4D Fiction

The “Rule of Thirds” dates back as far as the 18th century, defined as a guideline to help artists compose esthetically pleasing art. It encourages images to be composed in such a way as to best keep the eye flowing naturally from one point of interest to another.

The Rule of Thirds can apply to more than just visual composition, however. It’s also applicable as a guideline for effective storytelling.

In visual composition, subjects in images are best positioned over any of the four central intersection points. Linear elements (such as horizons or trees, for example) should also be positioned with the horizontal or vertical lines.

Research has shown that the most natural balance of content and flow is achieved when following this composition because these lines and intersections are the areas to where the eye most naturally gravitates when wandering a scene. When the points of interest in an image are in line with these areas, a natural harmony and balance is achieved.  However, there are also times when it may be better to intentionally break this rule for various reasons. Consequently, this ‘rule’ is better considered a compositional guideline.

Telling stories

As a photographer at heart, what makes photography so enticing to me is its ability as a medium to tell stories.  A picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes. Any professional photographer will tell you that a good photograph needs to tell a story. Photos that stand out from others do so because they don’t just put a subject on display – photographers incorporate the surrounding environment, the subject’s context as a way to enhance it.  This is done most effectively by either abiding by, or intentionally breaking the Rule of Thirds when composing the photo.

Like a dance, the Rule of Thirds essentially creates an imbalance by shifting weight, moving off center and leaving it to the participant to seek out a balance. This effectively generates an opportunity for them to willingly engage in the experience.

Visually, eye motion within an image is proportionate to viewer interest: as long as the eye is moving over the image, it’s interesting, and the viewer has more opportunity to respond emotionally to the artist’s composition. As a result, if you change how the eye moves, you can play with the emotions of the viewer. A compositional imbalance for example can lead to feelings of tension and uncertainty.  This is why the Rule of Thirds is so significant in photography and art.

Next, let’s look at some standard story-telling tips and how they may be influenced by the Rule of Thirds.

Show, don’t tell.

From grade school, we’re taught that when writing a story, we shouldn’t describe everything in extreme detail. An author should leave room for the reader’s imagination to fill in the blanks, not words.

A good story doesn’t simply talk about a subject, but rather invites the audience to enhance it with their own imagination, participating in the story by filling in gaps and personalizing the experience.  Ask two people who read the same novel, and their visualizations of the same scene may be completely different, because their individual imaginations filled in the gaps.

In photography, if the subject is dead center, it can feel as though we’re being told, almost forcefully “This is the point of interest — look at it!” But by visually shifting the subject off center, the photographer is inviting the eye to wander around the rest of the image as it naturally seeks an explanation for what it sees and why, to find a meaningful balance. Will the viewer end up satisfied, following a composition that’s pleasing to the eye? Or will they be left feeling cut off, with empty voids or questions that remain unanswered, feeling discomfort because the imbalance wasn’t resolved? We’ve all, for instance, experienced that badly composed portrait or group photo.

If the subject shifted off-center, the creator is now asking the participant to find meaning in the remaining space, to explore and examine other elements, and form for themselves a story that frames the subject, based on what’s been provided by the artist. Additionally, by giving up that level of control, the audience may not even end up having the experience that the creator was intending, because the experience was voluntarily individualized.  In the context of an ARG, this may have the effect of story content being created by the participant which wasn’t predicted by the creator, to which the creator may respond in turn. One might say the creator and participant just pulled off a spontaneous dance move!

This search for balance could also be demonstrated in ARGs by allowing players themselves to locate story elements, rather than pushing them out. For example, in today’s culture one might expect any average company to own a website.  We see the effect of this cultural expectation in TV and movies more often today.

On TV a viewer may see a company or website shown only for a split second on the side of a passing vehicle, or perhaps in an ARG the subject at the moment is an email from a character that mentions the name and website of a company.  Rather than being told what to do, a brief imbalance is created, and the participant may voluntarily seeks a balance.  Many will curiously check for the website on the internet.  There’s a euphoric moment of discovery if they’re rewarded with additional story content. Likewise if there’s no closure or resolution to the curiosity, no balance, they’re left with a reinforced sentiment that the company – and story – is entirely fictional, and they remain simply an observer. An opportunity for greater interest and involvement is lost and the experience is limited to only of what they’re told.

