Special Topics in Cinematic Storytelling
MIT's Media Arts and Sciences seminar examines how stories are built and experienced across distributed, interactive media. Readings draw on literary and cinematic criticism alongside descriptions of interactive, distributed works, and the course studies the relationship between story creation and story appreciation. Students analyze a range of storytelling techniques, then move from analysis to production: they draft a proposal using visualization techniques and build a working prototype of a story experience. The course culminates in a final project displayed publicly at the end of the semester, giving students a chance to test their prototype with an audience. Materials come from MIT OpenCourseWare and include readings and project guidelines rather than recorded lectures. The course suits students with some background in media, film, or interactive design who want to move from studying narrative theory to building an original interactive story piece.