People tend to think of interactivity as the polar opposite of immersion.

If that's the case, why do we get so caught up in games?

Unrefined choose-your-own-adventure films offer about the same appeal as Smell-o-Vision - because people appreciate good storytelling. There is a reason why we're willing to sit around a campfire or pay $9 for a movie ticket.

Storytellers are guides, they ensure narrative progression and character development. When a storyteller is particularly riveting, we'll give ourselves over completely.

This isn't to say that interactivity is bad. Far from it. Interactivity is a totally misunderstood concept.

The truth about digital flicks is that they are whatever you want them to be.

There is a time and a place for viewer-interaction. Not just for novelty. The ability to incorporate javascript, SMIL and Flash into RealMedia and QuickTime movies expands the very definition of "moving pictures".

SMIL (pronounced "smile", short for "Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language") is like the HTML of video. It can load multiple movies at once or be used to link to web pages from within a movie. It is part of Real G2, Real 7 and QuickTime 4.1 movies.

You can also use Flash to build layers of user-interface around a QuickTime movie. Here's another link to the New Venue and D.FILM's QuickTime TV Channel -

Clickable regions can easily be mapped on top of video.

Still, a film that incorporates interactive elements as part of its storyline should offer a non-interactive path as default, just in case some viewers aren't in a point-and-click mood.

Another common form of interactivity is the ability to explore a space using something like QuickTime VR or IPIX. These "virtual reality" tools let you to look up down and all around a particular area. There's a lot of potential but most people just make little claustrophobic video clips - think John Travolta in that Bubble Boy movie.

Authoring Software

At this writing, most video editing software does just that, editing, offering only minimal support for the non-traditional media-handling capabilities of QuickTime. This is why when we think of video on the web, we often think of QuickTime movies as audio and video only. To take full advantage of the different media layers, you could either purchase authoring tools like Live Stage or Electrifier Pro, or you could download a free utility called iShell.