INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FILM AND MEDIA ARTS vol 2, n.

º1

RIGHT, LEFT, HIGH,

LOW NARRATIVE
STRATEGIES FOR NON–
LINEAR STORYTELLING
Abstract
SYLKE RENE MEYER
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LOS ANGELES, Based on studies of affect, and on theoretical
works concerning spatial semantics by Yuri
UNITED STATES
Lotman, Mikhail Bakhtin, Michel Foucault and
others, spatial story design provides a seven
step algorithm of story development for inter-
active audio-visual narrative. Following spatial
semantics and its application in interactive
storytelling, the author no longer creates the
protagonist, his or her want or need, nor con-
trols the story arc. Instead, spatial story design
allows the author(s) to make the formative cre-
ative decisions by designing a narrative space,
and spatial dynamics that then translate into
user generated storylines. Spatial story design
serves as a framework for interdisciplinary col-
laborations, and can be used to not only create
interactive digital narrative but also screenplays,
improvisational theatre, 360° films, and walk-in
story world experiences for a number of users
in either live or holographic virtual reality spac-
es. Spatial story design could inspire creators of
interactive narrative, storytellers in time-based
media, and possibly also technology developers
for authoring tools.

Keywords: non–linear storytelling; environmen-

tal storytelling; spatial story design; affect the-
ory • screenwriting; digital filmmaking; improvi-
sational theatre; Mikhail Bahktin • Yuri Lotman;
Michel Foucault.

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Premise and Promise respond to the social contradictions and any interactivity. If you don’t follow the
collective neuroses of our time, and to written and predefined story, you’ll never
Today, interactive user-oriented narra-
the message of a digital medium that is see a dragon. Many of the current devel-
tive is overtaking the story structures
inclusive, democratic, and user-oriented. opments in narrative games chose this
linked to the linear narrative of time. Un-
format, often within a cross-medial sto-
like time-based media which are often
Let me begin by clarifying my under- ry world. For example The Walking Dead
single-authored, and presented to its au-
standing of interactive storytelling, and (2010-present) works as a TV series, as
dience, digital narrative evolves through
the questions I try to answer. The prob- well as a single story game allowing the
use. The user, unlike the audience,
ably strongest presence of interactive user to enjoy an immersive experience
co-creates the story while playing it.
storytelling can be found in narrative that may eventually replace cinematic
This most recent manifestation of sto-
games, where interactivity can take a experiences, yet not a lot of interactivity.
rytelling challenges time-based linear
wide range, from hardly any formative Heavy Rain (2010) has an extended in-
storytellers, as well as spatially oriented
presence of interactivity to unlimited teractive matrix, using a dynamic narra-
narrative designers. In this context, the
participation. Games can be classified tive (an AI narrator) to while games like
cross pollination between today’s media
through the relationship between the Call of Duty (2003-present), has hardly
may lead to a different kind of storytell-
game story and the player story. The any story at all, and allows for a maxi-
ing, as film in the beginning of the 20 th

game story comes from linear storytell- mum of interactivity.

century influenced storytelling in all oth-
ing is based on questions concerning
er media. Following Marie-Laure Ryan,
the protagonist’s motivation, like super Interactive storytelling follows in prin-
and others, I contend that “the choice of
Mario has to free princess peach. The ciple one of these three models: the
a certain medium, e.g. computer game
player story consists of verbs concern- tree structure, the directed network
vs. film, modifies the way in which the
story is shaped, presented and received” ing the player’s actions. It is the actu- structure, and the open world model.

