From ... To ...
Stories about Interactive Movies
Ingeborg Fülepp & Heiko Daxl
Berlin 1994
New ways of using multimedia systems such as computer games and interactive video as well as new models of information science are influencing the structure of traditional perception of the arts. But without classic aesthetics the modern would not exist. There is an urge to redefine a relation between classical aesthetics and those to come.
Movies of the future are becomming more fragmented in their dramatic narrative. Through the variables of the narrative, the storyline can get a new quality. It is not only a story in a classical sense which inspires a modern film-maker, but also enormous varieties of narrative combination within the story-line. Digital technologies are introducing even more possibilities for a passive viewer to become active, to participate in adding a new, personal quality to the film structure. By changing the storyline, adding special effects, changing the music, making own sound effects, etc., visions of the future can be put in practice.
IN THE BEGINNING OF ALL NEW IS THE HERITAGE
From its beginning contextually, but in some sense also technically, fiction movies were influenced by already existing art-forms such as photogaphy (composition of the frame, organization of the light...), theater (mise-en-scene) and literature (story). As technical possibilities became more sophisticated, the movies got supporting sound (music and sound effects), and later colour. During this development there were more and more elaborated means to make fiction movies as realistic as possible. From the early stages of film history there were two main streams - fiction story (Melies) and documentary (Lumiere). The tendency to mix that two, so that fictional movies became more realistic in their expression while documentaries would often be produced as a combination of the "pure" document and staging (influence of television) came later and stayed until today. Whatever a film critic or theoretician can argue about the weak boundaries between the fiction films looking as a document or documentary as being actually a manipulated reality, in modern works the varieties of styles had allowed that any form is appropriate to be used.
COMBINATION - MONTAGE
Also the role of film editing in the development of dramatic narration in future interactive movies should not be underestimated. Film editing is one of the oldest technique of film language. From the beginning of film history till today editing had influenced filmmakers in their creative process. As Ernest Lindgren said "Development of film in its basis is the development of editing".
The first theoretical thoughts about film language appeared already in the beginning of this century and from then on film editing became an instrument of an analysing, systematising thinking, or as Pudovkin said: "The determined creative act in film production". Script writting, directing, acting, photography and set design had already existed before film making and were adopted by the film industry. "Editing on the other hand was born in the process of making the motion picture. It is certain that without this significant new skill the motion picture would never have become the art it is today." (Rene L. Ash)
It is not only the level of the image, but also the complexity of combinations of sound and image which inspire. While the film was still projected withought a synchron sound, film makers were experimenting with the possibility to "find an optical equivalent to build temporal musical construction", as Theo van Doesburg named that "Bachs Dream". Doesburg also thought about the viewer, who does not only see a film as a silent performance, but also can experience "film acoustical as well as optical". On the other side Eisenstein was investigating to find the principals of cubist paintings in the field of film making - still images were being expanded through the dynamics of movement.
Many of the editing principals were developed before the invention of sound film such as, for example, Eisenstein's "Montage of Attraction". One can agree with Siegfried Krakauer that film as art and also editing, with the invention of the sound and dominant dialogues is suppressed and lost significance for several years. Sequences from the films of Griffith, Gance and Eisenstein in their attractive complexity of the film language had reached a peak in the history of film. Even when much is forgotten, there are some of the most interesting works of the experimental films which had influenced the development of film editing and therefore also film language (Walter Ruttman's "Berlin-Symphony of the City", Abel Gance's "Napoleon", Rene Clair's Entr´Acte" etc.)
Experience from editing films - a large number of combinations and possibilities to re-edit, or re-structure a dramatic narrative give an idea of possible varieties of dramatic restructuring of interactive movies. The viewer can become an editor, who can organize given footage in a personally choosen order. Therefore, to create a movie which could be possible to re-organize without loosing dramatic coherence will be a future task of the new dramaturgist.
TURNING POINT
At this stage of the film history, when electronic and digital media are dominating also in the film industry, we can find a further development of the film language at that point where the old technologies are bridging to the new ones.
Contrary to the film possibilities, video technique, gives chances of manipulation of the images by the use of digital processed - special effects. It is not longer enough to have the sense for the dramatic narrative, rhythm and organization of the film structure, but to have visual talents like a painter or a designer. Further development of the film language is therefore possible by combining these skills. Electronic media and digital technique can help to simulate film production but essentially they are adding new aesthetics.
Hand in hand with the massive appearance of TV commercials and later music videos the messages shrinked to minimal symbols, while the action is condensed to the most visible key moments. And even though this two new forms of moving images became standardized as self-defined forms, it was unavoidable not to influence the style of older story telling media. The movies with a slow action or with ambitions for a more experimental form are pushed away from those with a fast interchange of the shots and attractive action. But this styles came also to its peak, so that the public, always hungry for excitement, became unsatisfied again.
