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Bernard Perron
The everlasting attraction of interactive cinema
If video filmed sequences have been solely responsible for the attraction
of numerous video-games and interactive work in the 90's, it is undoubtedly
even more so today. Clearly because the power of the 3-D engines in real
time were bound to generate photo-realistic images thus befitting and improving
playability.
However it would appear that the very notion of interactivity
alone can be seen as a centre of attraction in the present context of cinematographic
output. On top of which no one seems exactly carried away by it as yet,
going by some recent happenings in interactive cine-film which will be covered
in this presentation. But does one really always have to be enraptured by
The Onyx Project (Larry Atlas, 2006) made out to be «the world’s
first-ever truly interactive, “hyperlinked” movie and fully browsable motion
picture», before the «Choose their fate» version of the DVD of Final
Destination 3 (James Wong, 2006), or for the «navigational cinema»
of the Return to House on Haunted Hill (Victor Garica, 2007) or
before Late Fragment (Daryl Cloran,Anita Doron,Mateo Guez, 2007),
« the first interactive piece of fiction in North America »?
Recent publications:
1 Avec D. Arsenault, M. Picard et C. Therrien, «Methodological Questions in Interactive Film Studies», in New Review of Film and Television Studies, under the directorship of W. Buckland, Routledge, due out in December 2008.
2 «Genre Profile: Interactive Movies», in The Video Game Explosion : A History from Pong to PlayStation and Beyond, under the directorship of M.J.P. Wolf, Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn., 2008, p. 127-133.
3 «Where did you go [Luc Courchesne]?», in Intermédialités, "Jouer", under the directership of B. Perron, No. 9, Montréal, spring 2007, p. 156-175.
4 Avec C. Therrien, «>>Point-and-click-here<< Key figures in interactivity at the inception of interactive film-making » in Film Style, under the directership of E. Biasin, G. Bursi et L. Quaresima, Udine, Forum, 2007, p. 395-403.
5 «Interactive cine-film at your fingertips» in The Five Senses of Cinema, under the directorship of A. Autelitano, V. Innoncenti et V. Re, Udine, Forum, 2005, p. 447-457.
6 «From Gamers to Players and Gameplayers: the Example of Interactive Movies», in The Video Game Theory Reader, under the directership of M.J.P. Wolf et B. Perron, Routledge, New York, 2005, p. 237-258.
7 «Playability, bipolarity and interactive cinema », in Hypertexts. Virtual spaces for reading and writing, under the directership of D. Bachand et C. Vandendorpe, Nota Bene, Quebec, 2002, p. 285-311.