West Coast CD-ROM action

More and more West Coast producers are starting to explore the vast possibilities of new multimedia markets offered through the development of cd-rom technology. But as they tackle their first few projects, they’re also discovering the limitations of a technology in its infancy and the problems of marrying their metier of filmmaking with the less familiar and equally complex domain of computer technology.

Jim Monro of Monro Multimedia in Vancouver recently completed work on a $500,000 cd-rom project with the late historian George Woodcock, who provided editorial direction on what Monro describes as the first forensic look at Canadian history for the Canadian school market.

The project was originally intended to be the history of North America according to Hollywood, but while the idea still appeals to Monro and others, he found the existing cd-rom technology couldn’t handle the kinds of archival film clips he wanted to include. So he bit off a smaller chunk of history and focused on the 1885 Louis Riel Rebellion instead.

‘Our motivation in this project was to explore and conquer the interactive medium rather than to find a large market for our project,’ he says.

Monro had worked primarily in documentaries and feature films. He says the biggest challenge on Making History: Louis Riel and the North-West Rebellion, his first cd-rom project, was understanding the nature of the interactive narrative as opposed to the linear narrative of film.

‘I think on a technical level, cd-rom is certainly in its infancy. Our biggest stumbling block on the project was finding out the limitations of the medium. We were absolutely horrified at what we couldn’t do cimematographically – only very small screen close-ups, no wide shots, and only small-screen types of video exposition.’

At the outset, he couldn’t get full lip synchronization because the data transport rate was not developed to that level. Monro eventually found a solution, but only after a great deal of trial and effort. Most important on the narrative side, says Monro, was the challenge of grappling with the user interface in the interactive component.

Animation has a natural fit with interactive language, he says. ‘Wide vistas and dramatic exposition are not something that is as compatible yet because it is something more connected to linear storytelling where you develop characters, plot and dramatic tension.’

He advises anyone starting on their first cd-rom project to do their homework first. Look at everything that’s already out there. Spend the time analyzing the product for its limitations, both for narrative and technical merits.

Peter Campbell, a producer with Gumboot Productions in Victoria, is working with Victoria’s Morgan Multimedia on his first cd-rom based on a book entitled The Sacred Earth by Canadian photographer Courtney Milne.

The cd-rom explores manmade and natural sacred places throughout the world.

After consulting with various companies in California, Toronto and b.c., Campbell selected Morgan to provide Gumboot with computer programming, graphic and technical support.

‘Because the medium is so new and there’s so much hype associated with it, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon,’ says Morgan. ‘But the track record of people working with cd-rom is virtually non-existent, or very short. So cd-rom publishers are definitely interested in talking to people with a creative film background because they realize we have what it takes to do something of high quality for a mass audience.’

He says it’s essential for producers to have a very good sense of what the cd-rom will look like – including music, graphics and interactive capabilities – from the beginning.

‘Unlike film where you work from the script, in cd-roms you have to make some real decisions very early on in the process. But once you have the demo, everybody is interested in seeing you and taking the five minutes to see it, because yours could be the next hot one to hit the market.’

Vancouver’s Motion Works International, founded in 1988 and employing a staff of 55, is one of the largest multimedia developers in North America. It acts as both a producer of cd-roms and a facilitator/consultant for producers with a creative idea but no technical knowledge of the medium.

Motion Works has created a math-based children’s cd-rom for Electronic Arts entitled Counting On Frank. It is also in development on three cd-rom titles for mainland China-based electronic giant VTech, loosely based on some of VTech’s electronic toys, in addition to four cd-roms for Corel Software based on a series of four books for early readers aged three to six (the content of which remains confidential due to non-disclosure clauses in their contract), and one of its own projects, Walter Foster’s How To Draw Cartoon Animation, which teaches the basics of cartoon animation based on a book by Disney animator Preston Blair.

Anne Fouron, director of sales and marketing with Motion Works, says they prefer to work with producers who already have a creative concept and targeted age group. Most film companies, she says, now have multimedia divisions, but they are finding they don’t have the technical savvy to adapt the content to a cd-rom, so they are approaching companies like Motion Works to assist them in developing their ideas.

Financial participation varies widely depending on the deal, she says. ‘If it is something we really believe in and the producer or publisher is willing, we do joint ventures. Other times it’s just a straight production job for a fee, especially if they have done all the creative work and they just want someone to create the artwork and program the codes for the cd-rom.

