Film is a common medium that people use to tell stories. Due to its temporal quality, videos create infinite possibilities in terms of methods for storytelling techniques. The traditional experience of theater-based film-watching has been constantly changing with technology. Interactive storytelling alters the authorship of the story content in films. It transforms a passive audience into active story-makers, and gives them control over what happens next in order to create their own stories. Interactive storytelling can provide a more intriguing viewer experience, because there are physical movements involved through which users choose physical objects and use them to tell a story. I would like to offer the viewer an inspirational tool, StoryCatcher, to allow him to create a story and have a different film-watching experience each time. This experience will also allow him to carry out actual communication other viewers through interactive narratives, and also create a collaborative community through the sharing, watching, and hearing of fellow users' stories in a StoryCatcher online community.
StoryCatcher is an interactive video installation that combine the physical installation and a networked website. A user can choose five objects from the box and place them into five fixed slots in order to play a particular sequence of film clips. After five objects have been placed in a particular order, the movie sequence begins to play. By changing the order of the objects, a user can rearrange the sequence of the video clips. Changes in sequencing of the objects thus affects the sequence of the movie. There will be an audio and video recording equipment to record users' stories and upload to the website. By doing so, users can share their stories with other viewers and watch other users' stories as well.
Implementation:
The StoryCatcher system has three interfaces:
1. Screen: Seven movie clips are displayed on the screen.
2. Physical interface: Seven physical objects are placed randomly in a box: a lock of red hair, a drawer hanger, a photograph, a comb, a pair of scissors, a torn T-shirt, a lock of black hair, and an airline ticket. Each object is assigned to one individual color, and is connected to one individual movie clip.
3.Website( for the future development): If a viewer decides to record his own story on the spot, then, after recording, the video and audio clips will be uploaded. By doing so, users can share their stories with other viewers and watch other users' stories as well. Users can also leave messages and feedback. I hope to use this network application to encourage the Interactive Telecommunications Program's community to get to know one another, especially incoming students.
User Testing:
In preliminary testing, viewers found the technology interesting, because they were able to move physical objects around in order to control the content of the story and tell different stories using those objects. Having the viewers "tell" the story is one method by which the author and viewer can communicate to each other regarding alternative narratives; it also shifts authorship of the story from the author toward the viewer. In short, it is the viewer who ultimately makes the story meaningful.
People love hearing stories because of their curiosity regarding what happens. The physical objects in this installation attract the viewer's attention, and also provide the viewer with a direct relationship between the video sequence and the objects.
The viewers in our testing typically used StoryCatcher at least two or three times, in order to satisfy their interest in the underlying possibilities for stories. Using physical objects as hints increased the fun of the project. The story content that viewers created was diverse. It was amazing to see how different orders of the video caused a story to go in completely different directions.
Video Documentation:
