Research Document Artefact 4 (Interactive story)

A website called "inklewriter" allows people to write interactive stories. I have used this to write a piece of interactive fiction called 'Altered Being' and it can be viewed here:

http://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/jrv4

I created this story about someone waking up in a strange hospital and given special powers through experiments. The main character is the reader, I have deliberately not specified the gender. I use the word "you..." throughout to make the reader feel as if they are placed in that situation, making them feel how I describe them to feel. The idea was so they could investigate the hospital and discover what has happened to  them.

This was the story structure I was going to follow:

This is the structure I came up with for my interactive novel; there are six possible endings and a range of choices of where the reader can take the story. I thought of such a large number of choices to keep the reader entertained and have a lot of control on what happens. The story is focused on putting the reader in the position of the character so I believed it was important to let them decide what the character should do throughout the novel. 

I decided to leave this project idea to pursue something different and I have created an interactive film. Using a graphics tablet I haven drawn a series of images which compile to make a simple interactive story about a martial arts tournament fight. I am exploring into the topic of interactive through practice and developing interactivity through the YouTube annotations feature. From this video I want to gain some feedback of how people found the experience compared to a regular story.

I have created an online survey for people to watch the video, interact with the story and then answer questions: http://fluidsurveys.com/surveys/chris-thorby/interactive-film-and-online-video-research-project/

I thought from doing this people who may not understand interactive film would be able to get an idea on what it's about. After watching my video the topic would be fresh in their mind for answering the questions of how they found the viewing experience.



Creating this interactive video was a challenge, I spent a lot of time creating drawings on Photoshop and used Premiere Pro to add key frames for motion. Developing an interactive video was difficult as you have to think about all the different story paths and it can get really confusing. It was like creating pieces of puzzle which needed to be fitted together at the end. It almost felt messy because the story is broken up. I found the outcome was far more enjoyable than the process creating it.
This story was based on a storyboard I made a few years ago and I used key frames to animate it as I would like it to be filmed, such as pans and zooms. I have already created an interactive film before for YouTube so I decided to try something different by making a whole video from drawings. From this I could develop a film idea with settings, characters and costumes I wouldn't be able to film. I find the annotations feature is the best way to create an interactive film.

Structure of the interactive story

There are four possible endings; two lead to victory, one is escaping from a mugger outside the tournament and the other is losing the fight. I had to have a good and a bad ending for the main character so people had to think about their choices and consequences.


Survey results

From the survey I have collected results from 11 people who participated in watching my interactive film and completing the survey. 100% of people enjoyed interacting with the story and the majority of people liked being in control; with the ability to change what will happen. The minority prefer not to be in control and taken on a ride when watching a film. It seems the concept appealed to people who participated in my interactive film. From my interviews with Al Clark and David Mew they believed interactive film was more like a video game than a film so I decided to present this question to the public. 7 of 11 people said my film was more like a video game because you are in control of the character against it being a film with optional story paths. It seems then interactive is more of a video game experience than an actual film. I believe this is because viewers cannot sit back and relax whilst watching but have to participate and engage into the experience. Interactive could be negative in the way viewers are forced to make a contribution when they may not wish to.

In terms of the options to direct the story most people said they selected am option and went back to see the other choice. The minority thought about which choice to make and the consequences. The majority didn't care as much to which option they went for as they knew they could re-play it again with the alternative. I think this makes it less exciting but this is because it’s not a collaborative interactive film, people are viewing this within the privacy of their home. Perhaps if it were something screened in a cinema with an audience to select choices based on votes, participants would be more focused on the options and the outcome.

The majority wanted the main character within my film to succeed whilst 1 person wanted him to fail. It seems the viewers are more focused on a good ending than a bad one. My research document focused on an aspect of the viewer’s morality when watching a film. The disturbing film ‘Funny Games’ includes a character constantly reminding the audience of their choice to turn off the film and questions us why we are watching. This led me to question the morality of viewer within an interactive film, if the viewer is controlling the character’s choices then they become more involved with them. Choosing for the character to fail can represent the morality of the viewer, what they wish to witness through a fictional context or perhaps a form of catharsis.