Know what your subject is

In composing a photograph, the intended subject matter should be considered. Is this a picture of the Eiffel Tower? Or is it the BIG Eiffel Tower? In this case instead of taking a simple picture of the tower, one might have a friend wave down from a walkway halfway up. This effectively shifts the intended subject out of central focus, but enhances it with environmental context. Its simple existence is now contrasted by other elements in the composition and evokes a very different feeling for the viewer.

In writing, a good example of this may be character flaws. Imperfections can cause the audience to wonder why a character is the way they are. What happened to make them react a certain way or say something the way they did? Instead of answering those questions directly, simply having the subject feel even slightly off balance can have the desired effect of engaging audience imagination, making the character more interesting and mysterious, less flat and predictable.  As long as those questions or flaws remain unresolved or unqualified, the audience is intentionally left feeling very uncomfortable about the character, potentially seeking out their own explanations.

Foreshadowing, and side stories

If the subject of a composition is no longer central, it’s often balanced by environment, negative space, or some other subject or element. This provides opportunity to come at the subject from other angles. Can secondary subjects offer openings to tell tangential stories, hint at other content, or take different perspectives into the story of the primary subject?

The photo of the Eiffel Tower with a friend waving from a walkway halfway up may be a lead to another photo – captured just off to the side is a very, very long nearby stairway that the friend walked up. The next photo then shows just the friend on that stairway, collapsed playfully in exhaustion. All of this enhances and takes place within the context of the BIG Eiffel Tower.

By shifting the subject off center, additional compositional elements can lead to optional side-stories, creating a depth that wasn’t initially provided – all prompted and discovered by the participant’s desire for balance.

World-building

When taking pictures, it’s easy to answer the What? question by simply pointing at what you want to capture in a frame and snapping a shot. It’s harder to compose an image that not only answers What?, but also subversively asks Why?, inviting the viewer into the composition, evoking emotions, seeking answers, and keeping them interested in the story being told, potentially spanning multiple photos.

Likewise, it’s easy to tell a story. It’s far more work to provide the elements needed for your audience to willingly build the world in which your story takes place, or even to dynamically create and alter it in partnership with your audience.

If the philosophy of the Rule of Thirds is applied effectively in storytelling and the audience is invited to participate in this dance, a deeper connection can be made to create an environment in which the dance takes place – a world begins to take shape in which stories can be more than observed, but experienced.

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Update 8/31/10: Gamasutra has published a similar article discussing art techniques used in game design, including the Golden Ratio. Read here.

Tupperware. In the woods.

Who wouldn’t want to find that?  Well if you do, you’re probably a geocacher, or else you’d make a good one.

A brief primer: What’s Geocaching?

Geocaching (pronounced gee-oh-cash-ing, or gee-oh-kay-shing to some) is a relatively new hobby that began in 2000 when selective availability, the government regulation that degraded GPS satellite accuracy to the public, was discontinued. GPS devices – handhelds and navigational tools among them – became all the rage, and far more useful and practical!

Not one day later, Dave Ullmer of Beavercreek, Oregon thought “Hey, this might be fun!” and he hid what would now be revered as the world’s first geocache (now commemorated by a plaque). Back then he called it a ‘GPS stash hunt’, and his little scavenger hunt spawned a hobby that now covers the world, literally.

Since then, the process of using a GPS device to hide and locate containers of any shape or size in any publicly accessible location has been labeled Geocaching, with its own website (www.geocaching.com) and massive database of over 1,000,000 geocaches world-wide. It’s grown into a pasttime that’s family-friendly, takes place outdoors, away from the computer, it can be competitive or challenging, it’s nature-respecting, relaxing, adventurous, and for people of all ages all around the globe.

Evolution of the geocache

In the ARG world, we make use of a method of exchange called the dead drop, which is used to exchange information or items covertly between two parties at a given location without them meeting face to face. A geocache is essentially an independent dead drop. It, however, remains in place, whoever finds it leaves it there (re-hidden) for the next person, and it contains at the very least some form of log sheet for the finder to sign and date as a record of their visit.

Geocaching, since its inception, has also evolved to incorporate a far wider range of cache styles and types.

