Interface in Earlier Works

The CD-ROM Kon-Tiki contains six short documentary films with "footnotes". At certain times the footnotes are shown as possible excursions as the film pauses, and a copy of the still frame is animated as flying out of the film pane and landing as a button below and to the right. When landed, this "film button" shows a few seconds of moving film before it stops and the main film starts again. If the button is clicked to select a footnote, the film "flies back" into the main film frame (animated as a sequence of growing rectangles such as in the Apple Finder). The film footnote plays, and when it stops, a "closing" animation shows (diminishing rectangles), showing that the footnote is ended and the main film resumes (Liestøl, 'Aesthetics') .

Kon-Tiki does not visualize in any way how long the footnotes are. However, every footnote is between one and two minutes long, and viewers quickly learn this rule as they watch. In a later demo, called Kon-Tiki II, a visualization was incorporated: the footnotes were visualized as a forking timeline, inspired by the London subway map.

When a footnote (a side track) is selected, the playhead marker changes direction into the alternative route. When the footnote ends, the marker jumps back on the main track. The "subway map" timeline effectively shows the number of footnotes, their location in the film, and their length, as well as what happens when a footnote ends.

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The Hyperfilm player that accompanies FX Pal's Hyper-Hitchcock system uses a combination of timeline and keyframes of available film segments. In this system, links in the film sequence are visible in the timeline as blue fields. The link relevant for the section that is currently playing is also illustrated with a keyframe to the right of the film pane. When a link is followed, a transition plays in the main film pane, and a new clip opens. The title of the current clip written under the main film pane and the timeline scale also change to adjust to the new clip. When the new clip is finished, a new transition plays, and the title and timeline adjusts back to the previous sequence.

These examples use visualizations of links and structure outside of the film frame. We should also consider a couple of simple examples of in-frame linking and stretching (for the difference of in-frame and out-of-frame video links, see Fagerjord ).

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In the DVD version of Matrix , the viewer can choose to watch the film with a "Follow the White Rabbit" option turned on. In the more spectacular special effects scenes, a link marker in the form of a white rabbit silhouette signify links to short sequences showing how the scenes were filmed. In Matrix, a viewer will understand that he or she has entered the added sequence, as there is an abrupt change from the story world of the film to the film set, and at the end of the sequence, everything just changes back into the world of the Matrix. When the material in the detour is so obviously different from the main sequence, there is little need of visualizing the change further. Like the footnotes in Kon-Tiki, the "behind the scenes" detours are quite short and of similar length, so the need for showing how long the detour is not so pressing.

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Not really a movie, the Flash documentary Becoming Human also makes use of a structure of a main storyline with detours to additional information. In a thirty-minute slide-motion film, the words "Learn More" appear at times. If this link is clicked, the film will pause, and a "drawer" will open from below and cover the film. In this drawer, additional material in writing, still images, audio or film may be studied. Clicking "close exhibit" will close the drawer again, and the film continues.

By introducing a the dimension of depth, Becoming Human is able to use spatial cues within the film frame to visualize the structure.

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