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Artefact 2 - Video 2 - Late Fragment

2010-05-19T15:38:00.000+01:00

Video 2 – Late fragment

http://latefragment.com/

“Late Fragment is an Canadian interactive cinema production, written and directed by Daryl Cloran, Anita Doron and Mateo Guez. It is North America's first interactive feature film.” - wikipedia.org

Late Fragment had its world premiere at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival

Synopsis
Three strangers lives are fractured by thoughts and acts of seething violence. In this interactive feature film, viewers unravel their interlocked stories with a simple click.

Artefact 1 Rationale

2010-04-22T15:22:00.000+01:00

For my first artefact, I produced a questionnaire consisting of 19 questions which focused on interactive cinema.
Interactive cinema is the term used to describe a film in which the audience has an active role in the outcome of the film.
One example of this is the online interactive zombie film entitled “The Outbreak”, which can be found on you tube; this was also the example I used in my questionnaire.
From the data that I collected through my interactive cinema questionnaire I conclude that out of the number of people that were given this questionnaire 68% said that they are film fanatics who love to watch films as often as they could, but out of this 68%, only 36% of these people had heard of the term interactive cinema before.
When asked the question which video was more enjoyable, 57% felt that interactive videos were more enjoyable then traditional films but when answering question 11 there were mixed views on the topic, one person felt it was more enjoyable to watch a interactive film, because they “had a choice in the storyline” and they could “go back and watch the other parts...so it has a good reply value”, however someone else commented that they “don't agree with interactive cinema as it is meant to be a story created for us, not by us”.
When asked the questions would the audience like to be able to interact by more then clicking and how would this work. I got a lot of similar views on how to improve interactive cinema, 33% of the answers referred to voice recognition technology, so for my next artefact I wanted to look at different means of interaction that could be integrated into interactive cinema, perhaps using sound and touch within the cinema environment, to broaden to a wider audience range because I have noticed that the interactive experience only targets the audience of home entertainment use.

3D MAYA college project

2010-04-21T16:01:00.002+01:00

Piracy Advert edit 1

2010-04-21T16:01:00.001+01:00

artefact 4

2010-04-21T15:59:00.002+01:00

Judy and Punch Family Issues

2010-04-21T15:58:00.001+01:00

Euler Follow You Instinct live proformance edit 1

2010-04-21T15:57:00.000+01:00

Euler Soul on her sleeve live proformance edit 1

2010-04-21T15:56:00.000+01:00

Euler Music video edit 1

2010-04-21T15:55:00.000+01:00

Artefact 2 - Video 4 – Lynx advert ( keeping Keeley)

2010-04-19T11:31:00.000+01:00

Video 4 – Lynx advert ( keeping Keeley)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z67F5aW3tY

This video was the first interactive video lynx had produced, it was aimed at the male target audience, which is the same target audience that lynx deodorant is aimed at.
The video followed one man trying to impress and keep Keeley, a young stunning model, throughout the video; the footage would stop and allow the audience to choose between what would happen next within the scene.

Artefact 2 - Video 1 - Vidoe 3 – Gorillaz Interactive CD Rom

2010-04-19T11:23:00.000+01:00

Vidoe 3 – Gorillaz Interactive CD Rom

Gorillaz first album entitled “Gorillaz” was released as an Enhanced CD that included a short movie. When the CD was inserted into a CD drive for a computer, the short movie would play. It was a interactive video that allowed you to go behind stage at a gig, you could look around and venture into different rooms that had mini games and hidden information within the movie.

Artefact 2 - Video 1 - Crimeface

2010-04-19T11:16:00.000+01:00

Video 1 - Crimeface

http://www.crimeface.net/interactive/inter.html

“Crimeface is an interactive film. An innovative new media project that mixes popular formats: film, literature, music and gaming. The result is an episodic hyper-narrative backed by reams of extra material that is interactive and multiplatform; playing in cinemas, on DVD, mobile phones and here on the internet.” – Crimeface.net

Artefact 2 Rationale

2010-04-19T11:10:00.000+01:00

For my second artefact, I studied the different interactive methods used in 5 different interactive films; I compared each video for their usability and interaction with the audience. I then tried to recreate each interactive method using Macro-media flash 8.
The interactive films I looked at were “Late Fragment,” “Crimeface,” “The Affair,” an interactive promotional advert for the new lynx deodorant, and an interactive CD Rom for the band “Gorillaz”
Each video had a different interactive design, “Late Fragment” has three separate stories that intertwined with each other through the different choices made, “Crimeface” is an interactive investigation game, “the Affair” is a interactive film, taken on 4 cameras at different angles, allowing the viewing to see the story from different perspectives, the band “Gorillaz” CD Rom is within there album and allows the audience to go backstage and search around the building, playing games and finding out more information and the “lynx Advert” was a basic click interactive video but had a lot of choices and the audience could rewind and change their decision to see different outcomes on their choices.
From my research I discovered that the quickest and easiest interactive methods were clicking or rollovers and these should be easily recreated in Macro-media Flash 8.
For my third artefact I want to create a interactive film using a range of different interactive methods and elements, such as rollovers, clicking, words, and information hidden within the scenes, I will be trying to produce this on Macro-media Flash 8, and this will be a test of how difficult it is to create an interactive film with a range of different choices within a two week period.

Artefact 4

2010-03-09T14:14:00.004Z

due to artefact 3 which was a audio/visual student trying to produce a interactive video using flash with limited flash CS3 experience being a failure, for artefact 4 i decided to produce a interactive video by collabrating with another multimedia student who studies the interactive online enviroments pathway, this student being Craig Thomas, within three hours craig had completed to task of making the interactive video, which myself as a audio/visual student couldnt achieve within two weeks.
during this time period i produced 4 short videos diaries of our progress,and how our collabration worked to achieve the final product. once the product was finalised i got 10 people at random to test the short interactive movie, and i recorded the results from there testings, one of the main aspects of the testing i looked at was how successful the coolbration between the two students studying different specialist subjects was,

Follow ur Insticts raw footage

2010-02-25T18:05:00.001Z

Live client Video 1 - soul on her sleeve.. not edited yet

2010-02-25T17:51:00.000Z

HANDIN 300WORD

2010-02-25T16:43:00.002Z

For my third artefact I tried to recreate an interactive film using Macromedia Flash 8 using a range of different interactive elements.
Interactive films have become easier to produce since the creation of flash players and higher speed internet connections. I found that the interactive film "the affair" was the most interesting of the different films I studied because it had a range of different interactive elements integrated into its playback and this is what I wanted to recreate.
After attempting to recreate this type of video in Flash 8, almost two weeks passed with no success, I had to admit that this was a failed test due to my lack of knowledge in flash scripting. For the past two years I have been a audio/visual student and I have been focusing on Film work, techniques, software’s, hardware’s and perfecting my speciality and skills in film, by doing so I have lacked knowledge in other areas of the multimedia field, this being online/ interactive environments.
For my fourth artefact I wish to produce a collaborative interactive video with a fellow student studying the online/ interactive environments pathway, the person who has agreed to participate in this experiment is Craig Thomas. I will compare the results we achieve, with the results I gained from my previous artefact. For the next two weeks we will both produce video documentation of our progress and how successful it is to produce an interactive video when the interactive scripting is being written by a specialist in the online/ interactive environments pathway.

Euler Live preformance

2010-02-23T18:05:00.003Z

The band Euler Preformed at The Cavern in liverpool, the same place as the beatles first played, thursday 18.02.2010

Interactive artefact 3

2010-02-04T19:03:00.003Z

interactive films have become easier to produce since the creation of flash players and higher speed internet connections,i found that the interactive film "the affair" was the most interesting of the different films i analysised, however i was to look at the use of such things as social networking sites like youtube can easily create interactive videos on a basic level using annotations as links to the different sites

so for my third artefact i want to use youtube to produce a short interactive video and see what problems arise

Crime Face

2010-02-04T18:46:00.003Z

crimeface is a interactive drama video game. the audience has no control over the video clips but as more of the footage is shown more information/hints to the crime are revealed,

the affair

2010-02-04T18:39:00.003Z

this is a website based on interactive videos, i like the design of the footage because it allows you to watch the short video clip from differnt angels of the room, from the different angels you can see a more indepth idea to the movie for example when watching video angel one you see the husband and wife talking but from angel two which you still see the couple talking but you can now also see behind the bedroom door which is hideing another male figure in his boxers,at the bottom of the website you can see the percentage that you have unlocked, you can zoom into the footage when you want and zoom out, as well as looking at a chart of you progess, this showing what pathways you have taken

http://www.hboimagine.com/#/the_affair/

Lynx Twist Advert

2010-02-04T18:32:00.003Z

this is a promotional advert for the new lynx deodrant, the target audience is men and it can only be played on facebook or through the xbox live marketplace

throughout the storyline the main character can make multiply choices on the best way he can keep the girl he likes entertained, this is done by choices that change his appearence, his attitude and personality

Late Fragment

2010-02-04T18:10:00.003Z

for this artefact im going to look at 5 different interactive videos and the methods they use to create interaction within the video

the first video i am going to look at is "late fragment", which is a canadian interactive movie, the story is based on three strangers lives which are fractured by thoughts and acts of violence. In this interactive feature film, viewers unravel their interlocked stories with a simple click.

In Late Fragment, group therapy scenes function as a visual menu for the storylines. therefor you can click when one character (Theo) is in the frame to find out why he cuts himself, or click when you see character 2 (Faye) to learn who she's visiting in jail.or why is character 3 (Kevin( waiting so calmly for the police?by clicking on the remote it doesnt ust allow you to go to differnt scenes at random, it allows you to learn a more indepth idea to each of the character feelings and emotions.

Interactive methods

2010-02-04T15:52:00.002Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbEei0I3kMQ

http://www.beonlineb.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RimK82LO_g4

http://www.camilleutterback.com/movies/abundance_mov.html

http://www.schlesingerassociates.com/videos/eyetracking_low_1.html

hat Is Literature Survey?

2009-11-22T13:03:00.000Z

Literature survey is the documentation of a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished work from secondary sources data in the areas of specific interest to the researcher. The library is a rich storage base for secondary data and researchers used to spend several weeks and sometimes months going through books, journals, newspapers, magazines, conference proceedings, doctoral dissertations, master's theses, government publications and financial reports
to find information on their research topic. With computerized databases now readily available and accessible the literature search is much speedier and easier and can be done without entering the portals of a library building.

The researcher could start the literature survey even as the information from the unstructured and structured interviews is being gathered. Reviewing the literature on the topic area at this time helps the researcher to focus further interviews more meaningfully on certain aspects found to be important is the published studies even if these had not surfaced during the earlier questioning. So the literature survey is important for gathering the secondary data for the research which might be proved very helpful in the research. The literature survey can be conducted for several reasons. The literature review can be in any area of the business.

The Immersive Media Lab

2009-11-11T20:51:00.001Z

The Immersive Media Lab

The objective of this lab is to carry out research in the area of immersive media, a new and emerging field of studies that considers the profound effects of the expansion and intensification of media formats and presentation. By increasing the scale, resolution and dimensionality of image and sound, a threshold can be reached that radically changes our relationship to media, which is then no longer a separate object to be experienced from a distance; rather it becomes an experiential environment that surrounds and engulfs us. Immersive media can facilitate new kinds of cinema, in which narrative can be experienced from the inside; new forms of games, in which interaction is through direct manipulation of media objects (rather than through keyboard and mouse); and new forms of experience, where our perceptual apparatus can be directly engaged and challenged. In all cases, immersive media holds the promise of creating large-scale social experiences that are ideal for multiple users, facilitating direct communication and dialogue. While the techniques for conceptual immersion are in many cases well understood (although by no means exhausted), the technologies of physical immersion are still being developed, and the techniques to exploit them are relatively new or nascent.

The Immersive Media Lab is a testbed in which to conduct research into new forms of media. By exploring, extending, combining and experimenting with various immersive and interactive technologies, we hope to gain insight into where these technologies might be headed. While there has been research into certain aspects of immersive technologies—most prominently in the field of virtual reality—we focus our efforts on three specific areas:

* Immersive cinema (narrative)
* Immersive games (interactivity)
* Immersive environments (experience and perception)

Each of these areas is critical in the development of new forms of media; together they hold the potential to develop media that extend cinema and television in ways we can only imagine at present. A key component of the Immersive Media Lab will be to make advanced and experimental media technologies available to CNTV faculty and students so that they can try out these new forms. This would augment our research by providing valuable insights into what new kinds of stories and narratives these media could accommodate.

It's Just Like Art

2009-11-11T20:49:00.000Z

It's Just Like Art
Richard Wright
Printed in MFJ No. 28 (Spring 1995) Interactivities
Introduction

. . . the definition of art, and through it the art of living, is an object of struggle among the classes.
Pierre Bourdieu, "The Aristocracy of Culture." Media, Culture and Society, no. 2, 1980.

. . . the practical guidelines that we will all develop in [electronic media] are unlikely to be much use if they are based exclusively in either the norms of the popular arts or the norms of the canon alone: only some as yet undreamt-of mixture of the two is likely to do the job.
Jeffrey Palmer, "'Popular' Culture and 'High' Culture : The Question of Value." Inaugural lecture, London Guildhall University, 1994

A theory of hierarchical culture, ranging from "low" art and popular culture to the "high" art of avant-garde galleries, museums, and theaters has been proposed by different writers with various mechanisms to explain its operation and purpose. Probably the most rigorously materialistic of these theories is that of the French cultural sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. For Bourdieu, cultural hierarchies are defined by and help maintain social hierarchies expressed through class divisions and rivalries correlating economic capital with cultural capital but without reducing one to the other. Each social class is characterized by a set of cultural "competencies," a set of intellectual skills and sensibilities acquired through social background and educational environment and expressed through "taste." These competencies distinguish the dominant classes through exercise of their superior "taste" and pursuit of specialized "high art" cultural interests.

Social divisions are theorized as supporting and being legitimated by cultural practices hierarchically organized into those more "serious" and "elevated" and those more "vulgar" and "mindless." The dominant classes maintain their position of superiority by their economic ability to invest time and money in the education and participation required to further refine their cultural pursuits and ensure that they are always sufficiently different to distinguish them from those of the "lower" classes. For Bourdieu, the particular cultural values a class espouses are completely arbitrary and indefensible (apart from the task of maintaining the cultural hierarchy). Thus far then, we are left with a situation in which different social groups are aligned with their different cultural interests, none of which has any intrinsic value over any other. Although this means that the cultural values of the dominant class are purely "ideological" and have no real superiority to those of popular culture, this position also means that we are left with no basis on which to propose an alternative culture or set of aesthetic values. The classic problems of this radical relativism leave us mute when trying either to explain the development of a particular art form, or how for instance, a new art practice such as that of electronic media could evolve under such conditions. But Bourdieu's materialistic reasoning actually takes us one bizarre step further in describing this organization of cultural power.

The only creative movement of the cultural intellectuals of Bourdieu's dominant class is in internal rivalries generated by promoting the interests of each others' cultural fields, and in further distancing and elevating the taste of their own class above that of lower classes. The chief way of ensuring their exclusivity is simply to increase the difficulty of acquiring the cultural competencies necessary for the exercise of taste, to increase the investment needed in education, experience and social background. Any cultural competencies which require no particular effort to gain, are in a sense easy or "natural" and are therefore not valued and considered to be "barbarous" taste. Dominant cultural values which are comparatively educated, sophisticated and rational are placed in direct contrast to popular culture which are easy, immediate and sensual. So from our starting point based on empirical sociological data we have arrived at a dialectic which implicitly divides cultural competencies between a "natural" state of sensation and simple pleasures and a highly contrived aesthetic of critical intellectual contemplation. Although for Bourdieu these particular sets of values are still meaningless in themselves, this opposition is necessary in his theory of symbolic power to explain the mechanism behind how aesthetic codes are constructed. It would not now be difficult to find examples of artworks that seemed to have properties of both "high" and "low" culture so defined (though the theory is used to explain various conflicts and preferences), but there are areas in the development of electronic media forms where such a contrast of values seems to relate to problems in the cultural positioning of these new practices.

[MFJ ordering] [MFJ Special Ordering]
"Pure" Form and "Barbarous" Taste

Formal experiment which, in literature or the theater, leads to obscurity is . . . one sign of what is sometimes felt to be a desire to keep the uninitiated at arms length . . .
Pierre Bourdieu, op. cit.

A high degree of formal experimentation was encouraged by the nature of music videos: they had to catch hold of the viewer's attention . . . Naturally, the traditional filmic devices of mainstream and avant-garde cinema were available to promo directors, . . . but they lacked novelty value. New forms of image technology were to supply the answer.
John A Walker, Cross-Overs (London: Methuen and Co., 1987)

In his descriptions of the "popular aesthetic," Bourdieu identifies in it a refusal of all formal and experimental aesthetic devices and a desire to anchor any artifact such as an image to a specific "content" or use value. Taking a photograph of a wounded man, for example, the working class respondents to his surveys are concerned with the properties and traits of the particular man depicted and the likelihood of his situation . Middle class aesthetes on the other hand are attracted to stylistic properties of the picture itself. Responses from working class participants tend to refer to the possible function of the picture, to an "appreciation of informative, tangible or moral interest." These observations are extended to explain the popularity of narrative forms in which the working class can enter into a participatory enjoyment in a social world that they recognize. Thus far we have had constructed a popular aesthetic that appears to be a kind of utilitarian attitude to culture combined with a demand for a participatory social realism. Despite the problems in defining what is meant by a particular "realist" narrative form and how it operates, Bourdieu does not at first have any trouble in ignoring a consideration of the ideological function of representation and in reconciling his claim that a popular culture must be immediately accessible to be able to provide the base line from which a high culture can separate itself. Bourdieu maintains that the working class dislikes any formal experimentation in cultural forms, whether it is in television variety shows or the stylistic devices developed in high art circles. But at other points he refers to the base line popular aesthetic as being one of "pure and simple animality, to palpable pleasure and sensual desire." Bourdieu's desire seems to be to identify this immediate emotional and sensual response to texts with that of emphatic narrative identification, but we could also easily argue that such a "primitive" response was equally appropriate to "pure forms" and patterns, such as those of the wallpaper, carpets and textiles that adorn working class homes everywhere. The only time that Bourdieu credits a quality of the image in itself is when he notices that sometimes working class people cite color as able to render an otherwise "pointless" image attractive. This apparent contradiction is partly explained by Bourdieu himself when in one passage he states that "The department store is, in a sense, the poor man's gallery . . . because, there, people do not feel themselves measured against transcendent norms, i.e., the principles of the life-style of a supposedly higher class, but feel free to judge freely, in the name of the legitimate arbitrariness of tastes and colors."

It is not, then, the pictorial delights of images that the general public refuses, but the artistic context in which they are sometimes obliged to pay homage to them. This would explain the acceptance of vivid stylistic experiments in TV programming, music videos, advertisinf and youth culture. As long as they are not aligned with the cultural interests of high art, such graphic devices can be enjoyed for their sheer visual energy. It would also address the popularity of the novel experiments in digital imagery, startling in their visual stridency but estranged from traditional practices and often criticized by cultural commentators both for their lack of artistry and their lack of "content."

Animation has often been considered as special by film theorists for its distance from any necessary link with social narrative caused by the absence of live action recording and freedom of formal invention. Unlike conventional cinema which seeks to efface the means by which it appears "realistic" its stage setting, editing, cinematography, etc. animation actively draws attention to its technical means and molds it into a stylistic device. Endlessly formally inventive, animation remains one of the most popular filmic arts, albeit normally relegated to children's cartoons. In the earlier days of cinema and particularly when the Disney studios were just maturing their later style, animations were universally popular to the extent that they were also routinely enjoyed in cinemas by aesthetes from the highest levels of the art world. As described by theorists such as Michael O'Pray, some filmmakers of the time such as Sergei Eisenstein tried to explain this seemingly irresistible appeal by referring to Disney's consummate ability to make all the cartoon characters movements "lifelike" purely through a fluidity of motion, a perfected series of seamless transformations. He referred to this quality as the "protoplasmic," because it seemed to appeal to a psychological recognition of the creation and dissipation of organic forms and energies, the "omnipotence of plasma which contains in 'liquid' form all possibilities of future species and forms." Although this sounds very metaphysical, O'Pray explains the same effect using Freud's concept of the omnipotence of thought our desire for an all-powerfulness expressed through a supreme control and virtuosity of forms, as seen in the best Disney animation of the time. When observing the popularity of recent special effects films like Terminator 2 or even the otherwise mediocre Lawnmower Man, it is not difficult to see that their computer animated sequences have managed to combine all the qualities of "protoplasmic" imagery the "full-frame" metamorphoses and strident kaleidoscopic graphics that are all the more extreme for their claims to portray events "realistically." Special effects computer animation seems to have become the pinnacle of pure formal experimentation, "images beyond imagination," expressed as pure visual technology captivating and ephemeral.

Electronic media has rendered formal innovation in art trivial by reducing it to a matter of selecting from a series of command options. Bourdieu argues that this is all that the basis of taste is, a set of fundamentally arbitrary decisions about surface effect drawn from a plurality of possibilities. The computer makes this selection explicit, accessible and levelled out into a problem of pure information processing, a displacement of the ideology of representation onto another level entirely. It is as though the drive towards aesthetic creativity has gone out of control, going beyond a poetic purpose and expressing nothing but pure technical agency. It is difficult under these circumstances for art commentators to accept these developments, as popular culture becomes the center of the most unrestrained manipulations of the image surface in an appreciation of the protoplasmic quality of organic libidinal energy. The engine of change is no longer fashion, but is a structural property of media itself. The omnipotence of thought reflected through the omnipotence of technology as pure sensation.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to position new media practices within the cultural spaces of galleries, publications, conferences, or popular entertainments, with so many different interests at work. Electronic media are too new to have a readily defined place in the cultural hierarchy and typically show the traces of many genres in their production, partaking of aspects of both high art and popular culture. As new producers emerge, their greatest challenge is the formation of new audiences, spaces, and support structures. How the forces of cultural hegemony react to these new players will be crucial in defining what is possible and where, far more than their technical facilitation. The need to develop new forms of expression should lead to pressure to combine various traits of both high and low and to overcome their distinctions. But as aesthetic standards are disrupted there are many instances in which new forms of legitimation are emerging, leading to the prospect of certain technologies and practices being declared "artistic" at the expense of others. I will now briefly examine two examples showing how some of these issues are being worked out today.

