Customer Reviews

Point of View

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For over a decade now, countless companies and people have risked their careers to create interactive movies. Many of these merely asked the viewer(s) what they wanted to see next in the way of action or dialogue responses. Some garnished mild acclaim (Silent Steel) while many others merely disappeared along with their chance for profitability (I'm Your Man). The latest addition to these, Point of View, works hard to give the viewer a unique and compelling experience, but still manages to get trapped by some of the common pitfalls of interactive media. Now before we get to POV's strengths and weaknesses, it's necessary to examine how far projects like these have come. Interactive Movies first began to popup before the advent of CD-ROM for computers. Projects along the lines of interactive movies have attempted to tackle every media/audience that could handle their technical requirements. So during the late 80's many arcade players were treated to the likes of Don Bluth's Dragon's Lair & Space Ace games, along with the video shooter Mad Dog McCree. In the early 90's some theatres around the country were wired for relatively short interactive comedies like Mr. Payback and Ride For Your Life. These asked the audience to vote on a selection and then the winning choice played. Overall however these experiments in the feasibility of interactive features ended in failure, only resulting in expensive equipment costs and low returns. Jump forward now about five years and the invention of the DVD. Boasting superior audio & video quality, the DVD format was designed from the ground up for interactivity and whatever technological changes could come up. Enter Rob Landeros and David Wheeler, fresh off of making The 11th Hour, the sequel to the widely popular 7th Guest CD-ROM game. The two formed a new company, Aftermath Media, and set to work on developing a new interactive project. This turned out to be the award-winning Tender Loving Care. Feature length with multiple endings and alternate scenes, it also featured a new approach to the user's interaction with the story. Rather than directly asking, TLC compiled the plot based on psychological quizzes that asked the user to interpret character motivation along with personal questions about faith and intimacy. Even with this highly original use of the DVD medium, the story of TLC played out like a soap-opera/soft-core porn with somewhat gratuitous scenes of sex and nudity. Also aside from John Hurt in a supporting role, it featured no big name talent. Landeros and Wheeler in association with their new Canadian production company Digital Circus now bring us their newest offering: Point of View. Blending the interactive approach of TLC with a story along the lines of Hitchcock, POV moves in to make up for the faults of TLC's tempo using a much more sinister plot of obsession and murder. The story of Point of View revolves around Jane, an attractive artist who lives alone in an apartment with a secret past and becomes infatuated with a man living across the street, Frank. Jane's best friend, Mary, also is growing close to a pen-pal that she has been talking to in the local personal ads. Jane gets mistaken for Mary at a meeting and soon she has a strange character by the name of Peter following her. The plot of POV is much more complex than TLC, primarily due to the multiple plot lines moving at once whereas Tender Loving Care was primarily a 3 person show. Still, the story includes different scenes dealing with lesbian sex, voyeuristic sex, and the romantic advances of multiple characters. Although done much more tastefully, these sections do have a late night Cinimax feel to them and have the potential to turn away those looking for a serious movie. However, it is surprising that even without a name like John Hurt, the acting talent in Point of View does quite well. Frank, who at first looks like just another guy waiting to be discovered by Aaron Spelling, takes what could have been a two dimensional character and turns him into a fairly interesting and friendly guy. The actress who plays Jane also does a good job of being intriguing while at the same time showing us her inner-pain. Definitely a very solid cast. One of the major differences between Point of View and TLC is that it was shot in DV, not filmed. It is disappointing because this makes the picture look less than professional, especially with the amount of shaky camera movement. Added to this a couple scenes where there was a kind of interlacing problem (I did verify that this wasn't my player), one can't help but notice that this isn't a big-budget feature, removing the viewer from a truly engrossing experience. The interactive "interludes" between the chapters of POV are very similar as well to Tender Loving Care, but also quite different. The viewer is still asked a series of questions about the plot, it's characters, and personal opinions of sexuality, but the exploration has been dumbed down. In TLC, a major part, if the viewer wished to take the time away from the movie, was to explore a virtual representation of the home where the scenes took place. You could look at diaries and get more info as to the intentions of the characters. In POV, this has been modified to where you just examine specific objects and hear short testimonials from the major characters of the finished chapter. This section of the disc really works much better than it did in TLC where you wouldn't really know where the important items were, and the monologues are better integrated, more like an aside during a stage performance. So what can be said about Point of View and the future of interactive movies on DVD? POV does represent a another step in the right direction and improves on the approach used in TLC. Also, there's no doubt that Digital Circus/Aftermath Media has great potential in interactive movie making. Still, Point of View falls somewhere short of being a thriller that the masses will enjoy, ending up more like DePalma's Body Double than Hitchcock's Rear Window.

Point of View or "POV" is a truly innovative art-house movie from Canada that makes intriguing use of the interactive capabilities of the DVD medium. It easily succeeds in providing an absorbing entertainment experience for thoughtful viewers that transcends its relatively low budget.

