Forgotten In Frome is a brand new, fresh off the block interactive movie. It takes users through twists and turns exploring one house in detail. This short film makes its mark by taking characteristics from both choice-based games and interactive films. This new addition to the ever-growing interactive genre is a perfect fit and anyone can experience it.
An Interactive Movie is like a choice-based game based on the same foundations but the content is inside different according to the choices you make. Those same foundations are the based on the user picking an option through two or more options, they control the experience. Interactive movies are made to make the user feel fully immersed when they are going through the experience. By having the user be made to go through and do things by their own actions, it makes them feel more immersed and connected to the world inside.
In Forgotten in Frome the interactive aspect comes when you can go through the house and decide your own route to get to the destination. Even though the game follows a linear narrative up to a certain point, it still allows for some nonlinear situations. These come when as soon as you make it out of a check point, you can’t go back. But you are also not directed in any way of where you must go next. That is all down to the user, who can choose to explore in any direction, whether that be upstairs, or the bathroom, or back to the basement. In this movie you can experience things which you might not have seen if you went straight for the narrative option, rather than completely looking around the house.
The story plot of Forgotten in Frome (FIF) follows someone new (the user) who has been enticed by this mysterious building. Nothing is striking from the outside, but it harbours a presence, which is just waiting to be explored. The movie then takes the User around the house exploring all areas. Once they have fully investigated each area, they are met with three peculiar beings. Andrew, an alcoholic who has a glass half empty outlook on life; Harriet, a bratty snob who believes that everyone is below her, and Danielle, the seemingly normal one of the trio, a young woman comfortably watching the television.
The User is prompted to go up in any order to ask questions to these people and find out who they are and what connection they have to the house. Once your line of questioning is done you explore the house again trying to find something different, until you land on a little girl on the stairs. Baffled by this revelation, you follow the shadow and question the inhabitants if they saw the little girl or where she has gone. This is where you are met by the final individual of the house: a dweller named Rusty, who seems to only stay in the basement. He is mysterious in his ways, taunting you and each character, who all have a different interaction with him and his presence. In short, the story of FIF is about the hidden player of the game: the House. The House acts as the 6th character as it has a role in everything. It was there from the beginning, and no-one has managed to leave…yet.
Every interaction or trigger is done to progress the story and narrative at large. Each time you uncover something you are one step closer to finding out exactly what is going on. Who really is in charge? Who has the power?
Now the question on everyone’s minds is, why make an interactive movie? In an interview with creator Ethan Knotts Smith, he says that the main goal of his story telling is to bridge the gap between all different forms of media. He has created many varying forms of media in the past and this one clearly breaks free from the mould. The mould being that his form of previous content is entirely different to this. He has never done an interactive movie before. Looking at how many interactive movies we see being released, it’s clear that the market is still ever growing. It’s a niche but with streaming platforms such as Netflix having Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Minecraft: Story Mode on their sites is a big step in the right direction.
By having a streaming giant such as Netflix having and producing interactive titles allows for more people to be interested in this newer medium. This genre of interactive films came from interactive games, which came from point and click games. All these games tell a story but always place the user in the hot seat by allowing them to, or making them think that they are, controlling the story at each turn. This sets up a false narrative to the user and makes them think that they ultimate decide what happens next. In narrative games there are set paths which guides the user along, as they can’t do their own thing but use the formula as a path.
FIF also follows the route of enabling the user into thinking they are in full control. To progress the story, you must reach certain points or else you just won’t go any further. There are some things, though, that you can get if you explore before or after hitting a certain trigger. The interactive movie also features two endings, which allow for replay ability and allow for more people to play it more often as they would want to try and get a different ending. It allows the user to go on a different path to try and found this elusive other ending.
FIF is the newest example of this new Interactive Movie genre and takes big risks by having the dialogue be strictly text based. It is made by a university student hoping to set himself apart from the rest and show off what he did completely by himself.
(^Ethan Knotts Smith The Creator^)
Forgotten In Frome is available to play on YouTube today. It’s free and anyone can play it, just type it into YouTube or go from this link: https://youtu.be/8mwRtnW5mP0
Enjoy something new and immerse yourself, but don’t get Forgotten in Frome!
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