(Ryan, 2003). Interactive digital narra- al experience the player makes while Although multi-linear, they first two

tive may be seen as the medium of the playing: excitement, stress, joy while models are linear, and offer only limited

21th century, and probably mark the end jumping, collecting, running, shooting interactivity, and limited user-generated

of time, because it is no longer based on etc. In a broader sense, the player story narrative. Linear story models like the
time, as time-based audio visual media generates its own narrative while play- ‘hero’s journey’ have been employed to
is, but on space, and therefore correlates ing. The player story is always interac- only create a predictable story arc based
with our current world view of “living in tive, enabled and limited by the game on narrative clichés already present at
the epoch of space” described by Michel mechanics, the code. The game story the users narrative vocabulary. As a re-
Foucault in his essay “Of Other Spaces: is authored. Interactivity is based and sult, multi-linear story models represent
Utopias and Heterotopias. Taking its limited to the number of storylines pre- one of the problems in interactive digital
cue also from Adorno and Marshall Mc- conceived by an author that allow the storytelling that manifests itself in the
Luhan, that every social contradiction user to make choices. The more story debate between ludologists and narra-
returns as a formal problem in art, and and game overlap, the more interactive tologists, and the question of whether or
that every revolution employs the new- storytelling we actually create. Drag- not interactivity is actually the opposite
est medium, spatial story design may on’s Lair (1983) for example consists of of storytelling, (the problem of interac-
provide the dramaturgy for stories that practically 99% story and offers hardly tivity versus plot), in which interactivity

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is almost the opposite of narrative (Ad- able behavior of the user in an interac- The concepts of Yuri Lotman and
ams, 1999; Costikyan, 2000). tive narrative environment. In non-linear Mikhail Bakhtin laid the ground work for
open story worlds, we cannot design a an entirely new philosophical approach
A maximum of interactivity presuppos- protagonist, his want or need, no charac- that became eminent in the late 1980s
es a non-linear, open story world where ter arc, no turning points – but have to under the label of the ‘spatial turn,’ and
the visitor or user navigates and oper- invent a different dramaturgy. include, amongst others, the works of
ates freely. Yet here, story models like Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Susan
the P.I.N.G. model (Passive-Interactive The seven step algorithm which I out- Stanford Friedman, Gaston Bachelard,
Narrative-Game model) struggle with line is a space-based tool for linear and Michel de Certeau, and Henri Lefevbre.
the lack of narrative control (here with non-linear storytelling: user-generated At this point, many works on spatiality
the game Aporia) over the narrative narrative, interactive digital storytell- could not been taken adequately into
experience that the user makes. “In ing, screenwriting, 360° film making, or account, and the following concept only
general too few (20%) participants un- any audience-engaging narrative prac- outlines the basic idea of spatial story
derstood the story in Aporia. The inter- tice that relates to space. It is a basic design.
action with key objects seemed to steal narrative tool that allows the author
the focus from the narrative and took to control–to some extent–the space,
most of the participants’ focus, also the story, and the objects that lead to
2 Spatial Semantics
when describing the narrative” (Bevens- objectives. Referring to Henry Jenkins
2.1 Yuri Lotman
ee et al., 2012). (2004) and his terminology of “environ-
and the Semiosphere
mental storytelling,” (idem) the seven
Alternatively, my concept of spatial story step spatial story design strategy may Yuri Lotman was born in 1922, and grad-
design privileges space over time and us- work in every aspect of environmental uated at the age of only 17 years, and
ership over authorship, yet at the same storytelling: with evoked narratives that with excellent grades from the Univer-
time, it gives the author some creative have the ability to enhance an already sity of Leningrad. Being Jewish howev-
control over the narrative trajectory in existing one, with enacted narratives er, the high potential youth was not al-
space. In open world story design, every that provide narrative elements built up lowed to proceed with his doctorate at
visitor or user will experience a different around characters, with embedded nar- the heart of the empire, and instead had
story. What we – as storytellers- can do ratives where the object and the staging to go to Tartu, a small town in Estonia
is to create a narrative corridor, a zone of enables the plot, and with emergent nar- where he stayed for the rest of his life.
likelihood and probability. As storytellers, ratives where the users construct their Therefore his theoretical body of work is
we may have to embrace the idea that own narrative in the story space. referred to as the “Tartu-Moscow Semi-
we no longer write ONE Story, but design otic School.”
a narrative corridor for potential stories. Spatial story design is a narrative strate-
In probability theory in mathematics as gy that draws from a theory of narrative In Lotman’s analysis of narrative texts,
well as in interactive story design, we space, which emerged from the outer the temporal structure of the story is not
cannot predict the user’s behavior with frontiers of an empire; marginalized, for- in the foreground, but the spatial orga-
certainty , but we can control certain bidden, almost secret, it was ­conceived nization, the “semiosphere.” According
narrative factors to estimate the prob- in provinces of the former Soviet Union. to Lotman (1990), a semiosphere (from