All aspects of the storyline revolve around POV's central character, Jane Bole, a beautiful introverted and seductive artist/cleaning lady, played brilliantly by Stefanie von Pfetten, who gradually recovers her self-confidence in romantic matters as she strives to come to terms with a dark incident in her past - a traumatic event which she justifiably fears may soon be repeated. Jane's bizarre requited romance with across the street neighbour, musician/paperboy Frank (Chris Bradford), provides plenty of opportunities for fantasising, mild eroticism and the building up of a strong aura of tantalising mystery and considerable sexual tension as Frank warily but persistently tries to unveil the reasons behind her mysteriousness.

During the course of the movie, a surprisingly wide variety of adult themes are at least touched upon. Particularly prominent is the theme of big-city loneliness and alienation that can lead to odd and obsessive behaviour. Others include issues of female beauty and attractiveness and the problems that can cause. Most inspiring is the theme of facing up to one's past and coming to terms with one's fears so that retreat from the world is no longer a viable or desirable option. Themes are all explored by excellent acting and skilful, sensitive directing, thereby negating the need for any nudity or excessive sexual activity.

Viewers are pulled into all these developments by becoming active participants in deciding upon some directions the storyline will take and by other interesting methods that all but preclude traditional passive attention. For example, at the end of each of POV's first eleven chapters, viewers are asked several multiple choice questions based upon their personal opinions on the characters and themes portrayed in the scenes they have just watched. Most questions are quite relevant, but those with less relevance are still valuable to get the viewer to think deeper about the themes in the story and thus get them more emotionally involved in the developments. Depending upon one's responses, some future scenes are omitted, modified or added. Furthermore, the end of most chapters also includes bonus material which provides further depth to the storyline in the form of static pictures of the character's personal papers and other belongings, and brief visual segments where select characters speak their innermost thoughts directly to the camera. Different viewings of POV can result in slightly different plotlines. Complete viewings can take anywhere from two to four hours each and one's "games" may be saved/reloaded using a special code shown on screen.

Director/writer David Wheeler has considerably surpassed his earlier work, "Tender Loving Care", here in many respects. He filmed POV in digital video using minimal artificial lighting, thereby providing a clear, realistic look for the entire production, a large percentage of which was filmed at night. Significant artistic use is made of black and white video, mainly to indicate flashbacks or at least scenes where Jane is somehow reminded of her dark past. Where appropriate, stills and slow motion are used in certain scenes. Wheeler set and filmed POV in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, and it shows - wide angled shots of downtown and other areas are presented and actual locations rather than film sets were used wherever possible.

Complementing all movie scenes is the highly memorable, varied and appropriate musical score and songs by local Vancouver musicians Payton Rule and jefreejon. They can even be seen as characters in one nightclub scene. Some scenes contain little or no dialogue, so their music and song combined with the superb acting and directing can lead one to see such scenes as well-designed music videos as well as vital plot enhancements. These types of scenes tend to be concentrated in the first half of the movie, the latter half containing many dialogue heavy scenes that last for several minutes with little or no music.

Topping off this magnificent DVD are a couple of bonus extras: a trailer and a "making of" special. The trailer uses mainly the song/music from chapter one of the movie and provides a useful overview of what to expect without spoiling too much. Conversely, the "making of", while extremely interesting, has been oddly placed, allowing those who have not completed the movie in full at least once to view it. Those who want to avoid several spoilers should avoid watching it for as long as possible. The "making of" provides a personal, often quaint and amusing overview of the reality behind POV. Both the cast and crew get screen-time and the director provides the overall focus for this special. Seeing Stefanie von Pfetten's real-life personality is the real highlight of the special and she is to be highly commended for her attitudes.

Failings in POV are not easy to find. If one had to be picky, one could say that: some movie scenes contain unexplained lines across the screen; there are some relatively rare misspellings and grammatical errors in the text; the storyline is not as customisable as it might be and contains some minor inconsistencies; and that the "making of" special is inappropriately placed on the disc, but these errors are so trivial compared to POV's positive points as to be barely worth a mention.

Overall, Point of View is an outstanding, innovative contribution to the DVD medium that this reviewer is honoured to have in his DVD collection and is recommended to any mature person who likes to think and interact with intelligent movies.

My Rating? 9.5 out of 10!

I didn't know what to expect when I bought this, but was surprised to find that I loved it. It's the type of movie where you control what the characters do. You answer lots of questions after watching every 15 minutes. The questions can be answered via your dvd remote and are simple and sometimes hilarious questions. A great way to pass the time and awesome actors, actresses. I highly recommend if you are looking for something new and fun to do. :)

