The Fall

This week in class, when we began to discuss interactive storytelling, and took part in the exercise of each class member participating in an ongoing story, the first thing that came to my mind was this particular movie.

In The Fall, directed by Tarsem Singh (better known for the 2000 psychological thriller The Cell), a stuntman befriends a young girl in a 1920s hospital and proceeds to tell her about an epic fantasy-adventure. However, the girl has her own imagination and ideas for where the story should be going, and the film becomes an organic tale in which each character begins to struggle for what they want to have happen in this story.

But what is most interesting about this film, after reading more about the making of it, is that the script was only a blueprint. The director got input from the crew as the story was being told by the young actress, a Romanian girl who often misunderstood what she was being told to do.

While not interactive with the actual audience, it raises thoughts of the ability to create a medium that allows a viewer to change what occurs through their own ideas in real-time. What if we could have a screen in front of us, and were able to change certain elements of the picture, certain actions of the characters, using our own imagination as the narrative progressed? Certainly allows for a lot of possibilities.

The Fall is available on DVD and Blu-ray,