Guys Make Interactive Movie for Adults

Copyright 1998 The Portland Oregonian 

By MIKE FRANCIS of the Oregonian staff 

"Tender Loving Care" has arrived and can be administered through a digital video disc (DVD) player near you. 

For some, this will be the reason to take the plunge into DVD. Ashland-based Aftermath Media promised an engaging, interactive movie for grown-ups, and that's precisely what it's given us. 

The two-person software-movie company has begun shipping a couple of versions of its long-awaited "Tender Loving Care" psychological thriller, starring John Hurt and a cast of lesser-known  actors.  It's available now for $45 on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM from Aftermath's Web site (www.aftermathmedia.com) or by fax or mail from the company. 

The CD-ROM version is more sophisticated than 95 percent of the computer games on the market, but it's still a pallid substitute for DVD, which is the medium for which the movie was made. A DVD-Video version for set-top television play will be available next month. 

What to call "Tender Loving Care"? It's a movie; it's a game; it's a psychological exam. It's like nothing you've tried before, as your own body language will make clear to you. 

Insert the disc, click "Tender Loving Care" and the opening credits begin to roll over a lush Southern Oregon landscape. Lean back, as your years of movie-watching experience have trained you to, and watch John Hurt roll up the long, gravel driveway. Watch passively as he gets out of the car, turns to the camera and delivers a monologue that sets up the unfolding mystery. 

But after a while, you'll find yourself leaning forward, sliding your mouse around its pad, locating and absorbing little surprises hidden on your screen. Click. You're studying the hidden diary of the striving-to-remain-professional Kathryn, the knockout nurse just in from Portland. Click. You're responding to the multiple-choice questions Hurt poses from offscreen. 
 
"Tender Loving Care" is a mystery that's revealing, in every sense. If it were a big-screen movie, it would probably carry an "R" rating. But it wouldn't work on the big screen, because it's a drama produced for an audience of one moviegoer at a time. 
 
"I felt it was a shame that this wonderful gift of interactivity has been limited to the pleasure of computer-game players and excluded, withheld, from the rest of the entertainment-seeking world," said David Wheeler, the Aftermath cofounder who wrote and directed "Tender Loving Care." "Unlike every other so-called interactive movie makers, we created a movie experience and made it interactive as opposed to adding movie content to a computer game." 
 
At Aftermath, Wheeler teamed with Rob Landeros, executive producer and interactive designer of "Tender Loving Care." They both graduated from Medford's Trilobyte, the company that established its reputation by developing the B-movie-styled "The 7th Guest," one of the first hits of the CD-ROM genre. 
 
John Hurt seized the chance to play Dr. Turner, the narrative center of "Tender Loving Care," flying to Southern Oregon for a few days from Africa, where he was filming a big-screen picture. Aftermath Media had virtually no budget for a big-name actor, but Hurt was so intrigued by the promise of new media that he didn't ask for much. 
 
"We've taken the technology developed in the game industry and applied it to a more familiar, easily accessible experience of movie watching," Wheeler said, "And we feel very good about the results."