The movie is called
The Moment and it is set to receive its world premiere at the Sheffield DocFest on 7 June 2018. According to the
BBC's Jen Copestake the movie is the "greatest film every made...because it's made by me, using my brain waves." The
strap-line for the movie is: "n a war that takes place in peoples minds, how do you rebel when your thoughts are monitored?"
The
movie process works by each viewer being fitted with a headset (electroencephalogram), with receptors that monitor the wearer's brainwaves. The headset detects firing neurons, which are signals sent by the brain as the view reacts to images seen on the screen. The movie itself is made up of three simultaneous narratives. With these the viewer can dip in and out of each, creating a story that it unique to each viewer. If you happened to see the film with a friend, for the post-movie discussion slot then both of you will be recounting a different film going experience.
The movie is about a future society where brain-computer interfaces are both a source of social threat and potential revelation. In terms of the plot,
the movie's synopsis is: "The very near future. The interface between mind and machine has been perfected. Nano sensors and transmitters find and attach to neurons, this is the Neural Lace. Everyone is Laced. Invisible technology maps each person’s neurons and connects them to everyone else...This has led to an internet of minds called THE MOMENT. A perfect distributed network. But some of these nodes, like all data, are Outliers. And so they are rejected, pushed out of the network by the ‘valid’ minds." The movie tracks two people on the run from this dystopian society.
The scenes are also longer or shorter, depending on the the attention span and interest of each viewer. In all there are over a trillion different possibilities in relation to any given viewing.
The
special interactive film was developed by University of Nottingham Computer Science researcher and Creative Director
Richard Ramchurn.
The movie could lead to a very different type of future entertainment. With the proliferation of wearable sensors this means that adaptive and responsive entertainment experiences are an immediate reality.