Only the Innocent Understand Technology
As well as an endless array of new graphic devices, electronic media has extended the range of cultural sites at which its manifestations can be experienced. For Bourdieu the ideal place to reinforce the aesthetic distinction of high art is in the museum where the most ordinary object is elevated to the level of refined contemplation. Electronic media on the other hand has produced a range of eclectic sites in which hybrid combinations of academic research, commercial products, and artistic experiments come together and are questioned from a variety of different perspectives.

In the summer of 1993 two large art shows based on digital and interactive media opened in the United States, similar in content and intentions, but moving in very different directions with regards to the future of how to locate electronic media work. The first year of the MONTAGE '93 show attempted to eclipse all other media festivals in one go by offering such a huge program of exhibitions, film and video shows, seminars, lectures and expositions. One of the largest exhibits was Iterations: The New Image, a show of electronic and interactive installations along with some digital photography, curated by Tim Druckrey and Charles Stainback from the International Center of Photography in New York City. At the very same time on the other side of the continent, SIGGRAPH '93, the world's largest computer graphics conference, saw the opening of Machine Culture, its first curated art show dedicated to interactive media art. Although SIGGRAPH has featured a juried art show since 1981, its relationship to the many other events, such as presentations of the latest scientific research, courses, trade shows and technology exhibits has resulted in its remaining low on the list of priorities. This year the art show chair Simon Penny, an electronic sculptor, with his assistant Harry Fozzard, took on the task of fashioning a coherent and artistically credible exhibition that could withstand the concentrated onslaught of over 35,000 conference attendees over five days an audience ranging from scientists to sales reps to art critics.

Both shows attempted something new in their different ways. Both wanted to try to advance the reputation of art produced using electronic means and to bring it into the mainstream Avant Garde. In this respect, the Iterations show was best placed to promote this kind of work to the art world. The Memorial Art Gallery gave all the pieces plenty of space to perform, and its serene calm provided the kind of respectful atmosphere required. But a big factor in SIGGRAPH's favor is its unique position in being able to resource such a massive undertaking as Machine Culture, with its incredible total of thirty computer based installations. As Simon Penny states in the show's catalogue, "SIGGRAPH is perhaps the only place that such an event could occur, as it gathers both the technology and the goodwill of the makers of these technologies." Certainly, this is a constant problem for gallery based exhibitions such as Iterations that require fast graphics workstations for artists' use. All in all, a staggering two million dollars in loaned hardware was negotiated for the use of the Machine Culture show.

[MFJ ordering] [MFJ Special Ordering] But the most important difference was how the two shows negotiated their very dissimilar audiences and situation, especially Machine Culture. Many artists and critics already come to SIGGRAPH just to keep up with the latest technological developments, renew contacts or even look for jobs. With the lack of a regular media arts festival in the US this yearly event has been the nearest equivalent on home soil. But this audience forms only a minority among the thousands of computer graphics production companies, vendors, research scientists, engineers and consultants. It was to these people, very unlike the usual arts-going public, that Machine Culture would also have to prove itself. For this reason, the work in the show had to be able to engage its audience at an immediate level before anything else, to be able to present a clear opening to its audience on how it is to be approached. The result gave an indication of the possibility of a how a different kind of art event could be made to work.

To answer the problem of how to find an audience for electronic art we have to recognize the fact that such media derives its "mode of address" from many elements of popular media and entertainments rather than those defined within the usual art formats. For non-art audiences that are familiar with technological media through their regular pastimes, its status as art is not problematized in the sense of opposing it to commercial artifacts they are all part of the same media landscape. This can provide them with a route into "serious" or otherwise provocative pieces, whose qualities are often obscured for a traditional art audience repelled by their technological implementation associated with "non-serious" popular media. But if both art and media are using the same means and are appealing to similar audiences, then how do they now differentiate themselves?

Apart from the academic events and the trade show, there were two other exhibitions at SIGGRAPH apart from Machine Culture--Designing Technology and Tomorrow's Realities, of which the latter was an exhibition of new interactive media technologies. The theme of Machine Culture was interactive media as well, in particular the exploration of innovations in interactivity as artistic projects presumably in such a way as to overcome the content/technology dichotomy. Tomorrow's Realities had in its stated remit to address "social, economic, cultural and political implications" (although how it intended to accomplish this gargantuan task was not clear), and Machine Culture's main aim was to explore the "nature of interaction and the interactive interface." There was a sliding scale between the corporate research groups of Tomorrow's Realities with their networked flight simulators and the lone artists with their idiosyncratic installations, and this was reflected by the lack of demarcation between exhibition spaces. Both Tomorrow's Realities and Machine Culture exhibited single independent producers with conceptually multi-layered pieces, but Machine Culture just had more of them. Many of Tomorrow's Realities exhibitors regretted not being accepted for Machine Culture, the implication being that they desired the certain status that they perceived the art show could bestow upon them. But due to the interchangeability of some of the works, the most significant difference between the two shows was the change of context in which the Machine Culture works were to be encountered. It is true that some artists were primarily presenting systems that were designed for future commercial markets. Sometimes this is just because the custom built systems they need are not already available domestically. But for those whose work is ultimately transferable to a standard commercial platform these are irresistible temptations that fuel their future ambitions. In this way some artist's work assumes the role of "blue-sky" research just waiting for the right sponsor to reach its full fruition.

In Machine Culture then, the artist appears resolutely as the "maverick" researcher that artist Jim Pomeroy once asserted, a bit like a contemporary figure to replace the lone scientist struggling to perfect his invention that was such an important part of prewar science fiction. But is this artist a true gunfighter living on both sides of the law or merely a forced outsider just waiting for the day when his or her work will be noticed, and rewarded with a corporate research consultancy? Some are eager to be recuperated into the commercial mainstream, flattered by the acceptance of their ideas by the industrial and scientific establishment. Others stay with the traditional avant-garde role of the artist as an oblique commentator through the technology they employ, accepting their function to produce work for the discursive spaces allotted to them by the art-world. And for others still, their efforts will find a place operating in the new cultural spaces opened up by their choice of media, from the rock concert scale performances of Survival Research Labs to an audience composed of uncountable nodes in a network designed to distribute multi-layered documents growing in virtual spaces. But for most it will probably be a little of all of these as their lives become a process of continual negotiation for opportunities and identities.

After visiting the stalls of the industry floor to examine newly released products, after listening to presentations of the latest research directions and viewing numerous commercial showreels, attendees would trace their way through Tomorrow's Realities and Designing Technology to Machine Culture,where they would recognize much of the same devices and techniques they had just been evaluating but now used for very different purposes. The effect was to change the perspective of both industry and arts attendees, to see a media arts practice as situated between the realms of commerce, science, and popular culture. Visitors would queue up to "have a go on" the exhibits, their approach derived from a background of gaming pursuits rather than the art museum. Nonetheless, the difference between exploring the cultural implications and aesthetics of interactive techniques themselves, and the value of making a coherent narrative or personal statement was still clear when compared with the intentions of the Tomorrow's Realities exhibits. With the help of just a few meters of heavy black drapes, partitions were created in which electronic sculptures like the swaying tubes of Louis-Philippe Demers and Bill Vorn's Espace Vectoriel could sing and flay about to the fascination of audiences. At the other end of the room was a restaging of Agnes Hegedus's Handsight, a quieter piece about the eye's penetration into symbolic spaces which survived and indeed thrived in the manic activity on the SIGGRAPH floor, almost by its very contrast. Even very whimsical pieces like the Australian Ian Haig's Hack installation (an attempt to "hack" together elements drawn from popular games, comic books and video art) made it apparent how far both computer conferences and art exhibitions fall short in reminding us of the stimulus that electronic media receives from popular cultural forms.

Can "serious" issues still be addressed in this kind of environment? If by "serious" we mean the pursuit of certain specialized aesthetics, then the answer is probably "no." A demanding long term reading of a work like Grahame Weinbren's interactive cinema installations would not be possible in a space like this, especially in the open plan unpartitioned areas of the show. Works that came from a more video arts background like Victoria Vesna's Another Day in Paradise suffered from the continual interruptions and swarms of people. But if by "serious" we mean capable of prompting just some kind of critical reflection, then it would seem that the answer is a conditional "yes." Certainly even just the juxtaposition of works by artists with works for industrial applications in other parts of the conference proved able to provide an enlightening context for their themes. By comparing the approaches taken by these independents when building their own media, one is more able to decipher the concerns and implications behind the development of more commercial products, and where their intentions might converge as they have done in the past. Otherwise this show was evidence that an unusually wide range of art works can prosper when they are released from the captive safety of the gallery into a traditionally hostile environment.

[MFJ ordering] [MFJ Special Ordering] As well as its vulgar derivations from commercial mass media, a constant impediment to a regular art world's appreciation of electronic art is the level of technological literacy associated with it. Although it is naively assumed that the "content" of a work can be apprehended independently of its embodiment, the mysterious functioning of digital processes cannot be prevented from growing into a barrier of bewilderment and alienation for the uninitiated. It was no doubt this that accounted for some of the reluctance of the invited critics and curators to engage with the work in a receptive frame of mind. As if to caricature this condition, one of the most popular exhibits at MONTAGE 93, was Persistence of Vision by Gregory Barsamian, which returned the visitor to a fun fair side-show encounter with new media. In a disarmingly low-tech set up, Barsamian used a sequence of plaster models of objects in different stages of metamorphosis, slowly rotating and illuminated by strobe lights in order to produce a Zoetrope illusion of movement. The squirming lizards perpetually breaking out of eggs, hands scooping sand out of books and angels turning into helicopters and back again provoked a reaction of innocent awe in its spectators. This awe was all the more potent for the fact that the technical devices that produced it were so obvious and unsophisticated, thereby side-stepping the feeling of enforced ignorance experienced by some when confronted with the latest abilities of computer media.

In Persistence of Vision, prior knowledge of the medium does not de-simulate the event and the piece retains its magic. In similar works like the computer phrenakistiscopes of Toshio Iwai the technology is less accessible, but this is compensated for by their immediate toy-like appeal. This example gives us an idea of what the experience of computer media should be like in a world of comparable computer literacy to make the technology transparent, or if not then at least the humility needed to negate the feeling of technological incomprehension. For some cultural thinkers, the willingness to adopt Eisenstein's "childlike primitiveness" and acceptance of things at face value means an infantilization rather than an ability to give ones self up to the play, exploration and openness that the high art museums always claimed a brutish public dieting on mass media would never have the sensitivity to develop. For others, the humility to accept what they do not understand means an abandonment of critical faculties. But no one person can "master" the technology now employed to create so many diverse systems and devices (this would be a hopelessly totalitarian task). Instead, for many critics and curators, the reluctance to enter a partial dialogue which they cannot dominate becomes an excuse not to enter the dialogue at all.

DOOM but Not Gloom
In Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery there is a scene where he and his wife Diane Keaton are leaving the Lincoln opera house before the end of the performance. Woody explains "I don't like to listen to too much Wagner I keep getting the urge to invade Poland." This kind of logic has much in common with frequent reactions to the effects of excessive violence in movies, TV, comics, and now computer games. The software house producing the most extreme examples of the genre of bloodthirsty shoot-em-ups is id Software, and their latest release Doom is quite exceptional in the lengths it goes to in order to put you into the most visceral situations. Id's first game in this series was Escape from Wolfenstein, released last year, which centered on an escaped POW running around a Nazi castle and shooting everything that moved. The most striking thing about it was the level of sophistication of the graphics very interactive, a strong 3D illusion, lots of graphic details and completely over-the-top violence (Nintendo made id tone down the version that it produced for their games consoles). But Doom actually goes an order of magnitude higher than this in reaching new degrees of realism and interactive simulation. The aim of the game is apparently straightforward, simply a question of shooting your way through each level while being chased by an assortment of half human soldiers, demons, and monsters "You're toast if you get too close to these monstrosities." The excuse for a story is that you are a "tough marine" of the future, sent to Phobos to rescue the moon base from something nasty that has been transported during their experiments in inter-dimensional space travel. "Just a few days ago you were probably swapping war stories with one of these guys. Now its time to swap some lead upside their heads." This scenario is represented graphically using highly sophisticated texture mapping techniques to produce a range of lighting effects, radioactive pools, mountainscapes and interiors from stone dungeons to hi-tech computer display panels. These allow the player to appear to move around both inside and outside the buildings, run up and down staircases, take lifts and jump off walls. The adversaries that you face are also partially intelligent, enabling them to join forces as they pursue you, try to cut you off and ambush you from secret trap doors while the lights are switched off. In some instances they will get caught in their own crossfire, resulting in them taking time off to attack each other.

Doom uses a first person viewpoint, the view on the screen is what the protagonist would see and it changes to mimic walking, turning or running a "virtual reality" interface without the goggles. Sticking out of the front of the screen is one of a number of weapons that the player can acquire, and the action of firing is portrayed in remarkable detail with blasts, impact explosions and smoke. The result of actually hitting one of your enemies is even more dramatic, involving bodies flying, blood splattering and screaming noises, in some cases bodies completely exploding into charred husks. "Chainguns direct heavy firepower into your opponent, making him do the chaingun cha-cha." The violence is hyped up relentlessly, the player is exhorted at every turn to get stuck in and start blasting away, and it is highly addictive. In an interview in a recent issue of Edge (the coffee-table computer games magazine), id software's technical director John Carmack describes Doom as a graphics system looking for a game."We designed the user interaction and display technology to be as cool as possible, then worked a game around it . . . Doom is just a killer environment with no pretensions of having a real story." Although described as an "action oriented slugathon," this does not give a clear idea of the attraction of playing the game. The driving motivation for the player is not a simple blood lust, nor even a primitive expression of law-of-the-jungle self-preservation. Because Doom is not really a battle simulation, but a cinema simulation, specifically a simulation of body-count cyberpunk movies like Robocop, Total Recall and Aliens. The real thrill of playing Doom is roaming around the bizarre scenery of the futuristic moon base, noting the changes in mood as you travel from a flickering computer control room down corridors to a mouldy dungeon surrounded by shimmering pools of radioactive waste. To pass through some doorways you need to find color coded keys. At other times badly needed ammunition lies hidden behind secret doors. The mechanics of locating a secret door do not really require a surfeit of brains, however, just a matter of approaching every wall and pressing the "open" button until one responds. The real point is the tension of searching and exploring the architecture, the same tension one would experience watching a film while waiting for the climax. The greatest satisfaction is in locating a doorway that leads out through a tunnel into an open courtyard, rewarding you with a vista of fractal mountains and an opportunity to view the building from a new vantage point. The feeling when edging around corners or stumbling upon a room full of demons is one of surprise and the excitement of disorientation rather than the exercise of a trigger-happy "killer instinct."

All id's games come with a full music soundtrack as well as the sound effect punctuation. This enormously heightens the effect of being actually inside a movie, and enables it to become totally absorbing. Various filmic references are scattered around the game, such as the opportunity to pick up a chainsaw as part of your weapons arsenal, appropriate enough for a games company that is based in Texas. But the strongest experience in playing Doom is the exhilaration of exploring an alien environment which leaves you continuing to run around the corridors long after all the enemies have been disposed of. The violence is so parodied and self-conscious in this Schwarzenegger-simulator that it is not difficult to negate it altogether and to experience the game on other levels.

At the current time, Britain is suffering one of its periodic "moral panics" spearheaded by conservatives who believe that the best way to preserve the nation's moral fibre is to eradicate all references to the contrary. Along with Bulletin Board Services said to "spread child pornography" (always a favorite call to arms), video games have come under attack for their portrayal of horror. The recent controversy over Sega's Night Trap console game has also been joined by many intellectuals and cultural critics in journals and newspapers of the libertarian left who now feel that sex and violence in video games represent a menace to the appreciation of serious culture. Although Night Trap is portrayed as a stalk-and-slash scenario in which young girls in nighties are molested by alien monsters, the main contention is that the game pioneered the use of live video clips for graphic realism. This development implied for many left critics a more serious influence on young minds, especially its perceived victimization of hapless women and fascistic blood lust. In fact, if many of the critics had actually seen the game they would have discovered that the female characters were far from helpless and that the level of exploitation was no greater than an episode of Lost in Space. But of course, many cultural critics do not like games, preferring to side with reactionary parties who relegate them to the status of the junk culture that serves to make their own cultural interests appear that much more edifying. Computer games do not attract the support of those who so vehemently oppose the introduction of more draconian film censorship for example, for, as everyone knows, film has the status of Art. Apart from an astonishingly naive understanding of how electronic texts function, it seems that the main contribution of intellectuals to the development of this sphere of video culture will be to discourage the interest of people looking for a new medium in which to develop challenging new ideas so that in the future they can complain about any lack of serious intent even more. But fortunately the influence of such concerned individuals is in conflict, especially as an involvement with some form of electronic media is becoming the only way that the arts establishment can maintain its currency in a society where visual literacy and cultural skills will, in the future, be developed primarily in a haze of phosphor radiation.

In the Ocean of Streams of Story

2009-11-11T20:48:00.000Z

In the Ocean of Streams of Story
Grahame Weinbren
Printed in MFJ No. 28 (Spring 1995): Interactivities
It is easy to read the nostalgic tone of Rushdie's 1990 "children's story" as the wish for a return to innocence, to a state of story-telling purity beyond the reaches of politics and intrigue. Rushdie is, of course, too sophisticated--and too embittered by the outrageous circumstances of his life--to profess such an outlook, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories abounds with metaphors of cruel suppression and mindless censorship. The nostalgia in the image of the Sea of Stories is better seen as a reminder of the creative process a writer craves in his or her darkest pessimism: an ocean of stories, wide and deep, effortlessly tapped. The power of the image is in its erasure of the line between writer and reader--Haroun's father, as a professional storyteller, need only drink from his personal faucet plumbed to the Ocean and report to his audience: this alone constitutes writing.

Can the image be turned around? Can we imagine the Ocean as a source primarily for readers rather than writers? Could there be a "story space" (to use Michael Joyce's resonant expression) like the Ocean, in which a reader might take a dip, encountering stories and story-segments as he or she flipped and dived? In these waters, turbulences created by the swimmer's own motion might cause an intermingling of the Streams of Story; the Ocean is a dynamic narrative region, a Heraclitean river into which one could never step twice, a lake of Heisenbergian uncertainty where the very attempt to examine a particular story-stream transforms it. What a goal to create such an Ocean! And how suitable an ideal for an interactive fiction!

Fiction, Cinema and Cybernetics
The idea of interactive fiction is not new. A fictional structure on which the reader, viewer, or user can impact has attracted writers since the 19th century, but such authors as Bram Stoker and Laurence Sterne had to use literary devices to give the illusion of a textual variability. Interactivity describes a relationship between viewer and work: interactive works do not require a particular presentation medium or technological base. In attempting to develop an interactive narrative cinema, I realized early that it will not have the shape of narrative as we have understood it--the very idea of user impact opens to question the concepts of end and beginning, of crisis and conflict, of development itself. The traditional (Aristotelian) notion of narrative must be rethought.

My own work is in the pull of a pair of forces that have defined the late twentieth century--the Cinema and Cybernetics, the Projector and the Computer. I have made two installations that incorporate computers and moving images that I call works of interactive cinema. In both Sonata and The Erl King the participant's (inter-)actions affect the temporal conglomerate of images and sounds. The computer itself is not a medium or a tool, but a device which can be used to control existent media, so the questions that arise are about how cinema changes when its apparatus is linked to a computer--just as one can investigate changes in the structure of cinematic communication when sound was invented.

The first two questions to arise for me in thinking about an interactive cinema can be posed in quite traditional terms: what kind of story will fit the medium, and what will be the grammar of its telling? Early on I realized that one would have to find a subject for which the sequence of events was not of central importance, since if the viewer is to wander around and through the narrative, the order in which the depicted events are accessed would have to be open to variation. And this requirement led me directly to Freud's techniques of dream interpretation.

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A Branching Structure
Freud transcribed and published the case history of the Wolf Man in 1914-15, soon after the end of the patient's analysis. It is the apex of Freud's early period, where the central concepts of condensation, displacement, wish fulfillment, the primal scene, etc., reach their full fruition, never to be repeated in quite the same way.

The analysis revolves around the dream image of the staring wolves, introduced early on by the patient. Freud describes the process of gradually uncovering the components of the dream, linking each element with an event, a character, or an emotion remembered but perhaps suppressed. The dream's significance for the dreamer, manifested in the overwhelming emotional effect it had on him and the fact that it remained in his memory for decades, led Freud to seek further explanation. He finally accounts for this power in his proposal that the dream encapsulates the dreamer's greatest fears and desires, as transformed memories of the events that first produced them. For my purposes the details (and--it goes without saying--the `truth') of the dream-analysis are not important. I wish only to appropriate certain aspects of Freud's methodology in my own search for a paradigmatic story structure suitable for an interactive cinema.

Condensation is the key concept. The dream is formed by compressing and combining a set of mental entities. The dream can function in the dreamer's mental framework as the distillation of a set of emotional charges. The dream's powerful affect comes from the fact that, in an important sense, it embodies a set of memories and the specific emotions linked with them. Repeatedly Freud stresses that there is no universal symbol translation table--every element of the dream image, and every property of every element, is understood by the dreamer in his own individual way. Each element substantiates a combination of particular fears, hopes, desires or beliefs, transformed, by the laws of the unconscious, into a component of the dream image. Seeing the images through the dreamer's eyes--identifying the underlying atomic parts and understanding how they are altered by the dreamer's mental process into the dream image--is understanding the dream. In this understanding is written a page or several chapters of the biography of the dreamer.

Freud's notion of a dream is a conception of a narrative-type based on a hermeneutic method. Unraveling a dream reveals the narrative of the dreamer's interlocking emotional states. But it is not a narrative that unfolds in time--all the elements are simultaneously present. Freud goes to great trouble to convey this atemporality, but even for him it is a notion that eludes expression, since, after all, his own mode of communication--writing--is, of necessity, linear, one word following another, forming paragraphs that follow one another, etc., while his conception of the dreamwork is, by its very nature, non-linear, unsuited to the writing forms of the early 20th century.

Considered as a narrative structure, the underlying elements of the dream can be revealed in any order whatsoever, and the same story will emerge. Thus, it is truly a narrative without specificity of sequence.

