Interactive Films Back From the Dead?

Posted by ms.cindywong on
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 1:32 am

An interactive cinematic experience, The Outbreak poses the ultimate question to viewers: “What would YOU do in a zombie attack?” Styled like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book, the movie lets you make decisions that will ultimately decide your (grisly or benevolent) fate. No pressure, right? 

Here’s the “Night of the Living Dead” scenario: You play James, one of the main survivors, who takes cover in an abandoned house while the living dead surround it. Fight? Flee? Save or abandon a fellow survivor?These choices will either lead to your death or for you to keep the good fight on film. But don’t worry about dying quickly, The Outbreak allows you to restart or start back from a previous chapter scene. 

The Outbreak is one of the latest experiments in interactive moviemaking. In the 1970s, Kinoautomat, a Czech film, gauged its interactive story line by allowing the audience to vote on remote controls. At present, The Outbreak is a refreshing break from today’s static, straightforward Youtube videos that users just click and play. How does social media (and interactivity) better enhance a movie experience? Has Web 2.0′s social community revived the “Choose Your Own Adventure” moviemaking? You are no longer the passive moviegoer. The Outbreak dares you to engage with it. With  over 20 scenes and 10 decision-making points, The Outbreak will have you entertained (to death).

See the trailer here:

Lynn and Chris Lund are the brains behind The Outbreak. They created it as a side project in between running their interactive design firm, SilkTricky, where they’ve made campaigns for Red Bull, Taco Bell, and Axe Body Spray.  It looks like independent filmmakers, like the Lunds, and those involved in technology, are the leaders to test how social media (and interactivity) can enhance the cinematic experience.