Interactive Video Workshop:Interactive Narrative
The article, Interactive Narrative reminded me of a movie called Annie Hall(1977) directed by Woody Allen, who is also one of the leading characters of the movie. In this movie, Woody Allen suddenly turned to the camera--the audience--explaining how he felt about the conversation that he just had had. I thought this effect was really unique at that time, but it also distracted me from the movie; I wanted to concentrate on what was going on in the story. Some people still use this effect. For example, in a very popular TV drama in the United States, Sex and the city (1998-2004), the leading and other characters often look at the camera talking about themselves. It also bothers me.
I believe that even those people who want to "participate directly in the world of the movie"(page 5) sometimes enjoy watching a movie without doing anything; they might know that not many people can make movies like legendary directors.
The writer of Interactive Narrative said:
-a primary concern for a Storytelling System is how to manage interaction with the viewer without distracting them from or otherwise disrupting the narrative.(page 9)
-Ideally a storytelling system should be capable of providing a sliding scale of interaction, from giving viewers a high degree of conscious control to letting them simply "sit back" and watch the story unfold, as they would with a non-interactive narrative.(page 12)
This 'ideal' is impossible for the time being. Even if this becomes possible, some people would still want to just sit and watch movies because of the reason I mentioned before.
The writer reiterated:
To add interactivity then poses an interesting challenge as the role and value of the interaction must always be gauged against its absence.(page 13)
As far as there are big fans of great movie directors, traditional movies and interactive ones are totally different entertainment. For people, the former is something to watch, and the latter is something to make. They had better understand this difference and enjoy the new style of entertainment: making movies.