Interactive Drama: The State Of Play

“Movies, television, DVD, internet. It’s all the same thing, just different configurations…it’s an incredible landscape.” Quincy Jones, Film Producer

Described by The Simpsons creator Matt Groening as “a funny film-making genius”, Hazel Grian, Creative Director of Licorice Films, has been at the sharp end of cutting edge new forms of interactive content, including Alternative Reality Gaming and online drama. In November 2007 I caught up with Hazel in Bristol to chew the fat on her involvement in KateModern, the first drama commissioned by a social network, and the state and future of the strange-shaped genre known as interactive drama.
(NB: This is a bastardisation of what was originally an academic essay so forgive the over icing of the digital cake.)

Convergence of television and the internet

Marshall McHuhan, the guy who dubbed the wired world the “global village”, believes the content of any new medium is actually from an old one. This certainly applies to the recent phenomenon of online video and the convergence between broadcast television, digital television and online content.

Television has become a predictable, institutional ‘old’ media – but its original ambitions were akin to those of interactive media today – immersion, extension and communication. Its form has evolved through its history – a storytelling medium enabled by technology. Television is considered a ‘push’ medium – like print and newspapers – whereas the internet is a ‘pull’ or search medium, its take-up dominated by communication over publishing.

Convergence disrupts the tripartite relationship of print, telecoms and broadcast. Broadband offers the ‘multiplexing’ of TV, potentially an additional video platform (e.g. 4oD, iPlayer) but also an enriched, additional experience.

Throughout the 1980s and 90s audiences became more active, critically aware and discriminating. This has led to a rejection of television in favour of genres exploring interactivity, niche interests and virtual reality where viewing is replaced by active participation.

Cross-platform content creates permeable boundaries and intertextuality between forms, blurring the boundaries between producer, distributor, consumer and reviewer. Content is not always top down publisher-led, but blogs, chat rooms and message boards create a market for perishable, instant content. Interactivity also allows for emotive, collective participatory experiences.

Also dubbed “transmedia” storytelling or “polymorphic narrative”, multi-platform creates different entry points into the product’s heavily franchised world. And many platforms equates to more cash – there are more platforms for a brand than ever before. But it’s not a noughties phenomenon: “Wizard of Oz” was a book (1900) then a stage play (1902), then a film in 1910 and 1939, which spawned variations like “The Wiz” and “Wicked”. The heavy corporate hand has been a part of transmedia rich history; the first Broadway production of Oz featured its own sponsor placement content: the Irish wizard sings “Budweiser is a friend of mine”.

Interactive drama – a brief history

Online interactive drama is a synthesis of broadcast drama, live role play, game play and interactive social media, relying heavily on a sense of user engagement, interactivity and playfulness. However, interactivity creates a dilemma of intellectual property – who ‘owns’ the content, therefore who can exploit and monetise it? Fan fiction – cultural fan production – especially creates added dilemmas. Harry Potter Puppet Pals, a totally unauthorised puppet response to the films and novels of JK Rowling, is gathering quite a following of its own thanks to bottom-up user platforms like YouTube.

Interactive drama is an evolving phenomenon, relatively immature in its development. The first experiments (2001-5) were single platform with “Wheel of Fortune” (2001), broadcast simultaneously on Radio 3, Radio 4 and online where viewers were told to ‘bet now’ to access 90 million possible permutations of the story. This complex, futuristic approach was later replaced with the controlled and easily understood method of voting – viewers chose between three ‘voices’ in Radio 4’s “The Dark House” (2003) voting on a love triangle on Five’s “Family Affair” (2004) and a life or death ending in “Casualty” (BBC1, 2005).

The next wave (2005-7) productions were more truly interactive, exploiting the nuances of the internet. Nickelodeon’s CGI animated “Jimmy Neutron” was an early 360 degree cross-platform application – existing on TV, video, comic, internet and film. BBC’s “Jamie K” and “Wanabees” (2006), both aimed at teens, could be seen as the first interactive dramas – ‘broadcast’ online, allowing the characters’ ‘friends’ (online viewers) to vote and build up ‘friendship scores’.

