VOA慢速英语--Tell the Actors What to Do in Your Next Movie

 

The Netflix experiment began with movie-watchers choosing a character’s morning cereal.

Soon, Netflix may be letting viewers choose everything from the best on-screen romance to the safest path to escape a killer¹.

The world’s largest online streaming service wants to try out more interactive³ entertainment, following great feedback from its recent groundbreaking episode of “Black Mirror.” The episode was called “Bandersnatch.” It let users make decisions at many important – and not-so-important – moments.

The company is looking for ways to include choices in different kinds of movies, from comedy to horror to romance, said Todd Yellin. He is Netflix’s vice² president of product.

“Why can’t you have a romantic title where you get to choose who she goes out with?” Yellin said. “Or horror titles. Should you walk through that door, or should you dive out that window and get the heck out of there? You can make the choice.”

In “Bandersnatch,” the first decision viewers could make was what the main character ate for breakfast.

The idea was to give viewers a simple choice at first, so they could become familiar with the technology. A viewer uses a remote or pushes on the screen to make their choice. If the viewer does not choose, the movie just keeps playing.

The breakfast scene became an Internet sensation when “Bandersnatch” came out last December.

“Like many of you, I got addicted⁴ to ‘Bandersnatch’ and trying to figure out what’s the significance of the cereal, and not just the cereal, all the different options,” Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings said.

After the cereal decision, viewers selected choices such as the kind of music a character would play or whether the character would jump off a building.

Hastings said “Bandersnatch” gave Netflix programmers valuable information. They were able to better understand how long people want to participate with interactive programming, and how many choices they might want to make.

When viewers can change what happens in a story, they feel deeply close to the character, Yellin said. That is why Yellin wants to try this way of moviemaking in other stories. “Horror is life and death situations constantly,” he said. And in romances, “the emotional stakes are high.”

Yellin said the effort is still in the early part of development. Hastings said he does not predict that interactive entertainment will replace traditional storytelling.

“I don’t know if I would do it every day,” Hastings said, “but as part of my viewing, it’s pretty exciting.”

Netflix already has produced a few interactive shows for children. Yellin said young people have seemed to quickly like the idea.

“Kids don’t have established rules,” he said. “They assume that’s the way the world should be and they’ll try it.”

I’m Jill Robbins.

Words in This Story

character - n. a person who appears in a story, book, play, movie, or television show

cereal - n. a breakfast food made from grain

viewer - n. a person who watches television

interactive – n. designed to respond to the actions, commands, etc., of a user

streaming – adj. playing continuously as data is sent to a computer over the Internet

addicted – adj. unable to stop using a harmful substance (such as a drug)?

go out with – idiomatic⁵ expression. to have a romantic relationship, esp. one that includes going places together

title -n. a book or movie with a particular title that is produced by a publisher

stakes – n. something (such as money or love) that you could win or lose in a game, contest, etc

established adj. accepted and used by many people

replace - v. to be used instead of (something)

assume - v. to think that something is true or probably true without knowing that it is true

1 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

4 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

5 idiomatic   

adj.成语的，符合语言习惯的

参考例句：

• In our reading we should always be alert for idiomatic expressions.我们在阅读过程中应经常注意惯用法。
• In his lecture,he bore down on the importance of idiomatic usage in a language.他在演讲中着重强调了语言中习惯用法的重要性。