Interacting with movies should allow personalised experiences for the participant viewers; they must be able to express their individual feelings. So the role a viewer plays in an interactive movie ought to be "him or herself". There are already well established genres with puzzles and action heroes for those who want games, not stories.
Adding interactivity to stories is an arduous task for the writer/designer: if the audience controls the story, the dramatic content is likely to drop - and do viewers want to write the story, or do they prefer to be told a story? I'd rather leave the rol
e of writing compelling stories to the experts, and introduce the rewards for interaction in the story development according to the viewer's input. I have been developing techniques for interaction where the viewer can become emotionally engaged with the
characters and establish a virtual friendship which simulates real life relationships.
Today's technologies make it hard to develop interactive movies with the production values and charisma of traditional cinema. If interaction is mediated by a computer, there is also a need for higher levels of computing power in interactive movie making.
Synthetic video and artificial intelligence are promising tools, and I hope they can become key elements of the process in the near future, solving problems and allowing greater creativity.
Mixed Emotions is an interactive film...
Having a two-way conversation with the characters, you can give opinions and influence their attitudes.
It's not a role playing game, and you don't win or lose.
The role you play is to be yourself.
If you identify with a character, give her some good advice.
If you have a different point of view, try arguing with her.
You can be responsible for a character's success...or failure.
The interactive narrative structure of Mixed Emotions was designed to engage the viewer even if he doesn't interact.
Just want to sit and watch? There's a complete linear story of which Aristotle and Hollywood would
approve.
If you decide to interact, play it again, give some input and watch the result.
...and truly interactive television.
The ideal delivery platform for Mixed Emotions would be a digital broadcasting system. The prototype represents the first episode of a series.
Imagine how much there is to talk about if you had caused a turning point in the story and your neighbour hadn't!
Rosa Freitag
21 Brook Walk
London N2 9RB
England
Voice/fax: (44)181 444 4637
rosa@freitag.demon.co.uk
Compuserve: 100435,476