As its popularity increased, people soon began placing containers that could only be located after solving puzzles to determine its coordinates. Sometimes you’d have to visit multiple GPS waypoints, picking up clues at each, in order to locate the final container. Some were simply tasks you had to accomplish at a specific location to be successful.

Arguably the most educational and interesting type of geocache, however, is the Earthcache. These are geocaches the details and accuracy of which are heavily scrutinized before publishing, and which explain or teach about natural landmarks, geological history and the like. In order for a player to legitimately log an Earthcache as found, the player must answer a few questions (like a little exam) about the subject matter, sometimes only solvable on-site, and generally they have to at least visit the location and share a photo as evidence of having been there.

Telling stories and creating experiences

What’s great about geocaching is its flexibility to be used as a story-telling tool, incorporating real-world tasks and rewarding players. While dead drops are typically a single task or event belonging to an overarching story, a geocache (or a series of geocaches) must be entirely self-contained. They must also be placed in such a way as to be able to last and be maintained for an indefinite amount of time.

In 2001, while still in its infancy, geocaching took on a unique promotional project. Paramount approached the webmasters of the site at the time, and partnered with them to produce a geocache series called “Project APE“. These 14 caches located worldwide were part of a promotional campaign for the film Planet Of The Apes.

Much like ARG dead drops, clues were released about the drops before they were published, and geocachers were among those in the hinted locations who were on their toes. These caches were very time sensitive. They were published as sequential missions around the world, telling events within the film’s universe, yet fictionally independent from the film. The missions were to retrieve highly sensitive items from caches placed by field agents fighting against a government coverup, while avoiding being detected by federal agents.

The caches themselves were specially labeled, and generally contained collectible items like props from the film as prizes for the first to find. The final cache, a special bonus cache, even contained coveted tickets to the film’s premiere for the first finders.

For all intents and purposes, these were legitimate geocaches. However, being placed by local geocachers on behalf of the marketers, over the years they began disappearing as they were either collected, stolen, or simply archived or retired for lack of maintenance. Currently, only two original Project APE caches remain active. One is still available in Brazil, and the other in Washington. The latter is maintained by Geocaching.com staff as the one and only remaining APE cache in the United States. Players who find these geocaches are rewarded a unique and rare icon for their finds collection. Three other APE caches have also been adopted, but were converted to traditional geocaches.

Since Project APE, however, geocaching has continued to be refined and made more self-supportive and independent. It’s been receiving more media attention recently as the GPS buzz spreads, and as mobile devices become cheaper and more consumer friendly – especially handheld phones, now packaged with GPS capabilities. It’s a hobby that’s sure to continue attracting people from all countries and walks of life for years to come.

Geocaching stories post-APE-pocalypse

With more and more tools and technology being made available, the potential to create more involved story-based geocaching experiences is enticing.

Another series inspired by Project APE is Forbidden Zone Geocaches. This is a series of caches designed to expand on the mythos of the APE caches, and provides an independent website for players to keep track of their progress and discoveries until they’ve found all the necessary tips to unlock the secret final mission and locate its cache.

More local to myself, there’s a geocache named LAARU BRAVO which takes on another mission-based theme, creating a story and self-contained experience with tasks that must be accomplished in order to locate the cache container. Reading past logs, many geocachers have even described their experience while still remaining effectively in character.

Another adventurous geocache with a small story based on an existing franchise is called Tomb Raider, located near San Diego. The story itself is minor and contained to the initial puzzle, however the journey to locate and find the cache is the player’s extension to the story, and that is where the real adventure lies.  More than simply finding a tupperware container in the woods, as it were, many geocaches prompt the player to embark on real-world hikes and experiences they otherwise may never have thought they’d ever be doing. This is one of the main attractions to the hobby, and wherein lies some of the best opportunities to tell stories and create experiences.

While many still view geocaching as a hobby that should remain simplistic and easy for laypeople to pick up and go, there’s no reason why it should be limited to such a view. These sorts of experiential geocaches are what attract the attention of visitors from around the world. There are many geocache series and unique caches that make headlines. A quick google shows a sample list of bookmarked “must do” geocaches, many quite distant from the geocacher’s home town. People love memorable geocaches, and elaborate story-based geocaches are a rare commodity; especially well created ones.

