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Michael Utvich is a seven-time high technology book author, frequent tradeshow presenter and moderator, and an expert in writing both interactive fiction and non-fiction for media such as CD-ROM and the Web. He has been selected to teach two new, cutting edge courses on interactive writing in Hollywood: "Online Storytelling" at the USC School of Cinema and TV, and "Interactive Media Writing" at the American Film Institute.
Gloria: Michael: First I would like to thank you for participating in this our first live chat here at the Hollywood Network site. I am sure that you will have a great deal to say that will interest anyone who is curious about writing for interactive media. What was that saying so popular a few years ago? "I was with cable before cable was cool." Well, I see an opportunity for a paraphrase that fits rather well. "Michael, you were with interactives before interactives were cool." There are some questions I would like to ask you.
Just as a play must adapt to the performance on the stage and an opera must be created with the orchestra and the human voice in mind. As Marshall McLuhan said, "The medium is the message." What we are talking about is creating for the technical marvel of the computer...
Does a writer for the new media need to have technical knowledge? If so, how much?
Michael: The writer needs to have technology knowledge to the extent that technology considerations shape the presentation and structure of the content. Just as a writer for stage, TV, or film should have a good sense of the technologies used, how they are deployed to create the show, and the capabilities and limitations they represent.
In interactive media, the technology standard is somewhat higher than in traditional media. A writer should, at the very minimum understand the overall concept of linking media "chunks" interactively through a branching or other link structure; be familiar with flowcharts and map formats used to present story structure, and with the capabilities of various interactive media, particularly CD-ROM and the Web.
There is so much out there to choose from, it can be confusing. Though the computer is obviously the tool of choice, interactive media is more than simply word processing.
Gloria: What is the best way to familiarize oneself with the needed information?
Michael: I think it advisable that a writer select an interactive development tool - e.g. Macromedia Director or Asymetrix Toolbox, or like systems - and become familiar with the working basics of the tool on the computer screen to help that writer speak knowledgeably to others working on an interactive project, and to help frame stories and content that work well within the medium.
Much of the material being produced currently is simply an exploitation of the technology, much in the same manner as the earliest films depicted speeding trains. Eventually, the content changed to produce motion picture scenarios that are unique and totally suited for the manner in which they are brought to the audience.
Gloria: How can you identify a story that lends itself to interactive media?
Michael: The most successful and involving interactive media tend to give the audience a role, either in the form of making specific story actions, engaging in problem solving activities, or navigating through a complex story "world". Two of the traditional media that work best in interactive are soap opera and mystery.
Soap opera is a dramatic form that is both multi-character, and exists in a consistent theatrical time. Interactive soap opera or serial drama forms allow the audience to select the story lines they are interested in and take part in the overall "world" defined by the story.
Mysteries are based around problem solving and gathering evidence; both of these activities lend themselves strongly to the audience participation assumptions in interactive storytelling.
Point of view stories also offer interactive possibilities. The classic in this regard is "Rashoman," the ancient Japanese fable of the husband, the wife, and the thief meeting in the forest. Each character sees the action of what took place from a different point of view. In an interactive context, creating a story with different "angles" or points of entry lets the audience experience the story in different ways.
The bottom line here is that there are many examples in traditional media of stories and dramatic forms that lend themselves to the interactive medium. But to take full advantage of the medium, we must always be open to invent new forms and new ideas that allow the audience members to have a role in the story and to care about the outcomes by direct participation in the story environment.
Gloria: How does it differ from the traditional narrative?
Michael: Interactive stories differ from traditional narrative in that they are non-linear. Books, film, and TV tend to tell stories that flow from beginning to end in a sequence of actions leading from an initial problem to a story resolution or climax.
Interactive stories can follow this model if the author wishes it, but they can also be much more unstructured, with the audience looking through a variety of story elements and exploring a storyspace or world created by the author. Reduced to essence, interactive stories tend to be more effective if they are more experiential than the traditional narrative, with more of a role for the audience to experiment and be involved in the story world.
Gloria: Can you give an example?
Michael: I'll respond to this with two examples of science fiction writing, one narrative, the other interactive.
In the Jules Verne classic "The Mysterious Island" a group of refugees from the American Civil War are swept in their balloon to a remote island in the middle of the ocean. A series of strange events begins to occur following their landing leading them to believe that they are not alone on the island, and the story moves forward to the revelation of exactly whom and what it is that explains the mysterious occurrences. The reader is locked into this progressive series of events that lead to the predetermined conclusion.
In the modern interactive classic Myst the user/player is the protagonist who finds himself or herself marooned on a strange island. Given the ability to explore the island territory, the player finds a variety of odd buildings and beguiling clues. As the user selects various elements within the different buildings on the island and other objects scattered around, a series of puzzles and problem solving issues begin to arise which the user must unravel.
