Digital storytelling, carolyn miller

Digital Storytelling This page intentionally left blank Digital Storytelling A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment Carolyn Handler Miller AMSTERDAM  BOSTON  HEIDELBERG  LONDON  NEW YORK  OXFORD PARIS  SAN DIEGO  SAN FRANCISCO  SINGAPORE  SYDNEY  TOKYO Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier 200 Wheeler Road, Burlington, MA 01803, USA Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK Copyright ß 2004, Elsevier, Inc All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (ỵ44) 1865 843830, fax: (ỵ44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com.uk You may also complete your request on-line via the Elsevier Science homepage (http://elsevier.com), by selecting ‘‘Customer Support’’ and then ‘‘Obtaining Permissions.’’ Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, Elsevier prints its books on acid-free paper whenever possible Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Miller, Carolyn, Handler Digital storytelling/Carolyn Handler Miller p cm Includes index ISBN 0-240-80510-0 (pbk : alk paper) Interactive multimedia Storytelling—Data processing I Title QA76.76.I59M55 2004 006.7–dc22 2004010366 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 0-240-80510-0 For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at www.focalpress.com 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 987654321 Printed in the United States of America I dedicate this book to my husband, Terry, who has taken the meaning of the word "support" to a whole new level, and who has encouraged me, kept me going, and even managed to make me laugh, even in the most stressful of times This page intentionally left blank Table of Contents FOREWORD ix PREFACE xiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvii PART ONE New Technologies, New Creative Opportunities CHAPTER Interactive Storytelling: A Brief History CHAPTER Backwater to Mainstream: The Growth of Digital Entertainment 15 CHAPTER Moving Toward Convergence 39 PART TWO Creating Entertainment-Rich Projects 53 CHAPTER Interactivity and Its Effects 55 CHAPTER Old Tools/New Tools 71 CHAPTER Characters, Dialogue, and Emotions 89 CHAPTER Structure in Interactive Media 119 CHAPTER Blending Entertainment with Other Goals 135 CHAPTER Tackling Projects for Children 159 vii viii Table of Contents CHAPTER 10 Creating a New Project: The Development Process 183 PART THREE Media and Models: Under the Hood 207 CHAPTER 11 Video Games 209 CHAPTER 12 Massively Multiplayer Online Games 225 CHAPTER 13 The Internet 243 CHAPTER 14 Interactive Television 259 CHAPTER 15 Cross-Media Productions 275 CHAPTER 16 Smart Toys 305 CHAPTER 17 Wireless Devices 321 CHAPTER 18 Interactive Cinema 333 CHAPTER 19 Immersive Environments 349 CHAPTER 20 DVDs 365 CHAPTER 21 Kiosks 375 PART FOUR Career Considerations 389 CHAPTER 22 Working as a Digital Storyteller 391 CHAPTER 23 Creating Your Own Showcase 407 CONCLUSION 419 GLOSSARY 421 ADDITIONAL READINGS 433 SUBJECT INDEX 435 PROJECT INDEX 451 Foreword By Ken Goldstein Something Happened ‘Twas round about the mid ’80s, just about the time we were all truly starting to grok the impact of Apple’s once-run Super Bowl spot that sounded the war cry to dismantle Big Brother Almost ancient history now, but in retrospect it seemed to have a lot to with the PC world taking a lesson from the Mac, replacing the monochrome monitor with 8-bit color, and there you have it, we decided we were all making interactive movies My own journey started almost entirely by accident, as any writer tempered by honesty is likely to share, largely due to too much time on my hands Still looking for a crack in the armor through which I might find an excuse to force my way into ‘‘The Club,’’ I attended a conference at UCLA called ‘‘The Future of Television.’’ Speakers on the keynote panel included one of the foremost executive producers of all time, and if He had something to say about the future of television, I needed to be His disciple Besides, I knew if I could ask just one intelligent question, I could leverage that into a post-conference spec script reading, and within days, the calls from my student loan officer would no longer be troublesome Still new to town and terrified that traffic would come between me and my soon-to-be-acquired nest egg, I arrived much too early at the conference, hours before the keynote (curious, since I had always understood keynotes as kickoffs for conferences, but back then L.A was too hip for anything important to start too early in the day) As fate would have it, we were offered a warm-up panel, and given that it was in an air-conditioned auditorium and I couldn’t afford the French toast special in the cafeteria, I parked myself in the mini-audience and started to learn about something called interactivity What I remember most about that panel was that no one had a single example of any work they could show They tried to make us believe this was because their work was so secret it could not be revealed in public, but I soon learned it was because none of their musings had yet been created What they were saying sure sounded interesting, though—getting the audience into the story as a participant, technology allowing responsiveness to audience choice, a future where stories had unending endings or no endings at all It was a revolution still in the making; the theorists were theorizing before there was reality to evaluate There were only two possible outcomes: Either this was reject material for Saturday Night Live, or this was opportunity To this day I thank the Force that I guessed right One thing has remained constant in the business of interactivity; there has never been a shortage of conferences For the next several years, as the dour ’80s ix ... whenever possible Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Miller, Carolyn, Handler Digital storytelling /Carolyn Handler Miller p cm Includes index ISBN 0-240-80510-0 (pbk : alk paper) Interactive.. .Digital Storytelling This page intentionally left blank Digital Storytelling A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment Carolyn Handler Miller AMSTERDAM  BOSTON... only the craft of storytelling, but the experience of audience as well WHAT IS DIGITAL STORYTELLING? Digital storytelling is narrative entertainment that reaches its audience via digital technology