Review of Lance Weiler's Pandemic

For a description of Pandemic at Sundance go to http://lanceweiler.com/2010/12/pandemic-at-sundance/

We often go to the movies as an escape to new worlds. But how often do those new worlds follow us home? In the case of Lance Weiler’s work, it is more often than you may think. Weiler has created a physical and interactive framework for his films as well as extending them into cyberspace. This engrossment turns the viewer into the protagonist.

Weiler’s understanding of the new field of transmedia is considerable. He has successfully ushered his work into the next realm of storytelling. He refers to this stage of the medium as “the silent film era.” In his eyes, the future of film is in interactivity. Interactivity enhances storytelling by allowing the viewer to be a part of ­— ­­­­­­­­­and to some degree, in control of ­— the story. But just as film was met with skepticism in its earliest form, so too has Weiler’s work. Transmedia’s interactive qualities, as explored at Pandemic’s Sundance Film Festival experience, certainly have the potential to augment the experience, but it also has the potential to corrupt the magic of cinema.

When viewing the film short, Pandemic, I was distracted by gimmicks that were obvious introductions to the rest of the experience. Rather than viewing the short as a cinematographic snapshot, I saw it as a prologue to a videogame ­— the plot elements were presented as clues, the introduction to the characters was shallow and any subtly in the story arch was lost in the atypical pacing.

This is not to say that videogames do not tell stories. On the contrary, most games today elegantly provide the player with the path for self-exploration. Weiler did not provide the viewer with such a path. Nor did he lead the viewer as classic films do. In discussion with him, Weiler seemed to be entirely focused on the art of storytelling. To him, the new mediums were used to tell a more complete story. But to this viewer, I thought they simply made the story convoluted and distracting. The story of Pandemic was lost in the pandemonium of the interactivity. The pacing was destroyed by the participation and the plot was crafted out of the gimmicks of the interactions, rather than interactions expanding from the story itself.

I think Weiler is correct in saying transmedia is the new direction in storytelling. He has swung the pendulum of the medium to the extremities ­and I can’t wait to see where it settles – but until then, I will stick to my classic narrative films.