7. The Diagrammatic Screenplay: Strategies to Address the Challenges of Writing an Interactive, Mixed Reality Experience

Screenplay formats for Virtual and Mixed Reality are not yet standardised. Innovations in screen production documents are frequently occurring alongside the project development process. This chapter focuses on the development of an interactive MR essay called In a Minor Key (IaMK). The significant body of work described as interactive factuals offers some models for writing interactive documentary VR and MR. However, writing interactivity is not the only challenge. With the filmic, frame-based Master Scene method proving inadequate to convey spatial, immersive and multimodal experiences, new strategies are required to write works predicated on interactants being able to move around in 3D environments containing sites of interaction that determine branching structures as well as setting out the placement of objects, sounds and features within the landscape and describing the environmental conditions. Through an examination of the writing and development process for IaMK, this chapter considers the conditions in play when writing an essayistic MR work as an experiential system. This analysis is part of an ongoing conversation about screenwriting for emerging forms that advocates going beyond set formats and encourages writers to apply a range of tools from adjacent disciplines to continue expanding the possibilities of what the medium can be.