Individual Reflection Blog – Director
In my role as director of THECALL, which is a VR police simulator that puts you inside a hostage crisis. my main concern was to set the right overall direction of the project. After our meeting with the tutor, one of the first key decisions made was choosing to focus on one scenario instead of two. Instead of dividing the time between two different scenarios.
Next, the scriptwriter and I worked together to develop the story. Our goal was to elevate the interactivity & choice of the player. My top priority was ensuring that the escalation in tension was natural and the interactivity was clear & engaging. This collaborative workflow allowed us to polish our concept to the best result.
Before diving into the filming process, I emphasized on doing a location inspection, as it would give us more clarity on understanding the equipment needed and the way of filming the scenes to be in line with the player’s POV. During this stage, we concluded that we need to utilize 360 degree cameras between every choice and action, and for the player’s POV we used a 0.5 lens on a phone to mach the player’s perspective realistically. After this, we carried out deep research. We learned how to use the 360 camera as well as how to use ThinkLink in a way that would enable us to execute interactive storytelling. We had a few meetings with our tutor, which was very significant as it helped us determine the next course of action efficiently. In parallel with the lectures which helped me a lot, as they gave me more theoretical insight into the production of immersive media and interactive storytelling. Looking into immersive media practices presented in class guided me on how our project fits within overall media context. Looking at the evolution from traditional cinema to interactive experiences greatly influenced my view on directing. Rather than just guiding audience, I had to take into consideration spatial awareness,non linear narrative structures, & all key characteristics of immersive media history and practice
In the production phase, I was leading the visual aspect of the scenes. This included the selection of the appropriate props to use given the location setting. My role was to ensure that the game was progressing as planned with the emotional intensity being conveyed visually. The challenge with directing game was that filming an interactive immersive scenario is quite different from the traditional linear film format. To tackle this challenge, I looked into case studies and articles about immersive storytelling and filmmaking. In addition to that I studied more about 360-degree cameras production which helped me with blocking,pacing, and working in a way that supports multiple decision paths.
Finally, in the post production stage, I worked closely with the editor, starting with editing the clips on Davinci and Capcut platforms, afterwards when we had the video ready we exported it to Thinklink to link the video together and create a realistic interactive video, another role I played in the post production stage was developing and refining the dialogue to ensure clarity. Moreover to that we placed interactive information tags within the environment, so if the player clicks on objects not related to the main action, context & information would pop up, my main role was to oversee and ensure the context made sense and the interactivity was purposeful, As a final step, I filmed a participant who was unfamiliar with the game interacting with it, and edited the footage in a stream format to simultaneously display the gameplay and the player’s real-time reactions.
In conclusioin, being the director of the project my role was more than just visual aspects. I played a role in polishing the project’s concept, developing the script, and supervising the production design, among others. The greatest challenge I faced was the need to adjust the traditional approach to directing and apply the decision-based approach. Nevertheless, with the right guidance and research I was able to do so and contribute to the final product.
The game link: https://www.thinglink.com/view/scene/2090843899231732389
The game play video: