Some Thinking on Film Online

Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie,
A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
Cottleston Cottleston Cottleston Pie.

- A.A. Milne

I was musing on the bus...

With the recent bonkers exponential increase in bandwidth and computing power we are able to deliver ever higher resolutions of both pre-recorded and live video to browser and mobile platforms alike. For me, the challenge here is to reconcile a traditional comprehension of the linear nature of a narrative with the web-like presentation structure inherent to interactive content delivery. Finding a vernacular for communicating interactive ideas through the medium of film, while presenting that film in a non-linear structure is the key to building on the strengths of two traditionally very different disciplines.

Currently the the most engaging online content for me falls into either Interactive Film, or Live Broadcast.

The Live Event

With digital content now ubiquitous and increasingly being given away for free (Radiohead, Guilbert & George et-cetera), the future for engaging content creation lies with granting access to the real world; the live event or physical experience.

It is far more engaging prospect to interact with the real world, in real time; than it is to play with pre-recorded time. Browser based interfaces; served up to desktop or mobile platforms can provide a window on another location in the real world, unfolding incomprehensible distances away at precisely the same moment in time. The advent of streaming video, increasingly accessible by both mobile handsets as well as desktop browsers can grant users access to snap of reality happening else where at any given moment. This prospect is truly an exciting one; from creating synchronous online/real world events through to full augmentation of the digital and physical landscapes.

This engaging prospect has enormous potential for future facing brands, who want to peel off the billboard and have a presence in the real world; actually playing a part in peoples lives. For most people: seeing is believing; yet experience is meaningful.


Interactive Films

While I think that Live events have the premium of authenticity attached to them, the fact is that they will always be based in the real world. For fantasy, adventure and a sprinkle of cinematic action, the online interactive film is the future.

Looping film clips, narratives which fold back on themselves, taking captured information and crafting it into a well written, entertaining plot while not getting lost in what can grow to be a huge matrix of overlapping video clips is a big challenge. Producing effective, entertaining interactive films requires a synergy from the start of a project between ideas, technical understanding and creative direction. Thinking through a user-navigated plot falls very much into the same disciplines required for game design. At the same time, shooting film for interactive presentation is a very technically demanding process; requiring directorial input which is as much at home behind a camera as understanding the constraints involved in designing with Adobe Flash or whatever the next platform will be.

What does all this mean?

A new approach is most definitely needed; harnessing relevant thinking constructs from the both the world of film production and and interactive design. There is no textbook to learn from, no perfect agency or production company model; only the knowledge granted us through experience in this new cutting edge discipline. In order to continually push the boundaries of what is possible, it is essential that we feed this knowledge back into the ideas mix; allowing for rubber band conceptual thinking which can bind together the most relevant skills from film making, design and interactive production. In this landscape there is no space for the old fashioned attitudes of the big production companies who like to be briefed into making a film, then left to their own devices while a director works his magic. Old advertising boundaries between ideas people and people who make things are suddenly shown for the fallacy they always were, with technical skill and understanding now as important as the ability to turn an idea flip-side-upside down during concept development.

There are increasingly a new breed of thinkers who are directors, directors who are post-production monkeys, designers who are programmers and programmers who have a passion for wrapping a brand around an idea before hammering the idea into a site and the site into a piece of effective digital outdoor work. This can make digital a very confusing place to be at the moment. Unfortunately we’ve inherited many of the older adverland ideas about what job positions fit which descriptions... that’s something that I think is slowly starting to change and I think that this trend is set to continue. So; breaking the mold is good, even if it feels awkward. The aim, of course, is to become master of all trades, jack of none... I remain Jack.