dreams and memory, surveillance and media coverage, investigating the experiences of the only woman on the billboard. Muntadas' S.S.S. is a personal, visual commentary using the billboard as a "Media Case" in the larger context of America, circa 1985.