I think it is ok to look at it like a skeleton. Why not? Maybe a Frankenstein skeleton. However, we take four complete stories and we piece meal them together to tell a fifth story. Granted, we focus on the MC, but all the stories are weaving in and out. So, your one constant POV (hopefully): the audience. You bring the other Throughlines in and out of that.
To me, that means you can see a individual story, combined stories, but never two stories separated… unless you watch an experimental film like:
I’m sure it already exists, but I’m intrigued y the idea of Timecode plus audience choice. I imagine that a director could take it further by allowing a person to mute whichever story they felt… so throughout the film, you could choose which of the four stories interested you the most. Or eventually you could watch all four.
Until someone does that and makes it popular, we will just have to do it Dramatica style. Or other variations of this: i.e., the film/play called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Which is, apparently, entirely available on YouTube:
