NESTA suggestions:
In this section please tell us how the idea came about and what creative/technical hurdles you have had to overcome so far to reach your current stage. This should include how any early prototypes/drafts have performed and been received and the results of any test/trials that have been conducted so far, either by yourself or by third parties. You should also include details of any early research carried out and what the conclusions were. Also include here any further progress you have made since you first submitted your initial proposal to NESTA.
In 1993 I became one of the world's first Web developers as part of a Computer Science thesis project on hypertext authoring systems. Having only recently read William Gibson's book "Neuromancer", I was blown away by the discovery that a universal online framework for content and services had been created. I created a Web browser/authoring tool and began thinking about how to use the Internet as a vehicle for the arts. In November of that year I wrote to the www-dev mailing list, the main Web community of the time, was quoted on the "What's New page" (the original list of Web sites as they came online) and received email from Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web. I was recognised as the first person to launch a web site in New South Wales.
Inspired by the fact that (at that time) the Internet was a largely unregulated medium where ideas and free expression could prosper, I began drafting ideas on how film-making and the Internet could complement each other.
In 1997 I had my first opportunity to put my ideas into practice when I won a interactive screen-writing competition run by Brilliant Digital Entertainment. I signed a writer's agreement with BDE to develop a virtual world sci-fi action movie "ten weeks in the head bin" as a "Multipath Movie" (Choose Your Own Adventure-style cartoon) online. I spent thirteen months developing the project with a script editor. The deliverables were a 350+ page screenplay, a 10 page flowchart showing the relationship between scenes, and an interactive technical specification (equivalent to a game design document). The project was shelved by BDE at this point. Multipath Movies were not selling and focus group works suggested that people were not excited about branching narratives.
In 2000 I was re-approached by BDE to continue developing the project, this time as a "webisode" series. I revised the material but negotiations broke down over wording in the original contract. My legal advisors at the time had failed to spot a loop-hole in the original writer's agreement which BDE could (and did) exploit to overrule my buy-back rights. Later that year BDE set up a meeting between myself and Dorothy Crouch, VP licensed publishing at Warner Bros (and head of DC Comics). Dorothy Crouch liked the script, and in particular the character CD. It turned out that BDE were attempting to sell the script to Warner as (wait for it...) a Batman movie.
In 2001 I decided to test the market for web3d film-making using BDE technology. My company, thequality.com, produced "Horses for Courses" which could be viewed, in a passive sense, as an animated short, or more actively, like a game or toy. You could take over the camera and explore and get a reaction from characters. An award-winning prototype film/toy, it actively solicited audience participation through hotspots, and mouse/keyboard controls. I kept the use of branching narrative to a minimum, based on my experience with BDE titles. The "interactivity model" assumed people would not react and the story satirised this if interactions were made.
Writing, directing, producing and distributing my own web3d film (for £10K) was invaluable experience in what can and will go wrong when using the Internet. My case study was published in the proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2002 alongside case studies from feature films like Spiderman and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
http://thequality.com/horsesforcourses
In 2002 BDE finally agreed to my long-standing offer to buy back all the IP under the terms I thought I had signed up to. I immediately began a lengthy R&D and market research phase to identify opportunities for the story and film franchise as originally invisaged. Having gathered my own evidence (including statistics from Horses for Course) that branching narrative was a commercial and creative dead-end, I began considering game options. I developed two ideas based on the story IP; a futuristic rugby game/sports stadium simulator and a more open-ended massively multiplayer world based on the worlds described in the screenplay.
After discussions with film and game companies including Lionhead Studios, I decided to shelve both these ideas and re-write the screenplay as a linear story once again (the last linear version having been completed in 1998). I wanted to make a connection to non-gamers, as well as gamers, and decided that cinema was the place to do it. Despite the many similarities between my vision of a persistent world (in the script) and massively multiplayer gaming, I felt that MMORPGs were still too insular to appeal to the mass market. I also felt strongly that the story had "legs" and could reach the big screen.
Earlier this year, I finished the ninth version of the script and sought extensive coverage. The feedback is almost unaminous; good story, great characters, fantastic world, and a set of unique visuals. I determined that there was little chance of being able to sell the script, with myself attached as director, without more credits. I developed a plan for realising this ambition through a short film pilot demonstrating the bush/virtual world aesthetic and the revised interactivity idea described here. The short film is "SANCTUARY".
I continue to validate the overall concept with vox pops and focus groups with non-gamers, to acertain the level of interest in the story and the interactive idea. I have been exploring the feasibility of offering a multi-dimensional experience that can appeal to different kinds of users at the same time. A wide range of interactive titles (e.g. games, web, iTV) have been examined.
My findings have been slightly contridictory, indicating an ongoing challenge for the production. People who don't play games need very simple interactive experiences if they are to bother engaging in "play". People who MOD interactive entertainment need low level access to titles and advanced APIs (application programming interfacess). At the same time, non-gamers are often equally sophisticated as gamers when it comes to absorbing information (e.g. from TV) and rarely complain about multi-layered visuals (e.g. a game on top of a film).
Two examples of note:
Gitaroo Man (KOEI game for PS2) is a fast-paced cartoon with a rhythm game (simple geometric shapes moving in the foreground). It is almost impossible to watch the background visuals while playing and conversely, spectators seem happy to watch it as a cartoon with game elements overlaid.
Ad-break tennis (MTV iTV application on Sky Digital) was an award-winning experiment in ad programming in 2002. Viewers could play a simple version of PONG, overlaid on top of real TV advertisements, and were able to build up a score over consecutive ad-breaks as long as they didn't switch channels.
The biggest obstacle up-till now has been the lack of a defined market for re-mixable content and interactive entertainment other than classic game genres.
The second biggest obstacle has been access to technology powerful and flexible enough to scale to high end production. The BDE real-time animation production studio, with team sizes rivalling that of modern day game development companies) was ahead of its time in 1997. My experience there was invaluable. A lesson I took away from BDE was to always distinguish between good ideas, that might be feasible, and good ideas that are immediately feasible. The SANCTUARY
proposition is designed to be immediately feasible to encourage investment, and based on proven success across a range of industries.
The original idea for the film "Horses for Courses" was to release subsequent sequels that re-used HfC art assets and allowed new assets to be downloaded. The sequel to HfC was to have been marketed via a compaign aimed at animation students (with the winning artwork streamed into the online film).
However, in the midst of production for episode one, it became apparent that certain technical claims made by BDE (e.g. upcoming Macintosh support, asset re-usability) were largely vapourware. Their ultra-proprietary ("black box") approach to technology was to be their Achilles heel. BDE ceased promoting their web3d technology to 3rd parties shortly after the release of the film.
In designing SANCTUARY, I am taking account of lessons learnt from the bleeding edge of new media production over ten years, particularily with regards to usability research, media production management, and social behavior online. I have taken a hard look at how audiences related to my films to-date. I have observed how certain films work best in a performance context. I have re-mixed "Horses for Courses" live (in VJ sets, talks and presentations) in six countries since it was released and used it for usability research.
I have also tracked the open source movement and online community trends as a user, developer, consultant, strategist, policy advisor and Internet evangelist for over ten years. The idea leverages this experience.
I registered modfilms.net as the tentative name for the community and modfilms.com for the company. I also registered remixablefilms.net and .com as aliases.
Since submitting the original proposal I have developed a detailed design specification for the re-mixable film experience and for the overall project architecture spanning cinema, console and community. Together with key advisors, I am planning the project's development and production pipeline.
I have drafted plausible technical solutions for all aspects of the project (film/console/community) and plans have been made for testing and validating the approach once funding is available. Work has begun on a web-based prototype of the re-mixable film experience (storyboards/rhythm game) to assist planning further.
My conclusion from the work to-date is that the idea works and this will be wholly demonstrable through a development phase funded by NESTA prior to the film shoot.
Posted by .M. at October 17, 2003 12:40 PM