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the Greek semio for sign, and sphere for characters, states, and functions. For Space organizes the chronological order
space) can be a concrete space with a this content, Lotman introduced the of the narrative events, and time fills the
real geographical topology, such as St. term ‘semantic properties’ of space. space with meaning. In other words, the
Petersburg, but it can also be a meta- Third, to establish a border between two chronotope forms the dynamics of the
phorical space, whose topology con- rooms or two areas, each room has to be story world.
sists of the characters of a “plot space,” assigned with a different meaning. For
such as the main characters of a myth, example, one room is good, the other is Often, time becomes more important in a
the hero, the opponent, the helper, fa- evil. The semantically loaded topological confined space; and if time is less import-
ther, mother, son, daughter, etc. order then translates into topographical ant, the room expands. In a road movie,
contrasts within the world represented: we expand space and travel long distanc-
In Lotman’s terminology, cultures, se- for example a city vs. mountains (the es, while the duration of the trip often
miotic spaces, and semiospheres share city being low and evil, and the moun- plays only a subordinate role. In prison
the same topological characteristics. In tains being high and good). films, time plays a prominent role in the
other words, cultures, semiotic spaces, compressed space of the prison cell.
and semiospheres have centers, periph-
eries, insides and outsides, and bound- Game designers are quite aware of this
2.2 Mikhail Bakhtin
aries. A (semantic) room is defined in property of the chronotope, as the au-
and Chronotope
contrast to another room, by its differ- thor of a game has more control over
ences, and the border between these The second outsider of spatial narra- the user in confined spaces, because the
two spatial areas is particularly visible. tology in the Soviet Union is Mikhail possibilities of movement are limited for
A semiosphere thus is surrounded by a Bakhtin, who was banished to Kazakh- the player. In contrast, a player can walk
boundary. stan by Stalin in 1929, and worked as endlessly through a vast, or open source
a teacher intermittently until his retire- narrative game landscape. In narrative
For Lotman, the border is the most im- ment in 1961. Bakhtin created his main games, the author controls time mostly
portant topological feature, that parts the body of work in the 1920s and 1930s, by controlling space. Therefore, tempo-
text (or its overall semantic space) into but became more widely known only in ral markers are rare in narrative games:
(at least) two disjunct areas, a term he the 1960s, mainly through Julia Kriste- we mark time often with the question,
borrowed from set theory where disjunct va and her translation of his works into “where” we are in the game. It is a ques-
spaces are defined as ‘M’ and ‘Not-M,’ French. Bakhtin left us an abundance tion that asks for time and space at the
meaning the areas are divided into com- of discourse material from which I will same time, and that is often answered
pletely separated parts or pieces. emphasize only one aspect at this point: only by space. In response, the player
his concept of the chronotope, translat- may tell us that she is in the water dun-
Lotman contends that these areas differ ing from the Greek chronos for time and geon and this is how we know on what
at various levels: first, they are topolog- topos for space. level of the game she is, how temporally
ically in opposition - for example, one advanced, and how spatially located.
space is high, the other low. Second, According to Bakhtin, the relationship
spaces are defined not only by size and between time and space constitutes the Bakhtin assigns a special symbolic mes-
location, but also by content, such as possibility of actions of the characters. sage to spaces such as the threshold,