Geocaching 2.0: the Wherigo

Creating extensive stories for geocaches is not a simple task, given the rules and guidelines now in place for publishing at Geocaching.com. There is another new type of geocache, however, that promises to provide a method for generating even more interactive experiences. This is the Wherigo. It’s a form of executable application that runs as a “cartridge” on a currently very limited number of GPS devices, including Garmins and some Pocket PCs. Wherigo caches are more complex to create, but afford a lot more flexibility for storytelling, tasks and scripted actions.

While generic geocaches are primarily coordinate-based with optional calculations or separate puzzle solving required, the Wherigo makes use of the GPS device and provides live interaction with a script based on your physical location. This means stories can be told in segments on the field, and different types of puzzles and missions can be created to be executed, and solved while outside.

From Wherigo.com:

Wherigo is a platform that allows you to build location based GPS experiences on your computer and play them in the real world. Think Zork, Secret of Monkey Island or Myst, but in the park around the corner, or on the beach during your family vacation. Rather than clicking the mouse and selecting a location to move your character, you actually walk from one location to the next to advance the story.

Support for Wherigo cartridges is still fairly thin, but it should only be a matter of time before Android*, iPhone, Blackberry, or other smartphone app versions appear. Additionally, while not officially Geocaching activities, there are other organizations that provide location-based gaming experiences similar to this, such as GPS Mission or SCVNGR.

Bushwacking to the future

Geocaching is still in its infancy, with so much untapped potential as a story-telling method. As time goes on, hopefully we’ll see more innovative use of this pastime to provide memorable and entertaining experiences that span more than words on a screen or numbers in your hand, but engage players through multiple media. Who will create the first truly transmedia geocache? Has it already been done?

If you’re a geocacher, I’d recommend checking out the geocaches mentioned above next time you’re in their areas. If you’re hiding geocaches, I challenge you to do more than just hide tupperware in the woods (or magnets in the city) – create an experience to remember! Write a story, an adventure! Even if the container is easy to find, the journey to get there is what people will remember most.

Do you know of other notable geocaches that have given you memorable experiences?
Do you know of any that tell amazing stories?
Please share in the comments below!

And if you haven’t already, buy a GPS or GPS enabled smartphone, and sign up at geocaching.com!

* Update: The official Android port of the Geocaching app is now available, see Geocaching.com/Android

Some Geocaches to add to the To-Do list:

• Tomb Raider (GCWD13)
• Project APE (Bookmark list)
• Forbidden Zone Geocaches (website) [article]
• Necropolis of Britannia Manor III (GC2B034) [article]

The past few days have seen an increase in discussion of labels and content production due to the PGA officially recognizing “Transmedia Producer” in the Producer Code of Credits. But what is “transmedia”, and is their definition of a Transmedia Producer an accurate representation of the people who claim to ‘produce transmedia’? In the midst of this hot topic, however, another caught my eye -- Rowan72 tweeted a challenge for ARG creators:

Create an ARG where the missing friend is found and/or the mysterious journal is explained -- AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME.

Labfly expanded:

and then players realize they shouldn’t have found the journal or friend and they must spend the rest of the ARG plotting and executing re-vanish

It may have been a bit tongue in cheek, but the challenge is a sincere one. Rowan followed up by posing the age old question:

Why does it seem like the majority of games are about finding the missing person or explaining the mysterious thing?

Maureen McHugh of NoMimes Media raises the point in Storytelling and the Illusion of Authenticity that “the stories seem most effective when the plot of them is rather conventional”. We do tend to find these days that many ARGs are telling the same stories -- just with different characters and different places.

Rowan’s concern reminded me very much of Rob Paravonian’s Pachelbel Rant:

The ARG ‘formula’ is getting so saturated with copycat conventions that it’s like walking into a book store and having to skip the genres we don’t like, heading straight to our favourite aisles. But even in the midst of all the noise, occasionally one book may stand out, a best-seller perhaps, and we curiously dive in. Why?

