StoryFutures & Punchdrunk

I have been really lucky to be selected for a 2-day Storyfutures WritersRoom, which aims to give theatre practitioners an introduction to storytelling in Immersive spaces. I teamed up with my colleague Alia Sheikh, a director, producer, research scientist and industry speaker. She has directed film and broadcasting projects for the BBC and runs BBC R&D Production Labs. Alia has worked with theatre directors to formally research choreography in 360 film. Her current research investigates how to adapt traditional film cinematography to immersive environments.

Jonny, helping us to build our porotype virtual world…

Adam Ganz (Head of BBC Writersroom) & Punchdrunk testing out prototypes after a two-day build.

Over the course of the two days, Alia and I developed our own VR project in response to the historic space at the Royal Holloway campus. We worked alongside Punchdrunk makers, creative technologists and Adam Ganz, Head of BBC Writers Room to produce our prototype. We were introduced to Punchdrunk's approach to storytelling, in particular, both myself and Alia were very interested Punchdrunk’s provocations regarding:

·   Insights into understanding and anticipating audience behaviour

·   Planning and influencing journeys through space

·   Balancing interaction with narrative

·   Understanding more about the affordances of technology when introduced as an aid to storytelling. 

· Reading the ‘space’ and how this translates to a virtual space. 

The Royal Holloway VR Lab.