Interactive Cinema & FMV Glossary (EN/UA)
A bilingual dictionary of the field: forty-nine terms of interactive cinema and FMV with original definitions, English–Ukrainian equivalents, examples from games and films, and links to the articles that treat each term in depth.
This is not a translator and not a wiki: the definitions are original and consistent with this site’s texts — the master’s thesis on interactive cinema, the articles on DVD, 3DO and variable montage, and the KVANT 1993 practice-based research. Every term carries an anchor (for example, #agency), identical in the English and Ukrainian versions of the page, so any text can link to it. Terms are grouped by letters of the English alphabet; the index is below.
A
agency
The pleasure of meaningful action: the participant’s choices visibly shape what happens, in Janet Murray’s terms. A system response alone is not agency — a menu that changes nothing produces only its illusion. See my reading of Hamlet on the Holodeck.
AI-generated narrative
Narrative material — visuals, dialogue, whole scenes — produced by generative models rather than filmed or written in advance. In 2026 FMV it appears as a boundary case: China’s Strange Tales of Republican China replaces live actors with AI-generated visuals (2026 roundup).
archive narrative
A story told through search in a database of recorded clips: the participant reconstructs events by cross-referencing fragments. Her Story (2015) and Immortality (2022) are the reference models — see the FMV format overview.
authoring tool
Software for assembling interactive films and branching stories: editors for nodes, choices, timelines and export. Stornaway, CtrlMovie Editor, Naninovel and my FMV Builder belong to this class — compared in Interactive Film Tools.
B
bottleneck
A node where several branches converge back into one scene. Bottlenecks keep a branching script filmable and affordable — but overused, they flatten choices back toward the canonical course.
branching narrative
A narrative whose course depends on choices leading the story down different paths, built as a graph of scenes and transitions. It is the structural backbone of most FMV games and interactive dramas — five structures modeled here.
C
choice illusion
A design where options are offered but cannot meaningfully change the outcome: the story reconverges regardless. Separating real consequence from choice illusion is a standard task of narrative analysis — modeling consequences.
CD-ROM
The optical disc (roughly 650 MB) that first made digital video with live actors practical on PCs and consoles in the early 1990s — the carrier of FMV’s boom and of codecs like Cinepak (3DO study).
Cinepak
A video codec of the CD-ROM era, tuned for software playback on weak hardware: slow to encode, fast to decode. The 3DO FMV library of 1993–1995 shipped on exactly this kind of trade-off (3DO study).
cut-scene
A filmed or pre-rendered sequence that interrupts gameplay to advance the story. FMV games extend the principle to the entire visual track: the cut-scene becomes the substance of the game rather than a pause in it (history of the cut-scene).
CYOA (choose your own adventure)
The book series formula where the reader picks the next section — and the everyday name for any branching story. The formula migrated to the screen on DVD, from game adaptations like Scourge of Worlds (2003) onward (DVD-era study).
D
database narrative
A narrative emerging from navigation through a structured collection of elements rather than a fixed sequence — a notion associated with Lev Manovich. Archive detective games like Her Story apply it directly (FMV overview).
dialogue tree
A branching structure for conversations: each player line leads to a predefined set of replies and outcomes. In interactive cinema it is the dialogue-driven cousin of scene-level branching (tools that implement it).
E
environment-based narrative
A narrative told through a space the participant explores freely: story material is distributed across locations and objects instead of a branch tree. In my four-structure taxonomy it is the open extreme, opposite the strict tree.
F
FMV (full-motion video)
Pre-recorded footage with live actors used as a game’s main visual material, as opposed to real-time 3D. The format peaked in the CD-ROM 1990s, collapsed with real-time graphics, and returned in the 2020s as a deliberate artistic choice — the full story.
focalizer
The narratological term (after Gérard Genette) for the point of perception: whose vision a scene is presented through. In interactive narratives the focalizer can shift per branch — a key category for analyzing multi-perspective FMV (theoretical toolkit).
G
game engine
The core software framework a game is built on: rendering, playback, interaction, export. Unity is the engine my FMV-01 prototype and the FMV Builder authoring tool run on (tools compared).
game-film
A hybrid work on the film–game boundary where the cinematic experience comes first and game mechanics serve it. The term frames the central question of my research: where does a film end and a game begin (genre specificity)?
H
hotspot
A clickable area on a frame or still image that triggers a transition, reveals an object or plays a clip. Hotspots on stills are the cheapest interactive layer — the core mechanic of my FMV-01 prototype.
hub
A node with open access to several branches: the player returns to the hub and picks the next path. Hub-and-spoke structures trade strict causality for freedom of order (structures compared).
hybrid agency
A situation in which the act of choice is distributed between participant, system and author — none controls the narrative alone. A central notion of my practice-based research around the KVANT 1993 experiment.
