Tobias Weber – Late Shift
[b]Ingmar[/b]: You co-wrote the script with Michael R. Johnson, who also wrote the screenplay for the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie by Guy Ritchie. What was the creative process between you and Michael like?
[b]Tobias[/b]: I’ve known Mike for a very long time; we went to film school together and I always liked his writing style and humour. I came up with the general mechanics of the story and bounced my ideas off him, then I wrote a first draft which he finalised. The result was the script we shot with; I only made a few alterations in the preproduction phase to accommodate the specifics of the locations we would be shooting at. The collaboration was very pleasant and highly professional. You know they say the Swiss are punctual, but it was indeed Mike who delivered on the minute.
[b]Ingmar[/b]: The trailer mentions that Late Shift contains more than four hours of film scenes. What’s the estimated length of one play through?
[b]Tobias[/b]: Actually, one play through of Late Shift is about as long as a traditional movie. Something between 70 and 90 minutes, but it also depends on some of your decisions. If you want to go back to previous chapters to make different choices, you’ll always be able to do so. As you can imagine, it’s impossible to see all content if you only play through Late Shift once. Having said that, you should be able to play the entire game several times without getting bored.
[b]Ingmar[/b]: Did you play adventure games when you grew up? Do you consider them an influence on what you’re doing today?
[b]Tobias[/b]: As a kid I loved “choose your own adventure” books, which enabled you to choose different ways of experiencing a story. Me and my friends also played tabletop roleplaying games like DSA that were rather text-based and required your own imagination. During the ‘90s, however, I played lots of point-and-click adventure games including Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Monkey Island and many others. I really enjoyed them, so it is likely they had a certain influence on me. More importantly, though, I often watched movies, and kept on thinking what choice I would have made in a tricky situation. What if I could have felt the pressure of the protagonist when he or she had to make a considerable decision? What if I could have made that decision on my own? Those thoughts always fascinated me. I was hoping one day people could experience something similar that would take place within a really cool setting.
[b]Ingmar[/b]: It’s kind of funny how often I used to hear that interactive movies are dead. Now you have studios like Quantic Dream and Telltale that – even if their games don’t contain live-action video – are actually pretty successful with doing interactive movies. What’s your take on these developments?
[b]Tobias[/b]: While I’m not a hardcore gamer who finished all these games, I’m well aware of them, and feel like we’re all doing something similar. As you can imagine, I’m very happy about their success. Personally, I believe there’s a space between film and game that can be approached from two different sides. The studios you mentioned approach interactive movies from the perspective of game developers. We, on the other hand, approach it as traditional film makers and try to extend the potential of live-action video, which has its pros and cons. If you’re using CGI to create story-driven games, you have a lot of freedom. Obviously, we don’t have that freedom as we’re using pre-recorded film material. Nevertheless, I believe that nothing can feel as realistic and emotional as real human beings. So, yeah, while there are pros and cons, I think we meet each other somewhere in the middle.
[b]Ingmar[/b]: What you just said about the pros of live-action video reminds me of my interview with the creators of The Bunker. Amongst other things, we also talked about Telltale’s version of Games of Thrones. It was nice seeing some characters from the show in the game, with the original voices. Yet it felt odd to see them as cel-shaded characters, and I just wasn’t able to care about them as much as I do when I watch the HBO series.
[b]Tobias[/b]: Exactly!
[b]Ingmar[/b]: Sitting in front of the TV, and seeing great actors like Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey just has a totally different effect on me.
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