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the gate (meeting, farewell), the court tionship with another entity that exists products on shelves at eye level get
(determination, accuracy, judgment), outside of him or herself. purchased more than those down by
the path (life, travel, maturity). Other the floor, or the Massachusetts General
examples are the exile, the landscape, Although the terms emotion, feeling and Hospital in Boston, where they discov-
the river, the island, the ship, the light- affect are routinely used interchange- ered that they could instantly increase
house, the city, the fortress, the house, ably, it is important not to confuse them the amount of water people drank and
the stage, etc. that may carry a variety of (In detail, Heise, 2002). In the definition decrease the amount of soda they
symbolic messages depending on their of Brian Massumi (1987), feelings are drank simply by rearranging the way
context. Also, for example, the places personal and biographical, emotions drinks were displayed in the cafeteria.
of childhood–like the attic of the family are social, and affects are pre-personal. Same applies, for the digital environ-
house where a child has found magical Affects in this definition are visceral and ment. There are a wide range of digital
things–is a chronotope (Bakhtin, 1981; not informed by culture. They function triggers that prompt our behavior. When
Todorov, 1984). Chronotopes announce as a basic physical response, much like Facebook notifies you of a new action,
through convention, and their symbolic instincts. For example, the object ‘fast you’re prompted to log back on. When
connotation is a narrative planting, a approaching tiger’ will trigger an affect someone emails you, you are prompted
certain course of action that is about to that is most likely related to death and to respond. These digital triggers are
come. Settings also indicate a linear nar- fear of deadly violence. simple ways of building habit-forming
rative that has already taken place, like behaviors in online products and ser-
in the example above: somebody must Therefore, object-based affect-control vices. In many cases, these digital trig-
have locked the door. Thus, in space we is an important aspect of story design. gers become distractions that take you
read the past, the present, and a possi- These affective practices are triggered away from the work and habits that are
ble outcome. in familiar ways, and with familiar pat- actually important to you – but they can
terns. Affect can also be seen partially also be used to instigate a certain be-
as, any evaluative (positive or negative) havior of a user in a VR experience.
orientation towards an object. Behavior
2.3 Affect-Emotion-Feeling
depends on personal, cultural, or viscer- There are particular affect-laden, so-
The player (the subject) that enters the al affects and on the surrounding ob- cial phenomena that can be usefully
story world responds to his or her envi- jects and environment. In the words of investigated through storytelling. For
ronment, and this is how he or she will psychologist and system theorist Kurt example, institutionalized moments of
emotionally respond, make decisions, Lewin, behavior is a function of person- celebration (New Year), grief (funeral
and consequently act. In this way, the ality and environment (B= f(P,E)). So if services), joy in belonging (sport fans
player or user responses with judgment, we change somebody’s environment, in a stadium) etc. In certain spaces, the
and object placing in this sense can in- we also change somebody’s behavior. subject-object-relationship may be so
fluence his or her process of decision This principle is also known in public strongly predefined that the players’ de-
making. However, every subject, every communication as choice architecture, cision making corridor is extremely nar-
player, has a unique consciousness and and refers to our ability to structure the row. Here, the author or story designer
set of personal experiences, therefore physical space around us to prime good holds a maximum of narrative control
no one player will have the same rela- choices. For example in a grocery store over the affect-informed behavior of the

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RIGHT, LEFT, HIGH, LOW NARRATIVE STRATEGIES FOR NON–LINEAR STORYTELLING SYLKE RENE MEYER