During this period, broadcast drama became increasingly cross-platform e.g. “Dr Who” (BBC) online games relating to plotlines, “Hollyoaks” (Channel 4) enhanced content on mobile phones and “Skins” (E4) mini-‘webisodes’ available online. Interactivity allowed for deeper character development and for users to interact more intensively than in the weekly broadcast of a typical TV soap opera.

“Dubplate Drama” (2005), commissioned by E4 and MTV Base, was an interactive format for TV, similar to the 1980s publishing phenomenon of Bantam’s “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. A six-part gritty urban drama about grime musicians, it starred urban celebrities Miss Dynamite and Rodney P (So Solid Crew) and was available on 3 mobile network and Sony’s PSP. Each episode ended in a dilemma cliff hanger, encouraging viewers to text in what they should do next. The producers believed the social element of the drama as a means of getting teenagers to discuss complex social issues.

Kate Modern – drama played out online

KateModern is an online, interactive drama commissioned by Bebo – the UK’s most popular social networking site with 31 million users, predominantly youth and teen. Bebo proves a great proposition for marketers: users spend on average 41 minutes online, making it a more “sticky” platform than television, and a means of reaching the lucrative teen market, turning off their TVs in droves.

Aimed at teens, it is part-comedy, part-drama, part-mystery (described as “a kind of Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Skins”) telling the story of troubled art student Kate and her three friends. Running from July to December 2007, users can send messages to the characters, help solve puzzles, vote and generally participate in the story. The interactivity is principally through the Bebo network rather than the ‘vote now’ model, however, few episodes are shot at a time, allowing for user feedback to be accommodated within a defined plot arc. This is a revolution from the pre-digital means of influencing drama where a letter to the editor or BBC’s “Points of View” (featuring the ever-youthful Anne Robinson and her infuriating wink) would be the primary form of viewer feedback (other than voting with the off switch).

KateModern is produced by the team behind the Lonelygirl15 phenomenon – the most subscribed YouTube channel showing the diaries of an attractive American teen who becomes embroiled in cult activities – which intrigued and frustrated new media exponents and marketers, and was later revealed to be staged.

Set in London and boasting a cast including Ralf Little (“The Royle Family”), it combines the inter­activity of social networking – where fans can do everything from commenting on episodes to interacting with characters – with scripted “webisodes”. It is a UK sister series to Lonelygirl15 - aping its ideas of an undercurrent of horror, cult themes and humours – but KateModern stays in the realm of fiction, encouraging the intense quasi-realistic relationships between viewers and makers in soap operas.

Live events including concerts and “flash mobs” link the real with the fictitious world. Actual up-and-coming band, “The Days” feature in the plot, with the intent of leaving viewers guessing what is real and what is fiction.

With a speculated £1 million budget – similar to a comparable terrestrial drama series – KateModern is commissioned by Bebo and financed by sponsors including MSN, Pantene, Gillette and Orange who have difficulty reaching a youth market on TV. Unlike typical film and TV product placement, the brands are integrated into characters’ dialogues and plotlines. This links with recent advertising trends of integrated marketing, brand profile and below-the-line marketing e.g. ‘seeding’ discussion of brands in internet chat rooms. Paramount Pictures UK used the drama to get characters to discuss plotlines from their new horror film “Disturbia” and episodes mirrored the film’s plot and themes.

The writing team behind KateModern are Luke Hyams (“Dubplate Drama”) and Hazel Grian. Hazel has a varied background as an actress, writer and director in TV, theatre, short films, animation and radio, working particularly in improvisation, comedy and science fiction. Prior to KateModern she created MeiGeist, an Alternative Reality Game, collaborating with HP Labs and Watershed Media Centre, which was the first to use video in addition to actors, live events and online game play. Regular short-listing in Watershed’s Depict! 90 second film challenge was a good learning ground for things to come.

Luke and Hazel’s writing process started with a sketch of characters and the same genre and rules as LonelyGirl15. Unlike TV soaps, each episode was micro, condensed and variable length, running from one to four minutes (15 to 20 minutes of content a week). The narrative presents a single vision (i.e. each episode is self-contained) and linearity but recognising it may be experienced in non-linear fashion, and to appeal to the ‘YouTube generation’ who prefer short bursts of activity and will likely fast-forward what they see as ‘the boring bits’.

