It’s a testament to the workload at USC that my first post since the start of the semester is after over a month has already passed.  It’s enough time, in fact, that I’m posting about my second film project … but only because I’m still tweaking my first film.

The area between linear films and non-linear games is becoming increasingly grayer, with the definitions for each being stretched to their limits.  Many modern games play as though they wish they were devoid of gameplay, and we accept the embedded interactivity of a DVD as a natural part of the film.  What, then, should I call a movie with a rigidly linear story, that can only be experienced in a fragmented way?

“Interactive Movie” sounds contrived and awkward, but I guess it’ll have to do.  The problem is, I don’t think of this film like that, because you don’t interact with it at all.  You merely shift your perspective of the story in real-time, and I honestly think it would be better presented on four separate, simultaneous screens.  The contrast between the parallel storylines is good, but it’s the knowledge that they’re all happening at the same time that is the important point.

This project was a tad rushed out the door, because of the aforementioned workload, and I imagine I might one day revisit it to finish it properly, but I don’t entirely believe I’ll ever have time to do it.  I’m finding an unfortunate situation in my classes:  the projects I have time for I don’t want to do, and the projects I want to do I don’t have time for.

I had almost convinced myself that the first two years of my MFA would not consist of undergrad classwork.

Categories: my films, rants

This entry was posted by Gemedet on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 12:43 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.