ShapeShifting Screen Media: A Declarative Computational Model for Interactive Reconfigurable Moving Image Narratives

This paper presents an approach and a computational model, implemented in a software system, for the creation and delivery of interactive moving image productions made with filmed material that level the aesthetic and editing quality of existing linear film and television programmes. They have been validated through a number of productions, notably through a dramatic production delivered on a national television channel in 12 episodes. The focus of the paper is on the declarative formal language, called Narrative Structure Language (NSL), which we developed for the representation of such narratives, and on an accompanying reasoning engine.