Utilizing one of the more ambitious hour+ time killers I’ve found online, HBO pushes the boundaries of interactivity with their web-based cyber-viewer, HBOimagine.com. Think of it as a movie that you can experience from any perspective. HBOimagine.com may have stumbled onto something.

For several years, companies have been looking for unique ways to develop original cinematic experiences via the online portals that we, the consumer, use everyday.

In 2001, for example, Electronic Arts came up with the clever, but ultimately failed experience, Majestic, allowing players to interact with a robust thriller via fax machines, instant messenger, and their real world telephones. Back then, players weren’t quite ready to embrace the ambitious political thriller, and EA dissolved activity within the goliath meta-game only a year after the service launched.

Fast track to 2009. As streaming media and the ease of social networking seamlessly shifted our television entertainment into the online hub, companies relentlessly pursue those bold paradigm shifts that might be the one in million ‘new thing’ that grabs you.

So you like watching movies online? In the age of Youtube and Hulu, how does a company create a unique way to hold your eyeballs AND do something creative while they’ve got you?

HBOimagine.com may have stumbled onto something.

Utilizing one of the more ambitious hour+ time killers I’ve found online, HBO pushes the boundaries of interactivity with their web-based cyber-viewer, HBOimagine.com.

Think of it as a movie that you can experience from any perspective.

Wait, let me correct that: Think of this as an HBO movie that you can experience from any perspective. Before I get into the ‘experience’ part, you’ve got to appreciate that the HBO distinction is monumental. There are a legion of internet shows of varying quality on the web, but very few even come close to bar of production and writing that customers expect from the HBO brand.

And to a large degree, HBOimagine brings that level of quality to the online space.

Through a series of video clips, supplementary images, and supporting documents, viewers can view a single scene within the context of a much larger story. Each scene is professionally scripted, acted, and directed. Look at them like scenes from any of HBO’s broadcast dramas, and you might even recognize a face or two. Video clips generally range between 30 seconds to 4 minutes, and – this is the hook – key scenes can be viewed from four different perspectives.

By perspectives, we don’t mean simply a change of camera angle. Take, for example, one of the major scenes of the overarching story. There’s an art show which begins normally enough. Art snobs saunter around a posh exhibit in Vegas. However, at the end of the four minutes, there’s a commotion, and depending on the perspective of the person that you’re following, you get to see the beginning and end of the that segment from a fascinating and – more importantly – revelatory point of view.

Those key scenes are links in an interwoven tapestry of sub-characters, side stories, and addendum information where you, the viewer, experience a complex chronological narrative at your leisure. Each video and image that you view tracks a certain percentage of the story viewed. Unlock 100%, and you’ve got all the elements to see the story from a God-like perspective. It’s like watching LOST, but you can see the story at any point from beginning to end, with an experience that becomes richer because you don’t view things in a linear order.

As quality and ambition goes, HBOimagine.com gets the high marks. The execution, unfortunately, is where things start to unravel.

Although the service is totally free, viewing the entire experience is an exercise that only the most committed will finish. There’s a heavy price in pre-loading the entire story at once, and on two different computers with above average connection speeds, too often the video clips spit and chugged along.

Remember that each 4 minute multi-view video is really 4×4, which is actually 16 minutes of video all buffered clumsily into your browser. If you want to replay a scene, prepare to wait for it. Changing a scene’s angle is an awesome idea, but less so when the cost might just knock out the video entirely, forcing you to refresh the page. Only then, might you have the opportunity to get that awkward black screen to show picture again. Maybe.

In fact, for all of HBOimagine.com’s achievements, it’s big Achilles heel is the cumbersome technology behind it. You’ll sputter your way through the thriller, which takes about two hours to do thoroughly. The story will massage you through the aggravation of waiting, of course, and whether the end is worth it or not is entirely up to you.

HBOImagine.com ultimately feels like a big artistic experiment in new technology. While novel, I’m not entirely sure that this broadly ambitious story telling is the best way to go. Then again, I’ll be the first in line to pay a monthly fee for something smaller and more game like. Imagine a service where you can watch multi-view scenes in an online whodunit? Solve mysteries CSI style, then answer questions to win points towards HBO DVDs, or discounts from sponsors? As it exists, HBOImagine.com gives a whole lot of nifty without a great deal of reward.

It’s definitely satisfying watching short form cinema with the wit and depth of broadcast television, but where’s the prize? Where’s the online immediate gratification of reward that goes with the energy of sleuthing through such an engaging and complex tale?

While I certainly don’t have all of the answers, HBOimagine.com brings up some fascinating questions. If you’re a budding filmmaker, or just enjoy the excitement around a potential future for online TV, this complex video rubicks cube is worth a go – at least once. Check it out.