I LOVE actors…

Maybe for all the wrong reasons?

Mainly because I could not do what they do and I’m jealous of their work in the abandonment of reality – that has to be ALL wrong, right!??

But hey, I have a good rapport with those who I do work with, and we have produced some great work together. I’ve worked with some absolute diamond thespians in my time.

My favourite is an old friend, Neil Bell – I’ve known him 25 years and worked with him a dozen times or more.

And when I came up with the idea of a doppelganger FMV game called “Clive is a Good Guy” he was my first choice to play the main role. (He took some convincing as he’s somewhat in ascendancy these days… getting good roles in Dune, Andor, Peaky Blinders, Enola Holmes and many more big films and TV shows.)

Acting for the small screen

The reason I’m drawing attention to Neil is because when we were discussing making this game, for smartphones, he was the one who brought up distractibility. And he was right to do so. He was thinking about the audience. And how we should deal with the fact that they would be pulled out of the story experience to answer calls, check notifications and do anything else their phone might throw at them to put them off our game.

Which led me to double down on that problem and figure out ways to make coming back to the game, as attractive as possible – possibly even more fun than anything else in the game!

That came from Neil, the actor, not thinking about how to deliver his performance, but how the audience would receive it.

Good eh?

(Ahem, I take credit only for surrounding myself with extremely smart people!)

Shooting Interactive

The shoot was intensive – 5 days in a 180 degree greenscreen studio where the only thing the actor can riff off or respond to are the words on the page. Here’s part of an interview in which Neil talks about the shoot:

We never really discussed too much what the performance should entail. Neil watched the interactive demo’s of video tests with me in shots from the front and side. I was confident he would GET IT… but you never know until you’re in the cutting room do you?

He saw straight away from the demo that these characters would have to connect to the audience via the performance and the close up shot of the face onscreen, and he didn’t let us down.

The human face – up close and personal…

Fascinating really. The 750+ clips we’re using in the game require absolute authenticity and honesty in the performance.

No artifice, all truth, all in.

I made a promise to Neil. If we sell a million copies of this game I’ll buy him a gold plated wheel barrow – to carry his ample “talent” around in!

What’s the strangest thing you ever saw in the mirror?

To follow progress of this highly unusual interactive story game, you can get updates at the Clive is a Good Guy website.