Andy: And your newly released Mystery at Mansfield Manor — what is it? What's it all about?
Rory: Mystery at Mansfield Manor is an online interactive murder mystery movie. Some people have described it as a combination of Clue and a choose-your-own adventure. Essentially the user takes on the role of the protagonist, Detective Frank Mitchell, and must solve the crime before the midnight deadline.
Andy: Why did you choose to make Mystery at Mansfield Manor an online title? What benefits do releasing the game in this form have over, say, releasing it as a DVD that people could buy on a store shelf?
Rory: The most significant advantage is that you do not have to concern yourself with distribution. Anyone, anywhere, at any time can visit the website and play the movie/game. Another advantage is that the threat of DVD piracy is not a concern. But most importantly, films today all rely on their opening weekend. If it fails in its opening weekend, it is more likely that the film will not be an overall success. Because MMM is a website, it has more of a ‘bell-curve’ approach where it will slowly build its audience, reach its peak, then slowly decline over time. Also, another advantage is email forwarding. Several websites become popular because friends email their friends a link and those people keep forwarding the email. I am hoping people will forward the link to Mystery At Mansfield Manor to their friends and it keeps going like the Energizer bunny.
Andy: I've been playing this for quite some time and I must say it's thoroughly engrossing, and it really goes to show how versatile Macromedia Flash is when creating online content - especially with the game's multiple endings - but I'm sure creating an interactive product such as this must be quite a lengthy, tricky process. How long did it take to make, and what obstacles did you face in writing and producing it?
Rory: We filmed MMM in March and the website was officially launched on July 19. Most of these questions are answered in the documentary in the Bonus Materials section. It’s funny because I filmed the documentary with my friend’s digital camera that has an option to create MPEGs. That goes to show you how small the budget was. Then I edited it with Windows Movie Maker, the basic editing software that comes with Windows XP. But I want to stress that the film was completed with high quality cameras as I hired a production company for MMM. The difference between MMM and the documentary is night and day.
Article comments
1 - Matt Paprocki
Man, someone must have given you superb advice on how to do interviews... wonder who that was?
Interesting concept though. I'm surprised he wasn't familiar with the FMV concept though. That almost seems like a neccesity to do something like this.
2 - Andrew Ogier
Yeah thanks for your valued input on interview advice Matt, and a few other Blogcritics members helped with some very valuable tips as well, which I took on board and (hopefully) will be evident in this interview. This was the first interview I've ever done, and I'm just lucky I got a pleasant person to interview to start me off.
3 - Matt Paprocki
Who else will you be interviewing on this project?
4 - Andrew Ogier
I've got two of the actors' interviews here that I'm just finalising for BC. I've got Tim Beresford - who plays Colin Mansfield Jr, and I've also got Lindsey Frazier, who plays Nicole Edmunds.
I have the interviews almost ready for uploading. so keep your eyes frosty :D