Animated Narratives Week 2

"What if asking questions was rude or forbidden?"

(explored through interactive treatment and idea/mind mapping)

This is a concept I have thought about before but never gotten to explore. Previously I had considered writing it into a novel, but I believe that the lense of interactivity will give the viewer a far greater ability to explore firsthand the tense and difficult social interactions that come from only being allowed to communicate through statements and suggestions.

This concept suits established mystery and horror genres and tropes. I took particular inspiration from the environmental and narrative tension achieved in the game OFF (Martin and Alias Conrad, 2008) which uses dissonant and distorted visuals and sounds to heighten the tension in a story that explores the unreliable narrator in interactive fiction.

The choice to represent the characters as rabbits was inspired by one of my favourite narrative works, Watership Down (Adams, 1972) which uses theoretical social structures in rabbit societies to explore deeper philosphical questions about society, creativity and companionship. This also allows us as creatives to fashion a scenario significantly abstracted from real world circumstances, and introduces new concepts that can help to inform the story such as differences in domestic breeds and their purposes and personalities.

Adams, R., 1972. Watership Down. London: Rex Collings Ltd.

Martin, G. and Alias Conrad, C., 2008. OFF. Belgium: Unproductive Funtimes. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh5P9JUMIdc - OFF playthrough on Youtube for reference