Lost Cause: An Interactive Movie Project

Candidate: Kirsten Johnson
Type: Master of Arts (MA), School of Interactive Arts and Technology
Date: July 22, 2008
Senior Supervisor: Jim Bizzocchi
Thesis: Download Thesis Document
Website: http://www.sfu.ca/~kjohnson/lostcause/

Abstract

One of the challenges in designing an interactive cinematic experience is to offer interactive choices which do not distract from immersion into the story. The interactive movie project, Lost Cause focuses on the life of the main character explored through the inter-related perspectives of three other characters. Lost Cause supports an immersive interactive story experience through its correlated design of an interface, narrative content and narrative structure. The movie project is examined from several theoretical perspectives: cinematic roots, narrative construction, interface design, and interactive experience. This analysis reveals critical insights into database narrative structure, interface, agency and immersion. The design of Lost Cause was analyzed through a user study to observe how viewer interpretation and experience affected immersion into the story. The results from this study suggest the overall design is effective and provides various degrees of viewer immersion through the different techniques used.

Keywords: interactive cinema, interface design, split-screen, navigation, interactivity, narrative, immersion

Subject Terms: interactive storytelling, interactive cinema, and interactive narrative

Where are they now?

Kirsten is working as a freelancer on interactive & web developments.