The Interpretation of Dreams
A film might try to approximate the structure of Freudian dream analysis in a story structure that step by step unraveled the components of an evocative image. However, the linearity of cinema sequence tends to freeze material into narrative hierarchies, one element gaining in significance while another loses, depending on each one's context and their overall order. How better to reproduce the minimal significance of sequence, the irrelevance of order, than through interactivity? For only in an interactive work can the sequence of events be determined by the viewer. And when the viewer becomes aware that sequence is determined by his, by her responses alone, sequence may already have stopped being a criterion of narrative significance. In normal cinematic circumstances, the weight of an event is given largely by its context: now, with sequence under the control of the viewer, this weight can lighten or even dissolve. And in these circumstances the viewer's understanding of the events of the narrative can undergo a radical transformation, based entirely on the knowledge that things could have been different. Later in this paper I shall make an attempt at describing the "subjunctive" state of mind evoked by the interactive cinema.

The elements associated with a particular dream-image are not by themselves sufficient to define the biographical narrative underlying the dream. This would be a gross oversimplification. Of course it is also essential to incorporate how the elements are transformed and combined into the dream. Often this syntax and its application can be expressed only verbally. It is difficult, for example, to imagine an effective visual expression of the transformation of something into its opposite (from "staring" to "being stared at," or from the ornate motions of sexual intercourse to the stillness of the white wolves), or the transfer of a particular quality from one object to another (as the color white is lifted from sheep and flour and attributed to the wolves). Freud's interpretation of the dream is far more than a simple compacting of memory-images into one conglomerate: the grammar of the image-elements' metamorphoses and rearrangements is as significant as the elements themselves.

I am not suggesting that the principles of condensation and displacement could not form a foundation of a visual narrative, but only that some depiction of the types of transformation will have to be incorporated alongside the results of the transformations. The point, to reiterate, is to develop a type of narrative that can retain its identity and make sense independent of the sequence of events. Thus, in Sonata, I found that I needed to make the formative elements of the dream into components of the dream-narrative--without them it became merely a collection of scenes connected only by association.

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Desire
Cinema, of course, cannot be internally affected by its viewers. Turning one's head, far from affecting the visual experience, removes one from its world and into the mundane space of the screening room. The chess pieces and french fries on screen will only yield to forces that are profilmic, within the diegesis, or (commonly) both.

Furthermore, the impossibility of impacting on the cinematic is one of the sources of our pleasure in it. "Don't go up(/down) the stairs!" we inwardly cry out while watching Hitchcock's Psycho, first to the private detective Arbogast, and later to the heroine Lila Crane, all the time knowing that however deeply felt, our distress will not influence their behavior. The experience of suspense would be fatally distorted by the elimination of inevitability in the characters' actions. If Lila could turn back because of our pleas, the entire effect of the horror film would dissolve. Much of cinema's power over us is our lack of power over it, and, in this sense, suspense is a paradigm of cinematic response. It could be argued that the introduction of viewer impact on the representation is a destructive step for the cinema. The removal of the possibility of suspense is the removal of desire from the cinematic, and, ultimately, the removal of the very fascination of the medium.

To find interactive forms in which desire can be sustained will require the construction of a new cinematic grammar. And, to be successful, this search, this construction-process, must foreground that aspect of cinematic communication that is fundamentally a grammar of temporality.

Time. Time. Time.
Time always moves relentlessly, tautologically, forward, as long as one is alive. "Real," clock-measurable time can always be distinguished from time subjectively felt. The real time of cinema is rigidly defined by the apparatus, fully predetermined by the physical substrate of images projected serially at a regular pace set by an electric motor. A film begins and ends necessarily and predictably. Relative to the beginning, the end is dependent on, and only on, the length of the filmstrip. Whatever its images, however they are organized, a film has a physical beginning, middle, and end. Whether and how this linear temporality structures the image-material in a particular film is a major issue (perhaps the major issue) for a filmmaker. It could even be argued that the stance taken by a filmmaker towards temporal structure, how time is articulated in a particular film, is an index of where in the spectrum of cinematic practice (from Hollywood to Avant Garde) a given work falls.

This gives us the first sense of cinematic time--it can be called Screen Time: the clock-time required for the filmstrip to run through the projection apparatus.

The second sense of time is that of the world depicted in the film--and here the limits are more or less the cinema of story-telling, and its Diegetic Time. A cinema narrative may jump forward, eliminating decades (or centuries) in a single cut; or slide back, using perhaps one of the various narrative strategies that fall under the category of flashback; or remain in the present, so that a given passage of film denotes a continuous passage of time. This latter case (the most frequently used) still allows for a broad range of variation: one continuous two minute portion of a story can occupy five minutes of screen time, while the next portion compresses seven years into as many seconds.

Meanwhile...

Experienced Time. Detective Arbogast's walk up the stairs seems painfully extended, so that his stabbing at the first landing is a dreadful shock; this prepares us for Lila's later descent into the basement, which stretches time even further as each step seems to last a full minute, for we now (rightly) expect the worst to be waiting for her. On another end of the scale, a contemporary action film can make us feel as if no time passes during its 100 minutes, while in another discourse entirely, a film like Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1968) insists on equating real and depicted time, a position transformed into an ideology in the 1970s by such filmmakers as Peter Gidal. The relationship of film grammar, plot, and the experience of time is a fertile area of study, especially since the compression of time is undoubtedly one of the major determinants of cinema's phenomenal success.

The question is: what happens to cinematic time when viewer input becomes a component of the screen amalgam? To what extent does the incorporation of viewer impact keep time real, canceling out the magnetism of cinema itself--when does it cease to be cinema and become "multimedia" in its drab information-delivery costume, the slick transmission of data in fields of "hot spots," "buttons," and point-and-click menus?

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The Kuleshov Effect
The temporal grammar of classical film continuity can be summed up in a single example, which, like much mythology of cinema, is described more often than seen. The "Kuleshov Effect" scenario consists of a close- up of a Russian actor, intercut with several emotion-laden images (a dead woman in a coffin, a child playing, a bowl of soup). This supposedly produces in the audience a sense of the actor's face as saturated with appropriate emotion. But more interesting than this (presumably a commentary on the actor's ambiguous, doleful expression) is the idea, taken as "obvious and certain" by Pudovkin, that the character is seen to be "looking at the soup"--the man and the soup are linked, across the cut, into a single continuous space. Of course it cannot be as simple as this, as the sense of continuous space requires the support of a number of factors such as eye-line, lighting, shadow direction, etc.--but the point is clear. I'll suggest a recasting of this fable later in this paper. Here I introduce it only to restate the familiar homily that in cinema spatial unification is easily maintained through temporal disruptions, given a particular sequence. Sequence determines space. And sequence logically requires time.

The Liberation of the Filmstrip
A standard linear unit of cinema has an A-B-A structure: e.g., the Kuleshov point-of-view cutaway, the shot-reverse-shot of a dialogue scene, or the performer-audience-performer of the Musical. This atomic structure defines continuity of time and space in the cinema.

The equivalent in my interactive cinema is formed by a sequence in which the middle term is produced by an action of the viewer. If the viewer does not act, the first shot continues. But on action by the spectator the B-shot appears, then, after an appropriate period, the A-shot reappears, perhaps transformed by the interspersed shot, perhaps unchanged. In Sonata this structure is used as a bridge to an alternative point of view (for example of another fictional character, or of the author); as a jump to an earlier (or later) time in the story; as a glance at a different depiction of the narrative situation (e.g., a classical painting of the Judith and Holofernes theme rather than its continuing narration by a story-teller); or the momentary introduction of a parallel narrative line. Does the sequence still denote a continuity of space and/or time? The interpretive mode the viewer takes toward the new material is associative. Because the new image or scene was produced, i.e., brought on screen, by the viewer, he is forced into connecting to the image it replaces--an act of association, rather than spatio-temporal suturing. In Sonata this act is reinforced by two strategies:

1. the automatic return to the previous image, so that it seems that the image produced by the viewer interaction is a temporary interruption of a continuing logic;

2. audio continuity: the sound from the first image continues through the interruption, which reinforces the impression that the viewer's actions are disturbing the natural flow, thus demanding that a sense be made of the new complex.

In the environment created by this structure, Screen Time becomes variable, not fixed. Though the plot of the unfolding narrative is not affected by the viewer's interactions, the screen can now contain multiple diegetic times simultaneously, and the viewer quickly becomes accustomed to navigating between them.

Experienced Time, on the other hand, becomes open and indeterminate. At one extreme the viewer can find himself in the extended time-instant of the computer hacker or videogame player compulsively acting on the screen image. It is this semi-hypnotic state that allows the computer programmer to spend twenty-four hours at a stretch in front of a CRT, "jacked in" as the novelist William Gibson puts it. In his fiction Gibson often compares the state to that produced by imagined mind-altering drugs of the future. In this mental condition, the user's impact on the screen output is paramount, while awareness of content and interpretive distance are subordinated to action. Videogames and virtual reality environments are often designed to stimulate this condition--the content is minimal and ancillary to the actions of the user, which are immediate and powerful, either floridly destructive requiring hand-eye coordination, or effortlessly navigational: and most often a combination of the two. Unlike a virtual reality environment or videogame, however, changes in interactive cinema are driven by content, and consequently compulsiveness will not be the overriding ingredient of the mental state of the viewer. Here the need for evaluation, interpretation and understanding are in the foreground, though the obsessive need to fully explore the narrative space can serve well as an incentive and accompaniment.

Freed from the predicament where the apparatus alone dictates the temporal experience, time can now expand or contract based on the extent of the viewer's involvement or attention, no longer only because of the hills, gullies, and plateaus, the changes in elevation of the plot. One can imagine the user of an interactive cinema surfing between compulsive input, loss of self in the flow of the narrative, and a sense of distance and control of his own experience of time, as the tides of the story ebb and flow based on his own actions on and in it.

The notion of suspense, for example, can be retained but transformed. If the viewer identifies with a character, seeing him as transfixed with horror at one moment, overcome with relief at the next, there may be some hesitation about accessing the cause of his distress. Now a new emotional affect, begins to emerge. "Don't look behind the door!" we inwardly cry--but now whether the character opens the cellar door is determined by us, and the vacillation, the hesitation, related to a particular experience of suspense, will put the viewer, unexpectedly, in a different grip of the screen. The new pull is a hook of agency--whether we have to face the horror that we fear and are fascinated by is now our decision, and in an effective work we will be equally compelled in both directions.

Then What Can the Interactive Cinema Depict?
Our worlds are disorderly and disorganized, unrestricted and loose. Strands of perception and inner experience are interwoven with actions that impact on our immediate environment, causing change in our perceptions and generating new experiences. Time advances relentlessly while our consciousness staggers in and out of it--memories of the past intermingling with hopes for the future as we react to events of the present. Lived experience does not parcel itself into linear, closed structures, though we sometimes represent things in that way in order to tell stories about ourselves. But autobiographies, like all narratives based on fact, are always at most distortions and at least abbreviations, omitting many events while inflating others. A complete recounting of the most minor experience (including the mental activity that accompanied it) would last much longer than the experience itself. We compress, excerpt, exclude, and reorganize when we tell stories about ourselves; we must dramatize and deform the facts to fit them into a plotted "story-line" with an ending that provides satisfactory closure. If the interactive cinema is a more faithful rendering of reality, it is precisely because it can bypass some of these criteria of narrative structure. Intermixing and interweaving multiple narrative streams, it can create a metanarrative sum that is greater than its component parts, if the subject- matter is a match for the potential of the medium. What would be an appropriate model for the subject-matter? The ideal is the human mind in operation.

We are multi-tasking units. We can whistle and daydream while working, fantasize while having sex, speak the English translation while listening to the German, and so on. And we can switch from one mental activity--one state, one condition--to another, instantly and without effort. It is easy and natural for most people to keep many thoughts and perceptions simultaneously active in their minds, transferring from one to the next at will, so that their current inner experience is a conglomeration of perceptions of the present, memories of the past, hopes for and guesses about the future, along with beliefs and fears independent of time markers, dreams, imaginings, pains, etc. Each mental element forms an undercurrent in what is happily called the "stream of consciousness," and navigating these waters is part of what it is to be human. Rushdie's Ocean can be heard in these shells.

How do we move from one mental entity to the next? One thing is certain: it is nothing like making a selection from a list. The "menu" model incorporated in contemporary computer software is aptly named--using it is like negotiating a path through a meal at a fast food restaurant. Switching between streams of mental activity involves responding to hardly perceptible internal and external cues, much as one rides a bicycle around obstacles, keeping balance by slight shifts in position, changing direction by combining such shifts with handlebar adjustments and greater weight adjustments. Except in the least significant cases, we affect things in our lives not by making choices, but by actively responding to situations--with speech acts or in behavior, and equally by silence or inaction. Only in restaurants or department stores are we faced with a closed list of alternatives. The interface of an interactive cinema cannot restrict itself to a model of choice, though this does not mean that choice is entirely banned. Response is the operative concept.

[MFJ ordering] [MFJ Special Ordering]
Open Issues: What Isn't the Interactive Cinema?
To summarize the story so far: the interactive narrative will be in the form of a story space (again the terminology of Michael Joyce and Jay Bolter) laid out for exploration. This story space may consist of a number of related narratives that the viewer forges or discovers links between, or of a single narrative seen from various viewpoints (e.g., of different characters). It may be the breakdown of a particular situation or image or scene into its (non-hierarchical) historical or constitutive elements.

But it will not be a linear story where viewer input determines what-happens-next. Such a structure does not contribute to the notion of interactive form since everything that appears will remain within the limitations of the linear--the fact that he has selected which line the story takes is irrelevant. This particular structure becomes interesting only when the viewer is exposed to different hypothetical situations, so that she can see what would happen if the characters took this turn, that path. Only in this case might the overall experience of the piece retain the quality of a story space of multiple narratives simultaneously present for exploration.

To put this point more generally, registering response alone will not satisfy the requirement that the interactive cinema incorporate the interest or desire of the spectator.

The basis of the interactive cinema is that the viewer has some control over what is on-screen. He or She knows that what is there will change if she or he acts, that it would have been different if he or she had acted differently earlier. Thus, the viewer is aware of a fundamental indeterminacy. I have called this epistemological state a subjunctive relationship to the screen--the viewer is constantly aware that things could have been otherwise. This state is grounded in the viewer's continual knowledge that what is on screen is a result of her interactions--inaction, naturally, counting as decisively as action.

The subjunctive mental state is in direct opposition to the epistemology I identified as essential to the linear cinema, a conception of the screen complex as unalterable, the events in the diegesis as inevitable. In an advanced interactive cinema, everything will be in flux, open to the possibility of change--like conversation or competitive sports--and the more sophisticated the system, the more fluid and wide-ranging the possibilities. Awareness of this liquidity has radical consequences for a viewer's relationship to the cinematic material. In terms of the Lyrical, the exploration of a single image-moment and its underlying expression-set, the success of a work of interactive cinema depends on its viewer's recognition that behind each element of the screen- complex there is a potential set of cinematic data that supports it, accounts for it, enriches it, or explains it.

There is another factor too: the viewer must be kept always aware that it is his, her action on a particular image that has produced these new sounds or pictures, and techniques to foster this awareness must be developed. In my judgment, the most immediately available techniques can be found in the language of montage. A deliberate use of film editing strategies can keep reconvincing the viewer of the non-arbitrariness of connection between old and new elements, between the elements already there and those produced by viewer action. Once the interactive work has brought the viewer to the idea that his actions on the screen complex always contribute to the continuing significance of the work, then the associations can roam more freely than in the city zoo of conventional narrative film. Now the fact that the viewer feels that he produces the new elements predisposes him towards finding links, associations, connections that may not have operated in his response to a conventional cinematic work.

Back to the Ocean
So now we have two models of potential structure for an interactive cinema: one drawn from a classical text by the father of psychoanalysis, the other from an introspective view of the mind at work. There are many literary precedents for both models. Furthermore, a number of current works of fiction have forms that eminently suit the notion of an interactive cinema, either in that they involve the unpacking of a given image or scene into its underlying components-- Graham Swift's Waterland provides several excellent instances--or that their narrative consists of the meeting point of a number of interrelated themes-- John Barth's Tidewater Tales and his masterful The Story of Somebody the Sailor are two outstanding examples.

[MFJ ordering] [MFJ Special Ordering]
Tying Up & Getting Out
There are still, there will always be, loose ends. Given that narrative is imposition of order on chaos, intrusion of form on the formless, and that the order, the form, the logic narrative imposes is of time and sequence, sequence in time, we must now ask again whether we can retain narrative when we abandon endings, when we are entangled in an endless middle. A catchphrase often used by theorists to describe narrative is "the illusion of sequence," but in Freud's conception of dream interpretation we can see how strict sequence can be abandoned without losing the narrative thread. Freud's understanding of dream-structure is an alternative to the Aristotelian model, not only because the components can appear in any order, but also because the story is never over, the analysis is always incomplete, there are always more biographical details to uncover. In an Interactive Cinema, where the desire for closure can also be more or less overcome, the viewer continues to explore the narrative space until he considers it exhausted. There is no totality, there is only withdrawal.

And yet. And yet.

However.

Butbutbut.

Real Timecannot be trashed with the need for closure like potato peel or an old jalopy. There is, there always will be, a Beginning, an End to a viewer's exposure to an Interactive Cinema work, and a Time Between. She walks up to the device, she interacts with it, she walks away. He walks up, sits down, stays a while, gets up. Do we place a viewer with an interactive work until it starts to repeat on him like rote learning or yesterday's overspiced entree? The Interactive Cinema will succeed only if, in retrospect, the experience seems substantial.

All and any loose narrative ends will never be knotted; this is one of the features (i.e., not bugs) of interactive cinema. If a viewer navigates through a mass of material, some of it will be seen and some won't, and surely some of what isn't seen earlier will raise issues that remain unresolved in what is seen later. But a system can be sensitized to repetition, either so as to avoid it, or so that as soon as repetition starts the viewer is offered the opportunity to enter a structurally different region, a territory of culmination or summary. In general terms, a map of territory covered can be kept by the system, and once a certain area has been explored, closure possibilities can be introduced.

In The Erl King, after certain segments have been repeated, a box with the work "END?" appears on the screen. If this box is touched, it produces a mildly interactive segment that starts with images of a few key production crew members touching the inside of the video screen from within the monitor, followed by a rapid series of production stills. A viewer can switch on or off two cardinal theoretical texts overlays--texts by Wittgenstein and Baudrillard that describe something of the theoretical underpinnings of the work--by touching different areas of the screen.

Sonata reserves two narrative segments that are acknowledged and indicated throughout the piece. If the viewer perseveres, following a story through to one of its climactic moments, the reward will be one of the two culminating murder scenes, one decorated with the blooming image of a blood-fountain, the other with the voluptuous sounds of a blade severing flesh and splintering bone. The possibility of viewing these scenes emerges when the viewer has covered a certain amount of the narrative ground of the piece. And after the murder the work ends or, more precisely, returns to the beginning.

All this is to say that despite its need for an opened narrative, closure cannot be banished from the Interactive Cinema. Remove the imminence of closure and we begin to drain cinema of desire. Closure must be recast in a more radical light.

The most fruitful possibility for me at this point, based on my interest in multiplying and intermingling narratives, is that several story lines continue until one, some, or all of them end. Here the idea is that numerous Diegetic Times are constantly flowing forward, many narratives operating in time simultaneously whether or not the viewer encounters any particular one. Narrative Time in this model always moves inflexibly on. This provides another picture of a form for the Interactive Fiction Cinema, a picture of multiple narrative streams not interconnected by a central image, theme or scene. The viewer navigates from one current to an adjacent one in a constantly flowing river, crossing between streams of story at moments of similarity or juncture. Or, to descend one level more, they might rather be thought of as potential narrative streams, elements themselves unformed or chaotic, but taking form as they intersect, gaining meaning in relation to one another.

In Sonata I attempt this by juxtaposing the stories of Podsnyeshev (the anti-hero wife-killer in Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata) and Judith (the Apocryphal heroine who decapitated the enemy general Holofernes). Both narratives progress, but it is at their connections, where the viewer can cross from one to the other, that they come into focus and take on meaning. A viewer will access an episode of one or the other narrative but not both, and their forms are similar enough that their plot movement can be seen as concurrent. Each of the two killers--Podsnyeshev and Judith--is reflected in the light of the other, since each emerges out of the story context of the other. And thus an act of interpretation is forced on the viewer: the morality of each character comes into question when they are placed together, especially because the former is presented as Evil and the latter as Good.

Without the act of interpretation, the stories are raw and problematic, but when clashed together at the points of interaction, a judge's role is forced on the viewer. As Eisenstein recognized explicitly, Griffith at least implicitly, and Kuleshov claimed as his own, meaning in cinema is determined by context--in the multiple narrative interactive cinema, context is in constant flux, the elements appearing always different as their surroundings shift.

As the viewer is drawn in by the act of interpretation, now the magnetic attraction of the Interactive Cinema can be felt, and the question of Experienced Time finally answered; for it is here that the Hacker mindset takes over--as we jack into Gibson's Cyberspace. Umberto Eco describes the state somewhat more suggestively than Gibson, though Eco is talking about the travels of a steel ball around an electric pinball surface, not a sprite in a graphic representation of a data environment. Parallel to Eco's pinball machine is a game like Tetris, in which the player arranges falling shapes into an unbroken plane, a theatre of geometry and spatial anticipation one often sees played on long airplane flights--as the time sense is held in abeyance, the magnified time of the cramped Atlantic crossing is compressed into a single moment of hypnotic focus. Tetris's hook of involvement is the desire for closure, for the completion of the pattern, an end that is always attainable but just out of reach, like Eco's "brink of orgasm." It is in this space that the machine absorbs time, providing in its place the never-quite-fulfilled promise of consummation.

Ending, Open Ending
Where have we come to? How to provide closure to this document? Must I close it, or can I emphasize its openness, the ends I am leaving loose, the ties unbound?

There is the very central question of what function is left to Narrative in our Cybernetically Determined, Information Laden Era, as we travel along the Information Superhighways without stirring from our desks. Do we still need narrative to provide lessons in living and dying, do these lessons come to us through other channels ... or don't we need such lessons any longer? Then there is the very important and subtle idea, expressed by philosophers in the wake of Heidegger such as Paul Ricoeur, that the conceptual relationship of narrative and time is reversed: that we impose a (false) linearity on time because our stories about ourselves and others, our formation myths of what it is to be human, take shape as linear narratives, and upsetting this notion will change our understanding of temporality and hence our understanding of the world and ourselves.

