Korsakow or Eko
In assignment 3, we had used Korsakow to create the interactive documentary in spatial montage by using different interfaces and preview thumbnails to connect them, however, since the software has its own limit (e.g. there must be one SNU in each interface, each preview can only have a cover image) as well as it seems not the ideal tool for making narrative film with interactive features, Eko had become the most relevant tool after we investigated several tools listed on MIT – Docubase. Eko is a tool that mainly used for making interactive narrative film (based on their interaction patterns), which is cloud-based and has a esay-to-use interface that only require simple logics (in tree diagram), moreover, its skipping feature could let viewers move back and forth to each choice point for watching the other options of the same scene.
The Eko Studio guide
Work-in-progress feedback
As it is a fictional story that related to an actual mental disorder, we had been notified by our classmates about the authenticity of illustrating our character who is suffering it, as certain media (such as the film Split) had portrayed it in a dramatic way which the physique of different alters were different and even one of them has supernatural abilities. Although we had researched on several real-life DID cases and getting more in-depth into the disorder, we still have to always remind ourselves not to create a dramatic plot and to perform it over-exaggeratedly. Furthermore, we would place a disclaimer before the film and basic information the disorder after it due to our awareness creating purpose.
We had also been suggested to use a uniform transition on the alter transforming, to make those transformations consistent and as being a visual language to inform audiences something unusual was happening to our main character. Therefore, we had used different reactions of headache as the sign of transforming, whilst in Premiere, I had applied glitch effect on each transforming scene along with a high frequency sound effect to emphasise what the character feels during the change of alter.
Storytelling approach
During the second work-in-progress section, we had been inspired on how different choice prompts could tell the story in a different way. Initially we have only displayed the name of alters on the decision making button, which intended to let viewers directly choose the alter that want to meet at that moment, however, since the name that we gave to alters wasn’t a typical name sometimes (i.e. Dei), some classmates recommend us to replace it with a more ‘clear’ name, or not to show any name of alters until the end of the film.
For the above reason, we decided to ask viewers a question instead at those choice moments (e.g. Set the timer?), and reveal the description of all alters after they finish watching the film. By following this approach, we could also leave viewers suspense to improve the attractiveness of the film, that they might want to find our the particular difference between alters, and curious about “what kind of alters they are going to meet next”.