Crossed Lines: the Creation of a Multiform, Multiscreen Interactive Film

This article investigates the multiform, multiscreen interactive film installation, Crossed Lines (20022007, Dir: Sarah Atkinson). Crossed Lines amalgamates multiform plots, multiscreen viewing environments, interactive interfaces and interactive story navigation forms into one storytelling paradigm. My research probes the challenges of designing, authoring and scripting such an ambitious piece, drawing comparisons to traditional approaches to screenplay, authoring and traditional modes of fictional production. Various theories and paradigmatic perspectives are referenced whilst reflecting on the extensive creative developmental and production process of the filmic installation. Article Crossed Lines is a multiform (or multiplot) film telling the stories of nine characters in a way that the viewer can constantly explore and switch between all nine forms, and can simultaneously witness all sides of the characters’ exchanges which are taking place between the nine remote locations. The starting point of the piece was to conceive a series of narratives that could be viewed as individual stories, but would also reference and link to the other stories, as is the case of the multiplot film genre. As McKee has noted ‘multiplot films never develop a central plot; rather they weave together a number of stories of subplot size’. (1998:227) The difference with Crossed Lines is that it is delivered through an interactive interface paradigm, meaning that the viewer has the power to navigate and order the stories themselves, and to create a story of varying complexity depending on the number of different characters which are selected through the interface. Multiform plots have already been explored extensively in the commercial cinematic realm. For example, Shortcuts (1993, Dir: Robert Altman) traces the actions of twenty-two principal characters, both in parallel and at occasional points of connection. In Magnolia (1999, Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson), nine separate yet connected storylines are investigated. Run Lola Run (1999, Dir: Tom Tykwer) depicts three alternate realities triggered by the same event. Other influences to Crossed Lines have been non-linear films such as Memento (2001, Dir: Christopher Nolan), which is told in two separate narratives. One as a series of black and white scenes shown in chronological order which is intercut with a series of colour scenes which are presented in reverse Nebula 4.3, September 2007 Atkinson: Crossed Lines... 80 chronological order; the two narratives converge at the film’s climax. Influences also stem from multiscreen presentations such as Timecode (2000, Dir: Mike Figgis), which incorporates four simultaneous ninety minute takes shot by four different cameras and is presented to the viewer in a screen divided into quarters. This type of approach is not usual within feature film production. As Boyd Davis has theorised; Polyptychal approaches survive, indeed flourish, in some kinds of factual television, where the agenda is a quite different one from that of fictional narrative... In the classical film, only temporal, not spatial, juxtaposition of separate views is generally permitted. (76:2002) Interactive film presentations have also been created through cinematic, DVD and computer interfaces. The viewer of such content ‘is thus no longer merely an observer but a user of the film.’ (Himmelsbach, in Shaw, J and Weibel, P. 2003:236) The first known interactive cinematic system is cited by Hales (2005) as being Kinoautomat premiering at Expo ’67 in Montreal: In a specially constructed voting cinema, the 124 audience members at each screening could vote on how Mr Novak should act at five key moments in the film by pressing red or green buttons on their seats. (2005:55) Interactive interfaces have become commonplace within the DVD mode of delivery. Films such as My Little Eye (2002: Mark Evans) have been presented in an alternative screen interface on DVD, in this case through a web browser to enhance the narrative, which is centred on a reality web cast. Interactive story navigation systems have also been delivered on DVD. The formats architecture allows ‘additional content to be embedded into the experience of watching a feature film, similar to hyperlinks within a web page’. (Atkinson, 2007:22) One such example, Tender Loving Care (2000, Dir: David Wheeler) allows the viewer to navigate and witness alternate content dependant on questions that they answer after each chapter of the film. These types of films in both their content—and story design—in the former examples, and in their form in the latter, challenge the dominant conventions of traditional classical film, and are far removed from ‘normative diegetic exposition.’ (Grieb, 2002:157) This is precisely the area in which the conception of Crossed Lines was posited. There’s a conflict between interactivity and storytelling. Most people imagine there’s a spectrum between conventional written stories on one side and total interactivity on the other. But I believe what you really have are two safe havens separated by a pit of hell that can absorb endless amounts of skill, time and resources (Freitag in Platt 1997:195) Crossed Lines is presented as a large-scale nine-screen projection, which is controlled by the use of a telephone interface. The nine numerical buttons of the telephone keypad mirror the layout of Nebula 4.3, September 2007 Atkinson: Crossed Lines... 