These are the games that, as Rowan later put it, have “personality”. The ones that stand out from their neighbours in some way. Or, as Maureen also wrote:

The audience needs some level of comfort and some elements of surprise. For now, Transmedia is pretty much always surprising for the audience

Just as with novels, there a couple of major factors to take into creative consideration: Plot formula (eg, rescue the kidnapped girl), and content personality (are the characters lovable and unique so that people connect with them?). If neither are up to par, chances are it will get pushed to the back of the shelf, perhaps picked up a few times, but mostly put back to gather dust. But if either factor attracts attention, there’s a much better chance it’ll start flying off the shelves. If something catches our curiosity, it may cause us to accept the parts we’re not as excited about, and end up having a great experience anyway

There will, however, always be an audience for the ‘rehash’, stories and games using the same old safe conventions. The “OMG help! My friend is missing!” for one, is on track to become a “cheesy romance novel” of ARGs. Everyone has their likes and dislikes, and that’s great! But I think, if we want to evaluate this form of entertainment and engagement, we have to stop looking at this creative method (ARGs, Transmedia, pervasive gaming, ‘insert-name-here’) on the whole where every item effectively defines the genre in some way, and rather come at it with more of a bookstore mentality.

Just as novels will never disappear, ARGs and transmedia storytelling are here to stay. As its sphere of influence and visibility grows, we’ll be seeing more of this mentality. Our bookstore layout is changing year after year, even month after month while we try to organize the aisles with appropriate categories -- it’s growing and expanding at an exponential rate. It will be filled with endless genres and variants and labels. It’ll be filled with best-sellers and dust-gatherers, novels and videos, fiction and non-fiction, education and entertainment, reference and religion. It will have new releases, and newspaper archives. There will be special events and games taking place in its doors. It’ll attract old and young, rich and poor, window shoppers, lurkers, and buyers. It will house promotions, contests, and community events. There may even be book signings. Our bookstore is a thriving location for creatives and community. It could even take the form of a library where rather than providing only one-time purchases, items can be checked out and experienced repeatedly by many.

We can’t gauge the overall state of “Books”, but we can certainly see trends and we can survey book enthusiasts in efforts to drill down and analyze the latest and greatest. Novelists don’t define “Books” either, that’s rather redundant -- they simply create content in their style which attracts a certain target audience, and their novel naturally finds a place in some aisle (or may potentially even find a place in multiple). An unsuccessful novel doesn’t indicate that books are dying out, nor its genre, and neither should unsuccessful transmedia productions have a negative defining effect. We’re at the point now in this industry that everything that has been created will be created again -- the aisles will expand, being populated with non-unique productions, rehashes and copycats, utilizing tried and true conventions -- and they’ll still have an audience. But it’s the first movers and innovators that are the ones pushing for new subject aisles and categories entirely, the ones that seek to expand the selection within the bookstore.

What we’re on the verge of right now is breaking out of the ‘aisle’ mentality. Other industries look over here and see creators debating about the subject and what the aisle should be labeled, rather than being guided to what they’re looking for. They see some separate out to make their own aisle, sometimes for exposure and 15 minutes of fame, but usually because the creator realized what they’ve created or want to create seems out of place in our aisle or they felt limited by its particular definition and is better suited elsewhere, under some other new label. Additionally, if someone looking to break into this creative community generates a project that doesn’t quite fit the current label or fails outright, they’re left in the cold as some undefined independent ‘thing’ because accepting it into our subject aisle means the others are condoning something that doesn’t quite represent accurately what our aisle’s about, and that’s a bad thing because we’re still trying to define our aisle. Then the other industries are drawn to wherever the popular buzz of activity is, like moths to a flame, and we wonder why they don’t get it.

If we embrace the bookstore mentality, we’ll be able to expand and collectively accept the growing repertoire of styles and methods. Subject aisles become collections of similar ideas and implementations without a sense of inherent ownership of the label or method. It doesn’t by any means limit the potential or scope of creative productions, but rather encourages a more positive perception as this industry evolves. There will be a place for everyone in its doors. It’ll have projects we don’t really like, and some we love, plus many we’ve never even heard of because we can’t keep up with everything that’s being created. Stories and games will be created and they may sneak into an aisle with no warning, but it won’t matter -- because someone will still come across it and be interested in it. It’ll be easier to freely create, and whether it’s free entertainment or marketing, rehash or completely new, there will always be an audience, and the cream of the crop will rise to the top as the best-sellers, regardless.

We want more best-sellers! We want writers and creators who challenge our thinking, who create unique, memorable, refreshing experiences. But love it or hate it, there will always be someone posting to a blog begging for people to help them rescue their kidnapped friend — the cheesy romances are here to stay.