From the survey most of the people said they can connect to the character more in an interactive film because they are controlling them and put into their position. Less than half said they can connect more to the character within a traditional film because they are not in control of their situation and can empathise more. I thought more would agree than can connect more to a character within a traditional film. David Mew (Manager at Savoy Cinema) thought that an interactive film would never be as a good as a traditional film in terms of emotional depth, he didn't see how the viewers would be able to connect to the main characters though this entertainment as he believed they become more one dimensional puppets. I understand this to a point, being out of control and left to witness the character struggle, fight and overcome enemies does take you on a ride. Interactive allows the viewer to step in and alter this so it could lose the mystery and unexpectedness when watching a film. 

I allowed participants in my survey to describe if they feel that can be immersed within an interactive story as much as a traditional film story. One person responded that as long as the story has great characters that you can relate to then it doesn't matter if the film is in an interactive form. The person believed I captured the emotional feelings of the struggle the main character felt and that he felt 'real'. It seems that my interactive story had was enough to build a connection between the audience and the main character and was immersive. However other people suggested that not being in control can be more immersive because you are completely unaware of how the story will pan out, what plot twists might occur and that it removes the surprise element. Some thought that interactive film feels like a game because when a 'wrong' option is selected in the video it feels like a 'Game Over' screen and you find yourself going back for the correct ending. People are not watching it as a film story as such, instead they are selecting the options to achieve a good ending like a video game, otherwise the experience is not complete and in that way it's less immersive. Although one person thought its more immersive being in an interactive story because you become the main character, making the story personal to you but enjoys relaxing watching a traditional film more.

In my survey I asked people to provide any ideas of other interactive features they can think of to improve the viewers experience when watching a film. I received a variety of interesting responses such as smell, narration and eye tracking. Smell was something used in cinemas in the past but was never anything popular, using scratch-and-sniff cards at certain points of the movie would be distracting and annoying. It was interesting to read about different responses to eye sight with tracking points when your eyes follow to a certain area on the screen. That kind of technology is like a computer screen instead of a cinema screen and that your eyes become a mouse to interact with the film. Someone else suggested it would be interesting if you could select your own character traits and see how you would do in that situation. This could also suggest the morality of the viewer; how their own personal character traits and choices would work in a 'film-like' scenario, for instance "would you survive a zombie film?". A participant mentioned interactive feedback whilst the film was being made, so it could be written by the audience. Just set the scene and let it write itself with the film-maker picking the best ideas and filming it section by section until there is a complete film. The audience would then have a film with ideas that people have contributed to. Another idea following from this would be to have some kind of interactive screen where you can choose how you would like the film to pan out from selecting a range of ideas and character traits. It is interesting to allow the audience to contribute in creating their 'own' film and watch it back. It seems more audience participation when watching a film can be positive thing if new technology was developed to engage the viewer.

Research Document Artefact 3 (Interview)

For my third artefact I interviewed the David Mew, the Duty Manager at Savoy Cinema, Nottingham. I thought it would be really good to hear opinions about interactive facilities from someone who works within cinema and see if it was positive or negative. As someone who works in film exhibition I thought it would be useful hearing his views on interactive film, public collaborative projects and amateur film-makers exhibiting work online.



Chris Thorby: How do you feel about cinemas with interactive facilities?

David Mew: I think it depends on the context, I think it could be a positive thing. I couldn't really see it being a particularly mainstream kind of experience in the same way as a multiplex showing them. I don't think it would be something the cinema going public would really take to. I think it's quite suited for an art house thing but again only as a special one-off event rather than a regular Saturday/Friday night kind of thing.

Chris Thorby: Interactive film allows viewers to analyse what they are watching, the decisions they make and the consequences. Feature film completely immerses viewers within a fictional world. Do you believe interactive film is positive or negative in this aspect?

David Mew: I think in terms of interactive film against traditional film, I think interactive would be less immersive because you are constantly been drawn out of the plot/story and be prompted to make decisions or trying to effect what's happening on the screen...and it does depend on how often you being prompted to do this and the way your doing it at all, if you're being asked a question every 2 or 3 minutes then that's going to get quite frustrating perhaps, quite annoying but then again if you're not being asked enough times or enough of your opinions then again it could be frustrating. In terms of being immersive I don't think you have to be able to interact with something for it to be immersive. The danger is that the plot and the characters will suffer because if you are just controlling someone on the screen then the character (the protagonist) becomes just a puppet it doesn't become someone you can connect to and can build an emotional bond with. Characters in computer games tend to be quite one dimensional, they're not someone you tend to meet on the street or whatever, they're quite very fixed stereotypical roles and I think the danger with interactive film is that the characters might just become just that, just a blank slate for the audience to control.

