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2.2 - Please describe your idea

NESTA suggests:

"Imagine that you are explaining your idea to an expert in the field with sound relevant theoretical knowledge and practical experience. You do need to explain the principles behind your idea i.e. what it does, why and how it will work. If it is an arts-based idea your answer to this question should explain what you intend to do and what the intended outcomes of the project will be."

Re-mixable film' is a new kind of film experience influenced by the ability of emerging technology to support live online performance. People play with, disassemble, and re-assemble films to customise stories. This appeals to the market for new entertainment experiences and will result in new revenue streams based on the wider availability of re-usable and syndicate-able film assets.

The idea is to produce a short film, SANCTUARY on 35mm film and DVD. The DVD, the core product, will play in a regular DVD player but via a broadband game console, it will support “MODS” – modifications made by the audience and published online. A MOD is computer game jargon for a modified version of a game created by players.

The proposition to consumers is that the re-mixable film product lets you:

- watch a film as normal; the cinema experience on DVD

-play a rhythm game (the GROOVER) to experience how the cinema mix is constructed in real-time (out of video, audio, 360 degree panoramas and 3D animation) and explore how it is malleable

- extract content (assets) from the film experience for use elsewhere

- insert content from elsewhere into the film experience (the FEEDER)

- re-mix (and even re-code) the film experience for performance and gameplay (the SWITCH)

- share re-mixes (i.e. MODs) by uploading them to the Internet

The re-mixable film will function as an instrument. You can re-mix the film as a DJ/VJ and publish mixes online. The film is a stage for live performance. See how long you can keep people entertained, onstage and offstage.

As a story-teller I want audiences to have more control over my story. As an architect I believe it is timely to start leveraging Internet and game technology more explicitly to do so. Re-interpretation keeps the good stories alive.

To make the idea work requires a new business model to be accepted, one developed with legally and technically re-mixable content in mind. To pioneer this idea, I propose an extensible machine-readable filmic experience to be created off the back of a high quality film production. The audience will fiddle with the film on DVD, for fun, because fun will be demonstrable. They will explore it for inspiration and learning about the story-telling process. People will use this project as an artistic and technical template for other stories. Film re-mixing and spin-off activities will be nurtured through a growing online community of artists, players, and developers.

After producing several short films exploring interactive film potential, I wish to refine certain aspects of my approach. My approach is a unique hybrid. It embodies some aspects of watching a film, and some aspects of a computer game, without being a game or even requiring much interaction.

In formalizing this approach for NESTA, I remain convinced that what this project is about is going back to basics and re-discovering the obvious and overlooked. SANCTUARY explores what is fun about playing with film (a passive medium) and what is fun about watching interactive entertainment. It treats the non-gamer audience with respect and addresses the question of why interactive entertainment continues to be marginalized, despite economic success.

SANCTUARY is a coming of age story set against the clash between evil oppressors, heroes, and anti-heroes, fighting for freedom.

The idea plays off the script to use existing real-time audio/visual technology and emerging internet standards to make a more openly malleable and machine-readable film. Existing Semantic Web technologies (e.g. RDF, Information and Content Exchange (ICE) protocol) will be applied so that a semantic technical description of the product is widely available. Such a low level interface will allow more real-time elements of the film experience to be "playable", though not in a game sense. The experience is designed to be open-ended enough for the audience to take elements of the film and re-mix them into new productions whilst not relying on this level of involvement to be fun. Audio/visual film assets on DVD will be easily re-used by customers for environmental, creative and commercial benefit (via licensing and/or royalties).

The technology will be part proprietary (including an existing game engine) and part open source. The real-time assembly and delivery of broadcast quality content (e.g. MPEG2 video, AC-3 audio, 3DSMax animation, JPEG) will be handled by an existing game engine.

Third-party changes will be encouraged through the open components . The idea re-purposes architectural concepts developed for multi-player games. These allow a film-maker/architect to design a “massively multi-lingual story” (a sustainable story) that uses every trick in the book to communicate. The film format supports evolution through participation in the same way as a reality TV show or massively multi-player online role-playing game.

I have identified a broad range of creative and technical ways in which modifying a film could be fun for the audience. This will be a film that is wider than long, open-ended in the same way that a web page is, when you have write permission.

SANCTUARY contains a small set of interactive elements within one fixed narrative. Narrative is the spine of the design. The audience can simply tap along to the beat and receive audio/visual/haptic (touch) feedback. The audience can manipulate audio controls to re-mix the soundtrack. The film will be developed in consultation with the existing (game) MOD community to ensure that the experience is re-programmable using developer tools. The audience can download and play new MODs. User-contributed content will be allowed to replace film assets (e.g. dialogue, images).

As a sample MOD, the film will feature an interactive audio experience, in the music/rhythm computer game genre (games that involve doing something to a beat).

LINKS

W3.org Semantic Web
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com/

mod database
http://moddb.com/

Agitating for Dramatic Change
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20031029/littlejohn_01.shtml

The Massive blog - my diary of related developments
http://thequality.com/massive/weblog/

head bin - the extranet for this project (user: nesta, password: pl3ase)
http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/

Posted by .M. at October 17, 2003 10:11 AM