Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 3, Act 3…

Abstract

Playwriting guides, creative writing handbooks, and screenwriting manuals are replete with guidance as to how an author should express their themes. One common rule of thumb is that the climax is where the themes, the characters, and the narrative’s result converge in the terminal of the thematic statement. If the theme is established and elaborated on during a film, then its climax is where the film’s authors express their position on the matter through the narrative’s result or lack thereof. As part of my Ph.D. artistic research, I have written and directed an interactive film, The Limits of Consent; the film follows a tree-structure where the narrative splinters at the end of the second act and presents nine separate climaxes for the film. Each climax is significantly different in either its character-focus, action, tone, style, and, crucially, its expression of the film’s themes. In this article, by examining how the thematic portfolio of The Limits of Consent was established and then elaborated on in different ways depending on selected ending, I will explore the implications of this difference between a traditional film and an interactive film and how a filmmaker may present multiple thematic statements based on the same narrative.