The unexplored frontiers of this revolution are a siren call to the experimental instinct of storytellers, the communications instinct of activists and community builders, and the “gold rush” instinct of business people wanting to find the Next Big Thing.

Right now, the revolution is in storytelling. Read this example from Wired before you read further.

You might not realise it, but you’ve already experienced stories told this way. It’s been argued that George Lucas was the first storyteller of this kind, with Star Wars merchandising stretching the films and characters far beyond their original narrative. For a modern update, fans around the world are now waiting for JK Rowling’s immersive website Pottermore.

Some reasons why you should take note of this new movement:

• Last year, visionary director Guillermo Del Toro and his creative partners formed Mirada, a production studio that handles everything from concept to post production and calls itself “a storytelling engine in the form of a company – an imaginarium, where we are free to explore”.

• The Passion of Christ, by the National Theatre Wales and starring Michael Sheen, caused a stir in April.   The immersive approach mobilised the community of Port Talbot into participating the story in a way that is very rarely seen, whilst the project got a lot of column inches in the national press.

• Earlier this year, legendary plastic couple “Barbie and Ken” began to play out their love story on the social media stage. Barbie left Ken for a surfer seven years ago, and after a long and involved love story that played out over media from Twitter to Billboards, fans voted to reunite the plastic people on Valentines day this year.

• As far back as 2009, Hollywood trade mag Variety identified transmedia storytelling as the “future of the biz”.

• In April 2010 the Producer’s Guild of America (PGA) recognised the credit of “Transmedia Producer”.

• Tim Kring, creator of hit television show Heroes, developed Conspiracy for Good in collaboration with Nokia. This was a game that took place across the internet and mobile over four weeks, culminating in a live action event in London and raising money for charity in the real world.

• London-based company Mind Candy ran a puzzle based game called Perplex City, which offered cash prizes to the people who could locate a precious artifact from a fictional city which had apparently been hidden somewhere on earth. The game also involved playing cards which were sold to players, an example of a viable revenue model for this form of storytelling.

• In 2007, renowned industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails sent out a series of interlinked clues which fans followed to reveal supplementary words and images linked to the band’s album and tour.

You’ll notice in these examples that large scale immersive games  can take on the quality of stories, whilst straight narratives begin to use game mechanics to keep their audience participative and engaged.

But this is only the start…

If you are a writer, Portal Entertainment is hosting an Immersive Writing Lab in August with a £6k development fund for the writers of tomorrow. The festival aims to help writers explore new forms of storytelling and you can find out more here. Tickets to the Immersive Writing Lab cost a tiny £20 if you book early!

We have always encouraged people to work together across theatre, film and television, so immersive storytelling seemed like the natural next step after our years of advocating that people transcend their sectors and take advantage of new digital tools.

So as part of the Stellar community, you won’t be surprised to hear that we’re very excited about the new wave of immersive stories- people coming together from traditional creative industries to work on stories that happens across different platforms, be they film, live performance, webseries, radio … and so on.

In future, collaboration and connection will be a huge part of the way we create and consume cultural content.  Immersive, interactive storytelling is a genre that’s exploding across the industries, and we’re putting our stake in the ground – we think it will shape the future for all of us.

To see why, look out for our Friday blog post which summarises some of the most exciting developments so far.

But what does this mean for the Stellar community? Well, this is an open playing field. The leaders of tomorrow are yet to be decided. Broadcasters, brands and production companies are desperately looking for ways to consistently access quality talent and content that works across multiple platforms.

We think that talent is already here – in our Stellar Network community.

So we’re now here to help you, the talented Actors, Writers, Directors and Producers from more traditional media, and get you connected with opportunities, training and conversations about the future of storytelling.

Ultimately, this is about you telling your story and getting it seen on as many platforms as possible, and Stellar Network is here to help you do that.

What are your influences?

