Cereal |
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By Ed Leung, Tim Ware, David Scott
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Description:
Cereal presents the viewer with a group of characters who live in an old apartment building where a series of murders have taken place. The viewer is allowed to follow a set of
interrelated narratives from each of the characters' points of view.
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Medium:
CD-ROM
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How is it interactive?
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Cereal is an interactive film in which you follow the characters of your choice. Digital video clips are presented based on the user's decision, at the end of each scene, to click on one of three characters who can be followed into the n
ext scene. There are a variety of ways to experience the stories of these characters, depending on which characters are selected. |
Tools used:
Premiere, Photoshop, and Authorware
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Narrative structure:
We are introduced to three diverse characters who dwell in the same building. A series of murders bridges their lives. Each of the characters is a story in and of themselves, but there is a larger story overall. The story may change depending on the deci
sions made by the user as to which character to follow into the next scene. There are points in the narrative where the events and characters intersect, and multiple endings for each of the characters.
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Interface design:
We tried to make the interface as simple as possible. Essentially it consists of a photo of the apartment building at dusk, with a collage of three characters superimposed on it. This background remains constant behind the video window, and the user choos
es which character to follow by clicking on the image of one of the three characters, at the conclusion of each digital video sequence. |
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Philosophy:
We created this project as an experiment to see whether we could apply our production experience in cinematic narrative to a multimedia platform. We wanted to create scenes that were compelling enough to carry the viewer through the pauses where interact
ivity was required, and that would combine in a variety of different, but effective, narrative structures. Queen's University Film Studies had incorporated multimedia into its curriculum, and our professor gave us the leeway to test the parameters of wha
t was possible with the technology available to us.
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