ROFFEKE: In your www.fabrica-do-terror.com interview, you say that at first, Afterlink "was supposed to be an interactive film, and we'd still like to try to make it. It's possible with the technology we have now. The idea would be for the person to be able to access scenes from the film that were cut, talk to the actors in real time, access certain content that the viewer only knows exists through the Easter eggs that we hide in the film. The goal would be for us to build a community of sci-fi and horror through this real-time interaction with the audience." You also mention that "Heather Pettit, who works in video games, created our ghost." If you were to make a video game of Afterlink, what would be the objective of the game, the game mechanics, etc?
CATARINA: The computer in our film is a window to connect with the audience, and symbolically, our soul. After Link was supposed to be an interactive film where the User would watch the film in a browser (hopefully connected to the internet), and the whole page would be the film seen from the other side of the computer (not just a screener).
We shot the whole film from two perspectives: the cinematic and the interior of the computer, so we could have a film for theatrical exhibition and also another one for the digital world.
Inside the computer, there are these files where you could interact with and find scientific research that explains a bit more of the plot and the possibility of parallel dimensions, inter-existing within the web and spiritual theories of our soul, as well as access to behind the scenes. We also left a few easter-eggs you should find based on what was happening on the other side of the computer to open certain computer files. Finally, a bottom text bar would also be available to write directly to the characters, David and Marta. We’ve recorded 360º of our cast to use exclusively for this film where keywords, prompts and a.i. would be used for their facial expressions.
In After Link, Marta and David encounter a ‘ghost’ which is never explained if it is an error in the code, an A.I. trying to gain consciousness or the actual soul of a girl who Marta knows committed suicide in their last year of University and could be following them/ living or stuck throughout the web.
In the interactivity version, you (the user) are the real ones talking to David and Marta, who you would see typing, but the one replying would be A.I. in a way to ask the world this simple question: Is technology becoming more like us, or is it us becoming like them?
Unfortunately, we did not get enough funding to pay software engineers in order to finalise the interactive version of the film. Anyone who would like to embark on that, please feel free to send us a message via Instagram or Facebook: @afterlinkofficial
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