I
immersion
Murray’s term for the experience of being transported into a represented world — the entry pleasure of interactive storytelling. FMV earns it with photographed reality: live actors anchor the world perceptually (Murray’s concepts).
interactive cinema
Works at the film–game boundary where the cinematic experience is primary and the viewer’s input changes its course — from Kinoautomat (1967) to Bandersnatch (2018). The reference definition and typology are in my pillar article.
interactive drama
A story-driven interactive work with live-action drama at its core, choices shaping relationships and outcomes. The term names the mainstream output of the Chinese FMV industry of the 2020s (2026 roundup).
interactive film
A film with an interaction layer — choices, perspective switching, exploration — that changes its sequence or outcome. The practical question this site keeps returning to: how such a film differs from a video game (the boundary).
interactive storytelling
The umbrella field for stories that respond to their audience: games, interactive films, VR narrative, AI-driven stories. In academic use it covers both the design practice and its theory (state of the field).
interactive theatre
A stage form in which the audience influences the course of the performance. A broader definition of interactive cinema includes theatrical, television and streaming forms — not only games with video inserts (pillar article).
interactive video
Video enriched with interaction — hotspots, choices, navigation — without necessarily being a game. It is the wider category from which interactive cinema and FMV games both draw (authoring tools).
K
Kinoautomat
The world’s first interactive film, premiered at Expo 67 in Montreal: the audience voted with green and red buttons to stop scenes and choose continuations — while the scripted story kept steering them back (full history).
L
labyrinth structure
A structure with many connections between scenes, where progress means navigating a network rather than following a branch; wrong turns are part of the experience. Between the branch tree and the open environment in my taxonomy.
laserdisc
An analogue video disc storing footage as a continuous signal — the carrier of film-based arcade games from Wild Gunman (1974) to Dragon’s Lair (1983) and the technical ancestor of FMV (format history).
linear narrative
A story with one fixed sequence of scenes — the baseline from which branching, parallel and labyrinth forms measure their difference. Interactivity does not abolish the linear track: most FMV games keep a canonical course beneath their branches (structures).
live action
Footage photographed with real actors and settings, as opposed to animation or real-time graphics. Live action is FMV’s defining material — and the thing AI-generated visuals put in question (FMV overview).
M
multilinear narrative
A text with several equally valid reading lines, without committing itself to game-style branches. The general category of which branching, parallel and labyrinth structures are special cases (structures).
N
narrative design
The craft of designing story systems — structures, choice points, states, consequences — before and beyond individual scenes. In interactive film production it is the discipline that decides what the viewer’s choices actually mean (tools for the craft).
narrative graph
A formal model of an interactive story: scenes as nodes, transitions as edges, conditions attached to edges. Graph modeling is the design method of my branching-modeling article and of FMV Builder’s editor.
nodal branching
The classic branching shape: at key points the story splits into distinct branches that may reconverge. In my taxonomy it is the pure-tree model of choice-based narrative.
P
parallel narrative
A structure of several storylines running side by side, which the work switches between — without the viewer necessarily redirecting them. In interactive form the participant may distribute attention between the lines (structures).
playthrough
One complete pass through an interactive work, from start to ending. In a branching narrative a playthrough exposes only part of the material — which is what makes repeated viewing part of the form (structures).
presence
The felt sense of physically being inside a represented environment — the base category of VR narrative, where camera grammar gives way to the participant’s position and gaze (immersive storytelling survey).
practice-based research
Research that produces knowledge through making an artwork and reflecting on that making: the prototype and its documentation are the research output. The method behind my KVANT 1993 project, unpacked step by step in the worked-example guide.
Q
QTE (quick time event)
A timed prompt to press a key or tap at the right moment, borrowed from action games. In FMV it keeps hands busy inside filmed scenes — Late Shift built its tension on strict QTE timing (FMV mechanics).
S
seamless branching
A DVD feature: several versions of a film pre-indexed on the disc, so player choices switch story paths without pauses. It brought interactive cinema into living rooms years before streaming (DVD-era study).
state
The set of variables an interactive system keeps between scenes: facts learned, relationships, flags. Hidden states are how a story “remembers” choices even when scenes reconverge (modeling states).
still frame
A static photographic frame used as an interactive scene: hotspots on stills cost far less than shot video and switch instantly. FMV-01 mixes filmed cutscenes with still-based exploration on this principle (the prototype).
T
technological ascesis
A deliberate restriction of technological means — formats, platforms, interfaces — treated as an artistic method rather than a limitation. A key concept of my practice-based work on the KVANT 1993 experiment.
transformation
Murray’s third pleasure: the delight in a known form being reshaped — a story changing shape, perspective or role during the experience. Generative AI now promises transformation at the level of form itself (Murray’s concepts).
V
variable montage
Editing in which the order and composition of shots are determined at runtime by the narrative state or the viewer’s choices, instead of a fixed sequence — the editing grammar interactive film adds to classical montage (dedicated article).
VR storytelling
Narrative in virtual reality, where the participant’s presence and attention replace the cut as the main organizing force. My survey of immersive interactive storytelling maps its forms next to film-based interactivity.
Where the terms are treated in depth
The glossary is an index, not a replacement for theory. The site’s core texts where these concepts do full work:
About the compiler
Sasha Poberailo is a researcher of interactive cinema (film studies, Kharkiv State Academy of Culture), author of the master’s thesis “Interactive Cinema: History, Typology, Artistic Techniques” and of the KVANT 1993 practice-based research. The glossary’s terms are the working language of those texts, checked against Ukrainian academic usage.
Sources
← All research