Storyline

I finally made a breakthrough with the storyline for the interactive narrative.  I had an outline, but it was too vague for my liking and made it very difficult to plan the branching narrative.  All I had for the basis of the story was that a woman was in a room and would not or could not get out - but yesterday was well spent plotting the story together.  It is often the most difficult part for me, (even with the most simple animation) - the story!  It  looms over me and becomes an enourmous hurdle!  I forsook a family day out yesterday, on a beautiful sunny day and spent time compiling a more effective story and drawing some characters.  It does not sound much for a days work, but 'the story is king' and I needed to develop the initial idea into something more concrete.  Without a decent plot, the user would not be interested in making a journey into the interactive narrative.... why would they bother!  I need to grab their interest in order for them to want to make the jouney and interact with it.  Meadows (2003), discusses the 'Generation of Meaning' and says:

'The foundations of a narrative image should include some sense of the opinion of the author (some moral).  Likewise, a context needs to be offered so that there is some kind of internal conflict, problem, or series of events.  The decisions of how to solve these problems are part of the art of narrative - part of the sensitivity that an author of narrative needs to bring to plot to make it an actual story.'

Here, Meadows highlights the importance of the plot within the story, as this encourages participation.

I have discussed the storyline with some friends and family who fall within a wide age range (25 - 75) and who fit within the lifestyle descriptors of my audience:

Life cycle stage: Single, newly married, empty nest and solitary survivor.

Lifestyle classification (Young & Rubican, Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation: 4C’s): The Aspirer – visual, materialistic, image, appearance. The Succeeder – confident, organised, aggressive attitude to life means they need to relax occasionally, in need of stress relief. The Explorer – indulgent, first to try new ideas, likes new experiences. The Reformer – independent, curious & enquiring.   

.... and I have had no negative viewpoints, which pleasantly surprised me and has made me feel more confident to go ahead with the storyline.

I have been gathering a wide range of images for inspiration, and now need to concentrate on the art direction to form an overall style.  I have a beautiful and inspirational book called Dream Worlds by Hans Bacher, based on production design for animation. According to Bacher; during the early stages of film/animation, the Production Designer is part of the visual development team, who explore all visual possibilites and this is what I have been gatheirng my inspirational images for - to explore and develop the visual. I have also been reading sections within a book called Inspired 3D Short Film Production by Jeremy Cantor & Pepe Valencia.  Although this book is based on 3D animation, I have found some chapters helpful and am currently dipping into the Chapter on Art Direction.  I still wish to incorporate mixed media and will focus on using photography with hand drawn and animated elements, and may include a small amount of video.

Decisions

I need to decide how the interactive narrative is going to flow.... Should it be puzzle solving, humorous, mysterious, incorporate fear/frustration? These are the important factors that I need to decide upon now. I know that I would like the story to have different paths, as we can have in life... one choice can twist and turn our lives in so many different ways. Decisions can culminate in disaster or joy, as fate decrees the sequence of events that construe our destiny. This is how I want the interaction to be - the user makes decisions which effect the storyline. I cannot distract the user so much that they are straining to work out how to navigate or what to do next, as too much distraction will stop them being immersed in the story, and although this is fine for gaming, this is not what I want for an immersive narrative. This also highlights how important the backgrounds and characters will be, because the user will need to form some kind of relationship in order to want to interact or care about what will happen next.

I have been continually pondering upon the story that this immersive animation could be based upon. My original thoughts were based around the folk tale from the Norske Folkeeventyr of Asbjornsen and Moe, called the East of the Sun and West of the Moon. I have a book of 'Old tales from the North' which is illustrated by Kay Nielson. The story interests me and the illustrations of Kay Nielson are inspirational. 

'Well mind and hold tight by my shaggy coat, and then there's nothing to fear,' said the Bear, so she rode a long, long way. (Page 10).

Unfortunately, I fear this may restrict me too much, although there are many twists and turns that could be taken in this story. It could still be a contender.... Another idea could be taken from a Russian tale. I was inspired by the 4 podcasts of Russian Wonder tales (one for each of the four weeks before Christmas) that started on the 1st December on www.toasttravels.co.uk. I am currently searching for the book: Russian Wonder Tales, but I would like one illustrated by Ivan Bilibin. 

The story is crucial and I need to make a decision in order to start anything. I keep thinking that I should keep the story more contemporary to keep the users interest - a thought here would be to take a story from the news and use the outline of that or just modernise an old tale..... I need to decide by the end of this week, otherwise this will go on and on and I will never even start it!