Computer/video games suddenly overflew the market and the new era of entertainment was born. With its primitive graphics and simplified ideas, the first games still found eager followers. As the technology developed, the graphics became more sophisticated, digital video and compressed movies gave the chance to produce more complex games and the contents became enriched as well. So we found ourself in the middle of a transmission period where different media are interweaved in all possible ways. "Fiction films ...will not be anymore just organized as chronological orders of sequences and frames. High capicities of digital storages will open the way to more complex arrangements." (Siegfried Zielinski in "Audiovisionen")
ART ON CD ROM - BETWEEN THE CATEGORIES
As it offen happens with a new medium, there are many theories about the historical roots of the technology. The use of the remote control by zapping through the TV programmes and the possibility to direct the action on the video tape by using the configurations of video-recorders (stop motion, rewind, fast forward) was the beginning of our interaction within the TV/video system. At the same time computer hard-and software developers started to produce more sophisticated pro-ducts especially in the field of computer graphics and digitized video.
So came the time of interactive multi-media and till today there is almost no field of science, art and education in which something in this direction is not produced. With the latest development of the CD ROM technology in the field of entertainment one can see, perhaps for the first time, not any more just potential but also creative results. Therefore there is a need to establish a critical approach and to give a space for evaluation and qualitative analysis on this subject as well.
There is a whole range of projects produced as interactive CD ROMs with possibilities of analysis and exploration on a certain theme. Creative works of art such as a music projects by Peter Gabriel and the Residents, theater project based on the dramas and plays by Robert Wilson, Voyager's production of a classical films like "A Hard Day's Night" and "The Salt of the Earth", databases such as the excavations in "The first Emperor of China", an "Artists' Database" produced by Inter Communication Center in Japan, occupies the publishers in the domain of expanded informations in art.
INTERACTIVE MOVIES - THE SURPRISE TO COME
In one of the most intriguing fields of the interactive technology -interactive movies- there is almost no succesful project done. Films on CD-ROM like "The Salt of the Earth", "A Hard Day's Night" offer just interactive tools of getting random information on the subject and to make the close analysis of the film, but in the dramatic narrative of the film nothing is changed.
In the field of the mainstream cinema, there were several attempts to create a structure for a non-linear dramatic narrative within the varieties of the development of the story. In more spectacular form, some movie theaters were installing a system where every viewer can press a buttom on the chair when being asked from the screen in which direction the story should go. The decision of the most voters will be counted as a "democratic vote" and than presented.
This idea is actually one of the oldest, while according to Michael Bieltzky who described in his text "Praga Caput Regni - Praga Caput Media" a project from the middle of 1960's "The Cinema Automate", "the film was stoped several times and somebody would step out on the stage to ask the spectators how the film should continue. Two alternatives were offered. At each seat of this especially equipped cinema, a buttom had been installed, with which the spectators could express their choice. The votes would be counted, and the version for which the majority of spectators voted for, was shown."
Artists like Graham Weinbren or Ken Feingold made in the Eighties video installations in which the user can browse through a pre-set of video sequences and change the sequential order. The problem with these projects, apart from their quality as artwork, was that in terms of the story the user could not really have a satisfacting feeling of orientation.
A fiction film by Oliver Hirschbiegel was shown on the German television in 1992. The film consisted two different stories. Each story was broadcasted in a separate channel and each have showed the point-of-view whether of the female or the male character. By pressing the keys of the remote control the viewer could at any time choose a channel to see the development of the story presented there. The project was interesting but the viewer had difficulties to see the differences of the stories.
Some television stations in USA, Japan and Europa are planning to start interactive games where the action is offered at home through the help of some additional technical tools. But there would be probably no real interaction till the homes would not be connected directly to the TV centers via the computer nets (possibly with fiber optics cables) and the whole range of information (movies for example) would be preprogramed with decision points.
There were some other attempts of interactive movies using different technical means. The most in use were computer controlled laser discs, but there were also such projects as "The Video Labyrinth" realized 1987/88 at the DFFB (Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie Berlin) where the authors were using video played by a 8mm video recorder linked to a personal computer, that organized the start and ending numbers of the video story according to the decisions of the user.
Most of existing projects, programms and plans are still in its experimental stage and many will be percieved different as today. From our point of view there are probably in the moment the most interesting developments visible in several CD ROM games which are combining classical film language with these specific only to a computer oriented media. Projects such as "From Alice to the Ocean", "Myst" and "The Seventh's Guest" are giving possible solutions of thinking about interactive movies in a different way. The creative energy of aesthetics, dramatic and playfulness of this games opens a completely new view on the perspectives of the future development of interactive movies.
