I'm Your Man (film)

I'm Your Man is a 1992 short film which was created to showcase Loews Theatres' interactive cinema technology. Audiences used seat-mounted joysticks to vote between three options in action at six different points throughout the movie.

I'm Your Man
1998 DVD cover
Directed byBob Bejan
Written byBob Bejan, Michael Ian Black, Robert Ben Garant, Jeff Durian, Alisa Tager[1]
StarringKevin Seal, A. Whitney Brown, Mark Metcalf, Colleen Quinn
Music byJoe Jackson
Edited byRutt Video
Production
company
Controlled Entropy Entertainment
Distributed byInterfilm Technologies
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Loews Theatres
Release date
  • December 18, 1992 (1992-12-18)
Running time
20 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$370,000.00

Production

The movie was designed as the first test of Interfilm, Bob Bejan's interactive cinema company. The film was shot on 16mm Kodak film, transferred to LaserDisc, and digitally projected to allow for nearly seamless transitions when audiences made their choices.[2] Acting and direction were less than impressive; the movie was shot over only 6 days, and Bejan did not require a second take of any shot.[3]

In very early roles for both of them, comedy actors Michael Ian Black and Ben Garant appear as background in a party scene.[4]

Distribution

The film premiered in a special theater at the Loews on 19th Street and Broadway in New York City in December 1992.[5][6] Tickets to the 20-minute show were $3, and ticket holders were allowed to stay for as many viewings as they wanted.[3] Retrofitting an existing theater with the necessary voting equipment cost approximately $70,000, and 42 other theaters made the investment in 1993 and 1994.[7] The film—and the interactivity itself—were well received by teens but dismissed by critics and adult moviegoers as being "as gimmicky as three-dimensional glasses or scratch 'n' sniff"[6] and "not like watching a real movie... more like rooting for a basketball team."[8] A common criticism was that moviegoers would use the controls at vacant seats to vote more than once.[6][9] Another concern was that the act of voting took moviegoers out of the story; it was thought that real-time interaction hampered the viewing experience, and engineers began working on an alternative technology that would let users customize movies before viewing began.[10]

Although the format ultimately failed due to lack of marketing and poor audience reception, I'm Your Man was released on DVD on August 18, 1998 as part of a second attempt at interactive video.[11][12]

See also

References
  1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171392/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_wr#writers
  2. "AMC Loews 19th Street East 6".
  3. Grimes, William (January 13, 1993). "When the film audience controls the plot". New York Times.
  4. "I'm Your Man - Full cast and crew". IMDB.
  5. "You make the movie/Interactive film allows audience to decide plot turns". Houston Chronicle. December 18, 1992.
  6. Zonana, Victor F. (December 23, 1992). "This movie requires a pistol grip". Los Angeles Times.
  7. "Rutt Video & Interactive". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
  8. James, C. (February 7, 1993). "Look, Ma, I'm an Auteur!". The New York Times.
  9. "When the film audience controls the plot (pdf version of NYT article)" (PDF).
  10. Davenport, G.; Evans, R.; Halliday, M. "Orchestrating Digital Micromovies" (PDF). Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  11. Bates, Jason (August 12, 1998). "First FMV Games Hit DVD Drives". IGN. Archived from the original on November 17, 1999. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  12. Napoli, L. (August 17, 1998). "Interactive Filmmakers Hope to Make a Comeback". The New York Times.
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