interactive television

1. interactive television “television only better”

2. bid-up tv

3. developing interactive television artists or technicians ?

4. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Animation/ Fantasy/ Adventure/ Sci-Fi/ Action voice actors: Ming-Na Alec Baldwin Ving Rhames Steve Buscemi Peri Gilpin Donald Sutherland James Woods Jean Simmons Shrek Adventure/ Romance/ Animation/ Fantasy/ Family/ Comedy voice actors Mike Myers Eddie Murphy Cameron Diaz John Lithgow Vincent Cassel Peter Dennis Clive Pearse Jim Cummings 2001 a tale of two movies Best Animated Feature Film Academy Awards 2002 Box Office Flop

5. gollum

6. "The stuff I'm doing on set is more demonstrating to the animators...trying to indicate to them how I see the character being played on the floor." Andy Serkis

7. transferable skills

8. artists & technicians

9. talking design - bridging the gap • patterns • remediation • narrative

10. design patterns

11. the problem …. “ If I knew where I got my ideas, I’d be there right now getting them.” Milt Gross, 1930’s cartoonist

12. ….. a solution ? “Most simply, a pattern is a named problem/solution pair that can be applied in new contexts, with advice on how to apply it in novel situations and discussion of its trade-offs” Craig Larman Applying UML and Patterns

13. … structured language ‘A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design’, Jan Borchers (2001) • Name - communicate the idea behind the pattern • Ranking - how valid the pattern author believes the pattern to be. • zero, one or two stars • Illustration - communicate the idea of the pattern. • Problem - ‘….you are doing something and discover a problem.” • Forces - a further elaboration of the problem • positives and negatives • Examples - real world examples. • Solution - generalise the key points from the examples and suggest how they may be applied to similar problems. • Diagram - show the main idea of the pattern in a schematic way. • Relationships - a brief description of which patterns relate to others.

14. … only a medium “Indeed this ageless character has nothing, in the end, to do with languages. The language, and the processes which stem from it, merely release the fundamental order which is native to us. They do not teach us, they only remind us of what we know already …….” Christopher Alexander A Timeless Way of Building (1979) “Clearly, one pattern format does not fit all. What does fit all is the general concept of patterns as a vehicle for capturing and conveying expertise, whatever the field” John Vlissides Patterns : the top ten misconceptions (1997)

15. … about critical design “… don't be surprised if your first reaction to some of the patterns is, "Duh, everybody knows that one." … Not every pattern will be new to you, but hopefully every pattern will encourage you to think about its problem.” Chris Hecker & Zachary Booth Simpson gamasutra.com

16. remediation

17. concepts of remediation “What is new about new media comes from the ways in which they refashion older media and the ways in which older media refashion themselves to answer the challenge of new media.” (Bolter & Grusin, 1999) immediacy & hypermediacy ……..… transparency & opacity ….…... lie back & lean forward “… our culture wants to both multiply its media and to erase all traces of mediation” (Bolter & Grusin, 1999)

18. polygons Lara Croft in her latest incarnation in Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness is composed of 5,000 polygons a concept that can be traced through Dutch artist Crispyn van der Passe (1643) to Plato’s Timaeus (360 BC) )

19. perspective In video games such as Doom perspective is calculated to rules originally developed by Filippo Brunelleschi (1420) though perspective in painting was addressed in the Dionysian theatre in Athens during the 5th Century BC.

20. widescreen Wheatfields under Thunderclouds, 1890 Wheatfield with Crows, 1890 In 1890, Van Gogh painted a large number of landscapes, all on unusual, elongated canvases (100 x 50 cm)

21. "The Wedding Portrait” By Franz Hal

22. Metropolis (1927) Wedding Portrait (1622)

23. interactive narrative

24. telling a story • Fabula (Story) - What Happened ? • chronological sequence of events in a narrative • the raw, paraphrasable, synopsizable core of the story • Sjuzhet (Discourse) - How is it told ? • mode of re-presenting the events • narrative techniques, media, metaphor, camera angles, the re-ordering of the temporal sequence etc • the media, the narrative techniques, etc.. • Example - the tale of a courtesan who renounces her lover as an act of true love, becomes ill with a terminal disease and is reunited with her lover shortly before dying. • La Dame aux Camélias (1848) - Novel • La Dame aux Camélias (1852) - Play • La Traviata (1853) - Opera • Camille (1926 ) - Silent Movie • Camille (1936) - Movie • Moulin Rouge (2001) - Musical

