Aftermath goes into interactive movies
Ashland company starts production in March By BILL VARBLE Picture a movie that alters itself to fit your personality. Now picture being able to see it in a theater, on your TV or on your home computer. Welcome to the world of interactive DVD. Even as its last movie vies for an international award, Aftermath Media is forging ahead to what Rob Landeros says is the next level of interactive entertainment. Aftermath, of Ashland, is teaming up with a New Jersey company to make "The Watcher," a film intended for release both in theaters and as an interactive digital video disc. The picture is expected to begin production next month in Vancouver, B.C. Aftermath founder Landeros says the movie is intended to appeal to a wide audience, not just hard-core video gamers. "It's a very movie-like experience," he says. "When you've completed everything, you can go back and see it all without interruptions." A DVD is a fast disc that stores both video and audio data. Some experts believe it will replace not only videotape and CDs but laser disc, CD-ROM and even video game cartridges. It has support among computer hardware companies and some movie studios, although some critics, including syndicated columnist Roger Ebert, say the image is no better than film, at best.Landeros says DVD International distributes programming from a number of filmmakers, including former Monkee Michael Nesmith's Santa Fe Pictures. "It was just out there," he says. "The product (interactive DVD) doesn't fit existing channels very well. They don't know how to handle it." Landeros was a founder in 1991, along with Graeme Devine, of Medford-based Trilobyte, which published the mega-hit CD-ROM game "7th Guest" in 1993 (sales: more than 2 million). Landeros left Trilobyte in early 1997 to form Aftermath with partner David Wheeler when he decided he was more interested in making interactive movies than games. Trilobyte went out of business.Landeros and Wheeler say they believe that interactive entertainment is a wave of the future. "I don't predict it for all movies," Landeros says. "But it can be done, and somebody's gotta do it." For more on Aftermath, go to www.aftermathmedia.com DVDs hold video programs and are played on a DVD player hooked to a TV monitor. DVD-ROM holds computer data and is played by a DVD-ROM drive hooded to a computer. Most new computers with DVD-ROM drives can also play DVD videos. Aftermath's "Tender Loving Care," which was released in both DVD and CD-ROM, is a finalist in the Milia d'Or 2000 Awards at Cannes, France, with winners to be announced Thursday. Glitz notwithstanding, Landeros and Wheeler stress traditional values of story, plot, character development and emotion. "The Watcher" is a thriller about obsession, art, eroticism and murder. A beautiful and mysterious artist named Jane shuns human contact and expresses herself in art. Fascinated with a neighbor named Frank on whom she spies, she takes photos and creates composite drawings of herself and him. When she goes to a rendezvous she falls into a web of danger and bizarre situations both real and imagined.The movie has 10 chapters, like a mini-series. After each the story stops and questions come up about the characters and plot. Viewers can't consciously direct events, an early DVD approach. But viewers can lie. Couples might find differences to work out. The number of possible story permutations is very large. David Goodman, president of DVD International, Aftermath's second partner, says he expects "The Watcher" to take digital filmmaking to a new level. "`The Watcher' will be more advanced (than TLC) in almost every way," he says. Wheeler and Landeros say that when the picture is in the can -- or on the disc -- they'll spend nine months in post-production with Supersonic Media Productions, of Vancouver, B.C. Finally, the picture will be transferred to film for theatrical release. Landeros thinks the public, not just the high-tech crowd, is ready for interactivity. "We don't want to get too niched about it," he says. |