But I must stop. It is late, my eyes hurt from looking too long at the CRT, and I'm afraid I'm getting the flu.

KISMET, PROTAGONY, AND THE ZAP SPLAT SYNDROME

2009-11-11T20:47:00.002Z

KISMET, PROTAGONY, AND THE ZAP SPLAT SYNDROME

Malcolm Le Grice

Malcolm leGrice outlines some theoretical concepts for an interactive avant garde cinema
Printed in MFJ No. 28 (Spring 1995) Interactivities
Interactivity in the plastic arts is not new, since the mid-sixties at least, artists have produced electronically and digitally controlled feed-back projects where the actions of the spectators have altered the work in some form or other. It is, however, only recently that there has been a realistic convergence between recorded cinematic sequence, aspects of virtual reality synthesis and sophisticated interactive possibilities. There is a developing practice in this field some of which is aimed at education and training, but also some which is quite clearly artistic in purpose. It is the aim of this paper to take up some of the theoretical issues which must ariseif we are to bring cinema and interactivity together in the context of the creative arts and in the search for artistic forms appropriate to the new opportunities.

Cinema and television art has been overwhelmingly dominated by the form of linear narrative. The presentational structure of cinematic media (film and video tape) has intrinsic characteristics which reinforce this linearity and reinforce the concept of a consequent and singular resolution. One major aspect of presentational linearity is the reel of film or tape itself with the images held in a locked sequence to be seen from beginning to end. The extent to which this linearity of presentation can be broken or interrupted by the viewer is an economic issue which concerns both a financial and a psychological investment. The economics of making and presenting a film establish a major difference between the active production of the work and its passive viewing in cinema or during TV transmission. Home video taping is already a form of interactivity which puts greater opportunity for selection in the hands of the domestic viewer. Though in this example, the choices may seem trivial, the opportunity for the viewer to fast forward sections of little interest, repeat sections of particular interest and, in a more sophisticated sense, study the cinematic construction in detail, puts the viewer in a significantly different psychological position with regard to the work.

Kismet

The predominance of the narrative form in our culture makes it difficult to establish any critical distance allowing narrative to be seen as one particular form of representation rather than a natural and inevitable system. As renaissance perspective is a mode of spatial representation amongst other modes (maps, diagrams, isometric projections or cubist space), so linear narrative is one method by which events in time and their causal relationships may be represented. In this sense narrative form is a representational model; it is a tool by which human-beings grasp and structure their understanding of the world. Whilst being appropriate in certain circumstances it also has shortcomings; it is well suited to representing certain forms of temporal linkage but incapable of modelling others. Its form imposes a philosophical bias (an ideology) on its subject and because of its predominance we are blind to the limits of its truth and level of generality as a representational system.

A fundamental characteristic of the narrative form in cinema is the inevitability of its fictional resolution. The out-come of the plot is pre- determined and the plot carries its primary significance in the relationship of action to the ultimate resolution. The form of a narrative text itself, in the pre-determination of its resolution, is intrinsically fatalistic. The end (as represented in the text) is already determined. Viewers know it is determined when they start watching the film and the events of the film only have their rationale in their contribution to the ultimate consequence. So even in films where the intended representation is of a non-fatalistic world, the representation is in conflict with the intrinsic form of linear narrative and its experience by the viewer. Attempts have been made within classical cinema to break both the linearity and tyranny of the singular consequentiality of narrative form. There are examples of attempts at ambiguity in resolution, alternated resolutions, parallel action, branching detours in the plot or multiple viewpoint in the representation of the fiction but none of these substantially question the structure of linear causal representation.

Protagony

As well as looking at the structure of linear narrative, it is crucial to analyse the characteristic form by which the viewer is involved in traditional cinematic experience. The viewer watches, as if through a window, an action between a group of protagonists. Normally, one or two of these protagonists are central and become the focus of a psychological identification by the viewer. The viewer becomes engaged in the action of the narrative by an imaginary leap into the position of one or other of these depicted characters. The viewer experiences the desires, frustrations, pleasures and satisfaction of these characters in the unfolding of a plot by living through the representation as if they were in the place of the character. However much the viewers may become psychologically engaged they can never truly be protagonists and any experience they may have of being a protagonist through identification is illusory. To be a protagonist there must be a perceivable relationship between action and effect. In other words, an action on the part of the viewer must be able to change the course of events which follow from that action.

The characters within a narrative are represented as taking part in the complex relationship between action and consequence. However, in the conventions of cinema this representation of protagonism is already itself a fiction. The characters - moving photographs of actors - are not creating the consequences they seem to be. They are playing those actions to a set of consequences pre-determined within the script. They are enacting their protagonism. For the viewer then, this added to the identification with the actor, becomes a double illusion of protagonism. Protaganism is twice removed in the determination of the plot - the only protagonism in this sense is in the authorship of the text.

[MFJ ordering] [MFJ Special Ordering] Thus, in the context of digital technologies and the opportunities for artistic approaches to interactivity, I have identified two major issues implicit in the dominant culture of narrative cinema, the linear consequential structure and the condition of the viewer in relation to the work. In the search for alternative approaches which match artistic structure with new technological possibilities, I offer two potentially fruitful sources: the cinematic grammar developed by the experimental cinema (the avant- garde), which has resisted, transformed or created alternatives to linear narrative; and perhaps more surprisingly, the computer game.

The first of these offers an approach to different models of connectivity, temporal structuring and concepts of the relationship between cinematic sequences (as data) and their combination (as programme). The second offers a model in which the viewer becomes a protagonist in a psychologically motivated field. Only the radically experimental cinema has seriously questioned the inexorable linearity of narrative, seeking instead to model a multi-dimensional connectivity within the form of cinema - what Maya Deren described as the vertical rather than horizontal exploration in cinema. Fundamental to this enterprise has been a recognition of the inadequacy of narrative form to represent a philosophical and ideological structure seen by experimental filmmakers to be appropriate to their perceptual experience. This perception has involved many forms of both abstract and representational linkage not susceptible to the structures of linear causality.

Capricorn the ram

In computer technology, the separation of data from its programmed combination or interaction is fundamental. The relationship and connections between instances of data is not fixed. The instances of date retain potential; they may be combined and recombined according to a variety of principles and permutations. In the cinematic context what might be considered an instance of data remains problematic - it is not determinate, it depends on the level at which the analysis (or classified digitization takes place). It can range from the individual pixel of the image, a fragment of digital sound, a single picture, a shot sequence or, most radically, an analytical set of principles on which three dimensional motion audio-graphics might be synthesized. Additionally, it is a matter of creative ingenuity to define the programme structure by which these levels or instances of data may be combined. In the artistic context, whatever principle of the programme or sequence of connectivity between the data is created, it carries with it the implication of signification and a relationship (as model) between the artistic construct and the world on which it reflects (or into which it is placed as an intervention). Its structures have and promote philosophical and ideological positions, they become part of the vocabulary or grammar by which we grasp and understand the world.The flexibility of the relations between data in programmable sequence offered by computers is a consequence of technology offering random access memory to whatever is defined as data. At its most radical, random access memory is wholly non-linear - the structure of access is not governed by the priority established in initial storage but is only subject to a hierarchy of combination determined by the user. At this level, the concept of random access memory, when applied to the audio/visual arena has the potential to radically undermine the linearity of narrative sequence. In practice, in the developing technology of high information storage, where the data is defined as cinematic sequences (shots), aspects of the access remain partially linear (through the rotation of storage discs). At a technical level there is a range of storage media from linear tape (or film) to rapid cross access discs to fully solid state memory. At the level of theory random access memory places instances of data into a structure which may be considered as a matrix (three- or multi-dimensional grid) no longer confining presentational sequence nor connective principle to the conventions of narrative causality. Narrative structure becomes a sub-set of temporal structuring. Experimental cinema as far back as Dziga Vertov's 'Man With The Movie Camera' (1928), and more recently, the work of Kurt Kren, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage and many others may be read as aspiring to a form of temporal connectivity better represented as a matrix than a line. This experimental approach in cinema, through specific exploration of devices like repetition, partial repetition, permutation and system, pre- figures many of the structural principles inherent in the technology of random access memory. What is more important in the artistic context is that they represent the development of philosophical constructs which constitute more appropriate models for contemporary experience than do those offered by the singular and fatalistic structure of classical narrative.

Zap Splat

It would be difficult to interpret the development of the computer game as led by artistic or philosophical principles. It has been a spontaneous popular development which has sprung directly from the potentialities of the computer. Nonetheless, in certain aspects of the search for forms of audio-visual (cinematic) art, it has initiated - unconsciously - fundamental differences and opportunities. Though interactivity has had some serious applications in the development of educational and simulative training systems, like rock music, the computer game has captured a major popular field of psychological investment and desire. The major characteristics on which this seems to rest are; the exercise of interactivity in a field of high motivation, the establishment of the user as an engaged protagonist, an adequate degree of representational simulation into-which the user may project and the possibility of failing to reach a satisfactory resolution. Let us compare the condition of the user of the computer game with the viewer of a conventional narrative. The factor of interactivity demands a change of vocabulary.

The viewer is now a player. The interactive relationship offers a level and range of control in a data field of sufficient variety to veer their experience very strongly towards that of being an active participant and away from that of passive viewer. Though some games like Street Fighter have the user controlling the actions of a visually represented character (a figure visible within the game), in many instances, like the classic Space Invaders or more sophisticated simulations like Grand Prix or Gunship (a helicopter war simulation), the protagonist is significantly not represented in the visual field. Thus, one aspect of the identification process fundamental to classical narrative cinema is not at work. (Though this is often different in experimental cinema where in many instances there is no visually represented protagonist. In these cases, the film traces the film maker as 'protagonist' and the viewer's identification is with the film maker). In the computer game, the interaction experienced by the user/player is one of direct intervention in the scene. The un-represented player is traced (traces him or herself) through the effects brought about within the game.Clearly the motivation of the player can only be maintained if there isa sufficiently desirable goal to be sought or the results of the interiminteraction are sufficiently satisfying. Or, perhaps more crucially, if theinteraction is sufficiently frustrating, promising later satisfactionthrough the development of greater skill or inteligence. The creator of a game must have a grasp of the motivational objectives of the potential player/user, but must also devise sufficient complexity in the programme to offer a range of both interim and ultimate out-comes.

This requires programming a high degree of intended redundancy (or superfluity) - a range of options either failures, successes or different routes - which may or may not be used during the interaction. This principle of redundancy must also be a major factor in the development of satisfactory artistic uses of such systems. The economical creation of this redundancy would seem to rest heavily on the complexity of the initial analysis of data (and algorithms) for synthesis in the interaction. For example: in a pilot or driving game, if based on a large number of single pictorial screens and picture units (sprites), the various combinations of elements would soon be exhausted. On the other hand, the same game structure based on a three-dimensional mapping of the space and objects, though initially more difficult to achieve retains a much greater potential for variety in the interaction. In these cases, the user can genuinely explore options which may not have been expected or intended by the programmer (like driving the racing car against the traffic, going the wrong way round the track). In developing artistic applications this principle of redundancy is equally crucial as well as an understanding of how its economy depends on the quality and depth of the structural analysis at the basis of the program. In seeking appropriate structures for the application of interactivity to cinema, the structural principles underlying a satisfactory program will need to take on issues of psychological linkage between sequences and a complex understanding of dramatic and abstract relationships beyond the range of linear narrative.It may be argued that the examples which can be drawn upon from popular computer games all involve relatively trivial forms ofpsychological objectives or dramatic structure. However,it would be unwise to underestimate the enormous lure which is represented by the desire to master the skills needed to resolve a game, the intrigue represented by the unknown yet to be discovered and the enormous gain for the user in being implicated in the plot. Clearly computer games such as 'Dungeon' have imported much of the fundamental range of dramaturgy from narrative, cinema and theatre incorporating danger, threat and suspense, though many games also draw heavily on competitive sports with its own psychological forms and symbolism. In most computer games,the visual simulation does not come close to the level of photographic representation of cinema but the enhanced dramatic experience which is available to the user/player as a result of the interactive element and their implication in the way in which the game develops is evidently a more than adequate compensation for the lack of depth in the visual illusion.

Interactivity replaces the concept of the passive viewer by the active participant. The experience of being a protagonist, whilst still operating in a symbolic field, is more direct in interactive systems than in the traditional forms of identification which operate in cinema. An interactive cinema needs to offer a fundamental range of choices to the user in interacting with the work. This cannot be confined to a few alternative linear routes, endings or character view-points in an otherwise linear narrative structure. The experimental cinema offers some models for a greater complexity of sequence linkage based on the concept of a cinematic data matrix. With the opportunity of computer programs determining structure, this matrix can be subject to genuinely multi-dimensional conjunction in response to interaction. The computer game represents a significant field of interactive practice with many lessons for the development of an interactive cinema. Parallels should be sought between the kind of structural analysis which produces economic redundancy in three-dimensionalsimulations (for example) and psychological or dramatic structures as the basis of synthesis from fundamental (artistic) principles.

D I S S I M U L A T I O N S

2009-11-11T20:47:00.001Z

D I S S I M U L A T I O N S

illusions of interactivity

Andy Cameron takes a peek at the end of the story
Printed in MFJ No. 28 (Spring 1995) Interactivities

Narrative is present in myth, legend,
fable, tale, novella, epic, history, tragedy,
drama, comedy, mime, painting, stained glass
windows, cinema, comics, news items, conversation.

Roland Barthes, 'The Structural Analysis of Narrative' (Image, Music, Text)

The form of the story permeates every aspect of our cultural life. History, politics, memories, even subjectivity, our sense of identity, all are representations in narrative form, signifiers chained together in temporal, spatial, and causal sequence. Narrative is a component of those deep structures with which we construct ourselves and our universe; true stories through which, in the manner of certain Aboriginal legends, the world is dreamed into existence. Narrative enjoys with language the status of a defining characteristic of humanity and its culture - a people without stories seems as absurd an idea as a people without language, (a people with language but no stories even stranger, for what is language for if not to tell stories?)

Over the past few years there has been a tremendous financial and emotional investment in the idea of digital media, the use of computers as the site of culture rather than just tools for business or science. This is partly due to the drive on the part of manufacturers to create new markets for their hardware after the business and science markets have become saturated. It also reflects the apparently inexorable progress of price/performance ratios in digital technology - only recently have cheap computers been capable of simulating analogue sound, images or moving pictures with sufficient verisimilitude. At the same time, there is a desire at work here, a fantasy which exceeds its technical and economic conditions. Implicit in the notion of digital media is the belief (read desire) that digital computers and digital communications will provide a unified site for 1st world culture in the near future and that this new medium will offer distinct advances over existing media, above all by offering its audience interactivity.

Interactivity refers to the possibility of an audience actively participating in the control of an artwork or representation. Until now, what we call culture doesn't allow for much interaction from the audience. The audience is given a space for interpretation and a space for reaction, but not of interaction. There are undoubtedly those who would argue that interpretation is interaction, and so, of course, it is, but not in the sense intended here. For the purposes of this discussion, interactivity means the ability to intervene in a meaningful way within the representation itself, not to read it differently. Thus interactivity in music would mean the ability to change the sound, interactivity in painting to change colours, or make marks, interactivity in film the immersion of the spectator in the scene and the ability to change the way the movie comes out. This is both more than interpretation, and less. This discussion is an attempt to speculate on the collision between a dominant cultural form - narrative, and the technology of interactivity. There is a contradiction at the heart of the idea of the interactive narrative - that narrative form appears fundamentally non-interactive. The interactive story implies a form which is not that of narrative, within which the position, and authority of the narrator is dispersed among the readers, and in which the idea of cinema, or of literature, merges with that of the game, or of sport. The consequences may be far-reaching and profound. Can a simulator, or an interactive construct, usefully adopt a narrative form? Will there be a general transformation from a culture of stories to a culture which expresses its truths through an immersive, interactive medium, - the shared experience of the simulator?

Forking Paths and Synthetic Spaces

In the short story Garden of Forking Paths2 Borges imagines a novel in which the path of the story splits, where all things are conceivable, and all things take place. The author of this story within a story is judged insane and commits suicide, and Borges' narrator is arrested and condemned to death - thus the fate of the narrator and of the author in the interactive era is prefigured. It is not hard to see how the task of writing interactively might drive an author to insanity and suicide. To write not simply an account of what happened but a whole series of ''what-ifs' increases both the volume and complexity of an author's task exponentially. And if the reader chooses his or her own pathway through the story then the narrator can be dispensed with - in effect the function and authority of the author is usurped by the reader.

Interactivity implies forking paths and each pathway must be written and fitted together. The greater the number of pathways, the greater the sense of textual play for the reader, and the greater the amount of work for the writer. The volume of story web increases exponentially with additional points of interaction. An author is faced with an inevitable and depressing tradeoff - sacrificing time spent on the texture of the narrative, its literary or cinematic qualities, for an enhanced interactive complexity. The result can be interactive but schematic, resembling the outline of a story rather than the story itself.

How much interactivity does it take to make an interactive story? We don't know because we don't know what an interactive story is like, nor what it is for (more on this in a moment). It is true that the number and complexity of forking paths could be increased until the reader experiences a large degree of freedom and control within the text. The limits of this freedom are achieved within a model that dispenses with the network of lines altogether, replacing it with a fictional space within which the reader can turn left or right, look up or look down, open a door, enter a room, at any time they choose - synthetic or virtual reality. In the VR model, although the reader/spectator enjoys seamless temporal and spatial freedom, the tradeoff between interactivity and richness of content holds true. VR to date has barely been able to dress the set, let alone cry 'action', or murmur 'once upon a time'.

If the sheer complexity of building an interactive narrative is problematic at the conceptual and technical level, there is another simpler and deeper problem. This is the question of what kind of representation an interactive representation is, if you like, the question of ontology. The change from a linear model to a multi-linear or spatio-temporal model is more than just the change from a simple line to a more complex diagram or space, it involves moving from one kind of representation to another.

A Lonely Impulse of Delight

As he settled into the snug cockpit he tried
not to think about the obvious thing.
Ahead of him, through the windscreen, he
could see a long low hill. It was further
away than it appeared to be, and much bigger.
Yellow through the blue haze, the hill
squatted on the plain, low and indolent and
massive. He wanted to be over that hill
and look beyond.

Before him stretched the grey runway, on
the left a yellow haystack, on the right a
white airfield building. All around him was
the blue airplane. He opened the throttle
and the plane began to inch forwards. The
nose veered to the right, towards the white
building, and he rapidly adjusted the plane
to the left.By now the ground was rushing
past and the tail starting to lift. The nose
came down and he could see the ground
immediately in front for the first time,
a streaming grey blur, and the end of the
runway rushing up to meet him. At the last
possible moment he pulled the stick back
into his stomach and the plane lurched into
the air.
Vertigo.

[MFJ ordering] [MFJ Special Ordering] Afficionados of the Hellcats flight simulator will recognize the landscape - an American airstrip on one of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The time is WW2. This is the beginning of an account of an experience of my own, flying a Hellcat on a mission against the Japanese Navy.

Hellcats is effectively a screen and mouse based virtual reality system - 2nd person VR - offering non-linear adventure stories. The reader - or should it be participant, or player - is free to move in any direction, at all times, as long as he or she never gets out of the plane. This cuts down the scope of the story significantly - it's like Top Gun with everything but the flight scenes cut out. Hellcats is a simulator which models a space and a set of rules - the aerodynamics of a propeller plane - for moving through that space. It provides a simple narrative framework within which to act - the struggle against the enemy - and it provides characters to interact with, what appear to be independent narrative agents with their own characteristics and motivation - Japanese airplanes, gunners and ships.

As a representation of the experience of Americans during WW2 in the Pacific, Hellcats can be compared to South Pacific or From Here to Eternity. Yet despite the similarities of place and time, Hellcats is a very different kind of representation. Hellcats represents one specific aspect of the experience of the war in the Pacific, but it is the experience of the machine, to misquote Stephen Heath, rather than the experience of the pilot. More precisely, it is the experience of the pilot insofar as he or she is an extension of the machine, that part which keeps the plane in the air and flies this way or that way, presses the trigger and drops bombs, but never that part with a history, a family, skin colour, memories, desire, plans for this evening...

Certain key attributes of narrative form are missing.3 Narrative closure has to be fought for - if you crash your plane while taking off the 'story' is short, insignificant and unsatisfying. It is up to the spectator to ensure that the action comes to a satisfying and meaningful end - closure is not part of the structure of the representation but is contigent on the moment of 'reading'. Temporal and spatial coherence are more or less complete, but strictly limited to the skies above the Solomon Islands. There is no specific enigma to be resolved but a different kind of teleological imperative, that of a participant in a violent struggle. If we consider what Barthes has called the symbolic code, that code which accounts for the formal relationships created between terms within a text - the patterning of the text, antithesis, graduation, repetition etc, we find it absent in Hellcats. The simulator does not signify in this way. Neither do we find much in the way of a referential or gnomic code, the code of shared cultural knowledge about the world, nor the rich and diffuse code of connotations designated by Barthes as the code of semes. What is lost is the complex interplay of signs, Barthes' 'weaving of the voices' across different registers, the 'perspective of quotations', the 'mirage of structures', the 'multivalence of the text'. These are replaced with a wide band of sensory information refering to specific and schematic aspects of a situation - the proairetics of flight, the hermeneutics of battle.4 At the same time this schema is reinvested with narrative order via the subjectivity of the participant - as if subjects have a will- to-narrative which asserts itself even in the sparsest of contexts. This is a narrative which issues from the identifications the participant makes within the interactive construct - a personal narrative unlegitimated by the external figure of the author.

Ontology of the interactive image

I saw the movie last week. I want what happened in the movie last week
to happen
in the movie this week too, otherwise what is life all about?5

The principal distinction to be made between an interactive representation, like Hellcats, and narrative representations like those of the cinema and literature, lies in the representation of time. Narrative refers to the past. It is an account of events which have already taken place. Its temporal referent is once upon a time. This relationship to time is not affected by the verb tense - the present tense is often used to bring immediacy and drama to an account - nor does it depend on the reality of the events being described - fiction gives an account of things which happened, which is nonetheless untrue. This characteristic of narrative appears to be part of its very nature as representation, its ontology. The simulator on the other hand operates in the present. If in a narrative an event happened, in an interactive narrative, multi-linear or spatio-temporal, an event is happening, its temporal referent now. This ontological change has important consequences.

A linear narrative exercises a textual authority which is dispersed by interactivity. In the linear narrative, the reader submits to the authority of the text. Only the author has the power to make decisions about the story line or point of view, and the invention of narrative events is his or her sole perrogative. The text is certain of itself. Moreover this certainty has a legitimising function. Hayden White writes:

'We cannot but be struck by the frequency with which narrativity, whether of the fictional or the factual sort, presuposes the existence of a legal system against or on behalf of which the typical agents of a narrative account militate. And this raises the suspicion that narrative in general, from the folktale to the novel, from the 'annals' to the fully realised history, has to do with the topics of law, legality, legitimacy or more generally 'authority''.6

Now this authority is expressed, and legitimacy conferred, at the moment of closure. By recounting what happened an author is also closing of those things which didn't happen. A character picks up the phone rather than letting it ring, someone walks down the street and turns left instead of right. Closure in this sense is dispersed throughout the narrative. The events unfold as a pattern which progressively resolves itself into an image, each event integrating those which precede it into progressively higher level of narrative sense, until the final closure, the end of the narrative, when the gobal event, the meaning of the story is revealed at last, and is revealed to have been immanent in all the events all along. Closure can be considered as a function of time, or more precisely of the way in which time is represented, whether as past and complete or present and ongoing.7

A story is an account of something beyond itself. The referent of a story is an event which has already taken place. A simulation or interactive story on the other hand is the event in waiting; it refers to a principle, a set of rules, an algorithm, a stasis outside of time which can simulate events in time. The referent, the thing other than itself to which the simulation refers, is the condition for events, not the events themselves. Closure - the cutting out and sequencing of events from the mass of possibilities - is effected by the spectator, albeit within a framework of conditions designed by the author.

It is here that we find the apparent disjuncture between the nature of interactivity and that of narrative. The moment the reader intervenes to change the story (at the nodes of multi-linear narrative or at every moment in a spatio-temporal simulator) is the moment when the story changes from being an account of events which have already taken place to the experience of events which are taking place in the present. Story time becomes real time, an account becomes an experience, the spectator or reader becomes a participant or player, and the narrative begins to look like a game.

Herbert Quain

In An examination of the works of Herbert Quain, Borges invents an English multi- linear novelist of the 1930s. Less often referred to than Garden of Forking Paths, this short story is no less remarkable for its dystopian vision of a banal and meretricious interactive literature - what Borges terms the 'regressive, ramified novel'. Borges prefigures the transformation of reading into playing when he makes Herbert Quain say of his second novel, 'April March',

'I lay claim in this novel... to the essential features of all games: symetry, arbitrary rules, tedium. Indeed, 'Quain was in the habit of arguing that readers were an already extinct species. 'Every European,' he reasoned 'is a writer, potentially or in fact.' He also confirmed that of the various pleasures offered by literature, the greatest is invention.''

Symetry, arbitrary rules, tedium. Those familiar with interactive artefacts of the last few years will recognize these depressing qualities in countless CD-roms, computer games and pieces of multimedia. The question becomes - is this what interactivity is really about - is this poverty an aspect of its nature, or is it a failure of imagination so far by interactive producers and designers? Does something which is interactive have to be like a game? And if so, does a game have to be as uninteresting as Borges suggests?

I first heard the interactive story being described as a kind of game by Max Whitby. Max Whitby heads the MultiMedia Corporation, a company producing interactive titles on CD set up in 1990 as an independent offshoot of the BBC. Max argues that the term interactive narrative is an oxymoron - and believes that an interactive narrative can never be as satisfying as a traditional linear story. The interactivity, Max suggests, gets in the way. At the same time he recognizes the tremendous potential of new media and understands why so many people get so excited about it.

'Something happens to people, especially people who come from a film or television background when initially exposed to the idea of interactive multimedia. When you first realise that computers are not just tools, but a new medium through which information can be delivered in completely new ways, a lightbulb goes on - it certainly went on in my head and I've seen it go on in lots of other people's heads. Instead of the high priests in their ivory towers deciding what a TV programme will be, you can hand over your programme material to your audience and they can construct their own experiences. Now that basic premise is very exciting. The trouble is it doesn't sustain. When you actually get in there and try to make things in an interactive way, the premise falls apart.

The problem is - and its terribly obvious really - that most successful communication involves a great deal of craftsmanship and authorship and point of view and storytelling and narrative. Every successful form, be it a novel or a feature film or a play or a comic, needs a skilled storyteller to weave together a spell in the mind of the audience, suspend their disbelief and take them on a carefully planned emotional roller coaster through the story. Every successful form of communication involves protaganists, a set of conflicts and experiences, and at the end some sort of resolution so the thing has a satisfying shape. Interaction largely destroys all that. By giving the audience control over the raw material you give them precisely what they don't want. They don't want a load of bricks, they want a finished construction, a built house.

Although the light bulb still goes on in my head and I'm still excited by the possibilities, I have realised you can't apply the notion of interactive multimedia to an awful lot of successful existing forms. One form that does make sense on a computer is that of the game. Computer games are as spellbinding and absorbing as a good movie. However, what is going on in people's heads in a game is very different from what is going on with a play or a novel. I don't want to say that one is better than the other, but you can obviously do things in films, theatre or the novel that you can't do in a game, and vice versa. Most of what is generally regarded as being interesting belongs to the world of cinema and theatre and most of what we could regard as simply diverting or just a pastime belongs to the form of the game.'

[MFJ ordering] [MFJ Special Ordering] Games and Stories

So what then is the difference between games and stories, and what value does this difference entail? I have argued for a distinction based on the different way each represents time, leading on to differing modes of spectatorship. However, games and stories also have very different cultural values attached to them. The game is frivolous whereas narrative is serious - the form of the game is agonistic and ephemeral, it deals in a transient athletic display. The game is an exercise which can exist only in the present (if it persists in memory then it does so as an account).

There is a general assumption here that narrative representation - literature, history, cinema and so on, has a deep and lasting significance which the game lacks. In the end Shakespeare or Proust or Pasolini seem to have more to offer than a game of football or Sonic. The game is outside of history, unworthy of serious remembrance. At the M.I.T. multimedia conference in Dublin in 1993 a speaker bemoaned the fact that his son spent too much time playing computer games and not enough time reading books. Thinking of my own child, I found myself nodding in agreement. Yet when a woman asked from the floor why reading a book was better than playing a computer game, he couldn't explain his assumption and neither could I. Two other speakers gave a fascinating account of an elastic movie. This was a multi-screen installation constructed as part of a student workshop at M.I.T. which the spectator moved through and interacted with. The speakers called it an interactive media environment, an installation, a transformational space, fine art circumlocutions for the obvious term game which they managed to avoid entirely throughout their paper. Then they showed a video of their undergraduate students discussing the design of the project and the word game cropped up over and over again. Finally, throughout the whole 2 day conference on interactivity, discussion of console and TV computer games was almost entirely absent, in spite of the release by Sega of CD drives and non-linear cinematic games on CD, in spite of the astounding commercial success of Nintendo in the youth market, in spite of CD-i, in spite of 3DO...

In my class in interactive media at the University of Westminster I encourage the students to play computer games - Hellcats, Spectre, 4D boxing and so on - to give them a sense of the possiblities - and limitations - of the crossover between interactivity and the story. This did not initially meet with the approval of the department and there is still a lingering suspicion that those students who take the module in interactivity just want to play computer games. Yet nobody accuses the film students of just wanting to watch films. Many college computer rooms have a notice on the wall warning that the playing of games is banned. The game is not work but a diversion from work, nor is it a proper object of serious study. The game is something which, although tolerated, the law must seek to repress, to keep to its proper place.

A Literary Youtopia

If the repressed reading of interactivity is that of the game, the preferred reading is interactivity as Post-Modernism come true.

In S/Z Barthes describes two types of writing, readerly writing and writerly writing. What happens if we take the notion of the writerly at face value, innocently? Let us reproduce the notion of the writerly - or rather, let us post-produce it. Let us abolish the distinction between the producer (Barthes) and the reader (me, you) and rewrite the writerly. Let us read excessively, irresponsibly, futuristically.

'The goal of literary work (of literature as work) is to make the reader no longer a consumer, but a producer of the text...

The writerly text is a perpetual present, upon which no consequent language (which would inevitably make it past) can be superimposed; the writerly text is ourselves writing...

In this ideal text, the networks are many and interact, without any of them being able to surpass the rest; this text is a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can see ...' 8

In this excessive reading the writerly becomes a fantasy of the multi-linear text, Barthes a kind of Nostradumus of literary theory, writerly writing the uncanny prophecy of an interactive literature come to pass. Indeed, a number of commentators have noted the way in which poststructuralist writing seems to anticipate the non-linearity of new technology. In Hypertext - the convergence of contemporary critical theory and technology, George P Landow suggests that the literary theories of structuralist and post-structuralist thinkers (especially Barthes and Derrida) find their embodiment in interactive hypertextual forms made possible by new technology. Hypertextual and non-linear structures promise Barthes' writerly text, never far from the possibility of rewriting, multivocal, decentred, without boundaries, a text which can break free from the chains of closure, a text whose instability lies not in our postmodern apprehension of it but in its very condition of being. Hypertext for Landow is post-structuralism made flesh, transubstantiated - Foucault's death of the Author a corpse, Derridean dÈbordement actualized as hypertextual annotation... 9

The problem with this kind of literal and utopian mapping of post-structuralist theory onto new technology is that it fails to acknowledge its own excessiveness. It is ironic that a set of theories which stress plurality and indeterminacy should be employed in the service of a reductive equivalence between very different types of discourse, a critical discourse of interpretation on the one hand and an instrumental discourse of interaction on the other.

Instrumental stories

'Science has always been in conflict with narratives'10

We have seen how a putative theory of interactivity might oscillate between the preferred register of the post-modern (serious, plural, decentred and legitimated by the academy) and the frivolous register of the game (playful, ephemeral, banal and without value). A further approach is suggested in 'The Postmodern Condition' in which Lyotard outlines an opposition between narrative knowledge (convivial, traditional) and instrumental knowledge (cybernetic, scientific). The game can be considered as a cybernetic construct (a goal directed system of control and feedback) and as such, placed on the side of the instrumental, whereas narrative knowledge, argues Lyotard, is an older form - 'narration is the quintessential form of customary knowledge...' and 'what is transmitted through narrative is the pragmatic which establishes the social bond'.16 Legitimation and authority are immanent to narrative form and are established within and through the act of narration itself. By contrast authority and legitimation are extrinsic to the form of instrumental knowledge. In scientific discourse legitimation must be fought for. Moreover, instrumental knowledge according to Lyotard is set apart from the language games that constitute the social bond. The analagous oppositions may be summed up thus:

Instrumental knowledge Narrative knowledge

science history

simulation narrative

game story

uncertain legitimate

synchronic diachronic

These oppositions sketch out the structural differences between two different kinds of representation. The question of legitimacy and certainty is central - the simulation remains a model which does not have the ability to auto-legitimate itself in the way an account does. The simulation or game is never more than hypothetical.12

Interactive critical theory

How then to approach the question of a critical theory of interactive representation? We might start by looking at early prototypes of interactivity on CD-Rom and laserdisk. It is vital here to insist upon the distinction between the multi-linear (Forking Paths) and spatio-temporal (VR) models. In a multi-linear construct the author can play with the space between linear sections - versions of what happened, or different points of view, connected within an authored network of simultaneity and sequence. What is explored here is the space between alternative sections of writing or video - the space is a properly literary or cinematic space rather than the cybernetically governed mechanical space of VR, and one can imagine this hyperliterature being opened up to an expanded literary criticism.

The author of a simulator or VR representation works with a different set of opportunities. Here it is not so much a question of writing in space but of designing a model. Although the author describes the characteristics of the model, he or she is not the author of the events that happen within the model once set in motion. Here, as I have already discussed, it is more difficult to talk of authorship at all. An as yet unformulated critical approach to the simulation will probably be informed by cybernetics, architecture and the theatre.13

A number of experiments can be considered as prototypes for multi-linear writing and as pointers to a criticism of new cultural and literary/cinematic forms. These demonstrate a tension between repression and freedom, offering the reader the illusion of control within a tightly authored set of possibilities. The multi-linear model has the advantage of being based upon and incorporating an older model, that of linear writing - a model grounded at least partially in the narrative tradition, although exceeding and threatening that tradition at the same time.

In Graham Weinbrene's interactive cinema piece 'Kreutzer Sonata' the viewer is offered control over the aspect14 of the narration - the screen is divided into four temporal regions, left for flashback, right for the present, up for an expanded present and down for filmic elements which are outside of the time of the story altogether. In Tolstoy's original short story the narrator unburdens himself to a stranger on a train - telling how, consumed with jealousy over an imagined affair between his wife and her music teacher, he knifed his wife to death. In Weinbren's version the viewer is able to control the flow of narration and view the events either as perfective - seen from within the time frame of the events, or imperfective - from the external vantage point of the future.15

Thus if you point at the right of the screen you get the murderer recounting his story in the railway carriage, and if you point at the left you get the dramatic events played out in flashback. The sequence of events represented by Weinbren stays the same, however the mode of telling can throw the spectator inside or outside of those events. By pointing up or down you can overlay the fevered imaginings of the jealous husband (a sex scene between wife and music teacher), the mouth of the wife of Tolstoy cursing her husband's misogyny, references to Freud's The Wolf Man and the classical image of Judith with the severed head of Holofernes. The climax of the piece is an interactive wipe which the spectator controls by waving a finger at the screen - outside the music room the agitated husband paces up and down while inside the wife and teacher practise the Kreutzer Sonata unaware of the tragedy about to befall them.

The experience of viewing 'Sonata' is both exhilarating and dislocating. Unlike a fully interactive fiction in which story events themselves are switchable, The Kreutzer Sonata progresses inexorably from beginning to bloody end, but the route taken is profoundly different with each viewing. One showing might be as grammatically correct as a costume drama on the BBC, another as obliquely avant garde as a French art movie. The interactivity here doesn't 'get in the way' as Max Whitby suggests, but provides an extra dimension within which to write and read the movie.

Claudia Frutiger, Alejandra Jiminez and Kate Reddit have recently authored an interactive eternal triangle in which 3 strangers, thrown together for the night in an isolated hotel, ponder which of the other two they can bear to share the only room with. The story offers the viewer the chance to control their identifications with the characters - by choosing a character's point of view, that character becomes the protagonist around which the story organises itself. Each point of view is partial - what is concealed from each character is more important than what is revealed. The story is cyclical, complex, enigmatic and without resolution.

What these experiments reveal is a tension between gameplay and the story, between the instrumental and the narrative function. To put it simply, the more of a story it is, the less of a game, and vice versa. A reconciliation of this impasse suggests itself from a surprising quarter. The form of pornography is both narrative and goal directed, referring to fictional events and a kind of arousal game with a clearly defined outcome. The pornographic story joins the reader in a cybernetic construct - within this cyborg-text the body of the reader and the body of the text respond to each other. Pornography has been well represented in early interactive commercial products and the notion of virtual sex is the dominant popular fantasy about VR (at least among journalists).

Conclusion

There are two potential endings for a discussion like this, either optimistic or pessimistic. Neither is appropriate in this case. The 'interactivity is post modern' school of thought sees interactive representation as a liberation from the repressive authority of traditional narrative form. There are echoes here from the avant-garde and anti-narrative movements in cinema and writing which have their source in the utopian ferment of the 60s. (See Zap Splat... Malcolm le Grice) Yet the consequences of the opening up of closure - that interactivity will be 'commonplace, unlaborious, shallow, un-literary, heterodox'16 are more difficult to accept.

Others see the simulator as promising post symbolic representation, bypassing the patriarchal distortions of perspective and the controlling point of view. VR in this argument offers not the representation of objects but the representation of relations between objects within which the participant can select their own point of view. By using immersion interfaces the participant can gain, so the argument goes, direct (ie unmediated, objective) access to pure data, (a realm both digital and noumenal). However, in characterising this as a shift from coded representation to experiential post-representation what is glossed over is the coding and mediation involved in constructing the experience in the first place.

If the politics of a change in representation is centred on the move away from narrative with its baggage of authority, certainty and closure, the politics of interactivity at a more general level are about the end of mass culture. Interactive television or video telephony promises profound transformations in cultural and political life by fundamentally reordering the communications infrastructure away from a broadcast architecture in favour of a fully distributed network like that of the telephone system. A clue to the nature of this transformation is provided by the rapid growth of TV shopping operations in the US. The largest home shopping network, QVC (quality, value, convenience), now has a turnover of well over one billion dollars, more than double last year's figure. An indication of the crossover from shrink wrapped interactive products to an interactive infrastructure is provided by the Sega games cable TV channel which will go on line in late 1993.

As some see in interactive representation a liberation from the repressive authority of narrative, so the interactive infrastructure seems to promise liberation from authoritarian political control. Mitch Kapoor percieves a radical opportunity for libertarian democracy in the digital network. He asks 'What if Thomas Jefferson had designed cyberspace?' and goes on to propose a Jeffersonian model of a decentralised global information network in which the notion of a free and equal community of participants replaces that of the centralised state. The network has the potential, according to Kapoor, to realise Jefferson's vision of 'putting power in the hands of the people to use as they see fit'. But which Jefferson are we talking about here - the 'democratic' apostle of the rights of man, or 'Massa Tom', theorist of white supremacy and owner of 150 slaves? And which people? The problem with 'Jeffersonian cyberspace' is that it has the potential to further exclude from politcal participation those too poor or too black to buy into the vision. And yet the vision is a compelling one, sufficiently so to quash troublesome political doubt from those who might be expected to know better. When the clean-shaven millionaire homophobe Ross Perot announced, during his Presidential run in 1992, his dream of participatory democracy based on the Electronic Town Hall even an impeccably liberal commentator like Brenda Laurel felt able to consider offering him her vote17.

Is this the end of the road for narrative, grand or otherwise? Are we to become a people without stories? The linguistic category of aspect provides a useful analogy here. The shift from narrative to the simulation entails an aspectual shift like that from perfective to imperfective, from outside to inside the time of the situation being described. Thus narrative representation and interactive representation might be different ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation'18 As interactivity increases the spectator is thrown inside the representation to become a participant. Yet at the heart of the interactive representation narrative reinstates itself through the subject narrativising the experience. If narrative is a technique for producing significance out of being then simulation can be seen as its inversion, a technique for producing being out of significance. Rather than a people without stories, interactivity offers the promise of a people within stories, and rather than the end of narrative, an explosion of narrative within the simulator.

Like any other form of representation, interactivity is an illusion. It puts itself in the place of something that isn't there. What is the absent referent of interactivity? If interactivity promises the spectator freedom and choice, it is precisely the lack of such freedom and choice that interactivity conceals.

The Future of An Illusion: Interactive Cinema

2009-11-11T20:45:00.000Z

The Future of An Illusion: Interactive Cinema
Andrew Cameron
Printed in MFJ No. 28 (Spring 1995) Interactivities
In 1995 the convergence of the cinematic apparatus with the apparatus of interactivity is no longer the stuff of science fiction--it is a new fact which we are only starting to come to terms with. It is now almost fifteen years since the computer games industry had its first brief triumph over Hollywood, a triumph repeated decisively at the beginning of the nineties. Children and young people in the developed world live in a media culture which is both interactive and cinematic, within which linear narrative and the form of the game cohabit side by side in an uneasy alliance on the same television screen. Yet the study of cinema has made little attempt to come to terms with these changes, or to theorize the shifts in film language and grammar which developments in the cinematic apparatus are rapidly bringing about.

The essays in this section are an attempt to sketch out some of the key terms and questions around which a theory of interactive cinema might develop. Three of the essays were originally brought together for an issue of the British journal Ten*8 in 1993, co-edited by Derek Bishton, Tim Druckrey and myself. That issue of Ten*8 was not published for reasons unconnected with its editorial content, and it was felt that although the essays were written as long ago as 1993, and in spite of the unprecedented rate of development of interactive technology, the ideas they attempt to grapple with are unresolved and are still worthy of public debate.

Central to this debate is the question of narrativity, and in particular, the notion that interactivity is in conflict with narrative form. The question then becomes--can we construct a form which is both narrative and interactive?

Malcolm Le Grice in "Kismet, Protagony and the Zap Splat Factor" presents us with the intriguing spectacle of one of Britain's foremost avant- garde filmmakers compulsively playing Grand Prix Racing on his PC--and theorizing it. For Le Grice, the interactive moving image (read computer game) is compelling precisely because it offers an alternative to the tyranny of narrative. Le Grice suggests that there are two distinct anti-narrative traditions from which we must draw in order to develop an interactive cinema--the language(s) developed by experimental and avant-garde cinema, and the language of the interactive computer game.

Grahame Weinbren has spent over ten years attempting to reconcile the tension between narrative and interactive form in two ground-breaking interactive movies. Weinbren explains that before making The Erl King and Sonata he was faced with two key questions--what kind of story will fit the medium and what will be the grammar of its telling? The problem is how to tell a story without controlling either the sequence or the time of the telling. Weinbren proposes a radically new narrative form, both a-temporal and non- sequential, closer to Freud's notion of condensation in the dream than to the traditional linear story, and within which the spectator unravels the story just as the psychoanalyst unravels the dream work. His search for the "Ocean of the Sea of Stories" is at once utopian and down-to-earth, grounded in theory and a highly developed praxis.

My own concern in "Dissimulations" is to reconcile the differing temporal and spectacular aspects of interactive and non-interactive representations. I suggest that interactive representation is imperfective--that it throws the spectator inside the time being represented, giving rise to a high degree of identification within the text, whereas linear narrative is perfective-- events in time are represented as completed and are viewed from the outside. Thus interactivity entails a radically new form of spectatorship and this is already becoming apparent in the new forms of engagement to be found in computer games.

Finally, in "It's Just Like Art," Richard Wright points out that new technologies have as yet an undetermined position within the dominant cultural hierarchy. New forms of interactive and computer generated media oscillate uneasily between popular culture (the computer game) and high art (the gallery installation). For Wright the key issues are not narrativity and interactivity, but value and class. Whereas film is deemed to be "artistic" by the aristocrats of high culture, computer games and interactive representations are relegated to the status of junk culture or barbarous novelty. As new forms of technologically mediated forms of practice emerge, Wright predicts ongoing conflicts over legitimacy and value.

