ABSTRACT
An interactive, multimedia narrative allows the user to explore several variations of a story or stories. Interactive narratives are produced for game consoles, PCs, mobile devices, the web and interactive TV. Although there are many different types of narrative, such as realist and modernist, successful interactive narratives have largely focused on classical narrative, the same type of narrative that dominates linear film and video. This chapter reviews the basics of classical linear narrative in film and TV before diving into the intricacies of interactive narrative. Classical linear narrative film and video are character driven. It is the character who grabs our attention and whose situation we are drawn into. Most successful film and video today clearly define their characters early in the piece. A narrative is comprised of individual scenes and sequences. A scene is an action that takes place in one location.