81 the nine video screens establishing a firm visual relationship between the interface and screen (see figure 1). A familiar, simplistic and efficient user interface is used intentionally since it is a ubiquitous piece of hardware that can be operated intuitively, with no or very minimal instruction for the user. As McLuhan states, ‘the telephone demands complete participation’ (1964:267) and is ‘an irresistible intruder in time or place’ (1964:271). In Crossed Lines the user presses one of the keys, (numbers 1-9), and the result of their action is then immediately apparent on the corresponding screen in that a dramatic action is triggered, for example, a phone rings or someone walks into frame, thus giving the operator an immediate sense of user agency. In technical terms, what the user’s key press actually activates is a switch in video streams. The corresponding screen (numbered 1-9 in exactly the same way the phone keys are positioned, the numbers run chronologically from left to right, top to bottom) changes to a new scene, as does one or more of the other screens depending on which characters are in conversation. This is consistent throughout the entire piece. It is therefore apparent to the user early on in the experience that they are driving the narrative. On the nine screens, the user is faced by nine characters (Figure 2) each of whom are seen or will be seen as the narrative progresses, on the telephone, and then communicating with one another solely through the use of the telephone. The approach taken to the production of the installation was to purposefully heighten and enhance the experience of the multiple narratives; and to encourage user engagement and immersion. With the telephone, there occurs the extension of ear and voice that is a kind of extra sensory perception. With television came the extension of the sense of touch or sense of interplay that even more intimately involves the entire sensorium. (McLuhan, 1964:266) Figure 1: Crossed Lines Interface Nebula 4.3, September 2007 Atkinson: Crossed Lines... 82 Figure 2: Crossed Lines: Nine Screen Projection The comparison to the television here implied is of note, since the aspect ratio of the screen depicted in figure 2 is more akin to a television set and it’s 4:3 dimensions than it is to a 16:9 cinema screen. The use of DV also contributes to the installation’s televisual aesthetic. When the handset is first lifted in the installation, the user is read the following pre recorded verbal instruction: Welcome to Crossed Lines. There are nine people within this telephone exchange who communicate solely through the use of their telephones. You can activate their phones by pressing the corresponding key on the telephone keypad in front of you. There is no other instruction presented to the user, either as printed documentation or on the screen itself. Aside from the nine video streams, there are no additional on-screen buttons or visual cues, and the visual composition to that illustrated in figure 2 is not changed at any time. As Boyd Davis has noted in similar interactive pieces: The elimination of screen-furniture, together with the intuitive simplicity of the interaction, seem to hold some promise of making even an aggregate display feel natural. What is offered to the user is another segment of the diegesis, not an extra-diegetic button or control (2002:79) This sense of the natural is of paramount importance to the piece and will be discussed further in a moment. It is difficult to escape from the ‘vending machine paradigm’ mode of interactivity in such installations (Hales, 2005:61), where there is a sense that there is nothing of any valued significance happening other than the pressing of a button to select an item. However, this was tackled in Crossed Lines by the use of the interface being an intrinsic element of the viewer’s experience of the narratives, to allow a sense of ‘transparent immediacy’ (Bolter and Grusin, 1999); as if the viewer is listening to the intimate exchanges in real time, it is as if they themselves are experiencing the result of a crossed line, as they enter the installation space and pick up the phone to listen in. The action of listening to the intimate exchanges on the screens also mirrors the actions of the characters and the stories that unfold on the multiple screens adding a further sense of narrative enhancement. Further retrospective investigation is planned into the user experience of the piece, as Sloane has noted: The equipment used to present the story to the reader is not an adequate site for rhetorical analysis of how stories act on their readers. (2000:126) Nebula 4.3, September 2007 Atkinson: Crossed Lines... 83 In addition to its study of story structure and interface, Crossed Lines also explores concepts of surveillance and voyeurism as critical metaphors and also as dramatic motifs. The camera is locked off in each of the nine screens ensuring that the nine frames are static throughout. This was a thematic decision and functioned as a narrative device since the locked off and passive camera connotes surveillance. The viewer is therefore positioned as the voyeur. This theme is also prevalent in the use of the viewer’s listening device; the telephone handset . The viewer is also the eavesdropper. To further emphasise the theme of voyeurism and surveillance, each individual scene was shot as one continuous take with no cuts in either sound or picture, to give the viewer the impression that they are experiencing the events in real time. Artpolous cites Deleuze, and the concept of the ‘time-image’, which characterises films that use different forms of montage to manipulate the relations between time, space and the duration of the movie. (2006:214) In terms of time, there is no such manipulation in Crossed Lines. Events appear to play out in real and in correct chronological time order. During the filming of the scenes, each character was shot individually; the actors heard the dialogue to respond to through an earpiece. In later shoots, the actors heard the pre-recorded dialogue through the earpiece, to which