The labyrinth within the kingdom: narrative cartography and building the imagined world for developing non-linear interactive internet-based narrative media
Internet-based viewer interactive content constitutes the cutting edge of narrative episodic media. The deficits of Soderbergh’s experiment with viewer-driven content in Mosaic makes clear that narrative structure must also be matured in order to leverage the potential of new delivery platforms. The challenges of creating a viewer-interactive series present fertile ground for narrative filmmakers. How does a filmmaker structure series content such that it produces a compelling viewing experience no matter what order the episodes are watched in? Mosaic deployed its whodunnit narrative through a river delta structure which has its source in a primary episode and then artificially bifurcates to a resolution without resolve. That is, it starts with unity and ends with fragmentation. I would offer that an inverse structure is required in order to create a non-linear viewer interactive experience that produces in Aristotle’s words, pleasure and catharsis, for the viewer. The inversion, rather, features a structure which starts with fragmentation and ends with unity. Through a methodology I have developed involving narrative cartography and world-building, I will present an alternative structure to the river delta which is better suited for non-linear viewer-interactive content and a methodology for creating such content.