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We were provided a week ago with a glimpse of all the spectacle and novelty of Black Mirror’s standalone film, Bandersnatch. Aside from the frills and ruffles this film has, this article deviates into its production and mechanics - how it has made Netflix birth a film where the viewers are...
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How does Bandersnatch work?
We were provided a week ago with a glimpse of all the spectacle and novelty of Black Mirror’s standalone film, Bandersnatch. Aside from all its hype from being a Black Mirror (which, in turn, is famous for its depiction of the dark and satiric turns the digital age can take) installment, this film also presents an avant-garde form of storytelling. It involves a choose-your-own-adventure theme where you dictate where the story turns, basically having free reins on the manipulation of the protagonist, Stefan Butler (played by Fionn Whitehead). Aside from the frills and ruffles Bandersnatch has, this article deviates into its production and mechanics – how it has made Netflix birth a film where the viewers are agents of the narrative.
Written by Charlie Brooker, Bandersnatc h is an interactive film where you are given two choices every turning point of the story. The film allots 10 seconds for answering, else the plot will pick up on the default choice that has been programmed. It starts with the most harmless options of what cereal Stefan should eat or what album he should listen to. This is a way of playing along with the concept of its interactivity until the plot thickens and you have to choose between burying your dead father, or dismembering him.
Metastructural and metafictional workings of Bandersnatch
Bandersnatch also celebrates this freedom where there isn’t really a correct ending for Stefan among the 5 possible ones. It takes about 90 minutes for the default path to run, and about two hours and a half to actually interact with its choices.
The film also plays along with the concept of metafiction where he, himself eventually becomes aware that there is a Netflix user controlling him, even to the point of breaking the grounds of his own storyworld and permeating to the reality of the viewer. Freedom, and control with chances are also some of the hints Colin Ritman (played by Will Poulter), a character in the film, has played along. These hints were one of the highlights of the film’s metastructure. Whether these hints refer to a metaphysical control in their own world, or to that of the viewers’, the boundaries separating Bandersnatch ’s world and ours have become blurred. Just as there is a level of meaning within the create-your-own-adventure game Stefan designs, controlled by the conditions of Stefan’s world within the film, and another layer for the viewers’ that control the entire narrative, the film leaves a lasting question whether there is also a larger, and more omniscient level that controls our reality.
How was Bandersnatch created?
The film’s unique mode of storytelling highly complements with its main idea of an individual’s agency to everything he does. As Stefan in the film speculates about this with regard to his game and his life, the viewers also become involved in the plot as puppeteer.
Aside from the philosophical musings of the film, there are also complex grounds with regard to the film’s production.
Our take on programming
Since the film explores a create-your-own-adventure theme, it will also involve a complex, non-linear plot sequence. Its creators, Charlie Rooker and Annabel Jones were said to begin by plotting the sequences using Post-it notes. Because it has been ever extending as they explore different possibilities, they moved to a whiteboard. Eventually, they used a programming tool called Twine to weave the ever-growing sequence of the film together. This program is used to design video games with the same multiple story branches.
The production is not as simple as a matter of if-then binaries. As the plot goes on, its system must also “remember” all the choices you have made, and all the sequences it has gone through. Playing the film will have multiple buffers because of the density of these processes. To solve this, Netflix has created a new device that helps with the memory technology of the film. Because of the “state trafficking” feature, the viewers enjoy a seamless flow of play. Netflix Director of Product Innovation Carla Engelbrecht Fisher explained: "Because of the state tracking, we are now getting into such a level of permutations that there could be 16 or more videos that are potentially relevant for your situation. We've built elegant decision-making into the tools where we only load the videos that are relevant, rather than trying to load everything at once.”
The verdict
Netflix, along with Brooker, also developed an internal tool called Branch Managed. This allows smooth input and delivery of the creator’s evolving script to Netflix.
Every chunk making up the non-linear narrative of the film is just as necessary. Even if it is non-linear, a single illogical sequence will affect the complex, yet tightly-knit plot.
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