user. These spaces are quite often chro- norm is ritualized and localized. To un- a relatively mundane activity like paying
notopical as described by Bakhtin, and derstand what deviant behavior, what your entrance fee at the cinema. The ex-
have been analyzed in depth by Michel “the other” means, Foucault returns re- amples show how different these rituals
Foucault in his concept of “heteroto- peatedly to the subject of travel as the can be, and to what degree the opening
pias.” symbol of journey, of exploration, and or closing to the outside can vary - in
discovery. Like a story that takes the cinema everyone buying a ticket is ad-
recipient or user on a journey, Foucault mitted, in the university, however, the
(1986) contends that the place of hopes visitor must first acquire specific knowl-
2.4 Michel Foucault
and desires has always been the ship: a edge before being allowed to enter the
and Heterotopia
“place without a place, ” a self-contained place. In addition, not everybody enter-
In most heterotopian spaces, the sub- room on the high seas. Foucault em- ing a room is participating voluntarily in
ject is forced to submit to the order of phasizes that from the Renaissance to the heterotopia. For example, entering a
things. Foucault introduced the term to present time, the ship not only serves as prison for prisoners is a highly involun-
mainly reveal power structures but the an important tool for economic develop- tary form of participation; on the other
terminology also serves as an useful ment, but also as the greatest arsenal of hand, a visitor walking into the area of​​
narrative tool, and since stories (myth) imagination: “The ship is the heterotopia the prison remains largely excluded
reflect power relations, literary settings par excellence. In civilizations without from its heterotopic structures.
are often–not coincidentally–heteroto- boats, dreams dry up” (idem).
pias. Additionally, in narrative design, the
author may create his or her own order Concerning the key role of time in this
3 Spatial Story Design
of things, his or her own heteropias, and regard, Foucault describes two forms
3.1 Defining Space
thereby not only offers an alternative of heterotopias: those in which time
worldview, but also gains some control is accumulated endlessly, piled up, Time-based narratives have a begin-
over the user’s affects. and pressed in books or pictures to be ning, middle, and end. In contrast, in
showcased and archived in libraries and space-based storytelling, the story un-
Heterotopias are spaces that reflect so- museums, and those in which time is folds while the user navigates through
cial conditions in a special way by rep- extremely limited, and dissolves within space, interacting with objects present
resenting, negating or reversing social a few hours or days, as with festivals or and possibly with other users. It has no
relations. Examples of heterotopias are fairs. determined beginning, and no specific
juvenile, retirement, and nursing homes; course. In linear, time-based storytelling,
psychiatric hospitals; prisons; colleges Furthermore, heterotopias are always a writer usually starts with a character
of the 19th century; barracks; ceme- bound to a system of openings and and an action; in space–based story-
teries; cinemas and theaters; gardens; closings to prevent easy exit and en- telling, a narrative designer creates a
museums; libraries; fairgrounds; holiday trance. Every entry and exit is subject- space and objects. Following spatial se-
villages; ritual and non-ritual purification ed to a certain incoming and outgoing mantics and its application in interactive
sites; guest houses; brothels; and col- ritual. These rituals may manifest itself storytelling, the author no longer creates
onies. Heterotopias are places where in complex purification rituals such as a the protagonist, his or her want or need,
a behavior deviant from the prevailing academic entrance examinations, or in and does not control the story arc.

