Does interactivity mesh well with cinema?

Canada has a historical connection to interactive movies: the first one screened at Expo 67, at the Czechoslovakia pavillion. And yet, no matter what path the audience chose, the ending was always the same.

On CMF Trends, Benjamin Hoguet explores CtrlEdit, a new tool for producing interactive movies, from a Swiss company called CtrlMovie.

CtrlMovie allows filmmakers to add:

1. Buttons during playback to allow the user to influence the story
2. Dynamic Jump Actions to flexibly jump between segments – at an exact timecode, in a time frame or triggered by user actions
3. Swipe Mode to allow users to look around in the film by panning the image with swipe gestures
4. Animated Masks to make objects in the film tappable
5. Variables to store user decisions, and retrieve them later for a delayed effect on the story
6. Expressions to evaluate the former actions of the user and to influence the storyline using short java scripts
7. Separate Multiple Audio Tracks, independent from the video segments and jump actions
8. Dynamic Overlays to display browser windows and other interactive elements on top of the movie during playback
9. Subtitles easily to support a wider audience.

Hoguet quotes co-founder Baptiste Planche:

“CtrlEdit is used once all video segments have been edited to incorporate them into an interactive whole. The solution costs nothing to purchase if we are able to set up a revenue sharing system with the producer. It goes without saying that the model is adaptable. For example, if the final project is not profitable, we can set a price for the software license. In all cases, we are very open to encouraging creators to make maximum use of our tool. The only aspect to which we pay attention is compliance with a certain level of quality regardless of the project. At present, we are receiving a lot of requests from creators and producers and some ten or so projects are underway—including two or three at an advanced stage.”

My take: Perhaps CtrlMovie is the middle ground between the almost-full interactivity of video games and the total-cut-scene experience of Hardcore Henry. And yet, I’m not convinced that the audience needs to be ‘in’ the movie; I think it might be engaging enough just to ‘direct’ the story. Third person, not first person. More like Run Lola Run.