For all the innovating cinema has done with digital and 3D technologies, the format—a large screen in a dark room full of people watching passively—has remained largely the same. In the past few years, 3D has become Hollywood’s go-to tool for creating a more “interactive” experience, but on its own, 3D only feigns immersion through the enhancement of an unchangeable, linear narrative. As immersive as watching a film can be in scale and intensity, the majority of films rarely develop any elements that could truly be deemed interactive.Popular attempts at true viewer participation we’ve encountered lately include browser-based videos that allow for pseudo-interactivity under the guise of personalization, thus eliding the shared experienced with a group of people in a dark room. Even Attraction—a film that connects to a computer’s webcam, tracks the user’s movements, and uses this gesture control to inform the progression of the narrative—while a step in the right direction, does not actually transform the story by recording those interactions. How then, does one create a truly interactive experience on such a scale that it retains the traditional cinematic experience but also gives audience members the ability to affect change in what they are watching? Come June, the team behind the film Scenario plans to answer that question.Billed as the first-ever interactive 3D film, the project was developed at the iCinema Center For Interactive Cinema Research at the University of New South Wales. It trades in the traditional packed theater for a 360-degree panoramic screen with motion sensors that track the audience. Rather than maintaining a strict narrative, the way the story unfolds is based upon the interaction between the human participants and the humanoid creatures on the screen.The audience enters the room to the whispering voice of Elisabeth Fritzl punctuated by ominous sounds of thunder and lightening. She has been imprisoned with her children in a basement for years and only the audience can save her. The true life-inspired creepiness of this story puts Silent Hill to shame. Navigating a network of cavernous basements and tunnels, the audience must search for the body parts of a large baby while contending with an army of humanoids that will adapt and evolve based on the audience’s efforts. How the narrative unfolds will depend on how the audience interacts with the film, thus forcing them to continually adapt to the fluctuating environment.Interactivity in cinema can be problematic insofar that it has to tiptoe the line between both the film and video game realms. Although the trailers make it out to look like a trumped up survival horror game, the inclusion of an artificial intelligence (AI) system, which adapts to audience members’ interactions within the context of a narrative, give it a bit of an edge on both traditional video games and cinema.Scenario, the first ever interactive 3D film, will premiere in June at the Sydney Film Festival in Australia.
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