Because I work in so many different media, I draw influences from all over the place. Charlie Kaufman, Powell & Pressburger, 42 Entertainment (and all who sailed in her), Artichoke, Naomi Alderman, Six to Start, Graham Greene, Philip Pullman, Joss Whedon, Raymond Chandler, Pixar, Simon Stevens, Lee Hall, 1980’s text adventures, Punchdrunk and Kneehigh Theatre, Martin Elricsson…. If any of these names are unfamiliar, look them up. They’re all great.

What was your journey to working cross-media?

I studied English at university, made shorts and wrote poetry. Then I came to London and wrote light entertainment (anything from magic shows to musicals) for a holiday entertainment company. I worked as a copywriter, writing in many different voices for many different companies. I wrote plays. I wrote screenplays. I wrote radio plays.
And then I saw an ad in the Guardian written entirely in code. Unscrambled, it was an open call to writers, designers and creative types to work on an international murder mystery treasure hunt. It was called Perplex City. I started as an in-house writer and took on more and more production duties. For nearly two years, I worked on this huge cross-media game creating a fictional world using audio drama and live events, fictional websites, videos, puzzles, songs, maps, text messages, board games, and just about every medium you can think of. My diverse career finally came together. It felt like I’d unwittingly trained myself for this new, peculiar job.

What’s great about diversifying as much as you have?

I’m never going to get bored. Technology is creating new media to tell stories with, but more importantly, there are very few conventions in cross-media storytelling yet – there’s no formula to follow, no reason to do the same thing twice. And though my time is mostly taken up with these cross-media projects, I get to indulge in ‘single-media’ projects too. I’m working on a play for Radio 4 right now.

What’s not great about it?

Cross-media stories have a fairly limited audience at the moment. The technology is still a barrier to a lot of people, so those who play along are mainly the most tech-savvy. As a result, I don’t think the audience is large enough or diverse enough to accommodate a wide range of genres – yet. As the audience grows and matures, we’ll have the chance to tell a bigger range of stories.

Other things that aren’t great: explaining to my mother what I do for a living; struggling to find time to write and not just organize; and dealing with lawyers.

What are your directions for the future; where are you going next?

I’m producing another global game to be launched next year. I think it could get noticed by a more mainstream audience and help make cross-media entertainment truly popular. That’s the aim, anyway. I want everyone to join in.

Theatre purists want to remain steadfast to the traditional roots of theatre, shunning digital intrusion in favour of the honest actor/audience interaction that gives theatre its unique presence. Others such as Forkbeard Fantasy, Coney and Unlimited are embracing the seemingly limitless possibilities afforded by digital media.

Increasingly theatres (whether through actual desire or financial requirement) are devising new ways of attracting a more modern, tech savvy audience.  Most now use social media for marketing, with blogs on Twitter, groups on Facebook or film style trailers on You Tube. Some such as the National Theatre or Royal Opera House are turning to screening live performances to outside audiences who are perhaps fearful of the risks live theatre involves and more comfortable with this slightly more removed filmic format (its easier to walk out if you don’t like it!).

And a growing few are taking to exploring how technology can enhance the theatrical experience, often communicating with us through digital mediums, interactive websites where we meet the characters and world they inhabit before even reaching the theatre.  And sometimes, we don’t even reach a theatre…well not the type with a stage and proscenium arch many traditionalists would think of.

This week, with the help of the inspired creatives at Idea Generation, the Royal Shakespeare Company launched their own modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet on Twitter, with each character relating their part of the story over five weeks. Along the way, they’re posting soundbites and videos on YouTube, bringing Shakespeare’s teen romance to twenty-first century teenagers without asking them to set foot in an auditorium.

On April 26th, Stellar Network is hosting a panel event at The Young Vic Theatre to debate these and other pressing issues surrounding digital media in both theatre and film.  Among the six-strong panel is David Varela, a writer/producer who has worked across all four media of theatre, TV, film and online storytelling.  His talents and experience are vast, acting as apprentice to Richard Attenborough while still at university, winning numerous awards for his short films and screenplays, writing for both radio and television (including a great many projects for the BBC and Channel 4), The Hampstead Theatre, ICA and The Royal Court, producing a global adventure for Sony on the PlayStation 3, and now leading a team at nDreams in developing and running an Alternate Reality Game starring Lewis Hamilton.