The directing is intentionally lo-fi ‘guerilla’ style, with no ‘hidden cameras’ but video diary style, with characters seen reportage recording on mini-DV cameras and mobile phones, with intentionally staged ‘pieces to camera’ rather than the usually ‘fourth wall’ theatre or television drama approach. The production is more similar to user generated content video uploaded to YouTube than “Play of the Day”.

Hazel’s greatest challenge as a writer was working with sponsor brands to make product integration fit with the show’s dark material – like reflecting Ralph Little’s excitement at installing a wireless router and integrating references to Tampax (‘What, is she on her period again?!’). Hazel believes:

“The advertiser dominated framework made me experience what it was like to work in 1950s television on the original advertiser soap operas.”

Some product placement worked better than others as a natural synergy between brands and actions e.g. Live Maps and MSN Messenger – but the constant ‘name checks’ can grate on the viewer. The character Charlie works in PR and creates viral adverts for brands within the narrative, making the advertising self-referential.

Hazel believes interactivity creates a richer user experience – a role play between audience and producer. It creates a new dimension and depth of exploration with a story, from ‘lurkers’ to active participants and hardcore fans. It also creates a complex relationship – Babylon 5 producer J Michael Straczinski went online daily responding to fans posts. Hazel posted ‘in character’ as Kate, responding to fans posts and messages (she later trained a junior web producer to do this). Interactivity and reaction is essential to the dramatic believability of the form. Hazel believes that future audiences:

“…will not simply be ‘viewing’ or ‘watching’ interspersed with an injection of hated, in your face advertising. What you will be producing for your audiences must be commissioned and sponsored ‘experiences’. Film and television will have the feel of live theatre. Cinema and radio with the feel of a conversation.”

The show’s Executive Producer, Miles Beckett, believes “viewers interact with the characters in a way which is impossible with television.” Yet the rules of ‘old media’ drama are still tightly obeyed: “We have very consistent conflict, resolution, cliff hanger at the end of the week, A-plot action, B-plot character and interpersonal development.”

The jury is out on the popularity of KateModern. Although scoring three million views in its first eight weeks, in interactive media, the depth of interaction is more significant than numbers and viewer’s belief in the show’s authenticity could be compromised with its overt in-your-face productisation. All sponsors have signed for a second season, indicating they belief the association is boosting their brand. KateModern is a microcosm of contemporary entertainment convergence –interlinking localisation (based in London), regionalisation (a UK version of a US format) and globalisation (distributed to a potential global audience).

Hazel believes the future of interactive drama will be a TV-style model of broadcaster fee with core sponsors, not product placements. She is currently working on a production with Henry Normal/Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow productions sponsored by Ford. Rumours of a MySpace interactive drama at $400,000 per episode may be greatly exaggerated, but Bebo have already commissioned its next online hit: “Sofia’s Diary”.

Hazel believes comedy and parody work best for online drama – serious online drama doesn’t yet work yet as the medium itself is not yet considered serious. Interactive drama is still seminal and embryonic – investment and publicity is skewed more in its innovation than in meaningful content. But she remains optimistic of the future: “New roles are emerging from new forms of entertainment; I feel I am not at the forefront at an exciting time.”

The jury is likely to be out for some time on the uptake of interactive drama. The non-linearity of interactive drama may encroach a dramatic vision and never step out of the deepness of Hollyoaks. However, rich integration of character, personalised responses and the ability to influence action may in time prove a more rich medium, closer to emulating the emotive responsive of theatre than television or film. Many computer games already combine live action film or humanistic CGI characters within sophisticated interactive platforms, shaped by the user’s vision and their unique exploration of the game’s virtual world.

The trend for users migrating their time away from broadcasting and onto interactive platforms is likely to continue, and so will evolve how new hybrid medias work with audiences to create collective dialogues (e.g. MMROGs, social networks) and new interpretations of dramatic forms.