Weekly Reflection (Week 12)

On this week, Miss Amreet taught us on the Interactive Multimedia: Narrative and Linear Narrative. A narrative is also define as a ‘story’. It is a series of events that are linked together in a number of ways, including cause and effect, time and place. Narrative also is something that happens in the first event causes the action in the second event, and so on, usually moving forward in time. Narrative interactive multimedia involves telling a story using many media and interactivity. Often the player is one of the characters in the story and sees action from the character’s point of view. It was also used for pure entertainment or to present information in an experiential way.

            Meanwhile, computer game is any game played with a computer involved. It includes all consoles (PlayStation, Xbox,etc), PC computers, mobile devices, interactive TV, and arcade games. Next, video game is any kind of game using a video display. Then, electronic games is a applies to all types of video and computer games.

            Classical linear narrative elements can be defined with the presence of character, structure, scenes and sequences, jeopardy, point of view and pace. Firstly, for the character; most successful film and video today clearly define their characters early in the piece. Who are the characters? Where are they from? What do they want or need, and why do they want it? What the character wants usually provides the action story of the film or video.

            As for the structure, once the character’s needs are established, then the writer can begin to structure the script. They key elements of classical narrative structure are exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution. Next, for the exposition or setup. The beginning of the story must set up the lead character, the setting and what the character wants- the goal to be achieved or the problem to be solved.

            During the conflicts, if the character achieves the goal in the first scene, it will be a very short story. To avoid this happening, the writer introduces conflicts or obstacles. (person vs. person, person vs. environment, person vs. self). Meanwhile, for scenes and sequences. A narrative is comprised of individual scenes and sequences. A scene is an action that takes place in one location. A sequence is a series of scenes built around one concept or event. It’s tightly structured script, each scene has a mini-goal or plot point that sets up and lead us to the next scene.

            Last but not least, pace and time. Pace is the audience’s experience of how quickly the events of the narrative seem to move. Many short sequences, scenes and both of dialogue tend to make the pace move quickly, longer elements slow it down. Finally, writers tend to accelerate pace near a climax and slow it down for expositional and romantic scenes.