PCs Tap Into Hollywood’s Story Line : CD-ROM System Gives Audience an Interactive Role in Plotting Movies, but Is It Really Drama?

On Wednesday--27 years after a cumbersome two-projector system allowed the audience to vote on the ending of a movie at the Montreal Expo’s Czech Pavilion--the interactive CD-ROM version of a feature film will premiere at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Digitized images of Margot Kidder, Brian Keith and Russell Means in “Under a Killing Moon” propel the action on 25 17-inch screens as viewers make choices by computer. Tapping into the increased storage capacity of CD-ROMs (each of which stores the equivalent of 300,000 typewritten pages or 1,100 floppy discs), the $2.5-million adventure-mystery thrusts people into a 3-D “virtual world” in which they search for clues and influence the course of dialogue and narrative. Though the picture image has yet to equal videotape quality, it’s a cut above the computer imagery of the past.

“Technology is now powerful enough so we can show ‘acting’ instead of cartoons,” says Chris Jones, executive vice president of the Salt Lake City-based Access Software, which produced the project, scheduled for an August release at video, computer and retail stores at a suggested price of $99. “We’re crossing the line from video games into interactive movies that can be serious contenders in the entertainment marketplace.”

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While some still fail to see the distinction between an “interactive movie” and a technologically sophisticated video game, the premiere does testify to the increasing cross-pollination between the Silicon Valley and Hollywood--two parties bonded by commercial symbiosis. The video-game industry milks the recognition value of movies such as “Aladdin” and “Jurassic Park” by offering these blockbusters on a CD-ROM format. Feature filmmakers--as well as the unions and agencies representing them--are looking to the new technology to extend the bounds of traditional movie-making and provide new sources of revenue.

“It’s the 1990s version of the 1848 Gold Rush,” says Michael Prohaska, senior administrator of the Screen Actors Guild’s year-old Industrial and Interactive Contracts Division. “No one knows if there’s a future there. But everyone’s panning for gold.”

Last week, Clint Eastwood announced that he would team up to develop a CD-ROM on his life and career, citing the potential of the medium to “entertain and inform.” Chuck Norris is beginning production on the first of three live-action video games lined up in a multimillion-dollar deal, following Steven Seagal, who licensed his name and likeness for use in an original CD-ROM project. And, taking a cue from Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, who shot extra scenes for a “Demolition Man” video game, filmmakers are now trying to amass this footage during regular production schedules.

On the studio front, Viacom New Media is releasing video game versions of Paramount Television’s “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and the short-lived “Viper.” And other entertainment giants such as Sony, Walt Disney and Time Warner have set up interactive divisions in-house.

“A lot of creative people--directors, actors, musicians, writers--are interested in working in the medium,” says Dan Adler, a Creative Artists agent specializing in new media. “Though there’s always some resistance to change, as artists they’re intrigued by the promise of another canvas on which to work.”

Still, the new technology also poses a new set of creative challenges. Shooting actors individually against a “blue screen”--a process through which characters can be superimposed on a variety of backgrounds--can be painstaking and static.

And recording “conversation trees”--multiple versions of scenes to permit for a variety of interactive choices--works against continuity and character development.

Margot Kidder, best known as Lois Lane in the “Superman” movies, says she spent six months just learning how to block and move.

“It really wasn’t acting,” she maintains. “I felt like a frog leaping over moats in those video games since everything was motivated by computer logic. Interactive movies are a fascinating way of working without compromising your morality while you wait for parts that appeal on an artistic level. But they have too many variables to correspond to the age-old rules of ‘drama.’ ”

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Others in the industry agree, insisting that the “stop-start” nature of the format interrupts the flow and that the public prefers its entertainment spoon-fed. Involving people in video games is well and good, the argument goes, but movies necessitate a suspension of belief.

“People want to be told stories . . . not create them,” says a leading developer of entertainment software. “Even writers find the creative process to be work. When was the last time you read an interactive novel? Technology can’t create new behavior. It just allows existing behavior to happen more readily.”

Tom Zito, president of the San Mateo-based Digital Pictures, acknowledges the hurdles but cautions against judging a product in its infancy. Since 1987, he’s produced 18 interactive movies and, in five years, he predicts, we’ll be seeing interactive news broadcasts, game shows and soap operas as well.

“Comparing an interactive movie to a linear one is like comparing ‘The Kiss’--one of Thomas Edison’s first films--to ‘Sleepless in Seattle,’ ” says Zito, whose outfit just signed contracts with the Directors Guild and SAG. “When CD-ROM hardware becomes more available, our budgets will go up and we’ll attract A-list talent. For now, though, we can’t spend more than $2 million to $3 million--the price of a TV movie--on a project if we’re interested in making a profit.”

The challenge, according to SAG, is helping the fledgling industry to fly while protecting the legal and financial interests of its membership. No likenesses can be used without authorization. Actors must command a decent wage. Currently, the contract specifies that a performer gets $485 for an eight-hour day plus 12.65% for pension and health benefits. As the industry matures, the union suggests, residuals and royalties based on unit sales should be part of the package.

In part, the growth of the market is linked to CD-ROM hardware, currently available in 3% to 4% of American homes--far behind the 62% that subscribe to cable and the 77% that own VCRs. Still, industry analysts expect the number to soar now that the cost of upgrading a computer with a sound board and CD-ROM drive is less than $200 (down from over $1,000 three years ago) and the hardware is included in most new computers.

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Nearly twice as many American households had CD-ROMs this year compared to 1993, according to the market research firm Dataquest. That figure should more than double by 1996.

“The technology is changing every day--and that’s what’s scary,” says Frank Loverme, executive director of CD-ROM sales at WEA Manufacturing, a Time Warner company. “Five years from now, watching ‘Under a Killing Moon’ will look like ‘Superman’ in the ‘50s. Part of the frontier mentality is that no one knows what’s going on. There are no rules. No one is sharing information. Everyone has his own agenda--and the person who guesses right will win.”

“Killing Moon’s” Chris Jones is optimistic, nonetheless. “Sure it’s a bit of a high-wire act, but much less so than when we started two years ago,” he says. “We threw out the floppy (disc), closed our eyes, and bet that (CD-ROM) technology would drive the marketplace. It was the smartest thing we could have done.”