Final Thoughts on Program Sandman

Before reading this post, make sure that you have a play with Program Sandman by clicking here.

My one regret of Program Sandman has to be how unpolished it looks. Despite having some striking shots, such as Ian as the wolf or the pan towards the phone at the beginning, a lot of the project was rushed and some scenes that needed that extra mile were left short. The beginning of the video, where a voice over begins to describe what is happening is my least favorite part of the whole experience, as it is very boring to watch. Originally I imagined it to play out like a computer loading up, with text flying up all over the place and a photo of Daniel loading up to establish the character the user would play. However due to lack of time and software, I could not achieved this and had to settle for the main title and a voice over.

There were also extra scenes from the script that had to be scrapped during filming to save time to edit, such as an extra dream at the beginning and two optional scenes to play out before seeing the wolf at the end, to show how serious Daniel’s problem was. Everywhere I look at the project I see ways of improving it, such as showing game footage during the play dream or showing brief flashbacks of Daniel’s waking life during the dinning room scene. However this is what every creator sees and despite having these thoughts, I am happy with Program Sandman.

I enjoyed exploring how to tell an interactive story, or a story that could only be told in an interactive way. The one thing I am most happy with in this project is The Wolf. The way the character came out was how I envisioned him, mysterious, disturbing and cold, a version of Daniel that he hides from himself in the depths of his own subconscious. I also enjoyed conveying the meanings of Daniel’s dreams and mind through the objects and characters seen in the video. The Wolf, the phone, the whisky, when seen in a dream, suggest that a person has a secret they wish to hide from someone. In this case, Daniel has an alcohol problem, which he wishes to hide from his friends. With the deleted scenes, it would have been suggested that Daniel developed this problem from the loss of a loved one. However after showing this video to a few people, these reasons did not come across, people understood that Daniel had a problem, but did not understood why he was hunted by a wolf, or they did not realize that the Wolf had any significance whatsoever.

Despite this, I would rather the user feel slightly confused and try to think of a reason themselves, for this is what people do with dreams. They wake up, slightly confused and work out their own theories for themselves. Even though I could create mini annotations that could explain the theory behind what Daniel sees, I feel that this would take away from the experience of Program Sandman. The experience of thinking you have control in this dream, but having it taken away from you.

I have thought of some future developments of Program Sandman, to let it become an interactive web series, where the users has control over Daniel’s dreams and also watches his waking moments with other characters and see how they affect his dreams. However when the ending comes, it is revealed that the waking episodes were dreams themselves and that the whole series has been one dream cycle. By making Sandman a series, it gives time for the Wolf to be mysterious and menacing, making him a character who the user’s would fear. It also lets Daniel grow as a character and a chance to interact with other characters, both in the waking world and the dream cycle.

Program Sandman was an interesting project and has left me wishing to be more experimental with my projects. The whole module of creative media practice has shown that the way we tell stories is changing and interactive narratives can become a common aspect in the future’s media.  

Making Program Sandman

After finishing writing the script, I knew that I needed some help filming the project and to act as Daniel and The Wolf. I found help with two of my fellow students, Ian Gardener and James Dunn, whom I have worked with before on such projects as Fatale and A Better Place. We all work really well together, playing on each other’s strengths and helping with our shortcomings. After agreeing to help with one another’s projects we chose a couple of days to film, hired out some equipment and got started.

Normally on a project, I usually stick with simple equipment, such as a camera, video mic and a tripod. However due to the style of this project and the level of my skills, I planned on using more cinematic equipment for my production. For all of the scenes of Sandman, I used three lights to light the scene and to create a particular mood in different spaces. For example, the first dreams are bright and fun; hardly any shadows are seen in shot. While the suitcase dream and the final confrontation with The Wolf has shadows everywhere in shot, leaving only the characters and certain objects lit up in what appears to be a spotlight. Normally this sudden change in lighting style would be too extreme for a film, but it works for Sandman as it allows the user to feel like they are in a dream, where scenes and certain situations change. For the scenes where Daniel finds himself in a dark space, or the space between dreams, I used a led light to try and keep James lit, but still very dark. It was only in the edit did I found that the shot was too dark, so I had to put the brightness up.