Millennium Film Journal, No. 28 Interactivities

2009-11-11T20:44:00.001Z

Millennium Film Journal, No. 28 Interactivities
Published by Adrian October 11th, 2004 Uncategorizedin . Closed

Millennium Film Journal, No. 28 Interactivities:

http://mfj-online.org/journalPages/MFJ28/MFJ28TOC.HTML

This issue has some early but significant and valuable essays on interactive cinema. Read them a couple of years ago and somewhere I need to return to for the research I’m doing.

Essays by Andrew Cameron, Malcolm Le Grice, Grahame Weinbren, and Richard Wright.

Tags: helpful urls, Interactive Cinema

http://vogmae.net.au/vlog/tag/interactive-cinema/

Interactive Anthropology

2009-11-11T20:42:00.001Z

Interactive Anthropology
Published by Adrian April 15th, 2005 Uncategorizedin . 0 Comments

Jay Ruby, a professor of visual anthropology, is someone with a long interest in innovative ways of presenting ethnographic and anthropological narratives. He has spent the last several years working on the Oak Park Stories, and they’re now available on CDROM.

Tags: Interactive Cinema

http://vogmae.net.au/vlog/tag/interactive-cinema/

Patterning reconfigurable narrative: interactive cinema as architectural elevation within 3D interactive digital environments

2009-11-11T20:39:00.001Z

Abstract
This paper addresses the process of patterning reconfigurable video narrative using architectural theory, through a case-study of practice-based research on the interactive, reconfigurable small-screen movie Gormenghast Explore. It focuses on the topography of cinematic narrative as architectural construction, refashioning Kevin Lynch's urban categories and Christian Norberg-Schulz's concept of place to support a design ontology for dramatic fictive narrativity. This architectural framework provides an effective representation for both navigable narrative content and 3D environment and interface.

Hyper-Narrative Interactive Cinema: Problems and Solutions.

2009-11-11T20:37:00.006Z

Synopsis

Hyper narrative interactive cinema refers to the possibility for users or "interactors" to shift at different points in an evolving film narrative to other film narrative trajectories. Such works have resulted so far in interactor distraction rather than sustained engagement. Contrary to post-modern textual and cognitive presumptions, film immersion and computer game theories, this study uses dual coding theory, cognitive load theory, and constructivist narrative film theory to claim that interactive hyper-narrative distraction results from cognitive and behavioral multi-tasking, which lead to split attention problems that cannot be cognitively handled. Focus is upon split attention resulting from the non-critical use of de-centered and non-cohering hyper-narrative and audio-visual formations, and from interaction. For hyper-narrative interactive cinema to sustain deep engagement, multi-tasking split attention problems inhering in such computer-based works have to be managed, and - most importantly - made to enhance rather than reduce engagement. This book outlines some viable solutions to construct deep cognitive-emotional engagement of interactors with hyper-narrative interactive cinema.

[korsakow syndrom]

2009-11-11T20:37:00.001Z

[korsakow syndrom]This is a cross platform authoring and publishing environment for creating interactive narratives. I haven’t tried it yet, so a report is to follow. It is one of those projects created by a cultural organisation (mediamatic) which is more about making possibilities than creating solutions. (A methodology similar to my own.)

The Time MAchine

2009-11-11T15:16:00.001Z

The outbreak

2009-10-28T19:16:00.000Z

interactive zombie movie

Me myself and irene

2009-10-26T20:35:00.001Z

another great example of split personality is the film me myself and irene, with charlie/hank played by jim carey, this is the sort of character i want for my 20 second anti-piracy advert.

comparison of adverts

2009-10-26T20:19:00.001Z

this is a comparison advert that was used as a pilot for people to watch, compare and evaluate the different adverts and which one had the biggest effect on its audience

What is File Sharing?

2009-10-25T15:14:00.002Z

File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, mp3 and digital videos. File sharing in computer networking refers to copying files from one computer to another using a live network connection. Peer to peer (P2P) filesharing is the most popular form of swapping files.
While file sharing is not of itself illegal, the increasing popularity of the mp3 music format in the late 1990s led to the release and growth of Napster and other software that, while designed simply to aid in the sharing of electronic files, in practice led to a huge growth in illegal file sharing: the sharing of copyright protected files without permission.

Human Joysticks [NewsBreaker Live - interactive cinema game]

2009-10-21T14:56:00.000+01:00

msnbc.com presents the worldwide premiere of interactive crowd gaming in movie theaters. Captured opening weekend of Spider Man 3 in Los Angeles in the summer of 2007

Late Fragment

2009-10-21T14:53:00.000+01:00

This is an innovative interactive feature film where the viewer can decide the trajectory of the film by clicking on characters and exploring different scenes. This is quintessential new cinema.

PRP Idea 1

2009-10-21T14:40:00.002+01:00

The usage of interactivity in contempary Cinema, the effect it has on a audience and story? When is it no longer a film and becomes a interactive game,

This idea came about due to the growing use of interactivity in cinema since 2007, the problem is:
Interactive cinema
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Interactive cinema tries to give the audience an active role in the showing of movies. The movie Kinoautomat by Czechoslovakian director Raduz Cincera presented in the Czech Pavilion in Expo '67 in Montreal is considered to be the first cinema-like interactive movie. The availability of computers for the display of interactive video has made it easier to create interactive movies.

Another newer definition of interactive cinema is a video game which is a hybrid between participation and viewing, giving the player - or viewer, as it were - a strong amount of control in the characters' decisions. A prominent pioneer of such a technique is the successful Hideo Kojima, whose gameplay often takes a priority to the storyline and long cutscenes. His game Policenauts, a point and click adventure game which has shootout sequences (that make use of the lightgun peripheral on the Sega Saturn version of the game), has a subtitle which reads "Interactive cinema" on the cover art of all versions of said game, which is an early example of a prominent game developer labelling their game as such. A recent incarnation of an idea similar to this one is Fahrenheit, (censored version released in US and Canada as "Indigo Prophecy") a game dubbed as "interactive cinema" by its France-based developer, Quantic Dream.

2007 saw the release of North America's first interactive motion picture, the Canadian-produced Late Fragment. [1]

Other, earlier examples include Quantum Gate, Psychic Detective, The Dark Eye, The Wrong Side of Town, Johnny Mnemonic, Uncompressed, The Vortex, The X-Files Game, The Gabriel Knight Series and The Wing Commander Series. All of which date from the early to late 1990's.

-Is digital technology effecting jobs in the industry?
Now due to digital technology, are jobs being loss in the industry. Such as Stunt Experts are being used less due to digital effects and with James Camerons 'Avatar' where '75% of the Film is CGI and didnt use cameras due to Motion Sensor Pads' will this decrease the jobs.
(BBC.com,James Cameron Interview)

Right or Wrong? - Making moral decisions

2009-10-21T14:28:00.000+01:00

Coronet educational film... being from 1951 it has this cool Film Noir feal to it... and of course in the 50's the world was better... Even though the Film is about a moral delemour

iPhone Angel and Devil

2009-10-20T22:33:00.001+01:00

Mac vs Pc - Angel and Devil

2009-10-20T22:31:00.000+01:00

Ideas for my advert

2009-10-20T22:02:00.003+01:00

The brief for the advert i need to make states that it cannot be longer than 20 seconds. With this in mind, i want my ad to be as simple as possible in its style and also simple in the way in which its gets the message of file sharing being illegal across. After doing some brainstorming, I came up with a few ideas that could follow the a Anti-Piracy dverts, and also a couple others:

Idea 1

is quite a basic idea of one man in a concellors office, talking with his concellor about his past experiences and his choices in his life, how he ended up going to prison after ignoring warning from the government that he should stop illegally downloading, and how he tried to get something for free and it destroyed his life.

Idea 2

since the advert only had to be 20 seconds long, i wanted to have a basic but interesting advert, the idea consisted of one guy finding a website where he can illegal download films for free, he has a conversation within his conscious with the voices of a angel ( his rightious side) and the voice of a devil ( his sinful side)

something similar to this:

THINK! - drink driving - bicycle

2009-10-20T18:59:00.000+01:00

Think! Drink Driving Advert

2009-10-20T18:55:00.000+01:00

Talk to Frank

2009-10-20T18:52:00.001+01:00

Sean Michaels, 'the Guardian' 4.08.09

2009-10-20T00:53:00.001+01:00

Music companies need to stop resisting and accept that illegal downloading is a fact of 21st-century life, according to a new study by music rights holders. Researchers analysed the downloading of Radiohead's In Rainbows – which was made freely available through an official website - and found that a majority of fans still pirated the music.

"These non-traditional venues are stubbornly entrenched, incredibly popular and will never go away," said Eric Garland, co-author of the study by the MCPS-PRS Alliance and Big Champagne, an online media measurement company. Speaking to the Financial Times, he explained, "It's time to stop swimming against the tide of what people want".

Not only did many more fans illegally download the album than those who bought it in shops, they downloaded it from illegal P2P and torrent sites like Pirate Bay than from the official Radiohead site.

"Even when the price approaches zero," reads the report, "people are more likely to act habitually (say, using Pirate Bay) than to break their habit (say, visiting www.InRainbows.com)." While Radiohead are a beloved band, an illegal website like Pirate Bay may still be "a powerful brand with a sterling reputation in the minds of millions of young music fans".

Researchers pointed out that despite the illegal downloads, In Rainbows was a success – CD versions were bestsellers and Radiohead tours continue to sell out. Garland described the In Rainbows release as "stunt marketing at its best".

"The expectation among rights holders is that in order to create a success story, you must reduce the rate of piracy," Garland said. "We've found that is not the case."

The authors of the study argue that music rights holders need to find "new ways" and "new places" to generate income from their music, rather than chasing illegal downloads – for example, licensing agreements with YouTube or legal peer-to-peer websites. In other words, they ought to do the musical equivalent of giving away free ice-cream and selling advertising on the cones.

In fact, that's an idea we hope the ice-cream industry takes advantage of as well.

Illegal Downloading Quotes

2009-10-20T00:49:00.000+01:00

“Introducing measures such as disconnection at the instigation of the Secretary of State will sidestep proper scrutiny, likely breach fundamental human rights and result in innocent people being disconnected or, worse, prosecuted,” said TalkTalk, an internet service provider, in a statement.

“What’s more, they will not work. Disconnecting alleged offenders will be futile given that it is relatively easy for determined filesharers to mask their identity or their activity to avoid detection.”

The Open Rights Group, which campaigns for internet freedom, warned that the suspension of internet access would “restrict people’s fundamental right to freedom of expression”.

“It would also fly in the face of the government’s policy of universal broadband access,” said Jim Killock, the group’s executive director. “It smacks of a knee-jerk reaction at a time when copyright infringement is reducing and online revenues are increasing.”

The government’s new proposals come just days after Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, met David Geffen, the founder of Asylum Records and the man who set up DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg, at a private dinner when on holiday in Corfu.

Lord Mandelson is keen to adopt a tougher approach to internet piracy, estimated to cost the movie industry alone around £1.4 billion a year.

Seven million people – one in 12 of the population – regularly download music and films illicitly.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said there was no discussion of online piracy when Lord Mandelson met Geffen and there is no connection between that meeting and the Government’s new proposals on illegal filesharing.

Copyright and Trade Acts

2009-10-20T00:46:00.000+01:00

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended by the Copyright and Trade Marks (Offences and Enforcement) Act 2002, currently protects copyrighted materials. People who distribute and download copyrighted recordings without permission face civil actions for potentially thousands of pounds of damages. Make no mistake: British copyright law is needlessly strict because it was born in an age that could not have envisaged the challenges of the internet. A recent survey of consumer rights' groups found that the UK was the least consumer-friendly of 16 countries examined in the report. There is, for example, no general "fair use" exception.

Illegal downloading can also constitute a criminal offence if the downloader distributes the material. Infringement of piracy and bootlegging laws can lead to hefty fines and even imprisonment if someone is caught making copies for the purpose of selling or hiring them to others.

The penalties for copyright offences depend on seriousness, but at the higher end of the scale it can lead to an appearance before a magistrate where the sanction for distributing unauthorised files is a fine of up to £5,000 or six months' imprisonment. The worst cases may be sent to the Crown Court, which has the power to impose an unlimited fine and up to 10 years' imprisonment.

Those downloaders who can show that all their music and films copied from the internet are only for personal use will escape the full weight of the criminal law. But that does not mean personal use downloading is legal. Taking a song or film without paying for it is a breach of copyright. The real issue here is detection and the steps the industries are taking to enforce their members' rights. In a recent development, the British Phonographic Industry has started working with big internet service providers such as Virgin. Thanks to the ISPs' access to IP addresses, the BPI and the ISPs can contact individuals suspected of illegal downloading. Stern letters have been sent which issue threats of disconnection if the file sharing is not discontinued. The BPI has even threatened file-sharers with a court appearance.

But as ever with rapid internet developments, it is America which is leading the way in copyright prosecution. In some US states the online infringement of copyrighted music can be punished by up to three years' jail and £150,000 in fines. Repeat offenders can be imprisoned for up to six years. Individuals may be held civilly liable – regardless of whether the activity is for profit – for actual damages or lost profits, or for statutory damages up to £90,000 per infringed copyright. In the USA the industry is putting fake tracks on file-sharing networks to track down your IP.

Bob May, a British PR, found out the hard way how seriously record companies are taking the issue. While copying an unreleased album for work, he accidently left a file-sharing site open on his computer. It was only a few minutes before he realised his mistake but in that time a track had already been downloaded. "A couple of weeks later, on Christmas Day, I got a phone call from a man employed by the record company who wanted to know how the song had been leaked. He called every day for a week and insisted on meeting," May explains. "Two guys in long black coats turned up at my work, trying to intimidate me. We resolved it, but they said if it happened again, they'd use the full force of the law."

But can the iron-fist approach really stop us doing a little bit of illicit downloading? The mind-boggling scope of what is freely available on the internet has brought temptation into the home. Many of us have got used to not paying for our music and films and there is a discernible cultural resistance to making us pay for something that has been has been free for years. The internet has turned us into a nation of freeloaders. When record companies try to tell us we are no better than shoplifters, we don't believe them. You wouldn't go into a record shop and run off with a bag of CDs, the executives complain. But we might if the record or DVD store had been giving away free stuff for years and then suddenly started charging us for it.

And album sales aren't haemorrhaging in the doom-mongering way we have been led to believe. Single sales have dropped, but 28 million more albums were sold last year than a decade ago, including digital sales. Live performances, which account for more than half of the industry's profits, are unaffected by downloads – and may even be boosted by the opportunity they offer for young people on tight budgets to sample the music they might like to hear at a concert. These are not arguments embraced by the music or film industries, which retort that only a small proportion of musicians and film-workers make a comfortable living. Their industries should be treated like other businesses, where not paying for a product or service is not tolerated. Geoff Taylor, the Chief Executive of the BPI, says: "There is not an acceptable level of file-sharing. Musicians need to be paid like everyone else."

While this debate has run back and forth for years, the Government has done little more than keep a watching brief, neither coming to the rescue of the music and film business by enforcing sanctions against illegal downloaders nor offering an amnesty to the guilty. That changed last month with a report from Digital Britain, an organisation set up by the Government to ensure that the nation exploits the internet to its full economic capacity. Launched last year, its aim was to establish a pattern for digital growth in the UK economy.

One of the biggest challenges Digital Britain had to look at was how to balance the interests of the internet user and the industries. The Government now promises to crack down on illegal file-sharing and supports sending warning letters to those making illegal downloads of music and films. Ofcom will also be allowed to release the identities of serial infringers to make it easier for music and film companies to sue them. Lord Carter, the communications minister, said: "We think online piracy is wrong. Creative companies, rights owners and individuals have a right to protection. We wish to put in place a legal framework that provides those protections."

The ISPs are caught in the middle. They protest that it is not their job to police the internet and cutting off customers is bad for business. Nor do they want to be responsible for criminalising 15-year-olds for downloading songs in their bedrooms.

The truth is, if you want to copy music for free without fear of legal action, trawl the junk shops for technology launched in the 1970s as the greatest leap in integrated hi-fi entertainment.

Illegal downloading: What happens if you're caught?

2009-10-20T00:42:00.002+01:00

Illegal downloading in the UK

Whether it's swapping songs or swiping movies, almost every internet user has been tempted by the huge amount of free entertainment online. So what's the worst that could happen if you do fill your hard drive with illegal spoils?

"I remember how chuffed I was when I discovered I could use my Panasonic music centre to tape my mates' vinyl record collections. On just two C120s I recorded the Hawkwind back catalogue and still had space to tack on the best of X-ray Spex (1979 was a musically-confusing year). The music centre was the first mass-produced legal downloader and millions of us created vast vaults of tapes of our favourite bands. I don't remember any heavies from the record industry turning up on my doorstep to threaten me with prosecution for illegal taping. And I don't recall any sanctimonious hectoring about stealing from the mouths of starving artists. They don't make music centres any more. But they do send the men in black round if you try to avoid paying for your albums." - Robert Verkaik, Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Illegal downloading in the UK
Illegal downloading in the UK has become a massive threat to the music and film industries. In 1997, 78 million singles were sold in the UK; last year, it was just 8.6m. It is estimated that half the population has engaged in some sort of nefarious downloading in the last five years.

Reading Material

2009-10-19T20:10:00.001+01:00

Benkler, The Wealth of Networks, 3.

Bauwens, “Peer to Peer and Human Evolution,” Integral Visioning, http://integralvisioning.org/article.php?story=p2ptheory1.

Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (New York: Addison Wesley, 1993).

Shuddhabrata Sengupta, “A Letter to the Commons,” in In the Shade of the Commons: Towards a Culture of Open Networks, ed. Lipika Bansai, Paul Keller, and Geert Lovink (Amsterdam: The Waag Society, 2006).

See Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity (New York: Penguin, 2004).

2009-10-19T19:57:00.002+01:00

Legal threats against The Pirate Bay

2009-10-19T19:56:00.000+01:00

Legal threats against The Pirate Bay

Microsoft: email (we get tons of these)

Mono Music: email (swedish)

DreamWorks: email our response

EA: email our response

Uppsala universitet: emails our response mail exchange back and forth final mail (they also called the phone# in whois) (swedish)

ADV Films: email our response

Sublimal Sounds: email our response 2nd mail and response

SEGA: email our response 2nd mail 3rd mail and response

Sveriges Radio: email our response (swedish)

Peter Pehrson - enya.com / Warner Music: email our response

Apple: email our response

White Stripes / WEB SHERIFF: email our response 2nd mail and response our fax (invoice) 3rd mail attached document We tell Faxxsheriff about our new site 4th mail our response

Warner Bros / Billy Corgan / GrayZone Inc: email our response

Warner Bros / Disturbed / GrayZone Inc: email our response 2nd email and response

iRacing: letter (yes, they sent us a PDF) our response (the actual response was a 1MB BMP file, but well...)

Andrew Rabbitt / Rabbit Valley Comics: email our response 2nd email

Linotype: postal mail (1 2) our response (1 2)

Prophecy House: email and our response (he also called us, talking about the antichrist)

MPAA / Hollywood / Swedish goverment / a lot of people (2006-05-31): MPAA press release our comment
Most of you probably know of the big raid of 2006-05-31. Some day we will write a separate page about all the events. Look at the documentary Steal This Film for more information.

Indiana Gregg (Gr8pop ltd) (2008-06-22): email and response, 2nd email and response, 3rd email and response, 4th (sic!) email and response

No action (except ridiculing the senders) has been taken by us because of these. :-)

Nice graphs for the law firms who don't get the hint above:

Pirate Bay Law Suit

2009-10-19T19:52:00.002+01:00

Published on January 31, 2008 at http://torrentfreak.com/
"In an few hours from now The Pirate Bay team will probably be charged with aiding or facilitating copyright infringement. If they are found guilty, they could receive sentences of up to 2 years in prison, but the site will remain online, no matter what."

"Update: The Swedish prosecutor has announced the charges against the Pirate Bay admins.

Last month, the Swedish authorities announced that they were planning to press charges against 5 people involved with The Pirate Bay, stating that the 5 individuals will be charged with “facilitating copyright infringement”.
Today, after nearly two years of collecting evidence, the prosecutor will officially press charges. But, no matter what the outcome of the case, The Pirate Bay says that they’re here to stay.
On the Pirate Bay Blog we read: “In case we lose the pending trial (yeah right) there will still not be any changes to the site. The Pirate Bay will keep operating just as always. We’ve been here for years and we will be here for many more.”
The Pirate Bay is not hosted in Sweden anymore, in fact, the Pirate Bay crew claims that they themselves have no idea where the servers are located. After the raid on their servers in 2006, they decided that it was better not to know where they are. One thing is sure though, they are not hosted in just one country.
For those who are interested, all the legal documents the police collected in the upcoming case can now be bought form the Swedish police for only $1000. They sure try to profit from all the recent media attention. However, Brokep is reasonable, as he says: “Even though the information in the investigation might be a bit personal at times (alcohol intake, sex addictions) we’re not suing the police for commercially exploiting the material they took from us without permission.”
For now, The Pirate Bay team is staying confident and firm in the belief that they have nothing to worry about. They argue that they are just running a search engine, and never stored any copyrighted material on their servers.
Stay tuned for more Pirate Bay news today."

Three Strikes and your OUT

2009-10-19T19:50:00.000+01:00

A “draft consultation Green Paper” to be released by the UK Government proposes a three strikes and you’re out law to combat illegal downloads.

Under the proposal, UK internet users will be monitored by their ISP’s for illegal downloads, and those caught will receive an e-mail warning in the first instance, internet suspension the second time, and then termination of their contract on the third strike. A similar law was proposed in France back in November 2007.

According to the BBC quoting The Times, broadband firms which failed to enforce the rules could be prosecuted, and the details of customers suspected of making illegal downloads would be made available to the courts.

The proposal faces several serious hurdles, such as attributing blame where internet access is shared, and then determining what is illegal content. Although BitTorrent traffic is primarily pirated material, there is also increasing amounts of legal material as well. Even this week a German record company offered its entire music catalog via Pirate Bay, so even using and accessing material from the most famed pirate site of them all may not actually constitute downloading illegal material.

The proposal unsurprisingly comes from the Music and Record industry, and although not yet law is being promoted by the UK Government as part of a “comprehensive plan to bolster the UK’s creative industries,” so looks like it will be implemented at some time in the future. [Techcrunch UK has more].

