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.
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