David works on large cross-media projects that combine all manner of online and live media to tell stories and entertain and usually have some form of interactive element.  He draws influence from many sources, ranging from Charlie Kaufman to 42 Entertainment, Philip Pullman, Raymond Chandler, Kneehigh Theatre and 1980’s text adventures.  But his interest in working cross-media in fact started out as a result of reading the Guardian.

“I studied English at university, made shorts and wrote poetry. Then I came to London and wrote light entertainment (anything from magic shows to musicals) for a holiday entertainment company. I worked as a copywriter, writing in many different voices for many different companies. I wrote plays. I wrote screenplays. I wrote radio plays.

Then I saw an ad in the Guardian written entirely in code.  Unscrambled, it was an open call to writers, designers and creative types to work on an international murder mystery treasure hunt. It was called Perplex City. I started as an in-house writer and took on more and more production duties.  For nearly two years, I worked on this huge cross-media game creating a fictional world using audio drama and live events, fictional websites, videos, puzzles, songs, maps, text messages, board games, and just about every medium you can think of. My diverse career finally came together. It felt like I’d unwittingly trained myself for this new, peculiar job.”

As a writer/producer, David clearly loves his work and is evidently doing well.  Pointing out that he does not have to work across different media for every project (he recently wrote a ‘conventional’ play for Radio 4) his ability to work amongst many media is clearly keeping him in continuous paid work, a situation few writers can lay claim to.

Unquestionably there are some very exciting ventures and possibilities to be explored here and rewards to be reaped.  Our imaginations can be stretched in ways that a bare stage or basic set can only at times achieve.  Artists can communicate with us in many more unique ways and a new audience can be reached who may never have embraced traditional theatre.  But as these barriers are worn down and audiences old and new begin to embrace this shift in culture, questions and concerns about what this means for the future of theatre grow.  Will audiences no longer have to suspend their disbelief?  Will actors feel more like they’re on a film set than a stage?  Will conventional plays lose out to those that are more de rigueur? Will theatre companies who cannot afford these new technologies fall behind those with big budgets and friends in the right (cyber) places?

Whatever the answer, one thing is for sure; as stealthily as it did within our homes and workplace, technology and digital media is becoming an increasingly important part of theatre and its future.  We have little choice but to embrace it.  But in the same way technophobes and traditionalists must open themselves up to these new possibilities, so too must the digital theatre entrepreneurs be mindful of the conventions and devices which make theatre the great unique art form it is.  And for those who fall somewhere in the middle, approach it all with caution…. sometimes computer says no….

Leanne Davis, Actress & Stellar Network PR & Marketing Manager

………………………………….

Stellar Network will be holding our Future Proof event at The Young Vic this Monday 26th April.

This blog post covers the kind of topics we imagine the theatre professionals at this event will be talking about.  There will also be very informed discussion on digital influence in the film industry: content and distribution, from 3D to digital workflows to new business models.

For more information about the panel, the format of the evening and to book tickets visit www.stellarnetwork.com/events

Think politics, disorder, issues with a capital I. In fact, capitalize the whole bloody word. 503 seems synonymous with topical debate, 2009’s This Much Is True, for example.   But can the fearless 503 show its lighter side?

Their new show Peter & Vandy, on which I have just been appointed Assistant Producer, certainly leans to the happier side of the human condition. About as close as 503 will ever come to RomCom, Jay DiPietro’s play is receiving its British premiere after huge success in New York.

It might seem like a safe bet, nice and comfortable and easy. But it goes against that age old axiom (which I may have just made up) that topical issues sell. This certainly seems to work best at 503 and with social/political/cultural “problems” come a whole host of potential marketing strategies. But how do you market a play where two people fall in love, then fall out of love and back in love and then back out of love, etc? This isn’t a deadly shooting on the underground or the conflicts in a gritty south London prison. This is worse. In Britain, Love and Happiness doesn’t sell.