As each puzzle is solved, new elements in the island environment become visible - including secret doors, compartments, and other mysteries - which enable the user to unlock the story and the secrets of the island. The interactive form demands more of the reader/player and forces that person to solve problems and unlock key mysteries, rather than just having the author reveal them in narrative.
Gloria: In writing for motion pictures, it is necessary to formulate events by what happens on each page of the script. For example, the film must be set up by page ten, approximately ten minutes into the scenario. Most writers of original fiction are used to working with a very stringent classic structure. Is there a similar structure used in writing for interactives?
Michael: Yes and no. No, there really isn't a standard format, acknowledged by the industry as a universal form for interactive writing. Yes, there is a generalized form that all interactives must follow that consists of two layers: a big picture flowchart/map of the various elements in the interactive story/world and the script for the content contained in those elements.
Since interactive programs are made up of chunks of information and data, as well as user-driven decisions that are possible at various points in the program, interactive scripting is, by its very nature, more complex than writing a film or television script. It is common in the industry to create an overall project map - really, a kind of flowchart - that shows the key story and decision points in the interactive story world with flowchart links drawn to the various options possible at each decision point. This flowchart helps the designer/writer visualize the complete story visually and see where the options can take the audience.
Within each object or area there may be a script or a list of options that are possible. For example, in the Myst interactive, there is a library room. A variety of books may be selected and each one has information stored on a certain pages. The script for the interactive would show the library as a major map element, and then all the interactive objects within it - pictures on the wall, books on the shelf, doors, furniture - that are interactively live. For any elements that had written or spoken content, the script layer would specify the content.
Gloria: How do you balance the focus and backsory when any character can become the main character at the user's whim?
Michael: Remember that control of the character is in the author's hands. It doesn't necessarily follow that any character can become the main character automatically; the author would have to set it up that way.
Let's take a look at an interactive soap opera form. Soap opera consists of a group of independent story lines that are written in parallel and then folded together to create an integrated, continuing story. All of this is interwoven so that the main character in one storyline might appear as a supporting or ancillary character in another storyline. On television, a soap opera program fits the various storylines together to make a mixture of all of them for each individual show.
In an interactive context, the user would likely be able to pick one or two of the storylines to follow and disregard or sporadically visit the others. In this type of project, the main character would shift to whomever was the main character in a particular storyline. The backstory for the whole story environment would not be affected. Given the level of interweaving of stories, an individual might get prompted to visit one of the other storylines. For example, if there was a large event, like a murder trial, that affected all the characters in some way, then the reader would be drawn to visit and participate in that storyline by learning about it from one or more of the others.
Gloria: How do worlds differ from sets, or settings? How is a world created?
Michael: In a narrative story, the protagonist is everything. The settings or sets exist to tell that one individual's story. In the literary and film classic "Gone With The Wind," the Civil War South itself is the backdrop for a tale of a complex womanize struggle for love; each of the individual settings within that world is controlled by the author and exists for the express purpose of illuminating some element of Scarlett O'Hara's quest.
In an interactive project, the world is a place for the user to be. Unlike the linear narrative, the key dramatic relationship may be between the reader/player and the world of the program. Myst once again provides an excellent example of how a self-contained world - in this case, an island! - presents a variety of challenges to the individual user/player without any characters being present at all - at least, not at the outset. The interactive reader/player can explore the world, touch it, interact with it, and challenge it. There is a much more dynamic relationship between user/player and the story environment than in linear narrative.
Gloria: In film, there is the technique of a segue that takes the viewer from one locus to another. Are there segues in interactives?
Michael: Yes, but they are called choices. Interactive media inherently presents its audience with a variety of choices to make. These may range from simple navigational commands to move through the graphically presented images of the world of the story, to more complex story or environment driven choices - whether to open a particular door or leave it closed; whether to press a button in a science fiction laboratory or not to.
Segues between scenic elements in a linear narrative exist to drive the story to its next level. Interactive choices serve much the same purpose, except that they involve the audience in the process.
Gloria: What special considerations are needed when creating material for interactive?
Michael: The central consideration to keep in mind at all times when designing and/or developing an interactive project is THE AUDIENCE. Unlike a linear narrative on film or videotape, the audience must be personally involved in an interactive project, and motivated sufficiently to make choices and selections at key points to make the story move forward, to find one of the stories to participate in, or to resolve puzzles and problems that are key to unlocking the secrets of this fictional medium.
Interactive media is less story driven than experience driven. It is more important to give the audience something to do than it is to have a perfectly turned plot or story structure. Audiences can become impatient with watching a character story unfold through the glass proscenium of the computer screen; they want to jump through that screen and take part in some way. If you, the creative force, don't give them that opportunity, their interest in the program may not sustain.
© 1996 Gloria Stern