25. telling a story: continued • Diegesis • the world created by the narrative • Diachronic Story • what happened before (the back story) • Synchronic Story • happens in the “present” (ongoing narrative)

26. towards interactive television narratives “…television narratives have to be popular in heterogeneous societies amongst audiences with different and often conflicting social interests and experiences. So television narrative must be more open and multiple than the singular folk narrative with its comparatively tight closure.” (Fiske, 1987) “As a variety of multiform stories make clear, print and motion picture stories are pushing past linear formats not out of mere playfulness but in an effort to give expression to the characteristically twentieth-century perception of life as composed of parallel possibilities…its alternate versions of reality are now part of the way we think, part of the way we experience the world.” (Murray, 1997)

27. types of interactive fiction (my ordering) • Enhanced narrative • Nodal narrative • Multipath narrative • Parallel narrative • Multimodal Narrative • Topographic narrative • Algorithmic narrative (Favre, 2002)

28. putting it all together identifying patterns of interactive narrative used in leisure & entertainment media

29. nodal narrative • A type of linear storytelling that offers several interactive segments, called nodes, along its course. • Viewers cease to be passive and are asked to interact with the story • Engage with the story but not change it • iTV • Winky Dink (simulated interaction) • Colin & Trouble in Space • http://i-media.soc.napier.ac.uk/casestudy1/index.html • DVD • Harry Potter - Chamber of Secrets

30. multipath narrative • Change story direction and/or outcome Examples: • Literature • Fighting Fantasy Series (1980s) • Asterix to the Rescue (1986) • What Next Ted ? (2001) • DVD • I’m your Man – 1992 (multiple endings) • Harry Potter - Chamber of Secrets: Bonus DVD (2003) • The Forbidden Forest • Tour of Diagon Alley • Video Game • Tomb Raider – Lara Croft and the Angel of Darkness • Silent Hill series • WWW • Escape from L.A. (1995) • Web Premiere Toons - http://www.cartoonnetwork.com

31. parallel narrative • aka Perspective Narrative or Multiform Stories • Character based - e.g. follow a particular character • Location based - e.g. view different camera angles Examples • iTV • D Dag (1999)- character based - 4 channels • Nudlar & 08ers (1996) - location based - 2 characters/2 channels • Chomeurs (2002)- character based (choose narrator) - 1 channel • iRadio • Dark House (2003) - 3 characters • Video Games • The Bouncer (2000) - beat’em up - three characters • EverGrace (2001) - adventure - 2 characters • Enter The Matrix (2003) - action/adventure - two characters • Narrative closely linked to movies and anime • Share same characters, locations, scenes and dialogue. • Many games incorporate multiple camera angles

32. multimodal narrative • Tell a story across several media • ALL EXISTING MEDIA can be used and combined to create a multimodal narrative experience : a TV program, a web site, a mobile phone service, an email campaign, the press, advertising, postcards, fax, billboards, etc • Not all media need be interactive Examples • The Salon - Channel 4, E4, WWW • Bid-Up TV - Digital, Telephone, WWW • Perfect Dark - N64 & GameBoy • Pokemon - N64 & Gameboy • The Matrix - Film, WWW, DVD, Video Game, Manga etc • XIII - Comic, Video Game • The Thing - Movie, Video Game

33. topographic narrative • Based on the exploration of locations rather than a chronology of events • Video Games • Quest types games • Zelda - Ocarina of Time • Myst • Tomb Raider

34. algorithmic narrative • Not planned (or written) in advance but self-generated • Created by their viewers/readers/users as they interact with narrative material or with each others. • A set of rules or principles rather than narrative elements or characters • Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game ((MMORPG) MMORPG). Example: Ultima Online • The world's first and most successful online game. • Offers players the opportunity to live a parallel life in the virtual world of Britannia. • Borrows heavily from classic fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons.

35. artefacts - patterns & case studies • i-media.soc.napier.ac.uk • demonstrate • Nodal & Parallel Narrative • Multipath Narrative

36. summary • A pattern approach provides a valuable contribution to the overall design solution • Seek inspiration from design solutions in other media • The concept of patterns is more important than developing pattern catalogues - ability to identify patterns is the key.