they then had to respond in complete synchronicity. Dialogue had to fit exactly and overlapping had to be avoided in order to eliminate any postproduction manipulation. If editorial cuts were to have been executed to structure scenes, if changes in shot size and camera movement were to be included, not only would the staging of real time be ruptured, the authenticity and actuality of the piece would also be compromised. A sense of authorial control would also have been imposed compromising the interactive intentions of the piece. As it is, by using the telephone paradigm as a cutting device, scenes are effectively actioned and sliced in two by the user. The Director/Author does not act as the editor. Instead, the user enacts that responsibility. If cuts had been put in, then it would also have emulated a conventional film. Whilst arguably, this still remains the case, there is less of a sense of stage management and manipulation. The classical cinematic codes of using different shot sizes to control the dramatic tensions within a film is absent, for example; cutting to a close up to raise the viewer’s awareness of heightened emotion within a character or scene. In this sense, the comparison of the installation to the television can again be drawn, with the telephone keypad acting as a remote control. Television is encountered through techniques such as channel hopping, muting, and multiscreens, through multiple association in different contexts or fragmented through timedelay and by report (Brown, N, Del Favero,D, Shaw, J and Weibel, P, 2003:312) This analogy is particularly relevant since viewers can choose to continually favour one character by repeatedly pressing the corresponding key on the telephone keypad, or they can explore the Nebula 4.3, September 2007 Atkinson: Crossed Lines... 84 multiple strands by pressing a different key at each interactive juncture. These are the points at which a conversational interchange has finished, and each of the nine screens reverts back to looped ‘waiting’ states. Viewers can also interrupt the story flow at any time, by pressing any key to intercept another conversation. Crossed Lines therefore addresses viewers’ contemporary modes of viewing and reception. This type of fractured viewing behaviour is also comparable to viewers’ experiences of television serial dramas in which they have become well versed in the archetypal characters, episodic structure and predictive storylines. Viewers are able to skip action, to miss whole weekly episodes and yet are still able to pick up from their point of narrative departure as they have developed an awareness and fluency in the language of the medium. The ability to channel surf, to pick and choose, to make random selections, obviously has a profound effect on the different readings of the visual text and the different narratives that are revealed by the users’ choices. This will certainly be investigated further during user analysis of the piece, which will be discussed in the conclusion of this article. The choice of a locked off camera also provided consistency; each of the frames needed to be similar in both composition and shot size, action needed to be equal and democratic, so that no one frame was favoured, and viewers could not be influenced on their selections on this basis. A mid shot was therefore selected as the most appropriate shot, this shot size also allowed key elements of the locale to be shown. In interactive works, says Garrand, ‘special attention is paid to sets and props to provide exposition’ (1997:76) This was also ensured through the various atmospheric audio beds that were used to provide the viewer/listener with further environmental information. The sound of keyboards tapping, and constant talking in a multiplicity of voices can be heard in screen two to indicate Phillip’s position of working in a busy, open plan office. In screen four, the viewer can hear constant background dialogue, but this is rather more subdued within Maureen’s environment of a Samaritan call centre. These narrative techniques are crucial communication tools in this type of narrative. As David Riordan points out, ‘if you spend time introducing the characters, the viewer is not being asked to do anything. In interactive, that is death. Instead you need to discover the back-story more as you go’ (Garrand, 1997:75). The use of the telephone provides an obvious interplay between form and content. The detailed narrative strands were developed around this. The title Crossed Lines makes specific reference to the telephone interface chosen. A paradigm of a crossed line is used at certain points of the piece. Attitudes towards chaos and confusion lying behind crossed lines are central to the narrative. An example of this occurs in which Phillip (screen two) and Gary (scene seven) are connected Nebula 4.3, September 2007 Atkinson: Crossed Lines... 85 together, seemingly by the viewer’s interactions. An intriguing exchange takes place in which an argument develops where the characters are attempting to ascertain who telephoned whom, and then Gary confesses to an act of violence that he has recently committed. Instances of physical crossed lines also occur towards the climax of some of the narratives, in which characters enter other characters frames (see example in figure 3) Julie abandons her car in screen three, and enters the phone box in screen seven, Martin leaves his screen, five, to enter Julie’s car in screen three, James from screen one visits Brenda in screen four, during which time Phillip from screen two enters James’ flat in screen one. Figure 3: Crossing boundaries: In screen three, Julie has left her car and has appeared with Gary in screen seven. Julie’s mother Maureen in screen six tries to calm Gary down unaware that her daughter has just entered the phone box. A simultaneous exchange is also taking place between James, screen one and Mandy, screen nine. Paramedics tend to Bob in screen eight, in a failed attempt to resuscitate him. The narrative was purposefully focussed as a naturalistic piece, borrowing certain codes and conventions from British television drama in its choice of storyline and characters. It was grounded in real life ideas as opposed to fantacism, which is characteristic of many interactive projects, which tend to be far more abstract and exploratory. The work of Toni Dove exemplifies this tendency. Within her compelling interactive cinema installations, the theme of time travel is prevalent. Users are able to interact with a physical motion-tracking interface which in turn effects Nebula 4.3, September 2007 Atkinson: Crossed Lines... 