03.09.2010
Interactive Films / Interactive Music Videos
One thing I have really been into lately is the influx of “Interactive Films” on the internet (or “interactive music videos”..)
The first one I saw was the one for the Broken Bells “October.” October is actually my favorite song on the album so I was a bit partial when I first saw it but the concept is awesome.
You navigate through a dark world and as your cursor (or light) touch things, objects are revealed such as constellations, space men and similar things.
The only negative is for the chorus, it’s always the same really. The control is pretty much taken away from you and put into a tunnel moving really fast. It’s cool, but it kind of breaks the feeling that you are seeing something unique to you.
However the art style of the video as well as the fun of uncovering things still makes it an awesome concept.
The broken bells concept in general has been surrounded by a truly unique and rather brilliant artistic style. The music rocks, too!
Most recently Arcade Fire entered the interactive film arena with “The Wilderness Downtown.”
You can view “The Wilderness Downtown” here.
This video is just amazing on so many levels. Not only is it incredibly innovative, it really pushes the limit of what a web browser is capable of.
The entire thing is built in HTML5 and they worked with Google to create it. It’s implementation of Google Maps and Google Street View is insanely creative and jaw dropping.
It’s biggest downfall is the limitations of Google Street View; not every location works properly. For example, the video of the avatar will be in the middle of a city but street view will be showing you a desert.
It’s not a huge deal and I’m not sure of a fix for it, but again, it breaks the illusion a little.
Regardless, I find these projects incredibly refreshing. Music videos for a long time have been a bucket of shit. Lady GaGa and Marilyn Manson have done some cool things with them in recent years; turning the videos into short films that feature a song in the middle. Marilyn Manson’s video for Heart Shaped Glasses was great in that regard. GaGa has taken it a bit too far though; where every video has to be a 9 minute epic. She’s done some cool ones but the format of her music videos is rather formulaic which for her is a bit shocking.
It’s nice to see some new ground being covered with these interactive films though. I find it interesting that the 2 bands that have done it (Broken Bells and Arcade Fire) are rather small in traditional terms. It will be interesting to see what a big band like Nine Inch Nails would do with this technology.