When I was given the opportunity to create an idea for a digital video feature, I felt that rather than resisting the DV medium and pining for film, I should instead embrace the unique opportunities that DV brings, and tell a story that could only be told with this new technology, to create something that could never be achieved on film. 

For years I had been interested in integrating into film the first-person narrative technique that is so successful in the novel form.  Several films have attempted this, most notably (and disastrously) Robert Montgomery's Philip Marlowe caper LADY IN THE LAKE.  Orson Welles had planned his first feature before CITIZEN KANE as a first-person camera vehicle, Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS as literally seen through the eyes of the story's hero, also a Marlowe, by coincidence. 

These films, one made, one only planned for, failed in my estimation because the large, lumbering film cameras of that era were simply not able to recreate the sense of movement that one's everyday experience of life embodies.  But with the advent of light-weight DV cameras, it seemed to me that for the first time in the history of film it was possible to shoot a movie that would feel as light and agile as the movement of a pair of human eyes. 

At the same time as I realized the potential of first-person in DV, I also felt that the newness of this technique would be quite disconcerting to an audience unaccustomed to seeing a story told in this way, from the inside.  Film has always been said to be a voyeuristic medium; at its most intimate it is still about WATCHING THE HERO, and never actually experiencing events through the hero's eyes.  So rather than ignore the problem, I decided to build upon it, creating a story that was at its core about this very sense of displacement. 

Hence we have the tale of Zach Taylor, a young man who has lost his sense of identity and is both literally and abstractly attempting to "see" himself with the same urgency and frustration that the audience wants to see him in their way.  I also felt that for the first-person technique to go over with audiences, the film had essentially to be an action film, fast and furious, and moving constantly - that the camera should act not only as hero, but as ACTION hero.

Twelve was also an experiment in it is a large-scale, high-concept thriller we were able to execute in an inexpensive, stream-lined manner with all digital technology – a Hollywood story at digital prices.  Because of the pick-up-and-shoot element of DV, many of our elaborate action sequences were shot on the fly; our cast and crew would literally just show up at real New York locations and dive right in, much to the astonishment of unsuspecting passersby.  This manner of shooting adds greatly to the immediacy of the film, a very far-out science fiction story told in a very real New York City.

A further opportunity provided by the digital medium was that Twelve was amongst the first features to be work-shopped on the Internet before achieving its final form.  Scenes from the film were posted on a website for viewers to download even as the picture was still being shot.  Feedback on message boards helped shape the movie as it was being made.  The responses from viewers on the web became an integral part of the process, and influenced major changes, including the addition of a major characters several significant plot developments. 

All of these elements combined give Twelve an immediacy and a connection with its audience that would never have been possible before the advent of digital filmmaking technology. I feel very luck that Twelve is part of a new wave in film – the digital wave.