Interactive in Film, TV and Games
What is interactive in media?
We have games like Tell-tales The Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones as well as Until Dawn by Sony and these games allow you to decide the fate of the characters in the game whether they live or die leave or stay.
Why would turn a Photo-realistic game into a multi-million pound film?
A game like Resident Evil & Assassins Creed have both turned their games into films it builds the story line more and helps gain a massive attention to the game and film helping gaining more attention. This attention can help the new viewers buy the game and watch it. Although most film adaptations of games don’t work as the viewer is watching a film with a set storyline and they can’t control the choices.
What films have attempted this?
Interactive films were very popular in the 1990's, due to the fact CD and Laser Discs were making their way in to home across the globe. Probably one of the last style of film was the PC and Play-station game The X-Files The Game, it packed a staggering 7 CD's. This style of film can be you choose what happens to the character or just a game on the special features list. Harry Potter added games on their special features section to get younger audiences to watch their film as well as play the game.
What games have approached film reality and storytelling?
The leader in this style of game making with a Film or TV style story-line is Tell-tale's The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones games. This type of game allows you to tell a fictional story by choosing options and create a Feature length or TV style game which creates a great story. Tell-tale's The Walking Dead is a prime example because of it's ability to create a realistic story by making selective choices this will then make a butterfly effect, where on option can change the whole outcome for a character meaning life or death. Which is why The Walking Dead is great for this as its comic and TV show story will fit perfect for it game as the Show is about life or death.
Tell-tale's The Walking Dead Interactive Game follows the boundaries of two media platforms as this game has across media platform, reason being is it's a game that follows a TV style story-line. Another point is it follows the base of Episodes, each episode has a different story but following on from the last just like a generic TV show. Furthermore its uses of the butterfly effect gives the game a more realistic feel to most games that try to tell a story, using this ability give the game no legs to stand on as the story is constantly in a flux so nothing will ever be the same it has to change with every decision. With each episode lasting to at least 1-2 hours it gives it the feel of an Episode or Feature film depending on how you play the game.
On Monday, 27th February 2017, my group and I was given a task to create a short 30 minuet clip that contained an interactive feature being a choice, say left or right, yes or no and elevator or stairs etc.
Group Interactive Video Activity
My group and I decided we would choose elevator or stairs as it was a simple but effective way to produce this style of Film and TV. We filmed scenes of me walking towards the elevator thinking whether to use the stairs or the elevator. In decision one the stairs as he gets to the bottom he is attacked. Furthermore, with the second ending he walks straight out of the college and survived. The one problem with our piece was we didn't focus on audio we had one of camera men saying action and other background noises, which was a amateur mistake and shouldn't happen again.
Group Interactive Video
When making this interactive clip I felt pretty good I wasn't nervous or hesitant because it was a fun and clever task. I love the aspect of creative a film or game that you decide the fate and option that's can change the outlook of the characters life. I thought of a number of ideas with my group, the main being choosing between Elevator and Stairs, the final idea was whether you run past the gang of people or walk past them but we never developed the idea to use it.
We worked very well as a group we jumped ideas of each other trying to fine the best solutions to make the story line more effective and appealing to the audience. The idea was strong we worked together to make sure we was out of shot when we needed to be and that all the shots were in focus. The bad side was in the video where I use the elevator Kian my camera man and director says "ACTION" and this is still present in the clip which is really bad. Although there was one bad point, overall I enjoyed the experience in working with a new group and coming up with an idea with new people. Audio need a lot of work like footsteps and more dialogue needed to be included in my eyes, because the audio was bland with just a tense sound track and the ambiance.
The situation we was placed in only having 4 hours to make an interactive video, I thought we done pretty well apart from the minor heck up with my directors voice being in the video. The Video quality was good no out of focus shots the lighting was good it was visually very good from my perspective. Audio on the other hand needed a lot of improvement especially with sound effects and backing track.
Honestly I felt we could have done a lot more like played with the colour palette and foley work for the sound effects in the clip. This would have inevitably brought my group and I's clip up more. If this challenge rose again I would improve foley work and I would play around with the colour palette. Finally I would make sure any unwanted noises will be edited out. To me this would make the video perfect and I will do these improvements on my solo clip.
Solo Interactive Clip
Script For Senario 1 (Shoot Me Choice)
Script For Senario 2 (Answer Death)
Script For Senario 2.5 (Answer Being Born)
When creating this idea I had to generate a bunch of what if ideas that can be used to make a thirty second interactive clip that, will have a decision that will change the fate of the character. When coming up with these ideas I used memories and films to generate my ideas, I did this because I can use the emotional connection I have with the memory or film to make an effective interactive clip. I choose to have a Point of view (POV) shot threw out the clip I felt it is effective because, it places the viewer in the skin of the person on the screen. Using this sort of camera shot can make the audience feel sick, anxious and dizzy because the camera is shaky and the sound effects of heavy breathing in my clip adds to this. Choosing to do this video wasn't easy as I struggled for ideas but eventually I used one of my What If ideas and adapted it. Furthermore, being a POV shot it places the viewer in the hands of the person acting as the camera man which means every decision they make will have an effect on them.
My Solo Interactive Clip
During this task I was quite stressed out because, it had taken me quite a while to finish my idea and write a script for it. I felt I rushed it a bit but I did everything I could to make the clip look good and make a gripping effect on the viewer. I thought some good ideas but that would have required to spend money that I didn't have, so I adapted an idea that would make my clip look as best as it could. I also felt as if my clip may have a bit to much gore and explicit content but I have stuck by the decision to use it and have fait in it. If I was to do this again I would change the idea I used, purely because I would have liked to have done a laid back story line instead of a thriller storyline. Apart from this I am happy I manage to create what I could.
The bad things about my clip was the audio and sound effects, I said when I made my solo clip I would put a lot of effort into audio, I can safely say I did but I didn't work well. The audio from my character varies, I wanted it to be in the perspective of a viewer and the viewer was the person in this situation the sound changed from being close to being far away it kind of worked but I needs more work. The Good things I feel are the visuals and VFX. Reason being the whole point of my visuals is so the viewer feels like they are the person in the video who's life is at risk. I loved it because even when I was viewing it I felt drawn into the video and I felt like the person, my friends Edson has said the same thing. Edson's improvement was the sound effects. I feel sound effects needs work because in scenario 2.5 when hit by a gun you can hear the arm rest hitting the face and for visual effect the blood has small amounts of green round the edge from the green screen.
From this task I could have maybe tried using more effects in the sound and visual department. The reason for this is when I shoot the gun there is no flash, if I had incorporated a flash my video would have looked more realistic. Also if I had added effect when the person was being killed so a bullet hitting the body or a fist noise, this would have brought my video some more professionalism and a better perspective.
If I was to do this task again I would add better visual effects, e.g. Flash when the gun shoots and applying the green screen better on the death scenes. Furthermore, audio I was use a clip microphone for my character so all speech was picked up and, sound effects are added, e.g. Death scenes also walking effects and maybe some shirt rustling. I can conclude my video was effective in the way I meant it to be used, but it needs to have little work to make it perfect.
