Fashion
Can an Avatar Display Human Emotion? This Documentary Believes So.
“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” tells a moving narrative by visually recreating a dying player’s relationships within World of Warcraft.
One year and about 30 test screenings into his experimental documentary, Benjamin Ree realized his project was in crisis.
Test audiences said they were lost and unmoved when “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” about a young Norwegian man dying of a degenerative muscle disease who found refuge in the video game World of Warcraft, entered the virtual world.
The documentary initially tracks the story of Mats Steen through traditional interviews with his family and narration from his personal blog posts. Then it pivots to an animated recreation of the game, showing interactions between his avatar, Ibelin, and other players in his gaming guild.
“When we entered animated parts, they said that they just missed being with Mats,” Ree, the director, said of the test audiences. “Then we meet this strangely bearded animated avatar, and then we don’t want to go there.”
It took another year in the editing room before things finally clicked into place. The strategic use of voice-overs and a brief on-screen explainer helped guide viewers into Ibelin’s world and, by extension, Steen’s inner life. But the key breakthrough was centering the first animated scene on Steen’s meeting his online crush in the game for the first time.
