I have this idea of a central navigation widget, with possible next states revolving around it.

As you play on, next states play into the center, like bits of CD being
loaded. So the widget is CD's execution state. You could repeat a piece,
branch early to a new piece ?? choose one of several states "in orbit" etc etc.

I like the idea of doing the nano bat navigation - ie, play the bat, make the squeeks come out on time and the viewpoint changes, accomplished by a lot of shot action segments using the same physical places as a starting point. What I can't see is how the rest of the stuff fits in.

I guess I can see the diagram being some sort of navigational device. If the the film is shot in segments, It can show the branches between the pieces. But I can't see where the interactivity really comes in in that case. You'd need to expond on that in the script.

Random idea : Could not the UI for CD be the navigation widget and then run everything out of that (aka the file structure, ie, show how the pieces of the file are linked together ?) You'd have to break up the piece - ie make the forest into segments, add some decision choices, etc.