To succeed in the business of media I had somehow always believed I could play by a set of rules that fitted my ethics and world-view. A world of fairness and justice. Well. Let me count the ways that I was wrong.
Category: IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING
Immersive Media is about creating story-experiences. Does your content – whether it’s TV, online, gaming or live – change how your audience feels, thinks or behaves? Immersion combines cutting edge science and entertainment to do just that.
Avatars and our exploration of Evil.
When human beings struggle to hold opposing beliefs, there are often some impressive leaps of logic required to turn obvious harm into an act of good. But, people do it everyday. In fact, some of those people might be you and me. Immersive Media and digital avatars might hold some clues for ways to interrogate our belief systems.
The science behind Immersive Media’s magic
Meet the thinkers & scientists behind the Immersive Media movement
What is gained in experiencing the pain of others?
If you could experience the pain of addiction or a terminal disease first-hand. Would you awaken a more profound consciousness in your own experience?
Understanding our escape into “Reality”
Gaming and entertainment TV are two media juggernauts that are traditionally seen as forms of escapism – ways we get to “take a break” from the real world. So with the demand for “authenticity” in all its gritty glory, the question seems to be – why are audiences using what has traditionally been the greatest means…
Are you ready for Immersion?
Ask yourself why the gaming industry is twice the size of the Hollywood machine? People want to be the lead characters in the media they consume, and by placing them in the driving lane, giving them their 15 minutes (and oh so much more!) there is a generation who expect to be the Idol, not just watch!
The power of empathy in Immersive Media
Imagine a first-person shooter game where had to hide in the guise of your enemy – speak their language, learn their customs of dress and religion and meet their families & their children. Could you still pull the trigger?
The Media A-bomb
Authenticity is probably the most valuable commodity in the media world today. However, what is authentic is not necessarily appropriate. In fact, one can completely alienate your audience with any missteps in this balancing act.
So let me stir up a little controversy and debate around some of the issues in the choices around what and how to engage audiences.
A letter to remember
The video uses real suicide letters and the haunting music of the song “The Patient” to focus on the interior life of people who are prepared to commit suicide. The video has been adopted by the Samaritans to try and help raise money for those who are in danger of taking their lives.
An Immersive Media junkie.
Immersive Media is about creating story-experiences. The title itself is pretty self-explanatory. Does your content – whether it’s TV, online, gaming or live – allow your audience to be subsumed into it? For the most part the buzz around 360, transmedia, cross-platform and convergence (which are all immersive media) focusses on using multiple channels to reach out and engage. The misconception is that if you have hit your audience with every media platform at your disposal, then you have done your part. However, the reality is that actually succeeding at this kind of content is a little more complex.
SIDE FX. Some guidelines to a career in TV production.
So you are going into, or are already in, the business of making TV. Basically, in drug terms, you just swallowed the whole bottle. This then, is the neatly folded, small-print ribbon of paper that dropped out when you opened your TV medication. This is what you didn’t read, you just let it twirl to…
If
This is the first scene of a new TV episode I am writing (with help from LA writer Brendan Pollecutt), based on a play I did ages back at the Market Theatre. Its a comedy drama set in one of those uniquely South African 24-hour petrol station and rest stops somewhere between Colesburg and Cape Town. The Golden…
