Now that I don’t have a course to run at NFTS (Creative Producing for Digital Platforms is no more, I’m afraid), I’ve been free to develop new ideas for workshops, development sprints, world building exercises and course modules that allow students and practitioners from many different backgrounds and disciplines to develop an interest in immersive development and production.
With students working from home and rarely being able to attend on campus, NFTS has been trying to offer more and more ways for people to engage remotely and virtually with the school, the curriculum and the film and TV industry in general. Lots of very cool people have been donating their time for free to talk to students about their practice. So when I was invited to do the same, it only seemed right to say ‘yes’.
I split my 2 hour session into five parts:
- A bit of history about interactive storytelling dating back to when I started in the mid 90s
- Some basic principles of interactive drama and storytelling
- Social media and audience participation/contribution
- Live streaming and new forms of performance
- The Internet of Things, AI and immersive technologies
I tried to break things up with some short silly exercises for people to try, so it wasn’t just me talking all the time. Slides for my session can be found here: https://www.slideshare.net/moongolfer/nftsc4-interactive-immersive-storytelling-2020
I’ve now done this session twice – once for NFTS students and once for Channel 4 indies. Very happy to contribute to other events for free that are helping people stay in touch with each other and stay motivated about their practice and profession at this very difficult time.