Simulated Project Research Ideas - Pro Piracy Advert

2009-10-19T19:47:00.002+01:00

The first idea I began to think about was to be my version of the Pro Piracy infomercial. My aim for this assignment was to spread awareness of illegal downloading and the consequences of doing it. After a indepth discussion with my tutor, i was left with some constructive critisism to develop and improve my idea. My developments on how to bring relevance to my idea just meant that i would not be able to get all my information across in the short time we have to not only create it, but also because the duration of the ad is only 20 secs. Below is the kind of style i was thinking of going with:

Downloading Piracy Advert

2009-10-19T19:39:00.000+01:00

Careing is Sharing

2009-10-19T19:36:00.001+01:00

From the growing accessibility of digital tools and networks have come new means and practices for distributing digital content.Napster, Kazaa, and BitTorrent, M2M sharing platforms such as DeviantArt, Flickr, Fanfiction.net, and YouTube, and social networking tools such as MySpace, LiveJournal, and Facebook radically expand opportunities for individuals to share media and information directly with others in a social context.

The Brief

2009-10-19T19:28:00.001+01:00

The Brief
The Copyright Protection Society is starting a public information campaign that
illustrates and explains what file sharing is, when and why it is illegal and also the
consequences of being involved with this illegal activity. They want you to
produce a piece of multimedia that will address the points above. You have six
weeks to complete the task and you are required to produce a short proposal of
your designs and ideas then you will produce the multimedia product.

2009-05-27T02:05:00.001+01:00

“There are two kinds of directors: those
who have the public in mind when
they conceive and make their films,
and those who don’t consider the
public at all. For the former, cinema is
an art of spectacle; for the latter, it is
an individual adventure. There is
nothing intrinsically better about one
or the other; it’s simply a matter of
different approaches.”
— François Truffaut, director, Jules and Jim

Veer - Bollywood - work exp

2009-05-27T01:25:00.002+01:00

UK Film Productions has an opportunity available for Film and Performing Arts students. Veer, a major Bollywood Production is filming in Bath on April 17, 2009 and shooting will continue until April 24, 2009. The film stars popular Bollywood heartthrob, Salman Khan in a period film set in the late 1800s. Other familiar faces include Sohail Khan and Jackie Shroff. Veer is being directed by Mr. Anil Sharma who previously directed blockbusters like Gaddar, The Hero, and Ab Watan Tumhare Hawale Sathiyon etc.

We are looking for highly motivated students that are ready to take on responsibility and are seeking valuable work experience in the film industry. Their specific role will be that of a Production Runner- foot soldier of the production team. They will be performing small but important tasks around the set and on location. Their duties may involve anything from administration to crowd control, and from public relations to making reservations.

Production Runners must be flexible and well organized, and be able to think on their feet. They should be able to relay messages quickly and accurately, whilst paying due regard to the need for silence when on set. They should have strong verbal and communication skills, be able to take orders, and to show tact and deference towards those in positions of authority. They must be punctual and enthusiastic, and understand the importance of recording expenditure accurately. They should be level-headed, and able to work calmly and effectively under pressure. They must be available from April 17th to April 24th, 2009.

The work experience students will be accommodated for food, beverages, and transportation. At the end of their work experience, the students are eligible for a recommendation letter and if the college allows, credit for this placement. We will also provide certificates of work experience for these students.

While You Were Sleeping - Pilot

2009-05-17T17:10:00.001+01:00

Veer - BollyWood Newest Film

2009-05-17T15:51:00.004+01:00

Janine Frank - 2nd Assistant Director
David Choudry - Line Producer
Naila Mughal - Production Manager
Sam Bhogal - Asst Prod Manager
Andy Williamson - Location Manager
Owen Twort - Unit Manager
Bindni Karia - Production Asst
Nav Bhogal - Transportation Manager
Danny Peachey - 3rd Assistant Director / Key Floor Runner

press kit

2009-05-17T15:51:00.001+01:00

1.
Step 1

Choose a pocket folder to hold all your information. If your company brochure already happens to have a pocket, you're in luck. If not, you can purchase pocket folders of almost any color at any office supply store.
2.
Step 2

Write short, one-page bios of each company officer or upper-level manager, and print them on a laser or inkjet printer on company letterhead. Include the officer's title, history with the company, quotable statements, basic personal information, theories or ideas about your company and a picture, if possible.
3.
Step 3

Compile all recent press releases, positive press coverage and sell sheets. Print the press releases on company letterhead, and color copy or professionally photocopy recent articles for inclusion. Presentation is everything; standard copy paper doesn't make the best first impression.
4.
Step 4

Include your company newsletter. If you don't have one, work on releasing your first issue, which can be done inexpensively on a laser printer. Just include some basic clip art and photos, articles of importance to your company or industry, and upcoming company events.
5.
Step 5

Assemble all the information in a logical order. Typically, start with the bios on top, followed by your company sell sheets, newsletter, and any press releases or recent clippings near the back of the packet.
6.
Step 6

Top it all off with an informative letter that briefly explains what's inside and offers to provide any additional information needed. If there are business card slits in your pocket folder, include your card there. If not, it's appropriate to paper clip it to your letter.
7.
Step 7

Find some way to identify your press kit. If you're using your company brochure, your company name and logo will already appear on it. Otherwise, choose a pocket folder with a window in the front panel so that your company letterhead will be immediately visible.

Filming Stills

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While you were sleeping presentation

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While you were sleeping presentation

Spoken with presentation

Brief

for this assignment I had to produce a 6 minute fictional film centered around at least two main characters and also a 40 second promotional pilot

Research

from my research I decided to produce a dark comedy horror, based on the story and relationship between a hostage and his capturer. The best example of this type of film was a Spanish film produced by Pedro Almodovas entitled “Atame” or in English “tie me up, tie me down”.
The film follows a young man, who had recently been released from a mental institution, the man becomes obsessed with a female actress, who he had previously had a one night stand with.

Character Histories

Terry
Terry is a musician at art, its the only thing he knows how to do well, his had a bad life, he when to a run down school,but worked hard and made it into college, but after his father died, he left college to start working, where he met John.

John
john was brought up in a wealthy family, he went to a private school and got a good education, after school john when to a normal college, where he achieved high and when to university. when he left university, his father handed over the family business to him, this is where john met terry, john interviewed terry and terry was automatically fixated on John for showing him compassion.

Stacie
Stacie is a intelligent women and just after finishing university, she started to work in john department, but within a year she left the company to start up her own company, terry saw Stacie in work and became obsessed with her.
A few months after Stacie leaving, Terry met Stacie in a bar and there relationship started their.

Location
I looked at a few different locations around Nottingham to do with the cellar concept. Some of these places being Nottingham cave, and a few pubs around Nottingham that have been built into the landscape, for example “the Loggerhead”.
With the Nottingham caves I was unable to gain private hire to film in the caves, due to the fact that it is a tourist attraction.
That left me with 5 Noel Street.

Actors

you will already recognize these names as fellow students on the audio/visual pathway, but what you most probably don't know is that these three students had previous acting experience.
Both Jack and Janet are great people to work with in front off and behind the camera.
The reason I choose coworkers to act in my film is because I have previously seen there talents in acting, but I also through it would be a good idea to have them on set for support and help with the technical side of the film as well.

First Script
my first script was a film based on vampires and how they try to coexist with human. The storyline had a lot of twists and underline stories of betrayal and lies, however this story was a lot longer then 6 minutes, and if I cut it down the storyline would have lost its contents, so I scraped this idea until a later date.

Second Script
my second script had more of a basic plot or storyline, and had less twists in the story.
The story is about a man called jack who is having a guest over for dinner, Stacie. The who of them are having a romantic meal for two, however Stacie is unaware of a third guest in the house, this person being John, John has been held captive in Terry's house since Terry fired John for stalking the other workers.

Storyboards
for the storyboards I used frame forge, a 3d software to plan out my scripts path, to be able to visualize how the scenes are going to be laid out and whats going to happen in each scene.
At first I found frame forge difficult to grasp, but after some help and a bit of patients, the software started to come naturally

40 Second Pilot
I wanted my 40 second pilot to be an inverse of what the actually film was going to be like, but after some researching, I realized what I wanted to achieve was more like a trailer then a pilot, so I decided to take my favorite 40 seconds from my film

Title Sequence
for my title sequence I wanted my titles and credits to stay in tune with the genre and design aspect of my film, I decided to make my titles video footage as well to stay in the same design aspect.

Production File - While You Were Sleeping

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While You Were Sleeping
By Danny Peachey

I had to produce a 6 minute fictional film centred on two main characters or more, this is the production file that documents all of the processes I used to produce my final product and a 40 second pilot.
For this piece of work I want to create a dark comedy, based around two primary characters and one secondary character.
I first started with researching different types of films involving hostages or hostage situations, these being such as the “Saw” trilogy starting in 2004 and most recently Saw 5 released in 2008, films revolving around people being taken hostage, and given a choice, that would decide their freedom or their death. I also looked at some short films similar to the type of design and I idea I had in mind. I was also looking on You Tube for short films revolving around dark comedy for example Hoodoo for Voodoo, High Expectations and The Inside Job - Mafia Dark Comedy. But my favourite example of a hostage film, that revolves around the relationship between the hostage and its capturer is the film “Tie me up, tie me down”
Tie me up tie me down follows the role of a young man, who has recently been released from a mental institution, he man becomes obsessed with an actress, who he had a one night stand with and doesn’t want to let her leave.
Throughout my project I had to keep a journal of every aspect I did, from research and pre-production all the way to the final product and an evaluation, however I am currently at the post production stage, and the final product being the 6 minute fictional film has not been finalised and evaluated.
I also have to use a piece of 3D software called frame forge to produce a full storyboard of my film as and avi document as well as storyboard stills to visualise how my film will be structured, how it will look and how it will feel.
My primary idea was a fantasy story about vampires in the modern age, living with and around humans, and how they lives can become twisted and manipulated by lies and betrayal, titled “A Memory Of Blood” and you can find the script here. However this script was a lot longer then 6 minutes and I felt that I didn’t have enough knowledge to complete it to a standard that I wanted to achieve and cut it down to 6 minutes while still keeping the main storyline intact.
My secondary idea was the idea of a dark comedy about a hostage and his captures day and what he does throughout the day, the primary script can be found here, I have also written an alternative ending and that script can be found here.
I also wrote a short proposal of an overview of my film, what the characters were like, what makes them significant to the piece, and some basic research, my proposal can be found here.
After I had written my script I started to write some brief character histories for each character, Terry, John and Stacie’s can be located on their names.
After writing the character histories, I searched for actors that I wanted to use, but without funding in my current situation, I decided to go with actors that I knew and who also had experience of working behind the camera as well, but didn’t need being paid for payment for travel or a hotel room, these people being Danny Peachey, Jack Boyles and Janet Chu .
After these three people accepted the desired take I had to write a detailed filming schedule as well as numerous release forms that had to be agreed and signed by the actors and signed of by someone of authority this being Simon Perkins.
I had some locations in mind but I wanted to investigate a range of different places and pick from the best, the place I ended up deciding would be most suitable was 5 Noel Street. The reason I felt 5 noel street was most suitable was because the main reason being, it being where I lived so I didn’t have to get permission to film there, also it has a run down cellar, but the rest of the apartment is well maintained and large enough to hold a crew with a low risk level, the only place with the higher risk level was the cellar, however the cast and crew had high knowledge of the cellar location and the risks involved.
Once the footage was shot, I started to think about how my title credits could be made to look in the same aseptic theme as the 6 minute fictional film and pilot would be and this is what I came up with, the credits title sequence can be found here.

Location Stills

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Map for directions

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evaluation

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Evaluation

throughout this assignment I had to continuously review and evaluate how I carried out my project, from the pros and cons to how I overcome the problems that arose and how I developed my ideas from my primary idea into my final finished movie.
During this piece of work I had to keep a journal that should have made use of my on line web log utilities, my journal was used to document and reflect on my work as my project progressed.
My primary idea was an in-depth story revolving around two families entitled Memory Of Blood, however I had to scrap this idea due to the face that the final films predicted run time would have been well over the desired six minutes, and If I had to cut the film down to six minutes then a lot of the storyline would have been lost in the process, so I decided to scrap that idea and start over again.
My secondary idea was a collaborative idea that I established and elaborated on with a fellow Audio/Visual Student Jack Boyles, my secondary idea was the idea that I went for as my final idea, the storyline consisted of two primary characters and one secondary character, and the relationship between a hostage and his capturer.
Two days before the scheduled day of filming, both my primary and secondary actor contacted me and to my disappointment pulled out, due to conditions that there car had broken down and it was too late for them to arrange a alternative means of transportation.
As a last result I asked two fellow Audio/Visual students if they could participate in acting in my film, these two people being Jack Boyles and Janet Chu. To my surprise they both agreed to lend me a hand in order to produce my film, because me and jack came up with the storyline together, he already had a good idea of what I wanted and what I expected to gain from the filming.
On the day of the shot the main problem that arose was that the microphone cable wasn't picking up sound but it was still registering on the camera that the sound was being captured, it was only after filming and capturing the footage, that I discovered there had been a problem with the microphone, however I decided to overcome this problem by using a sound booth to reproduce the audio and a soundtrack that was produced by a amateur sound designer and my house mate, Henry Girgis.
While editing the biggest problem I found was not the footage or sound, but cutting the footage down to 6 minutes without losing the storyline.
Day one of filming I wrote on my on line journal “I had a lot of fun working on my film today, there was a lot of funny out takes and for the first time i really had fun filming a piece of work, this was also the first chance i got in a long time to actually be on camera not just the guy behind the lens, the face no one ever remembers,” I feel that this quote sums up the whole experience I gained from the production work I produced, Working along side two very good and close mates was a great opportunity.
The software I used to capture my footage and compile my movie was a software designed for Windows called Adobe Premiere, the version I used of the software was Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, I didn't use the latest edition which is CS3 because I feel comfy with the design and layout of Pro 2.0, if I had a choice I would have used Final Cut Pro for the Mac, the reason being is that have had two year pier experience with Final Cut Pro, and I am more confident with that piece of software, however to have the advantage in my field of work, I need to experience and develop my knowledge and skills In a range of different softwares and achieve in-depth knowledge into my area of expertise. I feel that working on my own for this assignment allowed me to learn about my own personal strengths and weaknesses and how I can overcome the weakness and mature my strengths, thus gaining a better grasp and knowledge of my own capabilities and my potential to develop future in the future, to achieve my own goals.
When I finished a draft version of my film, I sent my father a email to ask his opinion on what he thoughts were on what I had done so far and if there was anything he thought I should change or try to improve, within a hour he replied to my email saying, and I quote “ I am amazed that I piece of work such as this was done by my son, you make me and your mother so proud, you was the first one in the family to go to university and you are living my dream, we are both proud of what you have become and achieved.”
What my father said to me in that email gave me a large burst of confidence, but he also gave me some ideas and pointers on how I could improve my footage and from what he said I feel that I developed and improved the final outcome of my movie.
One major problem that arose near the end of my final footage was that my external hard drive where my data was kept malfunctioned, and I lost all my work on it, lucky enough, I had most of the assignment in other locations, the production folder was handed in a few weeks pier to the malfunction, so that was one part of work already completed, most of the footage was already uploaded onto youtube, the cuts and shots had been listed, so all I had to do was recapture the footage and from the shot list I had already written, cut the footage to the shot list and I had the footage that I originally lost.

Overall I was satisfied with the outcome of my final movie, however the final film could have been better, if problems hadn't occurred such as my hard drive malfunctioning and losing my in progress work, I could have maybe developed the final film and spent more time developin , but I am grateful that these problem did arise because these problems gave me the oppitunity to develop my knowledge and look at my work from a different

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Intro - While You Were Sleeping

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FrameForge Avi

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FrameForge Stills

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Filming location, date and time,contact details

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Danny Peachey
Filming location, date and time,contact details

Contact Details:
Danny Peachey
flat1, 5 Noel Street
Forest Fields
Nottingham
NG7 6AQ

Date:
25.02.09

Time:
0900 - 1800

Location:
Flat 1, 5 Noel street
Forest Fields
Nottingham
NG7 6AQ

trailer 2

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trailer

shows a man putting on his best suit, setting up a dinner table, lighting candles, shows part of a women,him pulling out her chair, him taking her jacket, shows closeup of a wine glass,him pouring the wine into the glass for her, romantic music in the background,

shows a man putting on his best suit
- close up shot of back of terry, puttin on his suit jacket.
-camera closeup of front, buttoning up his suit jacket
-slightly pulled out shot, of terry brushing of his suit jacket arms

setting up a dinner table
-shows whole table, and a white sheet being thrown over it
-cuts to two plates, candles on the table,wine glasses on table and terry putting last knife table.
-candles on the table, closeup of candle and terry hand lighting a candle

shows part of a women
-shows a womens legs, starting off at her feet and working its way up,when it gets to the top half of her body, terry enters into the scene and takes her jacket off her,

him pulling out her chair, him taking her jacket
-shows a chair, terri pulling the chair out and stacie taking a seat

Wine bottle
-closeup showing terry hanf pouring a glass of wine for stacie,

trailer

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trailer

shows a man putting on his best suit, setting up a dinner table, lighting candles, shows part of a women,him pulling out her chair, him taking her jacket, shows closeup of a wine glass,him pouring the wine into the glass for her, romantic music in the background,

shows a man putting on his best suit
- close up shot of back of terry, puttin on his suit jacket.
-camera closeup of front, buttoning up his suit jacket
-slightly pulled out shot, of terry brushing of his suit jacket arms

setting up a dinner table
-shows whole table, and a white sheet being thrown over it
-cuts to two plates, candles on the table,wine glasses on table and terry putting last knife table.
-candles on the table, closeup of candle and terry hand lighting a candle

shows part of a women
-shows a womens legs, starting off at her feet and working its way up,when it gets to the top half of her body, terry enters into the scene and takes her jacket off her,

Terry pulling out her chair, him taking her jacket
-shows a mid to close range shot of a chair, terri pulling the chair out and stacie taking a seat

Wine bottle
-closeup showing terry hand pouring a glass of wine for stacie,

Flicking
-shows Stacie flicking through the t.v channels
-goes onto the wrong channel and sees john

Keep you mouth shut
-shows terry hitting john and then saying sorry

Summary of timing

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Summary of timing

30 sec- intro with credits
15 sec- shows john waking up,looking around
30 sec- show terry cooking and then his phone goes off, stacie is phoneing him
30 sec- terry putting suit on and talking to himself
15 sec- terry walking down stairs
60 sec- talking to john
15 sec- terry leaving room
30 sec- terry having meal with stacie
30 sec- stacie flipping the tv channels
15 sec- terry going in kitchen
15 sec- stacie going in cellar
30 sec- terry going down to the cellar with two plates

Storyline

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Storyline

terry is a well presented, smart, professional young man but with a big secret.
He may have a ragged appearance,but he is well manned and dresses smartly and to the trends, he is able to play the piano to a professional level as well as numerious other musical instruments but just like his music, he also has a darker, quieter side to him.
He shows a lot of affection to people, he wants to be admired and loved by everyone,
Terry lives on his own but yet he always has company
and when someone he shows affection to doesnt show it back, he takes it and makes them have affection, he is like a child. Takeing what he wants even when he ben told no.

Schedule - While You Were Sleeping

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“ While You Were Sleeping”

Project title
While You Were Sleeping
Proposed Date of Shoot
22/02/09 Full Day
Locations
5 noel street
Directions to locations
See attached sheet
Contact
Danny Peachey – Producer/ Director

Tel: 07871232824
email: N0194311@ntu.ac.uk
D.peachey@hotmail.co.uk

Nearest Police Station
Main Switchboard 0115 967 0999
City Division
North Church Street
Nottingham
NG1 4BH
Tel: 0115 948 2999
Nearest Hospital /A&E
Queens Medical Centre University
Hospital
Derby Road, Nottingham, NG7 2UH
Main Switchboard 0115 924 9924
In emergencies call 999
Equipment
Sony HDV Z1, Headphones,
Microphone K6, Tripod, Boom, Boom
Extension Pole, Spare Batteries,
Digital Still Camera
Hire company
Nottingham Trent University
Lunch/Break
25/3/2009 - 1330 - 1500
Clothing
Crew – Comfortable clothing, preferrable trainers, due to cellar scenes

Actors – See Below
Scenes to be Shot
See Shot List

Clothing
wardrobe set
Terry
John
stacie
1
Tshirt and jeans
Jeans and tracksuit top
Smart going out dress wear, jeans, high heels, earrings
2
Black Suit, white shirt, black tie, shoes
Jeans and tracksuit top
Smart going out dress wear, jeans, high heels, earrings

Shoot Schedule
Project: Whle you were sleeping
Date: 25/02/2009 - 26/02/2009
Start Time – Crew Member: 0900
Start Time – Actors: 1000
Finish Time: 1930-2000

Day 1 - 25/02/2009

Time
Task - crew
Task - actors
0900
Crew arrive at 5 noel street – equipment already at location

0930 - 1000
Debriefing and set up

1000 - 1030
Debrief actors
Actors arrive at location – wardrobe set 1
1030 - 1330
Cellar Shots ( see shot list )
1330 - 1500
Lunch Break
1500 - 1900
Cellar Shot Continued
1900 - 1930
End Of Day 1

Day 2 - 26/02/2009

Time
Task - crew
Task - actors
0900
Crew arrive at 5 noel street – equipment already at location

0930 - 1000
Briefing and set up

1000 - 1030
Briefing actors
Actors arrive at location – wardrobe set 1 and 2
1030 - 1100
Bedroom Shot ( see shot list )
1100 - 1230
Dining room/ Kitchen Shots ( see shot list )
1230 - 1300
Cut Away Shots
1300 - 1330
Cellar Shots Part 2
1330 - 1430
Finish Filming / Clear up equipment
1430 - 1730
Take Cast & Crew out for “Thank You” meal

Contact details
Crew
Director: Danny Peachey 07871 232824
Producer: Janet Chu 07900 977676
Director of Photography/Sound: Jack Boyles 07597 972333
Production assistant/Sound:Jason Bickerley
Camera Operator #1:Jack Boyles
Camera Operator #2:Janet Chu
Actors
John – Danny Peachey
Terry – Jack Boyles
Stacie – Janet Chu
Shot List – Cellar - HDV-Z1

INT. DARK CELLAR - EVENING

Scene 7
LDS, shot from bottom of cellar stairs looking up as Terry walks down
Scene 8
WS, Terry talking to John, who is captive in the cellar
Scene 11
CU, Terry getting aggressive with John, hitting him and pouring drink over him

Shot List – Bedroom - - HDV-Z1

INT. BEDROOM- EVENING

Scene 1
MCU, Terry putting on suit jacket
Scene 2
ECU, Terry sorting out tie
Scene 3
ECU, Terry buttoning up blazer

Shot List – Dining Area- HDV-Z1

INT. DINING AREA - EVENING

Scene 4
MS, Terry setting up dining table
Scene 5
OSS, Stacie taking some prawn crackers
Scene 6
MS, Terry saying he going to sort out dinner
Scene 9
MS, Terry and Stacie having dinner
Scene 10
OSS, looking at Terry as he says he is going to the toilet

Shot List – Cellar Part 2- HDV-Z1

INT. DARK CELLAR – EVENING

Scene 12
LDS, Stacie walking down into the cellar
Scene 13
WS, Stacie and John both hostages down in the cellar
Scene 14
LDS, Terry leaving the cellar laughing

CU – Close Up
OSS – Over Shoulder Shot
WS – Wide Shot
MCU – Medium Close Up
MS – Medium Shot
LDS – Low Down Shot

ECU – Extreme Close Up

Locations and Directions

Flat 1, 5 Noel Street, Nottingham NG7 6AQ
Tel: 07871232824
Walking direction to Nottingham NG7 6AQ

0.5 mi – about 8 mins
1.Head northwest on Waverley St toward Arboretum St
2.Waverley St turns slightly left and becomes Mount Hooton Rd
3.Slight right at Mount Hooton St
4.Turn right at Noel St
5.Destination will be on the left

6.

