In the film, 'The Hypothesis of The Stolen Painting' an art collector has hired a detective to postulate on the disappearance of the seventh painting in a series linked to a weathy family. The detective reasons that if he were able to see the remaining paintings recreated in a set of tableaux vivants (paintings in life), he might be able to walk through and around each to find the connections and propose a theory on the missing piece.

In this movie, the tableaux vivant is the re-creation of two-dimensional paintings in 3D space. Actors wear the costumes and assume the statuesque poses of the characters in the paintings. The environment is reproduced down to every artifact and lighting detail. This allows the detective to follow threads in the form of gestures, beams of light, and reflections.

All of the remaining paintings in the series are seemingly unrelated in style and content, yet they are all linked through the mysterious narrative, and visual vehicles which act as transitions and clues to the story. For example, a crescent shaped mirror is echoed from one painting/scene to the next. In the second, the mirror reflects a man gesturing towards a mask, a link to the next painting/scene. The content of both paintings suggest power and ritual through history; themes become more important as the narrative progresses.

'3D Narrative' mirrors the narrative structure of "Hypothesis" and enlists the spatial illusion of the frozen-moment technique to create an interactive story.

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For an explanantion of the frozen-moment, or bullet-time technique, click here.