Andrew S Allen
Interactive films came into their own last year with the emotionally-driven Welcome to Pine Point and the ongoing explorations of Chris Milk (3 Dreams of Black). Although the genre seemed to be building up steam, this year has been mysteriously quiet for interactive films. Why? One simple reason—they are incredibly difficult to make.
The Carp and The Seagull tells the tale of a fisherman who is one day confronted by a Japanese spirit in the form of a seagull. The scenes take place in a diorama, and the more delightful moments come from rotating the scene to shift between the two overlapping worlds. The film’s low-poly aesthetic and synthesized soundscape produce an eerie sense of otherworldliness that offers a fresh feel on a traditional story.
Director, Evan, built an early version of the film in C++ before moving to WebGL. Those aren’t weekend technologies. You could say Evan marks the emergence of a new breed of storytellers (not unlike the growing crop of data artists) who’ve grown up with a comfortable understanding of technology. What will these new films look like—we don’t know. But it’s clear that for innovative storytelling, the steam is still building.