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.
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