Chris Thorby: With an interactive film the control of the story is passed to the viewer. The film-maker sets the pathways but the viewer directs it's route, in a way ownership is passed from the author to the audience. How do you feel about this?

David Mew: I think from the viewers point of view it could end up being not as great experience I think in terms of cinema and why it's so popular is because of the fact you're not in control. You're basically sat down and you're telling someone else "take me on a ride...show me what you've got" and I think cinema, great cinema should speed you up and take you along this kind of ride at it's own pace. The director knows "you need to be sped up at this point or he needs to have a lull in this story at this point" and I think the idea of the viewers then becoming "actually we want to hurry past this bit or we want to run away from that bit" I think that experience could lose what it means to be gripped by a truly great film. Having said, you know it's an interesting kind of experiment, an interesting novelty to go and take part in an interactive film. I wouldn't want it to replace traditional cinema, which I don't think it ever would.
From a director's point of view I think it would be quite an exciting challenge to try and do, I think it would be a lot harder to make a good interactive film than it would be to make a reasonable traditional film because you have to think about all these different branches and I guess the film would end up being defined as to what the audience can't do. If they get used to being able to control this and control that, make the character do all sorts of things then really it's up to the director to try and not limit that in order to make it a good experience...but also to make sure that at the end they've still come through something that has sort of meaning and depth to it rather than just a computer game on a screen, which wouldn't be worth it. An interactive film would never be as good as a computer game in terms of that role player kind of role but it would never be as good as a traditional film in terms of the emotional depth.

Chris Thorby: Online video provides a shared community for people to experience a range of entertainment across the world. Do you feel this makes us more connected?

David Mew: Yeah definitely, yeah definitely makes us more connected. I mean growing up I kind of feel I had a good idea of what it meant to be a student at an american college for instance because I'd seen Hollywood films. I've seen 'Road Trip', 'American Pie' that sort of thing...I had an idea of what it means to live in a suburban american town and yet I don't really know what it would be like to be a French teenager or a German growing up and going to school because you don't get exposed to that media. So I think YouTube and online video in general you can just have a window on someone's life that you would not really have access to where it not for the internet, so online video is really a great way of actually being able to experience things that aren't backed by multi-billion dollar marketing industries. You can see a small film-maker who's said "I've made a film, I've put it up" and people can look at it, enjoy it and share it. Yeah definitely makes you more connected, you definitely get access to a lot more creativity and less homogenized creative people, so yeah definitely a positive thing.


From the interview with David Mew I gained some useful opinions of interactive film and online video from someone who works within film exhibition. Again like Al Clark he believed cinemas with interactive facilities would work better with a smaller audience, not so much with a mainstream cinema but a more art house one as a special one-off event. David thought interactive would be less immersive than traditional cinema because you are constantly drawn out of the plot; you don't need to interact with something for it to be immersive. Being prompted to make a decision every 2 or 3 minutes could become frustrating but then again if you're not asked enough it could be annoying. The danger with interactive entertainment is that the characters and plot will suffer. The protagonist becomes just a puppet that the audience can't connect or have an emotional bond with, but more of a one dimensional computer game character. He said that great cinema is popular because you're not in control, it takes you on a ride. Having the ability to change what you do such as being able to skip or runaway from something could lose what it means to be gripped by a great film.
From a directors point of view it would be harder to make a good interactive film that it would to make a reasonable traditional film; you have to think about all the different story branches and the film ends up being defined by what you can't do. It's also important that with an interactive film the audience come out of something that has depth and meaning rather than just a computer game on a screen.
David Mew believed that an interactive film would never be as good as a computer game in terms of role playing and would never be as good as a traditional film in terms of emotional depth. His view was that interactive would affect the viewing experience and story of a film in a negative way. With a traditional film you want to be taken on a ride, put out off control and left with something with meaning and in his view, interactive does the opposite.

David agreed that online video definitely makes us more connected. YouTube and online video provides a window on someone's life that you wouldn't have access to if it weren't for the internet. It allows you to experience things that aren't backed by multi-billion dollar marketing industries such as small film-maker's work which people can share. Through online video there is access to a lot more creativity and more experimentation.