But it’s my job to make it sell. This is going to be tough. I’ll hopefully be back with positive progress soon. Check it out at www.theatre503.com. Maybe I’ll just ask the writer to have a little rewrite. Perhaps Vandy is driven to psychosis after discovering Peter, now a premiership footballer, has been cheating and her brand new Toyota has been recalled?

Back of the net.

Read the full story below

PATHE UK AND WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT UK ANNOUNCE NEW STRATEGIC ALLIANCE IN THE UK

12th March, 2009, London – Pathé and Warner Bros. Entertainment UK (WBEUK) today announced a new strategic alliance in the UK, effective as of 13th April, that will see WBEUK distribute Pathé’s films in the UK and Ireland and the two companies will work together to identify co-production opportunities.

The announcement of this new alliance was made by Francois Ivernel, Executive Vice President of Pathé, and Cameron McCracken, Managing Director of Pathé UK, and Josh Berger, President and Managing Director, WBEUK.

As part of its natural evolution, Pathé UK will focus increasingly on the development and production of its own titles rather than the acquisition of third party films. The intention is to produce a slate of four to five English language films a year, to be supplemented by productions from Pathé France.

Moving forward, all of Pathé’s films will be distributed in the UK and Ireland by WBEUK, commencing in May with the release of Stephen Frears’ CHERI, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Friend and Kathy Bates.

Pathé UK will continue to devise the marketing campaigns for the films, with WBEUK taking on the exploitation of the titles across all media outlets and platforms with the exception of the video rights, which will continue to be handled for Pathé by Twentieth Century Fox.

With respect to the increase in Pathé UK’s production activity, Pathé and WBEUK will work together to identify co-production opportunities. The two companies have already been working together for several months on THE JUNGLE BOOKS – a big budget live action version of the classic Kipling novel, the test shoot for which is currently in post-production.

Pathé recently dominated the Oscars® and BAFTA Awards this year with Danny Boyle’s multiple Oscar® winning SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, which has grossed over $243 million worldwide to date, and picked up eight Oscars® including best picture and best director, and seven BAFTA awards. The company’s recent releases also include the BAFTA winning THE DUCHESS, the period drama starring Kiera Knightly, which won an Oscar® for Best Costume, and Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed BAFTA winning directorial debut HUNGER about Irish republican hunger striker Bobby Sands. Upcoming releases include Stephen Frears’ CHERI starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend; Pedro Almodovar’s BROKEN EMBRACES starring Penélope Cruz and Jane Campion’s BRIGHT STAR starring Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish.

Warner Bros. is currently enjoying success with THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON and the Clint Eastwood movie GRAN TORINO. GRAN TORINO has grossed over $177 million worldwide to date and expected to be the highest grossing film of Eastwood’s extraordinary career.

The studio’s phenomenal hit THE DARK KNIGHT, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, has grossed over $1 billion worldwide to date, making it the top superhero/comic book movie of all time and 2008’s highest grossing film worldwide. It also earned Ledger a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar®.

For Pathé, Francois Ivernel, Executive Vice President, and Cameron McCracken, Managing Director Pathé UK, said: “To address the challenges of a rapidly evolving digital world, we felt the most rational response was to develop an alliance with a US Studio. Our relationship with Fox in terms of video distribution has always worked extremely well, so a broader alliance with a US Studio feels entirely natural – we have been approached many times over the years to create such an alliance, but none has offered such a perfect fit as Warner Bros., with its integrated approach across all distribution windows and media platforms. By our continuing management of the whole filmmaking process from development, through production to the marketing of our films, we will continue to provide a bespoke service to our filmmakers whilst also allowing them to benefit from Studio backing.”

Josh Berger, President and Managing Director of Warner Bros Entertainment UK, said “We are delighted to be entering into this strategic partnership with Pathé, one of Europe’s pre-eminent producers of quality, critically acclaimed feature films and a company we have long admired. This exciting alliance will help us both to increase our investment in the production and acquisition of films in the UK and Ireland and to use our relationships and expertise across traditional and new media channels to bring Pathe’s great films to ever more film fans.”

