Motto: "A cheerful ghost story" from tiny video clips
Motto is called an "interactive novella" and takes users on a quest for a missing ghost called September. The format is simple: the text is placed over short, user-generated video clips from rivers and aquariums to people's pets.
Observers tap through the different parts of the story, which can be experienced on smartphones and is divided into several chapters, which last around an hour in total. On the way, they respond to the request to contribute their own clips to the story.
Motto encourages users to film themselves, wiggle their toes, turn on a light and, among other things, open and close a door to transform the story into a kind of self-made scavenger hunt. If you are concerned about privacy, you can be sure that all faces are hidden. These clips are then recorded along with other people's footage in later parts of the story.
"I wanted to investigate another way of participating," the director told CR. “An interactivity with the real world. A contribution that makes sense. "
The whole experience is strangely meditative, especially when it comes to sections where other countries and landscapes occur – although that may just be the lockdown speech. "The actual context in which we are stuck at home gives the piece even more resonance," says Morisset, who has been working on the project for three years.
The work is the latest from Morisset (who previously created groundbreaking interactive films for Arcade Fire and his own personal art projects) on behalf of the National Film Board of Canada, which has made a name for supporting digital and interactive projects in addition to traditional ones .
It's easy to go through motto and do the tasks of interactive film. It is very gratifying if you send these video clips back to you unexpectedly later. The motto is clearly inspired by the addictive social media scroll, but it's interesting to see what happens when the format is narrated and shaped in this way.
Credits:
Directed by Vincent Morisset
Author: Sean Michaels
Editor: Caroline Robert
Developed by AATOAA and produced by the National Film Board of Canada
motto.io; aatoaa.com