"Rather than dominating the plot, the choice of the onlooker is the greatest pleasure of watching the movie."
In the "Mirror World" unit screened at the 10th Beijing International Film Festival, an interactive film called "Night Shift" caused quite a stir among film fans with its refreshing viewing form and intricate plot trend. In the eyes of the audience, the format of choosing the story direction of the film through the mobile app in the cinema is novel and unknown.
It is reported that the suspense interactive film "Night Shift", directed by Tobias Webber, produced the movie "Sherlock Holmes" Michael Robert Johnson and Tobias Weber as screenwriters, actors Joe Sovobuts, Abe Haruka starring, tells the story of Matt, a majoring in mathematics, who was involved in an auction house theft case for no reason, in order to prove his innocence, he had to find the truth of the matter in a series of choices, thus proving his innocence and saving his teammates.
The film "Night Shift" dates back to 2016, although it was screened in Cannes Next and briefly screened in some European theaters, but unfortunately it did not make waves in the market tide, but since the end of 2018, interactive film and television works such as "Black Mirror: Pandaskinay" and "Antiques Central Bureau Buddha's Head Origin" have been successful, making the global interactive film and television market active again, and "Night Shift" has gained the opportunity to re-emerge.
It is worth noting that "Night Shift" is the first interactive cinema film that was publicly screened in Chinese mainland. Interactive cinema, as a new concept that distinguishes it from traditional cinema, has emerged as early as the end of the 1960s. With the advent of the first year of 5G commercialization, the impact of information technology, artificial intelligence and other technologies on the development of movies has been widely discussed and boldly conceived, interactive movies have once again entered everyone's field of vision, can it become the mainstream form of future movies? Here, we have a glimpse of one or two.
First of all, what is an interactive movie and how to play it?
Interactive film refers to a new film model in which the audience makes choices for the characters in the film, intervenes in the environment of the film, and continuously interacts. In interactive movies, the audience can choose the next story direction for the characters through the mobile APP, setting the plot and the limited time, so as to bring the audience a new immersive experience to the greatest extent.
"All choices are with you." In the face of unexpected situations, do you choose to steal the car or run away? When faced with a threat to your life, do you choose to escape temporarily or cooperate obediently? In the process of participating in the interaction of "Night Shift", the audience needs to make a decision in just a few seconds, press the button, and a seemingly insignificant decision will eventually accumulate a completely different result. It is worth noting that when the audience votes, the "minority obeys the majority" rule is adopted to determine the outcome, but if there is a vote or a bye, there will be a "director" in the system to make the decision. Throughout the process, the audience will not encounter any pauses or loops, which is equivalent to directing a movie in person.
Although "Night Shift" gives the audience a fresh and interesting feeling, some reviews reflect the biggest problem with the film, that is, this "interactive" form largely sacrifices the quality of the film's narrative itself, that is, the problem of "form is greater than content" that everyone generally reflects. There are 7 different endings in "Night Shift", and in the cinema, the audience can watch up to 2 endings, and some of them are very difficult to open. In addition, some viewers will complain that they were originally immersed in the plot of the movie, because they suddenly had to pick up their mobile phones to vote, and that emotion was suddenly broken.
The movie gamification experience of Night Shift didn't play out very well. Judging from the plot of the movie, its storyline is slightly old-fashioned, and even the emotional line between the male and female protagonists is slightly far-fetched. As a game, simple plot interaction lacks novelty, and some viewers said that although the film has more than 180 choice points, in fact, the first two-thirds of the choice of the whole movie has no effect on the final plot.
Although "Night Shift" has many flaws in content and form, in the "Internet + 5G" era, interactive video exploration and investment are at the cusp. It is reported that the Hollywood interactive cinema films cooperated with the producers of "Night Shift" include "Riot", "Choose Your Adventure" and so on. Riot is another masterpiece for Night Shift director Tobias Weber and is exploring the interactive sci-fi genre for the first time. Many industry insiders predict that the new wave of interactive content is likely to become the future of content and media. Nowadays, with the increase in the layout of interactive cinema films in the global market, this form may become the norm in the future, thus injecting more fresh blood into the cinema.
It is worth mentioning that compared to the gamification of movies, cinematic games are more well received by players. For example, Nintendo's first interactive movie game, Detroit: Becoming Human, was set in Detroit in 2038. In the future of Detroit, artificial intelligence has been widely used as a common commodity, and bionic humans have begun to replace humans and enter the work fields of nannies, salesmen, negotiators and other work areas. The game focuses on the conflicts and contradictions between artificial intelligence and humans through the awakening of "self-awareness", and the plot unfolds in different scenarios.
"Detroit: Becoming Human" can be called to achieve the ultimate and top of the scene in the game, whether it is the rendering of the face of the character, the use of light and scenery, or the reflection, scattering and other physical changes in the details, all of which give people a cinematic texture. In addition, the setting of the game also pays more attention to the narrative of the story and the involvement of the characters. As a result, the production standards of Excellence have made Detroit: The Man who became a benchmark cinematic game.
With the development and widespread use of 5G technology, industry insiders are optimistic about both movie gamification and gamification movies. It is believed that in the near future, the two have more room for improvement. For example, the faster transmission speed brought by 5G can help improve the user experience, real-time face recognition and expression capture through intelligent terminal devices, and carry out rapid data analysis and processing to adjust the development of the plot. In addition, VR and AR devices are more likely to be applied to interactive movies in the 5G environment, in addition to the simple choice of two plot options, which can allow the audience to get more immersive experiences. For example, when the audience is in the middle of the film, the actual body language and movements can interact with the characters, and smart devices and film content creation are organically combined.
Overall, the development of technology and the exploration of new models have a huge impact on the film and television industry. "Night Shift" premiered in the mainland, although the plot and form need to be improved, but its emergence has brought more possibilities for the development of the entire film industry. Not only that, under the integration and exploration of content and technology, the development of gamified movies and cinematic games provides new opportunities for the development of traditional film and television companies.