THE iTV-drama.com Interview for LINES – an interactive film

(This was an interview Dave Han and I did for the now apparently deceased iTV-drama website. The interview concerns our interactive short film: LINES. We were also invited to an international iTV conference to discuss the film, but I think that got cancelled too).

> Could you please introduce yourself and the other members of the LINES project?

J: I’m Jason Diceman, the producer of LINES. I also did audio engineering, DVD authoring and assisted with editing, continuity, set design, and other odd jobs as required in the challenging world of independent film.

D: I”m David Han, co-director, co-writer and editor of LINES.

Both: Rec Monzon was our director of photography and also co-wrote and co-directed the film. The original music was composed by Steven Davidchuk and the cast was as follows: Tien Providence as the Landlord, Beth Horton as the Tenant, Terri Jones as the Squeegee Girl, Sean Baek as the Prisoner and James Acheson as the Janitor.

> Could you describe what LINES is about ? Who are the main characters ?
D: LINES is about a group of five people trapped in the basement of a tenement building after the apocalypse. The story begins two weeks after the outbreak of a deadly virus and follows the five characters in the last few minutes of their isolation. The landlord of the building has boarded himself into the storage room with all the food supplies while the other four characters are on the verge of starvation. Among them is his younger, former lover- a tenant of the building, an injured and dying cop, a street kid and the janitor of the building. The story captures the tension and conflict between these characters as they try to understand and cope with life after the apocalypse.

> How did the project started? Where did the idea come from?
D: In the spring of 1999, Jason and I worked together at the Rogers Communications Centre (RCC) doing ITV research and development. During a brainstorming session, we came up with a rough idea that we developed into the “parallel perspective narrative”.

J: We got excited by the idea of telling the same story from different character’s perspectives, what effect it would have on the viewer, and how it could be accomplished with existing technology.

D: So we worked on putting together a formal proposal for the project and pitched it to Brad Fortner and Michael Murphy of the RCC. They found the idea intriguing and agreed to support the project. Once the ball was rolling, Jason went out and got the sponsorship of various local film and media companies while Rec and I got started on pre-production.

> How is LINES interactive? What is the position of the viewer/user?
J: The interactivity was designed to be simple and almost transparent for the user. The only options are to choose at any time which character to follow as the film continues without ever stopping. It like having five TV channels with a different version of the same movie playing at the same time on each one Originally, we planned on using the “Change Angle” feature offered by the DVD Video format, but we found this to be too challenging to author using what available DVD authoring systems we had. Instead we plan to complete the production in the QuickTime format, where the user will interact by pressing the number keys 1-5 to choose which stream to watch as the film continues in real-time.

D: The viewer/user experience is fairly traditional. Instead of shooting the entire production from the point of view of each character, the film follows each character from a third-person perspective. We felt that this better represented each character’s experience and provided more options in terms of directing and editing.

> LINES is based on the parallel perspectives narrative principle. Why did you choose to explore this principle? What can it add compared to a traditional linear story?

D: The parallel perspectives narrative principle gives more depth to each moment. It is a method of telling a story that requires multiple viewings in order to fully understand the narrative. By having important story events happen simultaneously, we both feel that this concept offers a closer representation of reality.

J: The format offers interactivity without disrupting the flow of the story. Users can decide to concentrate on one character at a time, or continuously bounce around trying to understand it all at once. One of the main challenges to this format is the requirement for synchronized time. In other words, time must change the same in all streams. If you edit in a time lapse in one stream, you need to do that in all of them or the illusion of simultaneity may be lost. This is why we wrote our story to be in real-time. To tell the audience about other events that happened outside of our limited time frame we used implicative means such as props, dialogue and a dream sequence.

> What were (or are) the main obstacles you encountered during the conception of LINES?
J: Like any first time independent film makers, we had our fair share of challenges. To list a few, our initial location was condemned about prior to our first shot date, we lost one roll of film thanks to a faulty magazine and our DAT recorder acted up quite regularly because of the dusty yet humid environment. The location we did use looked great on film, but we were very restricted by an insanely loud air compressor that would run every 10 mins for 30sec at a time.

- old loud camera

- tight space

- volunteer schedules

- old version of dps VideoAction

- very tight deadline plus school

- breaking out of traditional film making practices

- tight budget

- one camera

> One major problem in designing interactive drama is that there are not much examples that one can use as references. When you designed LINES, had you some references - like other interactive projects or theoretical works - in mind to guide you?

Red Violin, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown. Also in novels. Advanced role playing games, where events occur whether or not you are present to witness them.

> How much cost the project? How did you produce a project like that?

J: We completed the production at a total cost of under $3000. We were able to accomplish this feat through generous support from the Rogers Communications Centre, Ryerson University, Kodak Canada, Medallion PFA, William F. White, Swiss Chalet, Dominion and supportive friends and family. I spent a lot of energy on the website to use as a promotional tool and it has proved to be a worthwhile investment. I think the Flash presentation and white papers impressed potential supporters and helped persuade them to help our project. Furthermore, the originality of the concept was another big selling point; to them, we weren’t just another group of young independent short filmmakers, we were innovators.

We did the entire shoot in one location in the basement of the Ryerson Interior Design building. It took us about 11 evenings to complete all the footage. The post-production must have been at least 250 hours, probably more. Trying to improve the audio, sync up and check continuity between five streams on a system designed for editing one was near impossible. To do it we used shared audio cues, super imposition effects and split screens to compare shots and timing. This was when we really appreciated the planning we had done, and regretted that which we had not.

> In your opinion, what are the basic rules to keep in mind when designing interactive fiction?
J: Know the limits of your technology but don’t focus on them. Write a story that complements the interactivity. Make the interactivity transparent to the user; they need to be thinking about the characters and plot, not which buttons to press. Forget about gimmicks; effects are fashionable, stories are eternal.

D: Always keep in mind the audience and the experience you are trying to achieve. Don’t use interactivity for interactivity’s sake and have the questions your story poses to the audience, and how the interactivity provides a method to answer those questions.

> And finally, if anything was possible (technically or financially), what would be your dream come true in terms of interactive drama?
J: If anything was technically possible, I’d create a universally available system that would allow the comfortable part of society to experience the daily life of those that live in a constant struggle; an immersive environment that could stimulate real empathy for those in need. I think it is unethical to create virtual realities that are seductive. Virtual reality is a world that stimulates with out providing sustenance. Its like eating flavored Styrofoam; it’s all taste without the nourishment. I think communication should be used to help people understand their world, not escape it.