Griffin McElroy did an interview with Phillip Van for Joystiq. Phillip, the director and co-writer of Bright Falls, shed some light on a few popular questions fans have been asking.
He talks a bit about pitching his idea through the company Little Minx. Apparently he and Agency 215 (who set up the project) had very similar ideas and were a natural fit for one another. After constructing an outline and writing a treatment, he talks about his presentation for the pitch.
I’m from Oregon, and I was able to include a photo series and a bunch of footage that I shot, some of which made it into the final cut — wide establishing shots, things like that. It just gave a greater sense of my vision for things. UPDATE: He’s likely talking about this video – Phillip Van Bright Falls Atmosphere Video
Phillip goes on to talk about filming the series in Oregon and Washington and the problems they encountered along the way.
One of the focuses of the interview is the relationship between Bright Falls and Alan Wake. He addresses support from Remedy (the company responsible for the game) and the ways the series functions apart from the game itself – is Bright Falls self contained, will the game add to it, etc.
Apparently the series ends with some intentionally unanswered questions. Phillip views Bright Falls as it’s own work, but not it’s own story. It’s something that viewers really will need to play the game after if they want all the answers. While many have suspected this, fans have been quick to squeeze Bright Falls for every last detail. Van thinks this is the way to go:
What I really love to see, and have seen already is the in-depth thought on details of the series. We really try to design everything to mean something. There’s not a lot that we placed in the series incidentally. I think the way I’ve seen Wake fans reading into the series is really encouraging, and totally in line with the kind of investigation that we were hoping for when we conceived it. It’s awesome to see. It’s really reassuring, and it reminds me that these are some of the greatest fans out there. You can’t get a better fan base than a video game fan base. They investigate everything and read into every detail, and it’s awesome.
Joystiq asks about the potential for future Bright Falls or Alan Wake related content as well, although it’s probably to early to consider any of that.