Proposal

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Proposal

For this piece of work I have to produce a 6 minute fictional film centered around two main characters. I also have to use a piece of 3D software called frameforge to produce a full storyboad of my film to visualise how my film will be structured, how it will look and how it will feel.
For this piece of work I want to create a dark comedy, based around two primary characters and one secondary character. The main primary character will be a man called Terry Jack Thugson, he is an affectionate man however he doesn’t completely understand his actions.
Terry is the primary character in which the dark comedy is situated around.
I have considered creating the pilot as an inversion of what my 6 minute film is going to be about, right until the very end of the pilot.
John is the secondary character, he use to be terry boss and felt compassion towards him because terry tried hard to fit in with other people and make friends at work but because of his rough appearance no one wanted to associate with him at work.
I was considering filming more then one ending to have a few veariations of the story with a few alternative endings.
For this piece of work to be successful I need to dedicate a lot of time and effort to this piece of work, I have been studying some short films on youtube revolving around dark comedy for example Hoodoo For Voodoo.

Problem Questions

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1.what is the story actually about?
2.Who is it about?
3.Do we empathize with the main character(s)?
4.Are they likeable?
5.What exactly do these people want?
6.Who is stopping them getting it?
7.Why?
8.Are there surprises, thrills, revelations: is the audience led one way before the oppisite is revealed?
9.Is the audience lifted and let down and then lifted again, th peaks and throughs going higher and plunging lower as the story builds?
10.Do the main turning points appear for maximum impact and interest?
11.Do I have the elements I would expect for the genre?
12.Have the principal characters gone through major irreversible changes?
13.Are these changes credible?
14.Will those changes move and effect the audience?
15.Is the underlying theme clearly revealed?
16.Is there a satisfactory ending which gives the audience what they expect, but not exactly how they expected it?

Pilot

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Pilot

The pilot is a 40 second taster of my six minute film, they 40 seconds I decided to use was my favourite scene to do, this is the scene where Terry, goes mental at John. Terry hits john and then chucks a liquid beverage in Johns face. Terry uses some comparisons of Johns attitude and behaviour to hansel and Gretel, in the way John is being greedy.

Character History - Terry

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Character History List - Terry

Full Birth Name: Terry Jack Thugson
Birthplace: Nottingham, United Kingdom
Height: 5'9”
Relationship With Mother: he mother died when he was 8 years old, police came to investigate his father but the case was dropped as suicide
Relationship With Father: terry's father was an alkaholic and a heavy smoker
Education: Terry when to a run down school, but made it into college which he quit in his final year to get a job due to his dads death at 45 years old
Occupation: Terry is currently in-between jobs
First Memory: His father putting a cigarette out on his arm
Favorite Food: Chineses/ Indian takeaways
Favorite Drink: Strongbow, coffee
Talents: Terry can play the piano, as well as several other instruments, he has a way with words and is very romantic
Flaws: Terry's biggest flaw is that he doesnt understand how to accept no, he is still like a kid, if he wants something, he goes to any length to get it
Worst Fear: being alone
Occupation of Parents: Terry's mother worked in the local town cafe, Terry's father was a truck driver and was away from home a lot of the time
Social Status: From peoples first impressions terry is treated as an outcast and some people dont want to associate with him.
Pets: Terry has a dog
Travels: Terry has never left his home town, after his fathers death he move into his own flat and he has never moved or been abroad.
Favorite colour: Green
Sense of humour: Terry's look at life as a joke, he doesnt take anythign seriously, he can make any situation into a joke, his care free attitude seems to attract a lot of attention from people, but due to his appearence, a lot of people tend to ignore him.

Character History - John

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Character History List - John

Full Birth Name: John Penned
Birthplace: London, United Kingdom
Height: 5'8”
Relationship with Mother: John was very close with his mother, when he was a kid she took me everywhere with her while Johns father was at work
Relationship with Father: Johns father was the perfect dad, he took john to play ball in the park, he would take he everywhere he could when he wasnt at work, this was mainly on the weekends
Education: John when to a private school, but then when to a normal college, and finally gained the grades to go to university
Occupation: John is currently the manage of a chain of shops, he use to be Terry's boss
First Memory: Johns first memory is of him and his father sitting on the floor in the living room playing with lego while his mother was sitting in the chain smiling and watching the two bonding together
Favorite Food: Johns favorite food is a traditional english meal, fish and chips
Favorite Drink: John likes a range of different drinks but due to the long hours he work, he is usually seen drinking energy drinks
Talents: John has many talents, and is a very skilled man,
Flaws: he feels pity on people and give them the benefit of the doult, espically at work he tries to befriend the new employees, so that they feel more easy at work
Worst Fear: Johns worst fear is that he will be forgotten, he likes to make a lasting impression, and he doesnt want to die with no-one to miss him
Occupation of Parents: John's mother use to work for the chain of shops that john now manages, but due to a back problem she had to give up working, johns father works in accounting.
Social Status: John is a high mantainence guy, who is well liked by a lot of people and has made many friend throughout his life
Pets: John ownes a yorkshire terrier
Travels: Johns travels as much as he can when he aint working, he knows you only live once so he wants to see as much of the world as he possible can
Favorite Colour: Blue
Sense of Humour: John is quite a serious guy at work, but he likes to play silly jokes to make the other workers feel easlier, this was the first thing Terry noticed about john

Character History - Stacie

2009-04-19T13:59:00.002+01:00

Character History List - Stacie
Full Birth Name: Stacie Mesmeric
Birthplace: Oxford, United Kingdom
Height: 5'4”
Relationship with mother: Stacies mother treated Stacie like an adult from a young age and they told each other everything, she got everything she asked her mum for, her mum worked full time but always found time to go shopping with her daughter.
Relationship with father: Stacie was a daddies girl, he brought her everything
Education: when to private schools, worked hard in class to achieve her place in life, but at the same time was liked but her class mates,
Occupation: owns her own modeling company
First Memory: Stacies mother in the kitchen making cakes
Favorite Food: stacie favorite food is her mothers home cooked chicken stew, because she is always away on business, she loves her mothers cooking when she returns home
Favorite Drink: Stacie loves a good bottle of vintage white wine
Talents: Stacie is a business women and is very talented with talking and manipulating people into getting what she wants, business and personal wise
Flaws: Stacie is easily flatted by someone who is charming and, does everythign for her
Worst Fear: Stacie is afriad of being on her own in the dark, and in small spaces
Occupation of Parents: Stacies father was a world famous solicitor. Stacies mother worked for the same company Stacies father owned and that is how the two met.
Social Status: Stacie is a powerful figure, she owns her own modeling company that her father helped her set up
Pets: Stacie doesnt have any pets because she is always traveling due to work
Travels: Stacie travels a lot due to her job
Favorite Colour: Yellow
Sense of Humour: Stacie is a very happy, lively person, who love to meet people and have a laugh when she isnt working

Signed release forms

2009-04-19T13:32:00.004+01:00

Script Edit 3 - Alternative ending

2009-04-19T13:30:00.000+01:00

While you were sleeping
By Danny Peachey
SCENE 1:

INT. DARK CELLAR - EVENING

the capture is sitting in a chair, he wakes up confused, he looks around trying to figure out what has happened,he struggles to reach for his pocket,he finally manages to get his phone out of his pocket, he tries to phone someone,

SCENE 2:

INT. KITCHEN – EVENING

the camera cuts to a kitchen where another man is preparing dinner, his phone is on the side and it starts ringing, he cleans his hands and answers the phone, but it is a womens voice,

STACIE
“are we still on for dinner round yours tonight?”

TERRY
“ yea of course. Im just preparing the food now”

STACIE
“Ok.great.i will see you at 8 then.bye”

she puts down the phone,

SCENE 3:

INT. DARK CELLAR - EVENING

the camera cuts back to the cellar, and the phone is showing it has no signal.

SCENE 4:

INT. BEDROOM - EVENING

the man putting on his best suit, he looks in the mirror and is very pleased by the way he looks, he looks at his watch

TERRY
“ only a few more hours and she will be here, hope she likes what ive cooked for her”

TERRY
“o that reminds me, I better feed him,”

closeup shot showing to pieces of toast popping out of the toaster. He puts them in a dog bowl, and walks to the cellar door, he slowly opens the door, camera is shotting the back of his head, and it cuts to in the cellar looking up and the door opening..the capture walks down the stairs, and puts the dog bowl down on the floor, and walks away,

fades to black

SCENE 5:

INT. KITCHEN - EVENING

fades back in romantic music is playing, and we are seen in the kitchen as the capture is cooking a romantic meal,

SCENE 6:

INT. DINING AREA - EVENING

cuts to dining table.. a cover is being thrown over the table, plates and glasses are bin places on the table, candles are also put on the table.

SCENE 7:

INT. DARK CELLAR - EVENING

He then goes back down to the cellar to retrieve the dog bowl...

TERRY
“ arr your not eating whats wrong?”

camera pulls out to see a man tied to a chair

TERRY
“are you still mad at me because of what I said earlier?”

still he doesnt reply

TERRY
“kk kk give me one sec”

fade to black

SCENE 8:

INT. DARK CELLAR - EVENING

comes back in with two ties

TERRY
“ would you say the black or the red one for my date tonight?...o I almost forgot, would you like me to turn the page?”

JOHN
“Terry, id rather you let me go!”

TERRY
“you know I cant do that. What about your magazine, are you finding it interesting, would you like me to turn the page?

JOHN
“well I have read the same fucking page for the past four fucking days!”

TERRY
“didnt your mother teach you to show respect to other people”

hits the hostage round the face

TERRY
“im sorry I didnt mean too..”

he strokes the hostages face and then gives him a kiss on the cheek

doorbell rings

TERRY
“ that would be her.. wish me luck”

fade to black

SCENE 9:

INT. INTERCOM - EVENING

door bell is ringing, terry is looking through the camera at who it is. Camera as over the shoulder of terry,camera slowly pans in to have a closeup of the video screen of the girl,

TERRY
“ill be right out”

STACIE
“ok”

SCENE 10:

INT. DINING AREA- EVENING
a pan of the womens body starting from her feet up to her neck, when it gets to her neck, terry enters the shot and takes her jacket from her, terry then pulls the chair out for stacie
a closeup shot of terry pouring a glass of wine for stacie.

Fade to black

SCENE 11:

INT. DINING AREA- EVENING

fade in

terry picking up the plates, and leaving the room,

fade to black

SCENE 12:

INT. FRONT ROOM- EVENING

shows a bottle of wine and two glasses at the side of the sofer, with two pairs of feet, slow pan up to the bodies of terry and stacie

STACIE

“ theres nothing on tv”

flicking through the channels

TERRY

“well we can put a film on if you fancy one?”

stacie flips onto the channel where john is bing filmed

STACIE

“whats this?”

terry snatching the tv remote from stacie

TERRY

“its that crappy russian big brother, were not watching that”

STACIE

“I want to see what its all about”

TERRY

“No its boring. Lets just talk instead”

gets up. Walks over to t.v and turns it off

TERRY

“but before that im going to have a quick shower and freshen up”

SCENE 13:

INT. SHOWER - EVENING

shows closeup of shower and terry turning shower on

cuts to shower door closing and closeup of door locking

SCENE 14:

INT. FRONT ROOM- EVENING

stacie turns the tv back on and see john

JOHN

“terry. For fuck sake you cant keep me locked down here forever, and you got a fucking date upstairs... god I wish someone could hear me...HELPPPPP!!!!”

stacie mutes the tv and hears johns faint cry for help

SCENE 15:

INT. CELLAR DOOR- EVENING

stacie quite as possibility, unlocks the cellar door and slowly creeps down, to her puzzle and amazement she finds john down there, crying,

SCENE 16:

INT. FRONT ROOM- EVENING

terry walks into the front room to find that stacie is no longer in there, he looks at the tv and sees stacie trying to untie john,

terry rapidly turns and exits scene

SCENE 17:

INT. CELLAR – EVENING

stacie is trying to untie john when a shadow suddenly appears on the wall

a quite voice is heard

TERRY

“ I didnt want you to see this stacie, I liked you”

STACIE

“your fucking mental”

TERRY

“now stacie lets not say things we dont mean”

camera focuses on the shadows on the wall, shows jack grabbing stacie by the neck, and pushing her to the floor

fade out
SCENE 18:

INT. CELLAR DOOR- EVENING

terry walking down the cellar stairs just like at the start of the film, but this time with two plates,

TERRY

“i hope you two can behave yourself today... im entertaining a guest tonight, wish me luck”

terry turns and flicks the light off

cuts to pitch black

lights come back on and evryone is standing around

Janet

“ cut...cut ..cut...im not really feeling the ending.. danny you got to make john more of a weaker character... and jack... to need to show more of a change in terry's mental state... lets start from the top tomorrow”

the end

Script Edit 2

2009-04-19T13:29:00.000+01:00

SCENE 1:

INT. DARK CELLAR - EVENING

(the capture is sitting in a chair, he wakes up confused, he looks around trying to figure out what has happened,he struggles to reach for his pocket,he finally manages to get his phone out of his pocket, he tries to phone someone,)

SCENE 2:

INT. KITCHEN – EVENING

(the camera cuts to a kitchen where another man is preparing dinner, his phone is on the side and it starts ringing, he cleans his hands and answers the phone, but it is a womens voice,)

STACIE
“are we still on for dinner round yours tonight?”

TERRY
“ yea of course. Im just preparing the food now”

STACIE
“Ok.great.i will see you at 8 then.bye”

(she puts down the phone,)

SCENE 3:

INT. DARK CELLAR - EVENING

(the camera cuts back to the cellar, and the phone is showing it has no signal.)

SCENE 4:

INT. BEDROOM - EVENING

(the man putting on his best suit, he looks in the mirror and is very pleased by the way he looks, he looks at his watch)

TERRY
“ only a few more hours and she will be here, hope she likes what ive cooked for her”

TERRY
“o that reminds me, I better feed him,”

(closeup shot showing to pieces of toast popping out of the toaster. He puts them in a dog bowl, and walks to the cellar door, he slowly opens the door, camera is shotting the back of his head, and it cuts to in the cellar looking up and the door opening..the capture walks down the stairs, and puts the dog bowl down on the floor, and walks away,)

(fades to black)

SCENE 5:

INT. KITCHEN - EVENING

(fades back in romantic music is playing, and we are seen in the kitchen as the capture is cooking a romantic meal,)

SCENE 6:

INT. DINING AREA - EVENING

(cuts to dining table.. a cover is being thrown over the table, plates and glasses are bin places on the table, candles are also put on the table.)

SCENE 7:

INT. DARK CELLAR - EVENING

(He then goes back down to the cellar to retrieve the dog bowl... )

TERRY
“ arr your not eating whats wrong?”

(camera pulls out to see a man tied to a chair)

TERRY
“are you still mad at me because of what I said earlier?”

(still he doesnt reply)

TERRY
“kk kk give me one sec”

(fade to black)

SCENE 8:

INT. DARK CELLAR - EVENING

(comes back in with two ties)

TERRY
“ would you say the black or the red one for my date tonight?...o I almost forgot, would you like me to turn the page?”

JOHN
“Terry, id rather you let me go!”

TERRY
“you know I cant do that. What about your magazine, are you finding it interesting, would you like me to turn the page?

JOHN
“well I have read the same fucking page for the past four fucking days!”

TERRY
“didnt your mother teach you to show respect to other people”

(hits the hostage round the face)

TERRY
“im sorry I didnt mean too..”

(he strokes the hostages face and then gives him a kiss on the cheek)

(doorbell rings)

TERRY
“ that would be her.. wish me luck”

(fade to black)

SCENE 9:

INT. INTERCOM - EVENING

(door bell is ringing, terry is looking through the camera at who it is. Camera as over the shoulder of terry,camera slowly pans in to have a closeup of the video screen of the girl,)

TERRY
“ill be right out”

STACIE
“ok”

SCENE 10:

INT. DINING AREA- EVENING
(a pan of the womens body starting from her feet up to her neck, when it gets to her neck, terry enters the shot and takes her jacket from her, terry then pulls the chair out for stacie)
(a closeup shot of terry pouring a glass of wine for stacie.)

(Fade to black)
SCENE 11:

INT. DINING AREA- EVENING

(fade in)

(terry picking up the plates, and leaving the room,)

(fade to black)

SCENE 12:

INT. FRONT ROOM- EVENING

(shows a bottle of wine and two glasses at the side of the sofer, with two pairs of feet, slow pan up to the bodies of terry and stacie)

STACIE

“ theres nothing on tv”

(flicking through the channels)

TERRY

“well we can put a film on if you fancy one?”

(stacie flips onto the channel where john is bing filmed)

STACIE

“whats this?”

(terry snatching the tv remote from stacie)

TERRY

“its that crappy russian big brother, were not watching that”

STACIE

“I want to see what its all about”

TERRY

“No its boring. Lets just talk instead”

(gets up. Walks over to t.v and turns it off)

TERRY

“but before that im going to have a quick shower and freshen up”

SCENE 13:

INT. SHOWER - EVENING

(shows closeup of shower and terry turning shower on)

(cuts to shower door closing and closeup of door locking)

SCENE 14:

INT. FRONT ROOM- EVENING

(stacie turns the tv back on and see john)

JOHN

“terry. For fuck sake you cant keep me locked down here forever, and you got a fucking date upstairs... god I wish someone could hear me...HELPPPPP!!!!”

(stacie mutes the tv and hears johns faint cry for help)

SCENE 15:

INT. CELLAR DOOR- EVENING

(stacie quite as possibility, unlocks the cellar door and slowly creeps down, to her puzzle and amazement she finds john down there, crying,)

SCENE 16:

INT. FRONT ROOM- EVENING

( terry walks into the front room to find that stacie is no longer in there, he looks at the tv and sees stacie trying to untie john,)

(terry rapidly turns and exits scene)

SCENE 17:

INT. CELLAR – EVENING

(stacie is trying to untie john when a shadow suddenly appears on the wall)

(a quite voice is heard)

TERRY

“ I didnt want you to see this stacie, I liked you”

STACIE

“your fucking mental”

TERRY

“now stacie lets not say things we dont mean”

(camera focuses on the shadows on the wall, shows jack grabbing stacie by the neck, and pushing her to the floor)

(fade out)
SCENE 18:

INT. CELLAR DOOR- EVENING

(terry walking down the cellar stairs just like at the start of the film, but this time with two plates,)

TERRY

“i hope you two can behave yourself today... im entertaining a guest tonight, wish me luck”

(terry turns and flicks the light off)

(cuts to pitch black)

the end

Script Edit 1

2009-04-19T13:18:00.000+01:00

Bad Times

2009-04-12T04:02:00.002+01:00

this week has gone from bad to worse.the start of the week my computer malfunctioned and i had to transfer everything onto my external hard drive, and last night my external hard drive malfunctioned and ive lost all my work, so im having to restart my assignment, but hopefully if i take my hard drive into the shop they can recover even if not all the data atleast some of the important data.

a measure from my father

2009-04-12T01:47:00.000+01:00

When I finished a draft version of my film, I sent my father a email to ask his opinion on what he thoughts were on what I had done so far and if there was anything he thought I should change or try to improve, within a hour he replied to my email saying, and I quote “ I am amazed that I piece of work such as this was done by my son, you make me and your mother so proud, you was the first one in the family to go to university and you are living my dream, we are both proud of what you have become and achieved.

My throughs and feelings

2009-04-12T00:41:00.002+01:00

I had a lot of fun working on my film today, there was a lot of funny out takes and for the first time i really had fun filming a piece of work, this was also the first chance i got in a long time to actually be on camera not just the guy behind the lense, the face no one ever remembers

Journals

2009-04-09T13:07:00.000+01:00

Journals

It is a widely accepted fact that reflection is one of the key components of effective learning. Nearly all of us reflect on what happens to us on a daily basis, perhaps mulling over the day’s events on our journey home from work; thinking ‘out loud’ to our family and friends or coming up with bright ideas in the shower. Most of the time, these reflections are strikingly consistent or those bright ideas never come to fruition. The reason for this is that the link between reflection and action is often tenuous because our thoughts are often fleeting or because we are distracted or because it’s easier to put off doing something about them.

Day two of filming

2009-04-08T17:25:00.003+01:00

I decided to tell everyone last night to come to set a hour later then we had arrange, the reason being that yesterday everyone worked extremely hard and we was over a hour ahead of schedule, because everone worked so hard, i wanted them to have a lie in, the filmin will commence at 11.30 instead of 10.30. its 10.30 now so got one hour before everone arrives, i will put up another post later tonight to say how the 2nd day of filmin went