Rosamund Davies

Talking to You: the use of direct address in virtual reality and immersive narrative scripts

University of Greenwich, UK

Virtual and mixed reality (XR) narratives are becoming an established, if still minor part of audiovisual production. The approach taken to both narrative design and scripting of such productions differs both from standard film and television norms and indeed from project to project, since there are few ‘standard’ approaches yet in place. One recurring feature of such narratives, however, is the frequent use of direct address to the viewer. This is often to engage them in interaction with the story, a feature that many XR narratives share with videogames. The viewer may be asked, for instance, to carry out an action or to say something. However, even where there is no scripted action on the part of the viewer, they may still be addressed directly, either by a character within the story, or through a form of voiceover narration. XR writer/director Sacha Wares, has suggested that such strategies are necessary, not only with regard to engaging the audience’s externalised interaction, but also to engage them emotionally in the story. She proposes that, within XR narratives, it is not possible to effect such emotional engagement through dramatic dialogue between characters alone, underlining a potential key difference between the use of dialogue in XR compared to its use within film and television narratives.

In this paper I will discuss the use of direct address to the viewer in the scripting of XR narratives, alongside/in preference to dialogue between characters, in different virtual and mixed reality scripts. I will compare and contrast the use of these elements to their employment in scripting for film and television. My argument will be based on both textual analysis and interviews with immersive writers/directors, including Wares and others. It will relate techniques employed within the scripts to the particular dramatic aims of the writers and directors.

Rosamund Davies is Senior Lecturer in Screen and Media Writing at the University of Greenwich, where she leads the theme Narrative, Place, Identity, within the Centre for Creative Futures. She has a background in professional practice in the film and television industries, in which she worked with both independent production companies and public funding bodies. Rosamund’s research encompasses theory and practice across writing and audiovisual media. She is co-editor (with Paolo Russo and Claus Tieber) of the Palgrave Handbook of Screenwriting Studies (2023) London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rosamund is author of many journal articles and chapters on screenwriting, including ‘The Screenplay as Boundary Object’ (2019), Journal of Screenwriting 10: 2 pp149-164; and ‘Nordic noir with an Icelandic twist: Establishing a shared space for collaboration within European co-production’ (2020) in Craig Batty, Stayci Taylor (eds.) Script Development: Critical Approaches, Creative Practices, International Perspectives London: Palgrave Macmillan.