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Defining a space is one of the most im- Here the term event corresponds with event, one needs to clarify the standard,
portant creative decisions a narrative Aristotle’s perepeteia (turning point). To the norm, first.
designer must make. The starting point Lotman, an event presupposes a cou-
is always a specific narrative space that ple of binary oppositions: a norm, and Lotman gives the example of a couple
contains per se a prolepsis (a narrative a non-norm. Here, the (semiotic) border arguing about art. She hates abstract
planting), and a number of suggested is a key concept in Lotman’s thinking. It painting, he loves it. In his example, the
dynamics. The space generates the dra- doesn’t matter if the division falls into aggravated couple goes to the police to
matic or narrative question, like a room friends and enemies, living and dead, report the other. The policeman obvi-
with a locked door, which generates the rich and poor, or other. What is import- ously sends them home. No norm–as
question of whether or not the charac- ant is something else: the boundary far as he is concerned–has been violat-
ters or players will be able to open the that divides the space must seem insur- ed. Hating or loving abstract art is not
door and to find out what’s behind it. mountable. a crime. However, at home, the couple
decides to get a divorce – the falling
In a next step, the space will be filled Based on this this logic, another basic out over art has shaken the very foun-
with objects. Objects are far from arbi- assumption implies. As explained ear- dation of their marriage. Therefore, not
trary but influence how a player will nav- lier, in set theory, disjunct spaces are every room change is an event, just as in
igate the space. Objects in this sense defined as ‘M’ and ‘Not-M’. ‘M’ would be time-based linear storytelling, not every
can be physical things but also other something like: all motorists drive on the activity is dramatic action, and not every
characters. Here an object is defined as right side of the road. All scientists argue story step is a turning point.
something observed, while a subject is rationally. All Germans are diligent. Here,
an observer. the definition of ‘M’ formulates a norm.
Lotman also draws from this context
3.3 Characters &Action
in his concept of border control. In his
view, an event-creating border crossing According to Lotman, rooms can be in-
3.2 Border Crossing
also always violates a norm. Romeo and habited by mobile and immobile figures.
In Yuri Lotman’s terminology, simply Juliet cross the physical border from The immobile figure classifies and de-
relocating a hero within the assigned one enemy house to the other, but even fines the space. For the immobile char-
space is not an event, or in other words: more so, they violate the fraternization acter, a border crossing is prohibited.
it is not a dramatic action. ban of their houses. An event therefore The mobile character, the hero, is a char-
questions the validity of a set order. If acter with a special predisposition that
“What then is an event as a unit this order is represented by a topograph- allows him or her to cross the border
of plot construction? An event ic boundary, the event appears as a between the two disjunct spaces.
in a text is the shifting of a per- border crossing; if the given order man-
sona across the borders of a ifests itself as a norm or rule, the event As an example, Lotman points to the
semantic field.” (Lotman, 1971, appears as the violation of that rule, as hero of fairy tale, who penetrates the
p. 233) an incident departing significantly from enchanted forest and frees the princess
the norm, or in Foucault’s terminology, is from the clutches of the dragon. The
deviant. Therefore, in order to create an hero leaves the daytime world of his

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village and crosses the border into the bile character has become an immobile case, the direction of the character’s
night world of the forest. The forest and character. movement changes once he or she has
the village are disjunct to one another, reached the extreme point, and the char-
they don’t share a single property, and Characters in rooms do not perform acter leaves the space into which he
no one in the village dares to enter the aimless movements. Lotman describes or she has entered. The extreme point
forest- but the hero. rooms, or spaces, as hierarchical, and here marks a turning point in the story.
distinguishes certain elements as For example, the character is having an
Space in this sense is not necessarily the highest-ranking. High ranking ele- argument with an abusive boss, quits
only seen topologically, but may also be ments can assume the function of a the job, exits, and slams the door. In the
characterized semantically, i.e. rooms topographical property. Examples of second case, the movement of the char-
with different meanings can be found topographical extreme points are main acter comes to a standstill when reach-
in one physical space. Lotman calls an streets, town squares, towers, mountain ing the extreme point, and the character
event “restitutive” if the hero tries and peaks, canyons, the abyss, but also in- assumes the status and nature of this
fails, and “revolutionary” if the hero tries terior elements like the TV, the fireplace, space (the hero kills the evil magician,
and succeeds, which relates to the dra- and the dinner table. All these examples and takes his throne). Here, the extreme
matic concepts of tragedy (trying and serve as power centers of the room. point is the end point of the story.
dying) and comedy (trying and succeed-
ing) in the Aristotelian sense. Taking its cues from Lotman, narratol-
ogist Karl N. Renner suggested that all 3.4. The Seven Step Algorithm
The mobile character leaves the room, character movements within the hier- of Spatial Story Design
or at least he or she tries. On his or her archal space are oriented towards the
Story design based on spatial
way to overcome the border, the hero to “extreme point.” Extreme points are
semantics takes the following
faces obstacles. The obstacles can be high-ranking elements that set the rules
steps:
so substantial that it is impossible for of that space. All other elements gravi-
the hero to cross the border. The hero tate towards the extreme point (Renner, 1. Authorship begins with the design of
may die (physically or symbolically) in 2004). a specific setting. How does the au-
the attempt to make it from the original thor characterize the semantic space,
field into the anti field. Non–topographical elements may also topology, semantic properties, mean-
structure the space, and serve as ex- ing, topography – intellectually and
If the hero manages to cross the border, treme points. These are the extreme aesthetically? What chronotope or
she or he has to merge with the new points of social space, for example, the heterotopia forms the setting? What
room, and will now become an immobile position of a head of the family. are the norms and objects of this sto-
figure. The transition from a mobile to ry world? What is the order of things?
an immobile characters marks the end When designing or analyzing space, the 2. The author or authors place specific
of the story. If he or she does not merge extreme point is based on the question objects and subjects at the place, and
with the new space, the story has not of who or what owns or rules the space. hereby gain some control over the
come to an end yet, and border cross- Then, two complementary patterns affects of the user, and the promised
ings will have to continue until the mo- of movement can be identified: in one narrative, inherent to the symbolic