AVANT GAMES
"A course that is known beforehand, not bearing any chance of error or surprise, and clearly leading to an unavoidable result would be incompatible with the nature of the game. It requires a constant, unpredictable renewal of the situation, like those which occur with every attack or lunge in foil fencing or with every rally in tennis or everytime in chess when the opponent moves a piece. The game consists in the necessity of finding an immadiate and free response within the limits and rules. This possibility of the game, this freedom of action, and it partly explains the joy it creates." ("Die Spiele und die Menschen", Roger Caillois)
In the beginning of this text we had given two categories of story-telling movies. One category is the documentary oriented story-telling and the other is the fiction story-telling movie. Some similarities can be found in the CD ROM projects which deal with story- telling. As example we should concentrate only on three examples.
The CD ROM "From Alice to the Ocean" is an interactive documentary in which the user can browse through different ways of Australia´s outback. Led by the travellers, one can see different landscapes, learn about Aboriginals, and meet different inhabitants. The combination of the drown and animated maps, photos with cristal resolution, windows in which movie sequences are played and supported by texts on the different matters, makes this project appealing to be used for almost anyone whatever age or knowledge level. The difference between an interactive and a classical documentary film is the control over the presented informations. This project gives one a feeling as the trip would be our own experience. On the other side the emotional excitement while watching some classical documentary films and the identification with the characters which makes the viewer believe in the presented story, one can not find in this well-done interactive project.
The computer games "Myst" and "The Seventh's Guest" could be categorized as fiction story-telling interactive movies. As in most of the computer games, both projects are based on puzzles which the user must solve before making progress in the story. But in additon the creative use of the visual language, which is a mixture of a movie, computer graphics and animation, with supporting audio (sound effects and music) goes a step futher.
Very smooth flows of images in "Myst" are constructed as series of computer graphics looking almost as still photography which are edited in dissolves one after another. Each image is the user's subjective point of view as we know from movies (subjective camera point-of-view). The walk through the story happening on a mystical island give us a chance to decide (a little hand appears on the screen) in which direction we would like to go. We can observe the whole panorama, make a decision and follow the way which is another set of still images. Through this walk we are progressively changing the distance to the subject we see (close-up, medium shot, long shot) and the subject itself as well (the way, the stairs, the house, the door etc.) so that the simulation of our walk is also a simulation of our head turning in all directions.
The story is simple as most of the computer games. We have to solve many riddles to find the answers and the clue of the game. But through the variety of the offered ways, puzzles, texts and symbols, we have joy and interrest to go through many different ways. The game is aesthetically pleasurable and thematically complex. There is a feeling as we have found ourselves in a not yet experienced world of imagination. Especially fine are the quiet sounds of our steps, doors squiching, music playing in the distance. The exploration of the island can last short, but to find the riddles, one can forget the time and stay some days and nights in this magical world.
A very different game is "The Seventh's Guest". As in "Myst", we have to solve many riddles, but different is the story and the visual language. The combination of computer animation and filmed actors which are playing different characters like in classical movies, gives a more realistic view to the artificiality of the computer graphics. In the game the characters are appearing as ghosts which are in superimposition fading-in and -out. They are telling us the segments of the story which could be the clues to the riddles.
As in "Myst" one can browse through the varieties of possible directions to go and to choose the way, in this case, through a gothic atmosphere of an old house in New England. From time to time the player has to solve riddles such as puzzles, chess games, logic quizzes, memory games and labyrinths to get access to locked rooms that contain more riddles or hints. Together with the seductive music this game stays after playing several nights in our memory as a dispersive feeling which we never experienced before. The production of this game reminds on the best of Hoolywood ghost movie productions. And even when it is on the edge of the Hoolywood kitsch, one have to admit that this game is excellently produced and gives a new perspective to see in which direction game design can go.
WHAT IS THE CLUE ?
And what to say on the end? We can not make many statements on such a subject as interactive movies. There is not enough done to give us sufficent hints in which direction the development of the interactive movies will go. Predictions are often in collision with the reality. Only one is shure. Development of the technology is changing our perspective on the arts. And even though the classical arts (painting, sculpturing,) were never really replaced by the new ones (photography, film and video), the new is influencing our psychology and perception and therefore our needs and requests within the new fields. And if this is unavoidable as at seems, we should act on the improvement, observe criticaly and help ourselves to step within the future worlds, ready to solve the next riddle on the way to the clue.
"All things are sudden, counter, original, spare, strange." (Marshall McLuhan "Understanding Media")