A Thousand Plotlines

Excellent piece from the New Yorker on interactive video company Interlude - a Yoni Bloch undertaking tackling the concept of films with multiple throughways and endpoints. If you saw DANIELS film Possibilia, you saw the technology in action.

The article is an exhaustive rundown of the future of interactive films and the possibilities that lie in wait - particularly predictive outcomes based on known factors about you or even realtime altering of an actor face to look more like you; spurring instant empathy. This quote from Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Brian Moriarty is particular eye-opening:

Explicit interactivity is going to yield to implicit interactivity, where the movie is watching you, and viewing is customized to a degree that is hard to imagine. Suppose that the movie knows that you’re a man, and a male walks in and you show signs of attraction. The plot could change to make him gay. Or imagine the possibilities for a Hitchcock-type director. If his film sees you’re noticing a certain actor, instead of showing you more of him it shows you less, to increase tension.

It's a curious topic and not a simple one to digest. I don't watch films to see the characters undergo a journey as my mind would predict for them; I watch a film to be entertained or to be challenged... this seems at odds with that stance.

Regardless, it's a lengthy read but a fascinating one. I look forward to seeing what comes of the WarGames and Twilight Zone interactive pieces on the horizon.

via Brandon.