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language of the space. In this con- Digital filmmaking today doesn’t com- come the narrative oddities of a forced
text, the ideas and insights developed ply with the traditional linear work flow POV perspective that explains why
in the field of affect theory will prove of story development, preproduction, the viewer is barred from (inter) acting
to be essential, to help to understand postproduction, and distribution, but with other characters – such as being
how affect and emotion of the user rather follows the iterative design pro- chained, in a coma, or hidden in a clos-
can be directed by and through object cess. Consequently, the former division et – for the entire film. The misunder-
making and object interaction. of labor between the departments, es- standing I believe lies in the assumption
3. The author controls and designs en- pecially the line between writing the that an immersive 360° narrative visual
trances and exits. The authors design screenplay and realizing the screenplay, experience has to be also an experience
the rituals performed to allow a char- has blurred.1 Screenplay development of dramatic identification of the viewer
acter or player to exit, or enter. and film development have merged, and with and as the protagonist of the story.
4. The authors create immobile charac- involve nearly every department. Spatial Instead, 360° narrative visuals work best
ters, and room for mobile characters. story design may close the common for an observer, a non-identified viewer
5. The authors create norms, boundar- gap between writers whose thinking is which is maybe why 360° films are most
ies, and extreme points. quite often informed by the linearity and successful in non-fiction storytelling
6. The authors design obstacles – topo- chronology of a written text, and their like documentaries, concerts, or sports
logical and social. collaborating creators who think pre- events. Here, the concept of spatial sto-
7. Based on the properties and charac- dominately spatially. In film production ry design can be used as dramaturgy to
teristics of the foundational space, for example, where production design- structure real live events. Instead of arbi-
the authors create disjunct subspac- ers design the sets, the DOP assem- trary recording, the seven step algorithm
es and anti fields, potentially in in- bles the room through different cam- can be used to select and design place
definite numbers, and potentially in era angles, the director navigates the and object, and to analyze, emphasize,
collaboration with the users, like in characters through space, the editors and utilize its semantic properties. Intel-
reality based environments, or mas- re-assemble the spatial aspects, and ligent film design allows the filmmaker
sively multiplayer online role-playing so on, all departments may contribute to respond to the way the user navigates
games (MMORPGs). with their specific areas of spatial com- and perceives the story world. The view-
petence to the story development. Story ing devices record and remember what
development would then include every the viewer has already seen, and now
Usership and Conclusion department from the beginning, and in- redirect the viewer’s attention through
teractive narrative interventions could audio cues, audio volumes, object plac-
The seven step spatial design process
also include the user, formerly known as ing, and moveable character action in
privileges co-authorship over single
the audience member. relationship to the extreme point.
authorship, can be used to create 360°
narrative, walk-in story world experienc-
In 360° film making, the viewer cannot Spatial story design may also help to
es for a number of users in either live or
interact with the subjects and objects design a narrative experience in VR
holographic virtual reality spaces, and
of the story world. Most experiments in environments, and to create holodeck
may also serve as a framework for inter-
360° fiction narrative film that aim to cre- cyberdrama as described by Janet
disciplinary collaborations.
ate an immerse experience, fail to over- Murray (1998): “A world we can enter,

16
RIGHT, LEFT, HIGH, LOW NARRATIVE STRATEGIES FOR NON–LINEAR STORYTELLING SYLKE RENE MEYER

­manipulate, and observe in process. We

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