‘If we have some creative input but not full creative control, we will do an advance against royalties arrangement where the advance covers production costs, but because we had input, we get a small royalty stream that comes from revenue sales of the product.’

Tips for producers? Plan everything before you start production and nail down an interactive script before the dollars start adding up during production and you get something called ‘feature creep,’ says Fouron.

Because the new medium is a very creative environment, ‘everyone wants to make it wonderful, but then everyone keeps adding new ideas and the focus strays. All of a sudden you discover you’ve created a monster way bigger than you intended. You need to nail it down right down to the numbers of sound effects and the seconds of music,’ she says.

Vancouver-based computer software developer Radical Entertainment, which previously specialized in producing video games like Beavis and Butt-head and The Brett Hull Hockey Series, recently switched exclusively to cd-rom production with its first project, another a hockey game.

Rory Armes, vp of development for Radical, says, ‘Creatively we have had to change our design process to make much more use of more cinematic front ends.’

Creating a good cd-rom product, he says, is all about control in the user interface.

‘With a cd being slow in loading, producers need to be aware that if they spend all this time and money creating beautiful images for the front end of the storytelling, an equal amount must be spent on creating the guts of the user interface of the product. Otherwise, people would do just as well to watch a movie on tv. There needs to be something different about the product.’

Part of that difference, says Armes, is making sure there is a unique story with elements in the story that are conducive to interactivity.

Humor and emotion do not come across on a computer very well, but action and information do. So if producers don’t understand the technology, they can’t design the product. The limitations of the technology are the number one hurdle, says Armes. ‘There are some very bad cd-rom products on the market, and I think that’s because they didn’t understand the technology going into the project.’

Armes stresses that rather than being frustrated by the existing limitations of the technology, producers should try to accept them and design their programs around them.

‘Films are wonderful for the moods that can be created cinematographically and the emotions they can provoke. But on a pc you can’t do that. You can’t move that camera around, you have to set the same view. Computers allow you to be interactive where movies don’t, but that interactivity costs you creatively.’

Rainmaker Interactive, a division of Vancouver-based Rainmaker Digital Pictures, parent company of Gastown Post, has been set up as a ‘creative convergence business’ for cd-rom production. ‘We’re the place where linear and narrative storytelling meets interactive. We’re here to create solutions,’ says Tom Taylor, president of ri.

The company works primarily with other producers, but is also creating some cd-roms independently.

Taylor says rather than working within the constraints of the technology, Rainmaker opted to design its own proprietary technology called live, (lucid interactive video environment) for pc-based cd-rom using Windows 95. He says this technology allows Rainmaker to do interactive productions with cinematic quality.

Taylor says cd-roms are currently being directed so that there is a piece of film, then an interactive branch, then more film and another branch. That model, he says, is rapidly falling by the wayside. Now consumers are demanding a more sophisticated level of interactivity and higher production values.

‘It used to be that side scrolling, shooters and hoppers of video games were adequate, but that just won’t cut it any more. Our live engine allows us to composit streams of video in real time.’

‘Any special effects technique that we create at Gastown Imaging can be delivered with the live engine, but with a high degree of interactivity.’

While Taylor also declined to discuss the specifics of any projects in progress due to non-disclosure agreements, he did say they are currently in negotiations to produce a cd-rom based on The Highlander series, with producers Panzer Davis who own the intellectual properties on the show. He says rather than making an action-packed video game out of Highlander, there is an opportunity to create a title that is renewable and marketed as separate adventures.

The most important advice Taylor has to offer producers considering a cd-rom project is to forget about trying to repurpose existing linear footage. ‘It’s an exercise in futility. I don’t believe the interactivity that you get out of retasking footage will be up to the quality of consumer expectations now.’

Better, he says, to repurpose the creative talent. With Highlander, Taylor says, ‘rather than taking the series and trying to chop up the footage into some kind of interactive game, we talked with Highlander producer Bill Panzer about creating an entirely new product.’

Most interactive projects are built on a ‘hit’ model. Companies like Electronic Arts build 10 games and only one will be a big seller. Taylor says that end of the business is dominated by male adolescent whims and is a very difficult business to apply conventional property development techniques to.

‘We work with those producers of this portion of the market to improve the cinematographic elements of their products, but what we have focused on with our own cd-rom products are the evergreen titles, those with more character development that can achieve some brand-name recognition and that can be marketed over a longer period of time to a larger demographic.

‘Every project that we take part in is assessed from this point of view: Does it have endless sequel possibilities, play value that spans a longer period of time? Those are the titles we want to pursue.’