Originally when I asked James and Ian to act in my film, I wanted James to play the wolf, as I felt he could pull off a menacing voice for the dialogue. However after talking with Ian, who felt that he would not be able to react well as Daniel, I let Ian play the wolf. I was not disappointed; Ian played The Wolf brilliantly by keeping his voice deadpan, empty of emotion, which left an disturbing feeling while listening to him. James was great as Daniel, acting the right emotion at the right time and letting him feel slightly unnerved with the scenes he played in. Even though having actual actors would increase the performance, I feel that James and Ian’s acting let the characters come alive.

The hardest scene to film and work out was the suitcase scene, as I had to make sure there was no chance of creating dead ends for the user when they make Daniel place one item at a time into the suitcase. Evening more difficult was editing the scene, making sure that every shot and possibility was available to the user. Naturally it took the longest to edit, to go over and make sure everything worked. The other scenes were quite simple to edit, as they worked like little films, lacking the level of interactivity from the suitcase scene. However when it came to create the annotations, I found that there was not enough shots in the edit to make the player pack the suitcase twice before activating the final sequence of that scene, so I had to resort to one attempt then the final sequence was played. However despite this slight set back, the annotations worked and were quite simple to assemble. If you would like to experience Program Sandman, simply click on the link below and enjoy.

Watch Program Sandman

Program Sandman Proposal

For Creative Media Practice, we each had to create a project exploring techniques in creative media. We should find new ways of telling a narrative through techniques such as QR codes, Triptych or Annotations on YouTube. For my final project, I wanted to recreate the experience of exploring dreams. By using annotations, I wanted the user to be an outside influence on someone else’s dreams, where they can explore their thoughts to find out why they are dreaming certain items.

After some thought I decided to research into different dream meanings to help form a narrative that can be interrupted with these meanings. I wrote a list of different items and meanings, such as the wolf, packing a suitcase and a bottle of whiskey. All of these meanings in dreams are considered to represent that you are hiding a secret.

This research then formed a simple narrative. There is a service known as Program Sandman, it is a kind of guardian software that helps you guide you through good dreams and avoid the nightmares. Daniel is the subject of this software and is a man with a secret; he is an alcoholic and is avoiding his friends. While the software tries to avoid his nightmares, his nightmares start to cross over to his other dreams. He begins his dream cycle with simple fake dreams, but is hunted by a mysterious entity known as The Wolf. After confronting the entity, Daniel finds out that there is such thing as Program Sandman and is simply a part of his subconscious that is trying to hide him from the truth, that he has a problem and needs to face it.

After writing the script, I started to plan how to structure the interactivity of the film and decided to follow my own advice on how to make an annotation video. By approaching this projects as an adventure game rather than an interactive film, I can provide a narrative experience that doe not feel shallow and also help make this world of dreams feel more real. Unlike other annotation videos, I wanted Program Sandman to have one ending and main narrative timeline. However by offering little choices that other alternative pathways that return to the main story, I could let the user feel more immersed into the story, despite their decisions not affecting the main storyline. Much like The Walking Dead Game by Telltale Games, where the player’s choices do not change the course of the story, however players felt that their decisions mattered nonetheless. I also wanted to have change the user’s perspective of the world, by revealing that Program Sandman does not exist, much like in Bioshock by Irrational Games, where it was revealed that the every decision the main character and the player made was not made with their free will, as they were controlled by the villain, by saying “would you kindly?” This twist in the story was amazing to experience, as not only did the main character felt used, but the player did as well, losing the god-like control that most players feel when playing the video game.

With all of this in mind, I felt ready to start filming Program Sandman.   

Creating Him and Her, an YouTube Annotation Video

A common piece of interactivity to find on youtube is videos that have annotations. Some videos would use this online tool for basic purpose, such as promoting other youtubers or providing a link to a song. However a common occurrence on youtube is these choos-your-own adventure videos. Videos such as Larry has a Spider on his Head and INSERT OTHER EXAMPLE let the user click on annotations to other videos that shows the result of their choice.  This kind of annotation video can be quite tiresome due to its basic functionality. Instead of creating an interactive narrative, they instead create a very basic game with limited gameplay, however annotation videos can help bring an interactive experience to YouTube, especially when done right.

Chris Bingham, a young filmmaker based on London used YouTube to help establish his career and to practice his skills in filmmaking. Last year he created an annotation experience called B.R.O.X, which was an annotation video that played out very similar to old adventure games, such as Escape from Monkey Island or Grim Fandango. At first, Bingham attempted to make the video different from annotation to be different by uploading it unfinished, allowing subscribers to watch the world and game grow with new elements of gameplay. These updates can be anything from a new character to talk to, being able to explore the desk in a room. Though what made B.R.O.X quite interesting to explore was because it did feel like a game. By creating B.R.O.X as a game instead of a choice based video, it grew popular interest and has currently 111,990 views in the past year. (Accessed 27/10/2013)

When we were required to create an annotation experience for Creative Media Practice, I was quite tempted to create some like B.R.O.X, an interactive mystery adventure game. However, my group and I wanted to try something different, so we decided to write a basic comedy about a couple trying to hide something from one another, with the user being able to choose which perspective to watch. That is the basis of the name, Him and Her.

Despite being happy with this basic structure, after having a word with our lecturers, we decided that we could do more to build this world. So we decided to add little elements of narrative exploration, where the user can click on an annotation to find out more about this two characters and how their relationship seems to function. For example, there is a shot where “Her” rushes into her bedroom to find something to wear and there are four teddy bears sitting on the floor, one small to the right and one quite big to the left. Each bear has an annotation. When the user clicks on one of these annotations, they will be taken to a video that show’s the couple having an argument, with “Him” usually being in the wrong. This implies that whenever the couple having an argument, “Him” would buy “Her” a teddy bear, the bigger the argument, the bigger the bear.

Despite how basic the project was, I enjoyed it the most; it was fun to see the possibilities that annotations present as a narrative experience. By allowing interactivity to help explore a narrative, instead of getting through to the next stage in these “choose your own adventure” videos, one can create a far more interesting experience for the user, leaving them feeling satisfied and awarded for clicking on an annotation instead of annoyed when they choose the one wrong. With work and imagination, YouTube annotations and other interactive software like Isadora can provide the great combinations of film and digital games, that experience of interactive cinema.

Practice with Isadora

Isadora is a piece of software that lets you create an interactive piece of media, using different sounds and visuals. Mostly used by VJ’s, it is a method of video performance. By using the different tools provided by Isadora, you can give different commands that will change or alter the current video shown through Isadora, such as by pressing the space key, I can pause the video, or by clicking the mouse I can move onto the next scene or video. Interactivity can also be passed onto an audience by using a webcam. Different functions can be placed, such as by waving, the user can change the colour of the screen for example. Anything is possible through Isadora, however that is mostly what makes it frightening.

For Creative Media Practice, we were to be split into groups of three to four and create an Isadora project in the spirit of Halloween. Basically we were to make a horror/scary interactive experience. I was put into a group with Elicia Powell, James McKeown and Emma Daffern. After some brainstorming, we decided on a video where a user can take control of the paranormal experiences being shown through CCTV footage, much in the spirit of paranormal activity. By pressing the number keys on the keyboard, the software would play a video showing a ghostly event. After having a film session, where we placed a camera on a high tripod in the corner and acted out different paranormal occurrences, we edited the videos on after effects to get that CCTV look.

Once the videos were finished, I spent a good afternoon watching tutorial videos to help understand what we wanted to accomplish. By creating different scenes for each video, I programmed Isadora to change to each one by pressing a different numbered key and once the video was finished, it would take you back to the main video, which is programmed to go on a loop. In the end, despite our fears, the whole logic of the system was quite simple and easy to construct. It was accepted quite well by the lecturers and our fellow students.

I really enjoyed working with Isadora, as it was the same logic and workspace as game design. Back in college I was required to create a video game that had ten levels of game play, so that past experience really help me better understand how to work Isadora to its full potential. As I worked on the project, I could see every idea that can be brought to life with Isadora, though it is a shame that the software comes with its limitations. Isadora does not seem to have a way of exporting the file, so that Ghost Cam can be released as a game for the Internet. Also the fact that the demo version will not save any files provides some frustration, as you can lose hours worth of work if the program shuts down.

In short, Isadora is a fantastic and innovative method of interactive storytelling, but only if you can pay for it and not mind that the only way people can see your work is through your own computer.