In interactive narration, the screen plays a crucial role: it is the only possible field of navigation between the many story elements. For the question what and what not to do with the screen was a major issue in the workshop. Some used the screen only to support a sound-based story, others made fully fledged interactive movies. For the TV-makers, the focus on sound was especially interesting. The evocative possibilities of sound without image, proved to offer a fruitful approach to interactive storytelling. Actually, the process wereby a gap between the content of story elements is filled by the imagination of the user, closely resembled the process wereby image is imagined in the absence of sound.
The material that was used as a starting point in this workshop was the raw footage of My Maxima, a documentary on a love story between a Dutch man and an Argentinian woman. This material was used by half the participants. All participants made their ow interactive film. As practical research tool the participants used the Korsakow System, which consists of an editing environment for nonlinear narratives, as well as an elegant presentation tool for interactive film and audio projects.
The results of this workshop were presented to the festival audience on 22nd of June in de Balie, Amsterdam.
This workshop is made possible with the support of the MEDIA PLUS PROGRAMME of the European Community, the Mondriaan Foundation and the ThuisKopie Fonds.