Delve into movies with interactive DVD
By Anthony Breznican
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — If you didn't like Baz Luhrmann's hyperactive direction of "Moulin Rouge," the filmmaker invites you to try assembling some of those scenes yourself.
Interactivity is the latest fashion in DVD entertainment, with filmmakers and studios allowing viewers unprecedented ways to tinker with movies.
The DVD release of Luhrmann's tuneful romance features three dance numbers that allow the viewer to toggle between multiple camera angles — essentially editing the segments together as they watch.
"It's a vision-switch technique that I think really gives the viewer the feeling of making those editing choices," Luhrmann said. "What I like about DVD is that you can finally do things like that and allow the audience into our backstage life."
Computers with DVD players allow numerous interactive possibilities. And in the future, this technology may enable fans to remove all profanity from a movie, change endings or line readings or even add an image of themselves to certain scenes.
On the "Shrek" DVD, a program called ReVoice Studio allows anyone with a computer microphone to perform the voices for the misanthropic ogre Shrek, his blabbermouth pal Donkey, feisty Princess Fiona and diminutive villain Lord Farquaad. Then the program synchronizes what you've recorded to scenes from the movie.
It's a kind of movie karaoke that supplants the original voices of stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow.
Children's DVDs were among the first to incorporate interactive features, but most had only low-tech trivia games and Web site links. But family movies like "Shrek" and "Cats & Dogs" are still pushing the limits of interactivity.
"Older audiences were traditionally more interested in just the film, while younger audiences wanted ways to play around," said Paul Hemstreet, a Warner Home Video executive.
But as the DVD format's popularity grows, interest is spreading to all ages, he added.
Hemstreet supervised the "Cats & Dogs" DVD, which includes a program that allows the viewer to upload pictures of their own cat or dog into a computer and paste Fluffy or Frisky into a still shot from the comedy.
"It's like the animal version of sticking your head through one of those cutouts at a carnival or funhouse," Hemstreet said.
Interactivity has now become a staple in mainstream films such as "Moulin Rouge," "Final Fantasy," "Hannibal" and the remake of "Planet of the Apes."
The digitally animated sci-fi epic "Final Fantasy" incorporates a program called Shuffler that enables the viewer to rearrange shots in a critical scene from the movie — when scientists are debating an attack on a phantom alien force.
"That scene worked best for Shuffler because it's all running dialogue," said Steve Mendel, a project director on the "Final Fantasy" DVD. "You can't do that with a lot of the action scenes because changing it around wouldn't make sense, but amazingly the dialogue in this scene makes sense in many different configurations."
Interactive multi-angle sequences aren't easy to create, however.
"To do it right, you need total access to the original dailies," said Charles de Lauzirika, who produced the "Hannibal" DVD. "Otherwise, the timing of the shots won't match up and you get visual gibberish."
He succeeded in creating a multi-angle breakdown of an FBI shoot-out from the "Hannibal' because he was able to secure raw footage of the scene shot simultaneously from numerous different cameras.