This strategic alliance relates to distribution in the UK and Ireland only, and does not extend to the activities of Pathé France, nor does it affect Pathé UK’s continued role as a leading international sales agents for both Pathé’s own productions and third party titles.

Well to start with there’s a lot of speculation still, particularly in regards to the likes of the South Bank Show, which Stellar has heard will be fine. But from digesting as much of the news as we possible can, it seems most of the hard hits have come to the Yorkshire, Leeds, studio where a fair bit of drama is shot. It also seems likely that the Cory-nobs Manchester studio will close and production will move to the new Media City in Salford Quays – but that doesn’t open until 2011 so we shall see. The best coverage can be found on the Guardian, which also has some comment from ITV employees.

Please do let us know if you have more information you can share with fellow members. And perhaps now is a good time to get your application in to Stellar’s Pitch event

The Winners! Over at Screen International

Kaleem Aftab of the Independent, scathing look at the BAFTAs

Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian on why Slumdog deserves an Oscar

And interestingly on why Slumdog will be one of those over rated awards films in years to come.

The LA Times on the notion of “Oscar Bounce” for those into their Box Office analysis

And for your dose of UK Box Office expertise check out Charles Gant at the Observer

And finally – the best of British claim their prizes:

]]> http://www.stellarnetwork.com/2009/02/24/baftas-oscars-and-box-office-oh-my/feed/ 0 http://www.stellarnetwork.com/2009/02/11/tassos-stevens-review-of-scratch-interact-the-first-scratch-night-for-interactive-theatre/ http://www.stellarnetwork.com/2009/02/11/tassos-stevens-review-of-scratch-interact-the-first-scratch-night-for-interactive-theatre/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:23:47 +0000 admin http://www.stellarnetwork.com/wordpress/index.php/2009/02/11/tassos-stevens-review-of-scratch-interact-the-first-scratch-night-for-interactive-theatre/ please see allplayall.blogspot.com for Tassos’ fab blog, and the originator of this review. Its a gateway into a lot of the more interesting stuff going on in theatre at the moment.

Scratch Interact is the latest venture by our very own Stellarite Sam Howey Nunn

Last week I went to Scratch Interact, a night of treats curated very properly by the lovely Glue Theatre in the in-between spaces of Southwark Playhouse.

Glue’s opener delivered a box that wriggled out a man who then – having failed beautifully to gather attention from the pre-show crowd – managed to get presents and sweets from many.

Deborah Pearson’s Break Up With Me invited you into a toilet cubicle with her to do just that, however you chose, delicately responsive to its own conceptual knots, beautifully poised.

‘The Minuting Hill Carnival’, a minute version of Notting Hill’s, refereed by a representative of the Honourable Society of Faster Craftswomen, who before she sold me a nugget of jerk chicken on a cocktail stick, made a joyful band of us playing tiny instruments. Gorgeous how just as much glee came from playing it tiny, it was the play that counted. Lovely and messy.

Emer O’Connor then delivered a piece of storytelling, at first staged and delivered to the back walls. Perfectly good performance but not at all responsive to us or the space, and her volume inevitably causing alarm to the theatre staff worried about the ‘main show’. As soon as we moved in closer so she was actually performing to us in the space with her, it suddenly came alive. Which raises very interesting points for me about liveness and scalability.

Emily Smallwood took a pair of us into the disabled toilet. One was sat down on a white towel and asked to listen through headphones to a recording of a story. The lights were then turned off. The other then shared an embrace with her in the corner. Then the lights back on, one was asked to record a story while the other listened, very close. This piece worried me and it’s still with me. I loved her assurance in the disjuncture of these elements, the light and darkness, the very living intimacy of the exchanges and near brutality in heightened awareness of the other people in the room. Fantastic sensibility.

Sam and Chris from Glue then led a lively round-table discussion for the good number of us present. But there should be more of us. This night is quarterly and make sure you make (something for) the next one.

To put yourself on the mailing list for Scratch Interact visit http://www.gluehq.co.uk