I haven’t been updating this site for a while. That will change.

My next public gig will be at Power to the Pixel, London Film Festival. As you may recall, I did the keynote and a workshop there last year. So, I’m thrilled to be invited back again. Ted Hope will be [...]]]> Hello everyone!

I haven’t been updating this site for a while. That will change.

My next public gig will be at Power to the Pixel, London Film Festival. As you may recall, I did the keynote and a workshop there last year. So, I’m thrilled to be invited back again. Ted Hope will be giving the keynote (yay!) and I’ll follow him with these:

14th October Conference
10:30 – 11:00
WHAT DID THEY DO? LESSONS LEARNED IN CROSS-MEDIA*

Despite the fact that cross-media is still emerging, there have been a number of experiments, successes and failures over the past few years. In this talk, Christy Dena will share some lessons learned from cross-media projects in film, television, gaming and marketing in a way that will help guide your project. While there is so much yet to explore, and the area will certainly continue to evolve, you can lean on the ground-breaking efforts of those who have ventured before you.

15:40 – 16:40
EXTENDING THE EXPERIENCE: THE NEW STORYTELLERS
Presentations and roundtable discussion

What kind of experience does today’s film audience want and what can be done with existing technologies?

Interactive tools, emails, text and voicemail, mobile apps and geo-locational services can connect an audience to characters.  Live events and alternate reality games can bring the audience into the world of a film and extend the storytelling experience.  The more filmmakers can extend their vision into the world of the audience, the more rooted the audience becomes in the experience of the film.

But how do you know how much to give them?  Mystery will bring people into your world, but for your cross-media audience, there is an implicit promise of a clear correlation between how much that audience gives – of their time, of their own interactions and emails and phone calls, their trips to places where they are promised live experiences – and how much they get back.  You must dazzle them with innovate storytelling techniques but you also need to reward them with meaningful emotional content and layers of reveal.

Leading story architects of some of the world’s most successful extended story experiences – The Dark Knight, The Truth About Marika and Xi – demonstrate how to bring a fictional world into the lives of the audience.

Moderator: CHRISTY DENA, Director, Universe Creation 101
MARTIN ELRICSSON, Producer & Creative Director, The company P
STEVE PETERS, Experience Designer & Partner, No Mimes Media
DAVID VARELA, Producer, nDreams

15th October Workshops
10.00 – 11.30
CREATING CROSS-MEDIA NATIVE PROJECTS

The majority of cross-media projects to date have been created by making additions to an existing mono-medium property. A film is made, for instance, and then content is added on to other media afterwards. While this can work, there is a significant difference in the quality of projects that were designed to be cross-media from the beginning. In this workshop, Christy Dena will show how the intended cross-media experience of a project changes the initial concept; how planning for interactivity happens right at the beginning; what influences the choice of mediums and many other techniques to optimise a project’s potential. Feel free to bring ideas in development, as that is obviously the best time to strategise!

14th October Pixel Pitch
I’m also judging the cross-media projects. More projects for people!

If you’re in London, I hope to see you there (come and say hi). Check out all the awesome people that will be there (not including the ones in the audience!).

* Unfortunately, my use of terms like ‘lessons’ gives prizes to followers of Wank Words Bingo

Another podcast! Yay! At this rate I might even crack three podcasts a year. hehe. Joking aside, I’m excited about our guest today. UK digital writer Tim Wright shares his vast experience with over a decade with online interactive drama and more recently multiplatform storytelling. Below is a time guide showing you [...]]]>  

Another podcast! Yay! At this rate I might even crack three podcasts a year. hehe. Joking aside, I’m excited about our guest today. UK digital writer Tim Wright shares his vast experience with over a decade with online interactive drama and more recently multiplatform storytelling. Below is a time guide showing you topics Tim touches on a certain points. Everything Tim (and I) refer to is in the show notes.

00.00: Online Caroline
11.10: Lonely Girl 15
13.18: closure
15.58: Balancing world creation and fan fiction
19.56: Mount Kristos
25.33: The Search of Oldton
39.32: Multiplatform storytelling
52.09: Scaling
Happiness…

Show notes:

• Jill Walker-Rettberg’s essay: ‘How I was played by Online Caroline’
• Rob Bevan
• MindGym
• Jenny Cam
• Online Caroline
• XPT (fictional company)
• Richardson’s Pamela
• Lonely Girl 15
• Mount Kristos
• Kate Modern
• You Sucjk at Photoshop
• In Search of Oldton
• Writers for the Future
• trAce Online Writing Centre
• Sue Thomas
• Multiplatform Storytelling for Screenwriters @ 01ZERO-ONE
• Ted
• The Lost Ring ‘Running of the Labyrinth’ instructions
• Jane McGonigal’s SXSW presentation: Alternate Realities (PPT at SlideShare)

More info about Tim:

• Tim Wright’s blog
• XPT (Wright & Bevan’s company)

Other interviews conducted at UC101:

• Lance Weiler (video)
• Evan Jones (audio and text transcript)

Postscript:
Sorry about the technical difficulties with the podcast. The video editing software I use doesn’t let me do edits to the second, and I’m still trying to figure out how to get both myself and the interviewer at the same sound level. Tim teases me about being in a black room (it was midnight for me!), and being close to the screen with bad lighting. What can I say, I’m an interactive drama cliche. I’ll have to increase the drama with a call to save the world or something.