The Chase Takes Browser-Based Films To The Next Level

As we have seen in the past, the browser has transcended its original function as a mere window to an infinite wealth of information, becoming a legitimate artistic medium in its own right. Experiments like The Wilderness Downtown and the music video for Sour’s “Mirror” utilize the malleability of the browser and the appropriation of several internet tropes to intricately weave incredibly involved multi-screen experiences. The pioneering film 0s and 1s took the browser to a more cinematic level by sculpting a film that was more spatially robust in its layering of multiple streams of information within a single scene, thereby unshackling film from its traditionally linear nature.

Back in January, Intel released a short film called The Chase, which depicts a woman on the run being chased by two men across several different computer programs and windows, including Quicktime, Facebook, iTunes, Photoshop, Google Earth, and YouTube. The piece also goes through several manifestations, making use of animation and a 3D fighting game that resembles Street Fighter. Windows unfold on top of one another at a rapid pace, filling the screen with different kinds of information while still remaining comprehensible, as if to function as a new media panacea to the incoherent editing of Hollywood action flicks. The continuous addition of new screens, including the layering of the same image or scene on top of itself, has a kinetic rhythm that is never overwhelming, but rather informs the thrilling tone of the narrative content.

If the film itself wasn’t enough, Intel decided to take it to the next level and actually realize the multiple window traversal in-browser via Facebook integration. Requiring an HTML 5-equipped browser and an extremely fast processor (basically, shut everything else down while watching it), the film opens and closes multiple windows in much the same way that The Wilderness Downtown does. However, unlike that music video, a majority of the screens used are narratively motivated to enhance the experience.

While 0s and 1s foreshadows how the medium might tackle the evolution in a more traditional manner, The Chase actually divests film from the restraint of one screen, transforming it into a screen-jumping multi-platform that has the potential to be projected across several surfaces at once. But, like with all browser-based films and videos, it is still confined to a single person’s computer screen, though it is still fun to speculate how film’s continued evolution into this medium might transform projection as well.

The official Facebook page for the film and the HTML 5 version also includes a series of side-scrolling video game levels enhancing the overall transmedia experience. Players are even given the option to build and share their own levels with others. The video game simulates the program and window integration of the film, including levels where players hop between browser windows.

While it’s doubtful that transmedia film experiments like these will replace the traditional cinematic form, they do provide compelling new storytelling structures and narrative devices that enable filmmakers to expand the scope of the information being relayed to their audience and customize each viewer’s experience of the work. Could this be a whole new genre in the making?