I'd planned on continuing my review of the "Cloverfield" trailer today, continued from my earlier entry, but upon further review, maybe that's not the best use of blog space or your reading time. After all, you're perfectly capable of watching the trailer and coming up with your own list of "oh my God"s and "man, this shakey-cam stuff is giving me a headache"s without me pointing them out for you. And secondly, what's important about "Cloverfield" in relation to Lost exists not inside the trailer, but almost everywhere else. Let me explain.

Both Lost and "Cloverfield" have in common is their use of ARGs (alternative reality games) to deploy narrative outside the "main" structure (ie, outside the television show or movie). With Lost, there was "The Lost Experience," which detailed events inside the world of Lost in a way that touched upon the actual events of the show but more importantly fleshed out important background information relevant to the overall story that Lost is trying to tell. In the case of "Cloverfield", websites such as this one serve to tantalize fans in preparation for the movie, but in their own way, are almost vital reading in order to fully understand what will happen in the movie.

This all begs a larger question: should the stories of Lost and "Cloverfield" be contained to the main narrative force, or is this type of multi-faceted, multi-media approach necessary with shows so dense? Is it fair to make a Lost viewer, for example, soak up every episode, the novel "Bad Twin", every facet of "The Lost Experience," and every mobisode in order to stay up-to-date? Will people who don't follow the "Cloverfield" ARG experience the movie in a fundamental way from people who analyze every detail like this? (By the way, how freakin' cool is it that Slusho appeared in Alias???)

The answer to that is complicated at best, but I think that genre writers such as J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon, and Bryan Fuller can get away with this in ways that non-genre writers cannot. There's simply not a market for a "Two and a Half Men" ARG, plain and simple. I don't mean to tell you a show without an ARG is an inferior show; I'm not here to argue taste, merely narrative possibility. Everything you could ever want to know about Charlie Sheen's wacky antics can be absorbed within a thirty-minute period once a week, that's all I'm saying.

But let's look at the type of information distributed in the alternate narrative threads of Lost: in "Bad Twin", we learned about the Widmore Corporation, an entity that further popped up on "The Lost Experience." The Widmore Corporation had only been hinted at in the television series before its starring role in these alternative narratives. The information revealed in these extra forms lent an extra air of import to the scant mentions of the Widmore Corporation on the show itself: namely, Henry Gale's balloon and Sun's pregnancy test.

Now, check out that Slusho site. Be sure to click the "History" button, in which we learn about the ill-fated founder of the company. Learn about the amazing discovery her son made after her death. Now, look at the drilling map located here, detailing a fictional company within the "Cloverfield" world. That Chuai station, opened just last month, sure looks near NYC, no?

So now we come to the big question: are these factoids vital to the overall narrative? Yes. Would they be best delivered inside the primary narrative? Absolutely not.

While important, these are expositional points that serve as important backdrop to the primary action but would ultimately stilt the primary narrative mode. I do not want to see an eight-minute scene between Jack and Ben in which I learn about the Widmore Corporation's involvement with the Island. I'm perfectly happy to have the Widmore people simply show up and start kicking butt (with important info dribbled out over time). Likewise, in "Cloverfield," if we learn that Rob works for Slusho, that fact alone is enough for me, given the fact that I already have an extensive background on Slusho's work with Tagruato. In both cases, I have the narrative background: I merely need to see the results of the accumulated exposition played out before my eyes in a way that is dramatically satisfying.

Now, can you enjoy these works without going through all the extra effort? Absolutely. Would you get more enjoyment with full participation in all narrative aspects? More than likely. The majority of my current Lost theories derive from information detailed in "The Lost Experience." (I mean, should we connect Henry Gale's balloon and Naomi's parachute, for instance? Did Henry simply blow off course and get killed by The Others, while Noami luckily landed near the Lostaways? Did Widmore send them both?) And learning about a secret ingredient that more or may not make women named Beth explode after a giant sea monster than may or may not have been unearthed due to deep-sea drilling for said ingredient makes yours truly a heckuva lot more excited for this movie than I already was.

It's all about recognizing the proper format for the particular part of the story that Lost and "Cloverfield" want to tell, and since both come ultimately from the brain of J.J. Abrams (and then executed by hundreds of equally brilliant people), we should ultimately applaud 1) stories that are so huge that a mere television show or movie cannot cover everything, 2) that they've figured out ways to get out the right information in the right format, and 3) that technology and online social organization exists to allow such alternative forms to not only exist but flourish.

I can only hope this is the eventual norm in storytelling. The online comic books for Heroes show that Lost is not the only show thinking this way. Barney's blog for How I Met Your Mother is another. There are limitless ways in which to enrich "traditional" narrative. These augmentations need not all be overly complicated ARGs; in fact, that would be spectacularly silly.

But soon, such multifaceted approaches to narrative are what's going to be traditional. Television sets and computers and cell phones all approach each other on a nearing horizon. By providing as many narrative elements and options as possible to viewers, they will only increase viewership, engage these viewers on a deeper level, and provide more opportunity for fans of the overall narrative to spread the gospel of their favorite content. All this will soon be the norm. J.J. and company just managed to get themselves, once again, at the head of the class.

How involved are you in these extra narrative elements? Are you a fan of them, or think they are too much?  Do words like "television" and "cinema" actually sell these narratives short?

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude.

Comments

Omigoodness! Apparently I'm not involved in "these extra narrative elements" as I should. It's kind of ridiculous, I think. Interesting and probably fun, but it's so much more information than I'd like to keep up with!

Lauren B | Nov 24, 2007 5:39:12 PM | #

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