You are sitting in a movie theater and, while you are viewing the film, you think to yourself, 'What would happen if...?'. The team at Digital Circus have once again attempted to bring us a truly interactive movie experience with no expense spared in any area of development. It is fair to say that 'Tender Loving Care' (the previous interactive movie available through DVD International) set the bar quite high for this 'new' experience in entertainment, so how does 'Point of View' stand up against its predecessor? Point of view is about a woman, Jane, who has had trauma in her life. She takes an interest in a young musician who lives across from her which ultimately results in a chain of events that the viewer will determine. Like TLC the film is aimed at adults and is guaranteed to have you on the edge of your seat as you delve into the unknown. It is fair to say that elements of TLC have been changed in this film. Firstly, the questions at the end of each time block are fewer than TLC, but I think it works in keeping the pace of story moving. Secondly, the story is given greater depth and clarity through the clever scriptwriting and the great acting by all cast members - each path is distinct from the others (with the viewers choice, of course). Technically, the disc is almost perfect - menu's are clear and easy to navigate, material is available at the end of each chapter to examine the story in more depth, and the save game/movie function remains the same from TLC. There is really only two complaints about the technical aspect of the DVD. Firstly, at times the video quality changes to a very grainy image, and secondly, the soundtrack, while it is extremely well presented, does tend to overpower the actors voices in some sections. But I am really grasping for negatives because the DVD is almost perfect in construction. Like TLC, I was again glued to the screen for the entire length of the movie. One aspect that has changed between the two is the length of the film (at least it felt this way). TLC was originally a CD-ROM game and as such it contained a lot of interactivity as the movie went on. The developers of POV have this time opted to keep it at about a movie length and a half. This works much better because the actual purpose of watching a movie is to have it completed by an hour and a half or three hours at the most. POV does work well in this way and the story is still as in depth as most other films out there today. A great addition to the DVD is the inclusion of behind the scenes material which was quite interesting as a supplement. But don't watch it before you have seen the film as there are spoilers within! As a prediction, I am sure we will see lots of the two main characters, Jane and Frank, in the future. These two young stars really portray their characters convincingly. You will need to see the film to see what I mean. For those that have experienced TLC before, you will not be disappointed with 'Point of View'. With a smart and intense thriller, performed by some great new talent, you really cannot go wrong. It just makes you wonder what the team will think of next to capitalise on this effort. With DVD technology constantly evolving in today's market I can see the interactive movie becoming the way of the future. Just remember, when you think of 'interactive movie' think, 'Point of View'. Enjoy!

I bought this dvd because I have been a big fan of other interactive dvds such as Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and Tender Loving Care. This dvd lived up to my expectations.

It is definitely and improvement from the company's previously released titled "Tender Loving Care". Point of View is more interesting, and the dvd is the appropriate length. It will only take you about 2 hours to view the dvd from start to finish and make all of your choices.

The acting is fairly good, and I found that I was engrossed in the story from start to finish. The only complaint I have is that I am skeptical about how much my choices REALLY influence the storyline. I have went through the movie twice making different choices each time. The only difference was the ending scene. All other scenes were the same. That was a little disappointing.

One other thing to mention is that Point of View deals with mature themes. The questions that you are asked to answer are quite personal. So don't expect to view this with a big group of friends.

Still, very much worth the purchase. I hope for more movies like this in the future.

Just a small note to add to others' reviews: I'd say that the promise of interactivity adds to the movie more than its *actual* interactivity. I saw the film twice, the second time giving ridiculously different answers to the tests, and I got back to the very same ending. However, the possibility of exploring interviews with the characters and extra clues enhanced the experience of the film very much, and way beyond its actual movie-of-the-week merits. A nice experience, but one is left wondering how better it could have gotten (and look forward to a further and bolder experiment in storytelling).

Having played Tender Loving Care three separate times over the past few years, I was very excited when Point Of View arrived in the mail today. Unfortunately, POV failed to live up to what TLC provided.

The story is not nearly as compelling as I was hoping, certainly not up to TLC. When not focused on sex like an inebriated college student the story holds up reasonably well, though must be accepted for what it is.

The acting, dialogue, and writing were mediocre to passable, never bad enough to make me want to stop playing but never good enough to get me completely immersed.

Technically, POV was very disappointing. Where the plot would seem to lend itself to a more gritty film-noir feel, the harsh and uber-clean digital format stood in stark contrast.

Also, the activities in-between scenes were a distinct disappointment, particularly when compared to TLC. Where TLC gave the viewer the freedom to explore the areas seen in the video, and pulled the viewer more deeply into the characters and story, POV merely shows some images and videos (which sometime don't even coincide with what was just watched).

Still, it's hard for me to hate POV. While it will likely do nothing more than collect dust on my shelf until i resell it to make room for something else, it's an attempt at something that deserves more attention than it currently gets.

So if, like me, you enjoy full motion video games, then you ought to give POV a shot. Otherwise, just get TLC and play it twice.

The acting leaves a little to be desired. Combined with the natural lighting, it gives a very "student theatre" or "80's movie" feel to it. Also, unlike "Tender Loving Care," POV's questions are overt. Because of this, most people will have the same ending.

The soundtrack, though, does lend strength to the movie.

This interactive movie is a lot of fun...If you liked Tender Loving Care, you'll love this one. The characters are really interesting, and you'll be eager to see what happens next! Check this one out!