86 the visual images that are projected. By stepping on a motion sensor floor mat in the installation Artificial Changelings (1998) users are able to step in and out of different time zones; to travel back and forth in time. There are obvious visual signifiers imbued in the different character’s costumes which communicate to the user the frame of time which they are in; future or past. The challenge of Crossed Lines was to design an experience that had sufficient openness and freedom of navigation whilst maintaining the naturalism of the storylines and of the user experience, and also communicating a cohesive narrative. Platt has commented that ‘realism isn’t a luxury in interactive entertainment’. (1997:197) This was an area that was a primary investigative focus of the piece and a key aim was to actively challenge this notion through practice based experimentation. Mateas and Stern have proposed that; stories with looser, sparser event structures (plots) will be easier to implement in an interactive medium (require less generativity) (2005) Bruckman differs, suggesting that ‘A balance must be struck between giving the viewer freedom and maintaining narrative coherence’ (In Garrand, 1997:68) Crossed Lines was indeed conceived as striking a balance between these two view points. A definite methodological intention of this piece was to develop a more fluid interface and storytelling experience, allowing the viewer to explore the stories, rather than to make decisions at forced points. This has been the case with several other web and film interactive projects in which the viewer is subject to a branching tree structure in which they can select a different storyline. Examples of this genre are Jack Point Jack (2002, Dir: Michael Stelzer) and Dual (Dir: Buckley Hubbard). These two web based interactive short films invite viewers to instruct the main male protagonist on the different courses of action that he can take, based on a choice point selection system at set points in the story. Nebula 4.3, September 2007 Atkinson: Crossed Lines... 87 Figure 4: Graphical map of branching points in the interactive movie dual In branching tree interactive narrative structures, users cannot sidestep through the story, they are only able to move forwards limited by ‘dual’ the choices made available to them. In projects with longer running times, this also presents the producer of the content with a branching explosion, in which infinite numbers of alternate scenes would need to be recorded in order to satisfy the various different narrative pathways that could be followed. Dixon has argued of the commercial viability of interactive cinema; To give enough breadth to differentiate different plotlines and to follow the stories of different individual characters takes vast amounts of film, and consequently vast budgets, and the key problem is that most of it will not be seen. (2007:577) Exploring an alternative to the branching tree form of exposition, to allow sufficient opportunities for choice and navigation was key in designing and defining the interactivity of Crossed Lines. This was of paramount concern in the scripting of the piece, and the subsequent structure of the storylines and scenes. The nine narratives in Crossed Lines are designed to run alongside one another, and to intersect with one another at strategic points. The user is never restricted by the amount of choices that are available to them, only in the sense that they have a choice of nine buttons to press (see figure 5) Various combinations of the story can therefore be viewed, and this will be an entirely different experience for every user. The user inevitably will make choices through the narrative and structure their own experiences and journeys through the set narratives. This interactive dichotomy presented in the comparison of branching tree structures and the one utilised in Crossed Lines is illustrated in Peacocks definition of interactive media being characterised in two ways, as redundant or entropic; Redundancy is a term used to refer to the viewer’s experience of a sequence of events that is highly predictable, where options are closed... entropy refers to experiences of sequences which are unpredictable, where options are open and remain open, possibly appearing to be discontinuous or disconnected (2000:23) In this sense, the intention was certainly to explore the entropic possibilities presented by the structure of Crossed Lines. In the first section of Crossed Lines, the same scenes can be accessed at different points. Once a scene has been viewed, even partially, the user cannot revisit the same scene, unless the narrative is reset at any point by the user pressing the 0 key on the telephone handset. This restriction was imposed to maintain a sense of real time, of reality, and not to create an environment in which the user could transcend time boundaries as in the examples of Toni Doves work. Nebula 4.3, September 2007 Atkinson: Crossed Lines... 88 1 .J a m e